Welcome (Back) To Cusco

Here a typical greeting to an arriving guest is not a fresh welcome cocktail or a designer snack. You might instead receive a cup of hot water infused with coca leaves, or a quick date with an oxygen tank. This is Cusco, the historic capital of the Inca Empire, and one of the oldest cities in the Americas. The home base for those venturing to Machu Picchu, Cusco is a hybrid of old and new, solid Inca foundations and arresting Spanish colonial architecture.


I was invited to tag along to Peru at the invitation of my father, whose business trips usually entail spotty electricity and occasional bursts of running water — he works in international development, not investment banking. I was thrilled that Cusco would be an exception to the “no tourist excursions” rule. Over a million travelers visit Cusco each year, and it’s not for the (almost inconceivable) 2,000 varieties of potato. They’re here to see the Lost City of the Incas.

Cusco preserves Quechuan, Incan, and Spanish culture by providing perhaps the most unique lens through which to view the treasures of the past: that is, the absence of a lens, no frame through which to digest the ruins and the landscape. You walk it and breathe it, unencumbered by the glass wall that separates you from the wooly mammoth at the Museum of Natural History or the Mona Lisa at the Louvre.

July marks an important anniversary for the city of Cusco: that of the arrival of Hiram Bingham, the Yale history professor credited with uncovering the site of Machu Picchu. In 1911, Bingham chanced a trip to the ancient city — occupied by the Inca from the mid–13th century until the Spanish invasion of 1532. As the story goes, a young Quechua boy led Bingham to the overgrown, neglected shell of Machu Picchu, which is now believed to have been the estate of an Inca emperor. A 1913 spread in National Geographic cemented its status as a tourist mecca, as well as the subject of ceaseless international debate.

The celebration of this year’s centennial is all the more reason for a trek to Cusco. And yes, a trek it is. The ascent from Lima, which sits quite comfortably at sea level, spans approximately 11,000 feet. After taking a few days to settle into your new surroundings, it’s a four-day hike to Machu Picchu on the Inca Trail. We weren’t really feeling that, so we opted for the four-hour train ride through the Sacred Valley instead. Snacking on corn purchased from Quechuan woman through the window of the train, we watched ruins speed by.

Visitors should be mindful of the altitude, especially the sun. I was not, and learned it the hard way. Cusco has the highest level of ultraviolet light on earth, due a combination of ozone layer depletion, high altitude, and lack of UV-absorbing clouds during the dry season. So put the sunscreen you packed to good use, and avoid the kind of shameful and painful burn that put such a serious damper on my sightseeing agenda.

If you too choose to follow in Bingham’s footsteps this year, Cusco’s Hotel Monasterio is an ideal place to acclimate. A former monastery dating back to the end of the 16th century, the Monasterio is a beautiful display of the intersection of Incan and Spanish cultures. “New-Andean” cuisine is served at their excellent Illary Restaurant. But before getting too deep into what will surely be a delicious meal, why not raise a pisco sour to Bingham? One hundred years after his arrival, The Lost City has found the admiration of the world.

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