Peru Part 2- Exploring the City of Cusco

 Cusco City Center and the nearby neighborhood of San Blas are beautiful areas and are worthy of their UNESCO World Heritage designation. My arrival timed with the tail-end of the rainy season had it looking more like Spring than Autumn. Flowers were blooming everywhere in abundance. The area was clean and the buildings were all well kept.

While exploring the streets and alleys I would often discover Incan walls that the Spanish had built on top of. One area of the Inca's were the ruins of Saqsayhuaman just above the city and an easy uphill hike. It was interesting to see the remains of this religious settlement. The size of the stones used in some of the wall construction left me in awe of how they accomplished this construction feat. 

Cusco itself is a city of 500,000. Spread a long the valley and up into the hills. Outside of the Historic city center you see poverty, poor living conditions and garbage piled up. It becomes apparent that this is still a developing nation. Stray dogs roam the streets. They are everywhere. People even let their pets roam the streets during the day. Street vendors are everywhere. In the city center one can hardly walk twenty feet without being approached by someone selling something. Near the large San Pedro Market event the streets are lined with people selling any and everything you can think of. From art to underwear, it's there to be bought. Fruits, vegetable, spices, cooked foods (do not eat!). It is a busy, bustling noisy city. I felt a bit over-whelmed at times. I mostly enjoyed roaming the quiet alleys of the San Blas Neighborhood and market where I found a wonderful little vegan cafe' ( Govinda Lila). I had lunch there on three different days. I tended to eat at the same four spots during my stay. A lovely bakery (La Valeriana) that did amazing tarts and a great Americano. A great cafe' that had a good selection of vegan items and grew all their own produce - Organika.  And a Vegan Cafe -El Jardin located on the Plaza de Armas. It was very good and had a wonderful ginger lemonade.