Cusco: Inca Seat of Power, Spanish Capital, Eco Tourism Mecca

July 15, 2018 by Troy Colbert in Food, Museums, Travel, Peru, Colonial Architecture, Blog, Cusco, Andes, Inca

Cusco, Peru: From Inca Capital to Ground Zero for Peruvian Eco Tourism

I wasn't sure what to expect about Cusco, Peru. I knew it was in the mountains and that altitude sickness was a real possibility. I knew it was the jump off point to go to Machu Picchu. I had read guidebooks and done some online research, but none of it prepared me for what turned out to be one of the most interesting places I've ever visited.

Cusco is a city of about a half a million people. We land at night and the first thing I notice when we step outside is that it's cold! Lima is on the coast so they don't really have cold weather, but Cusco is at 11,000 feet and the clear air doesn't hold the heat of the day at all. We're told that in the winter the days can get up into the 90's (again, thin air) and it will drop below freezing that night.

Being in a new city is always very exciting for me. I've traveled enough to understand allowing the new place to reveal itself. The trip from the airport takes us through the more modern part of Cusco into the older section in the center of town. We are staying in the San Blas area which sits above the main downtown area. The cobblestone streets get very narrow, VERY steep, and the buildings are smaller and older. San Blas is known as the barrio de los artesanos or the "artisans' quarter". There are lots of small boutiques, restaurants, cafes, and hostels all over the area. We're staying in a rental house that's owned by a small, boutique hotel next door. It's rustic and has a fireplace to take care of the winter chill. The view down into Cusco is spectacular.

We've decided to spend our first day in Cusco acclimating ourselves to the altitude. I don't know if it's because I live at 3,500 feet or because I've been sucking on coca candy for two days, but fortunately for me I never experience a single moment of altitude sickness but I see people walking around town obviously gutting it out.

The main plaza in Cusco is overlooked by the Roman Catholic Cathedral. It serves as the centerpoint of the old part of town on the Plaza de Armas. Like Lima they are having a festival with parades of people from the surrounding area in colorful outfits and costumes.

Catedral del Cusco

Festival Participants

Getting Ready for the Parade

The Interior Courtyard of the Church of Santo Domingo/Qorikancha

When the Spanish came, took over Cusco, and made it their Capital, the Inca already had a thriving city in place. Of course the Spanish were out to save the souls of the "heathen" native population so they built lots of churches. From my rented house I can count six Roman Catholic churches -- and those are just the churches I can see. The Spanish would oftentimes simply build on top of the Inca temple already in place. A prime example of this is two blocks from the Plaza de Armas in central Cusco. Santo Domingo Church was built on top of and next to Qorikancha, the Inca Temple of the Sun. Today it's a fascinating place to visit. The temple and church sit side by side and you can see how the Spanish used the already established Inca religious traditions to further Christianity. Inside you will see how the structure was constructed to allow the sun to come through the windows (very important on the two yearly solstices). There is also an art gallery of (mainly religious) paintings from the Cusco School, a modern art gallery, large outside gardens, a traditional Spanish courtyard, and exhibits on Inca astronomy and the Inca Seqe System of Cusco with Qorikancha at the center and different seqes or lines radiating from it connecting over 360 wakas or Inca sacred places.

The food scene in Cusco is very diverse. You obviously have dozens of restaurants to cater to the scores of visitors that come through Cusco. One thing I found enlightening is the number of vegan restaurants in Cusco. I guess if you think about it eco tourists might be slightly more inclined to eat a plant based diet, but restaurants don't stay in business without customers. There's something about the people coming through Cusco that make it worthwhile to serve vegan.

We found a great place right off the Plaza de Armas called Greens Organic. They have their own farm and work with local producers to supply all of the restaurant's ingredients. The menu was diverse, the prices were not rock bottom but weren't unreasonable, and the food tasted amazing! We had a fried local cheese with mango salsa, and I had a delicious African Curry dish. I also tried a Peruvian specialty, Chicha Morada or purple corn juice. It. Was. Fantastic!! The purple corn is cooked with fruits like apple and pineapple, plus cinnamon, cloves, and sugar. It's sweet and earthy and completely delicious.

Fried Local Cheese with Mango Salsa

African Curry

Chicha Morada!!

We also found a tiny pizza place where the owner had built his own wood fired pizza oven and had it right in the dining room (he and his family lived upstairs). The pizza was very tasty! Local ingredients again were the key.

Another fun place was Paddy's Irish Pub. It has the distinction of being the highest Irish owned pub in the world! I had one of the better shepherd's pies I've ever had anywhere (including Ireland) and a Cusquena, the most popular Peruvian beer. You can't beat an Irish pub for a laid back, great time.

