After arriving to Cusco airport I decided for a little adventure after reading a posting on tripadvisor and walked all the way out of the airport to get a taxi. There were local people there hailing taxis and after about 5 minutes a taxi showed up that accepted an offer of less than US$2 from the airport to JW Marriott in Cusco.

Marriott Cusco

The hotel is a beautiful building that was built in the ruins of an old monastery called Convento San Agustín. The hotel has kept old architecture features without sacrificing hotel amenities and comfort.

The hotel is just a few blocks from the main square called Plaza de Armas and it is nice to walk around the town, even though it was on and off raining the whole time I was there.

The Company of Jesus Church in Cusco

Cathedral in Cusco

Plaza de Armas

Buildings around Plaza de Armas

Buildings around Plaza de Armas

The town looks very much like a Spanish colonial town and the main square is surrounded by the cathedral, another church, hotels, restaurants and shops. In the center of the square there is a beautiful fountain with a golden statue of an Inca.

After Lima, this was another city that was required to go through in order to get to Machu Picchu. I stayed at the Marriott one night before going to Machu Picchu and one night when I came back before I took the train to Puno – more to come about that later.

Fountain with golden Inca

In Cusco I also got to try what ended up being my favorite meal in all of south America. It was the Chupe the Mariscos, or Chupe de Camarones. It was a thick seafood soup that sometimes has a fried egg on top of it. The dinner this day consisted of chupe de mariscos and than a llama steak. It was all delicious.

Chupe de Mariscos

Llama steak for dinner