Our trip is finally here!

We departed SFO early on Avianca for our flight to San Salvador. We were lucky enough to have first class seats. Although not lie-flat, the seats were comfortable. We also had plenty of room to bring all our bags on with us and didn't have to check anything!

We arrived in San Salvador about 1 hour late which wasn't a big deal since we had a 7 hour layover. We spent the time in the Avianca lounge and grabbing some pupusas in the airport.

Around 8pm we lined up for our flight to Lima. Again, first class with similar seats. We got some sleep on the flight to Lima which was good since we arrived around 2am. Our flight to Cuzco departed at 5:30pm, so we had a few hours to kill. We found an ATM and stocked up on soles, but unfortunately the lounge wasn't open so we just sprawled out on the seats in the terminal :).

Our flight to Cuzco left on time and as we approached Cuzco we were treated to amazing views of the lofty Andes out the plane window. We landed at Cuzco, worked on catching our breath, and quickly made it through immigration. With no checked bags, we didn't have to wait for those!

We had pre-arranged a ride to our stay in Pisac. We quickly found our driver and soon we were off to Pisac! Pisac was about 45 minutes away and our trip took us up and over Cuzco (which is saying something) before descending into Pisac. We chose to spend the first night in Pisac because it is at lower elevation (around 9,000 feet) vs Cuzco (11,000 feet) and thought it would help with acclimatization.

We arrived at Pisac around 7am and we met our friendly proprieter. Cuzco is very cold this time of year in the morning, and we saw frost everywhere. We didn't realize our guesthouse had unheated rooms, but a space heater quickly warmed the place up. We got our stuff organized a bit and took a couple hour nap before heading out to visit Pisac.

Our first stop was a wander through the Sunday Pisac market. For such a small town, it was amazing how much real estate this market occupied. The market seemed primarily geared toward tourists with lots of trinkets on offer, but corners of the market had more authentic areas with locals bartering for items and selling produce. We purchased some fruit and found a place for an empanada. We also saw lots of guinea pigs and knew what their fate held (roasted guinea pig, known as cuy, is the speciality).

We spent some time in the church on the main square attending mass. This was a special service as many of the elders from the local indigenous tribes were also in attendance with their traditional dress. Watching the special procession at the end was very interesting.

We were hungry and found the wonderful Cafe Mullu overlooking the main square for lunch. We ate light as we were told that was wise when adjusting to the altitude. The quinoa soup and juice were delicious and the vibe was very cool.

After lunch we took a take up to the top of the Pisac ruins. We purchased our turistico boletos that gave access to Pisac and many of the other places that we plan to see in the coming days in the Cuzco area. We began exploring the surprisingly extensive ruins at Pisac. By early noon the frost from the AM was long gone, and the temperature had spiked to the warm-level under a bright blue sky. We applied and re-applied sunscreen and started hiking around the fortress like ruins. Most noteworthy was the incredible terracing that is present at the site. We hiked up around the ruins themselves before opting to walk down to Pisac. We were told this was a reasonably challenging hike on the way up (about 2 hours). We found that the way down was also not easy (lots of Inca steps and maintaining footing was a challenge). In all the walk was nice and got us accustomed a bit more to the altitude and allowed us to break in our hiking boots for the upcoming hikes in the coming days!

A couple hours later we were back in Pisac and so glad we didn't walk UP to the ruins (best investment ever in a $10 taxi ride!). After freshing up a bit we headed out for dinner and enjoyed a light dinner of veggie chili and aji de gallina at Ulrike's. The seating and view from the rooftop terrace was spectacular. As the sun went down it started to get mighty chilly, so we headed back to the hotel to get an early night's sleep to try and ward off the jet lag.

Our first day in Peru was great so far - looking forward to even more adventures in the next few days!