Breakfast every day was at the hotel next to us. Two sweet ladies put out a breakfast buffet every morning with fruit, juices, freshly baked bread, cereals and superfoods like chia seeds, and eggs cooked to order. The local eggs and milk were so much better than what I'm used to finding in the States, and the Peruvian coffee was spectacular.

While I wasn't sure what to expect from Cusco it turned out to be one of my favorite places I've visited. I definitely will return to see more of Cusco and the surrounding area.

Next. On to the Sacred Valley and the Inca ruins at Ollantaytambo!

The Skyline in Miraflores from My Balcony

Lima Peru: My First Foray Into South America (But Not My Last!)

July 06, 2018 by Troy Colbert in Blog, Food, Museums, Travel, South America, Peru, Lima, Colonial Architecture

Art on Building in Lima

Street Mural in Lima

Street Mural Art in Lima

Peru. Land of the Inca. Home to ceviche, the Sacred Valley, alpacas, and the pisco sour.

Full disclosure. Peru was not on my radar to visit. I always figured my first time in South America would be in Argentina or Brazil. But that's the beauty about travel. Sometimes an opportunity presents itself to go somewhere and you just gotta jump. I have a friend whose son is in Peru on a mission trip, and while he is off building a school and playing soccer with the local kids, his mom wanted to be in the country seeing the sights. She asked for folks to come with her and I happily agreed.

We'll split our time between the Capital of Lima and Cusco, the gateway to the Sacred Valley. While Machu Picchu is close to Cusco it's not in the cards for me. Logistics and time just don't make it possible.

In any case, it's another opportunity to visit a different country and a different culture and I couldn't be more excited.

Lima: The City of Kings

We land in Lima very close to midnight and make our way to where we are staying in the District of Miraflores along the Pacific Ocean. Because it sits in the Southern Hemisphere it is early winter in Lima. What that means is that the city is in a kind of permanent "gloom" -- cloud cover that never really lifts but without any rain. It's a pity because I'm sure Lima is beautiful in the sunshine. Unfortunately we don't have that experience.

Lima is a city of 11 million people and is broken into districts. Miraflores is the most international district. Most foreigners stay here. The majority of the fine dining restaurants are here. It's the best place to locate. Barranco is where you'll find the artists, the musicians, the authors, and the cool kids. The Central District or "El Centro" is home to the Government Palace, the Cathedral of Lima, and the oldest house in South America. I'll visit all three as well as the Larco Museum in the Pueblo Libre district.

Miraflores & Barranco

View of the Pacific Ocean from Larcomar

Holy Cross Parish

The Park of the Cross

Day one starts with a very short bicycle tour. It would have been longer but in all honesty I was not prepared for it. The bicycle I had was uncomfortable, not very well maintained, and all I was doing was trying not to die in Lima's traffic. I saw the Pacific from atop the Larcomar Market and the Park of the Cross before I sent my traveling companions on their way with the guide and went on foot through Barranco.

The Park of the Cross was the first place the Spanish landed in what would become Lima. Legend has it that the sailors saw a cross high on the bluff and when they reached the spot it was gone. They raised a cross of their own on the spot and it has been there since. The church next door is being renovated and has an interesting history. The story is that there was a priest who treated the native people very cruely. During one of the frequent earthquakes that occur in Lima he was in the front garden of the church when the church bell fell from the belltower and decapitated him. Talk about divine intervention!

If Peru has a national dish it is more than likely ceviche, the combination of raw fish, citrus juice, onion, and chili pepper is served throughout the country. On my walk through Barranco I was able to find some delicious ceviche at a small place called Barra Mar. The fish was ultra fresh, and the lime juice, onion, and pepper gave it a tart, spicy flavor that was addictive! I also was lucky to find a great craft brewery the Barranco Beer Company. The IPA was sweeter than any IPA I've had in the US. Their Pale-X was a fantastic rye based ale.

Ceviche

Craft Beer Menu at Barranco Beer Co.

Beer Flight at Barranco Beer Company

Day two in Lima. We are having lunch at Maido, the #8 ranked best restaurant in the world but before that I am going to take in the Larco Museum in the Pueblo Libre District.

Museo Arqueológico Rafael Larco Herrera

The Most Complete Set of Solid Gold Ceremonial Regalia in the World

What started with a gift of around 600 ceramic pieces has grown into one of, if not the best museum of pre-Columbian art in the world. The museum is broken down into four areas: North Coast, Center, South, and Highlands Cultures. There are ceramics, textiles, metalwork pieces, and a storage area with thousands of pieces catalogued. If it weren't for this museum many if not all these pieces of history would have been taken, sold, and never seen again.

