Well, it turns out that the advice about altitude adjustment isn’t entirely fiction – three of us were fine but Nick woke up feeling more than a bit sick. Luckily, he got a dose of oxygen from our guide Juan and after some fresh air was feeling better again.

Our first destination was Sacsaywaman, which is an entirely different experience with a guide and minus the tens of thousands of people. They were still deconstructing the viewing stands but we could get up close to the Inca stonework this time. The largest stones stand perhaps 15 feet tall and required hundreds of people to move them (without wheels!) Sacsaywaman (pronounced by tourists and locals alike as “sexy woman”) is an Inca ceremonial site, known as the “head of the puma”, mistaken for a fortress and mostly destroyed by the Spanish during their colonial rule.

Not far away lies the Temple of the Mother Earth, somewhat nondescript from the outside. To enter, one passes through a narrow serpentine crack in the limestone to reach an underground altar still used by farmers for offerings.

Leaving the Inca world behind, our next stop was the San Pedro market in the center of Cusco. Although the market has an increasing number of stalls catering to tourists, the majority still serve traditional needs of the local Peruvians, including soup stalls, clothing and tailor shops (with beautiful antique Singer sewing machines still in active use), offerings for the gods, and assorted grocery goods including all manner of animal body parts.

As mentioned, the Spanish liked to destroy or co-opt symbols of the Inca religion. The Temple of the Sun has been converted to a convent but traces of the stonework remain from this “Vatican of the Inca”. After posing by the largest stone at Sacsaywaman, we were tickled when Juan pointed out the smallest stone here – evidence of the Inca stonemasons’ attention to detail.

We had our big meal at Pachapapa, which may cater to tourists but suited us quite well. We enjoyed trying alpaca meat grilled on skewers, while being serenaded by a Peruvian harpist in the courtyard.

The day was not quite complete without a trip to the Choco Museum – really a glorified chocolate shop, but who’s complaining?! We tried cocoa beans in all stages of their processing, plus samples of varying chocolate products, including tea brewed from the skins of the cacao nut.

The kids also tried their hands at bartering in the market, with success especially in the knitted sweater and woven bracelet departments!