- Scour the Mercado de San Pedro city market
- Organize Machu Picchu tickets and other days in the region
- Buy souvenirs and market
- Enjoy Peruvian delicacies, pisco sour and ceviche
- Mini-van ride to neighboring Pisac
Since we want to continue to the neighboring village of Pisac today, we pack our rucksacks and bring them to the storage room. Then we look for a place to have breakfast. At least I can find something at the bakery next door and there is a cafe for Niki. A little further on Mercado de San Pedro we find a fruit salad with yogurt. Then we browse through the numerous souvenir shops and see them colorful market scenes with flowers, all kinds of food but also other offers.
Soon after, we arrived at Plaza San Francisco and marched straight on to the heart of the city: the Plaza de Armas. This is surrounded by wonderful colonial buildings with wooden balconies and pompous churches from Spanish times a truly wonderful place in this magnificent city. A little deeper (but still at 3400 meters above sea level) than in Puno and La Paz, breathing is noticeably easier here.
We start looking for the state point of sale around the Machu Picchu tickets to buy. This is of course not open today on Saturdays. That is why we are looking for a tour provider who can book us the tickets you want. This also applies to the overly expensive train tickets from Ollantaytambo to Aquascalientes for travel to and from the forgotten city of the Incas.
Relieved by almost CHF 200 each, we march through numerous souvenir shops. In terms of price, they hardly differ from those in Bolivia. When it comes to the goods, it is noticeable that some other designs of the countless alpaca sweaters can be found and leather goods are quite rare, otherwise there are hardly any differences. We buy more sweaters for 25-35 Sol than for 10 francs. Be it as a gift or for ourselves. Don't forget that here Haggling for the price, after all, the dealers always try to get too much. We find a nice restaurant where that delicious combination of sour pisco and ceviche lures.
Back on the Plaza de Armas we watch the carnival-like parade for a moment in meanwhile light rain. Then it's time to go back to the hostel and pack our daypacks. We take a taxi to the place where the Mini-vans to Pisac. When the car is filled with locals after a few minutes, the journey can begin.
After about 40 minutes, however, we achieve this manageable pretty town of Pisac. There we go looking for our hostel. Which turns out to be not that easy without a map and street names. After asking around we will find something.
Two blocks further is the central square, where we find an inviting restaurant. This turns out to be real gourmet cuisine out. Quinoa with chicken and vegetables for Niki and for me a delicious, tender alpaca steak with cherry peas must.