I have been fascinated by this kind of art since I saw the new, world art exhibit at the Louvre in January. What it shows me is that ancient peoples of the world are all connected. The art of pre-Columbian Peru looks like totem pole art in North America and pieces I've seen from Polynesia and Africa.

The animal imagery in the pieces represented the three areas the pre-Columbian peoples considered divine: the sky (where the sun is, represented by the owl and eagle), the ground (where people are, represented by the cat and frog), and underground (where crops grew from, represented by the snake and spider).

Something else I found interesting is that, while most of the pieces were functional, the people who had them used them mostly for decoration in their homes. They were the original knick-knacks!

The grounds themselves were lovely as well with bougainvillea and bottle brush trees blooming and several varieties of cactus I hadn't seen before.

Maido: Peruvian/Japanese Fusion at One of the World's Top Restaurants.

Nikkei is a word with multiple meanings, one of which describes the Japanese global diaspora. In the late 19th century thousands of Japanese came to Peru to work on two year contracts. Lots of them decided to stay and the two cultures have become intertwined. Chef Mitsuharu "Micha" Tsumura has taken his heritage -- born in Lima to Japanese parents -- and in Maido has created a restaurant that fuzes Peruvian ingredients with Japanese techniques into something he calls "The Nikkei Experience". In 2017 Maido was voted the top restaurant in Latin America and the #8 restaurant in the world. When I decided to book the trip to Peru a visit to Maido was on my "must do" list.

The atmosphere in Maido is minimalist and fairly familiar of other sushi restaurants I've been to. Wooden tables and chairs throughout with staff hustling around in a very efficient manner. One detail that was pretty cool is above the diners heads. Ropes descend from the ceiling many stained red. When viewed from opposite sides of the restaurant the ropes look like either the Japanese or Peruvian flag.

The Nikkei Experience lunch is a small plate of three "amuse bouches", eight small plates of food, and two desserts. Japanese and Peruvian cuisines are very compatible with each other. The fact that both rely very heavily on seafood from the Pacific Ocean is one of the reasons Chef Micha's menu works so well. Each dish was unique. Even dishes that had ingredients that were familiar to me were given a new twist. The ceviche was insanely fresh and perfectly spiced, the fish stew with yuca and amazing Peruvian yellow pepper was a barrage of flavors, the short rib is cooked for an astounding 50 hours and melts in your mouth, and the uni rice topped with even more uni was over-the-top decadent. The liquid nitrogen frozen tofu cheesecake "ice cream" was tasty and fun, and the granita served with a chocolate shell filled with the different kinds of cacao and nibs was served in a bowl made from sugar and was visually stunning. The entire meal was a delight and it was very cool to enjoy the Peruvian ingredients done in such a clever Japanese way.

I have been fortunate to have eaten in some outrageously good restaurants, and Chef Micha and the staff at Maido can be very proud of their place among the best places in the world.

Amuse Bouches

Ceviche

Pork Belly Bun

Fish Stew with Peruvian Yellow Pepper Broth

Cuy

Toro, White Tuna with Uni, Beef Tongue

Cod with Hazlenuts

50 Hour Short Rib

Sea Urchin Rice Topped with Sea Urchin

Tofu Cheesecake "Ice Cream"

Granita and Cacao with Nibs

Central Lima: The Church, The State, The People, and the Oldest House in South America.

Government Palace

Cathedral In Lima

Cathedral Interior

Festival de Patron Procession

Festival Parade Participants

Pizarro arrived in the land now known as Peru with less than 200 conquistadors in 1531. While they didn't have a lot of men, they did have four main things the native Inca (population 12 million) didn't have: guns, horses, the wheel, and an immunity to smallpox. It didn't take the Spanish long to manipulate their way into being in charge.

The Spanish set up in the Inca capital of Cusco. They helped orchestrate a civil war between Inca factions and then executed Atahualpa for his brothers death, thus completing their coup d'état.

In 1535 Pizarro founded the city of Lima as the Capital of what would become the Viceroyalty of Peru. It was from here that the Viceroys would rule Peru until 1824.

Casa de Aliaga: The Oldest Colonial House in South America

Street Entrance of Casa de Aliaga. Photo Courtesy of Trip Advisor

Interior Patio of Casa de Aliaga

Beautiful Interior of Casa de Aliaga

Detail of Imported Tile

Senor Aliaga's Sword

Each Room Has A Unique Ceiling Pattern

Antique Bed

Stunning Detail Throughout the House

The Aliaga Family Chapel

Pizarro had a friend named Jeronimo de Aliaga y Ramirez who came with him to Peru. He gifted him land to build a house and it has remained in the Aliaga Family since 1535. Throughout history the family has seen politicians and diplomats, and has remained one of the leading families on Peru.

At one point there were tunnels connecting the house to the Cathedral, the Government House, and the nearby convent.The house itself is still used by the Aliaga family today. There are two apartments inside the house the family uses as well as the dining room and chapel. It really is a lovely example of colonial architecture and the family has done a magnificent job of preserving it.

So my stay in Lima was really something. It was fascinating to be in such a big city that felt more like a lot of smaller cities. I would love to return in their Summer to see the city when the sun is shining and the beaches are full. The people I met were very warm and friendly. I'd love to see more of Miraflores and Barranco and try some more Peruvian food!

Next I flew to Cusco to learn more about the Inca and to experience the Andes at an elevation of over 11,000 feet!

My Paris Highlights: Where to Eat & Drink.

May 29, 2018 by Troy Colbert in Food, Paris, Blog, Travel, Wine

Paris is obviously one of my favorite cities in the entire world. There is so much to see and do. Despite their reputation, Parisians are some of the warmest, helpful, people I have ever encountered. It is no wonder that artists, poets, authors, brigands, scoundrels, lovers, and citizens of the world have found their way to Paris for centuries. It is truly The City of Lights.

There are places I found on my recent trip that I wanted to share with everyone because they made my trip so much better, and I want other to enjoy them as much as I did.

Where to Eat

C hez L'Ami Jean

Chef Stéphane Jego's nose-to-tail restaurant is a small, high-energy place on the Left Bank in between des Invalides and Champ de Mars. Although the restaurant may be small, there are no small portions at L'Ami Jean. Chef Jego uses every part of an animal he brings into the restaurant. He also goes out of his way to make sure that two people who order the same dish experience it in different ways.

The menu changes constantly so it's a place to return to often. Save room for the rice pudding. It's his mother's recipe and it is unbelievable!

House Made Saucisson

House Made Pate

Sauteed Sweetbreads, Beet Consomme

Rice Pudding

Brutos

Another recommendation from my friend Wendy Lyn pays off in a huge way! Lucas Baur de Campos and Ninon Leconte have opened a fantastic place that is now among my favorite places to eat anywhere in the world.

Chef Lucas Baur de Campos on the Pass at Brutos in Paris. Photo Courtesy of Brutos

Lucas and Ninon are from Southern Brazil, and their restaurant uses a real wood fire BBQ to cook delicious meat, chicken, and fish. They then pair these with sauces that harken back to their home, and smaller plates that use local ingredients to create an atmosphere that is more like eating in a close friend's kitchen than a restaurant in Paris.

The night I went the menu had some very interesting dishes. I went mostly seafood, but Lucas made sure I got a sampling of everything good on the menu. Ninon was right on time with her recommendations on food as well as their selection of natural wines.

Crab Pastilles

Grilled Dorado with Butter Sauce

Beef Marrow on Mashed Potato

More Amazing French Cheese

45 Day Aged Cote de Boeuf

Every bite was delicious. The menu changes frequently to reflect what is fresh and in season. Lucas and Ninon are so warm and friendly, you can tell they put their hearts and souls into Brutos. I will make it a point to return every time I'm in town!

Marche des Enfants Rouge

The oldest covered market in Paris is in the Marais (now you know why I recommend staying there!). It has stall after stall of gorgeous produce, meats & cheeses, seafood, flowers, baked goods, and food stalls that serve everything from vegan food to one of the best sandwiches in the world.

The market is worth strolling through even if you aren't in the mood to eat anything. Trust me, you'll find SOMETHING to tempt you!

25-50 Wine Latitude

I always like finding places where locals hang out when I travel. 25-50 Wine Latitude is one of those places. Mark the owner has created a place where locals feel comfortable coming in and buying a bottle of something he's found or sitting at the bar itself and drinking glasses of what he opens on a particular day. I went back a couple of times and Mark was happy to discuss French and German wines (he has dual citizenship) as well as American wines (he spent several year here, mainly in N. California). If you look at 25-50s Facebook Page or the Google reviews you'll see that on the night of the terrorist attack at the Bataclan Music Hall (right around the corner from 25-50) Mark kept 25-50 open as a safe place for people to congregate and decompress. So not only does he sell amazing wine, he's a good guy as well. More than enough reason to frequent his place.