Cusco: Gateway to Machu Picchu, the Sacred Valley and Andean Culture
By: Heather Jasper
Low Season: November – March
Cusco is Peru’s cultural capital and was once the Inca’s capital, from which they controlled much of South America. It’s both full of and surrounded by archaeological sites, some relatively unknown and some as famous as Machu Picchu. Cusco in the low season is ringed by green hills, and you’ll see rainbows every afternoon, which have long been the symbol of Inca heritage and Quechua culture. Cusco’s flag is a rainbow, only distinguishable from the gay pride flag by having two blue stripes: sky blue and navy blue.
The low season coincides with the rainy season, though you’ll want to skip the holidays because Cusco fills up with national tourists the week around Christmas and New Year’s. The rest of the low season you’ll enjoy empty restaurants and viewpoints, and discounts on hotels and tours. Even train tickets to Machu Picchu are discounted since they’re priced like plane tickets, with higher prices during the busiest times of year. Machu Picchu itself is on the edge of the Amazon Rainforest Basin, where it rains year-round, making your chance of a sunny day in the low season not too different from the high season.
The best activities during Cusco’s low season are day tours and cultural events. Popular sites like Moray and Pisac glow during the rainy season, when the ancient Inca stonework glistens, the terraces are green, and the mountains above capped with snow. It’s technically summer in Peru, but since winter is dry, summer is when Andean peaks regain their white caps. It’s important to note that multi-day treks are much more difficult in the low season due to the poor camping weather, though day hikes can be just as good. The Inca Trail is closed every February for maintenance, though Machu Picchu never closes.
Tour the Sacred Valley
The most popular day tour from Cusco takes you to the lush green fields of the Sacred Valley, which fuelled the Inca’s power as they carefully controlled the region’s food supply. You’ll see Andean canals funnelling excess rainfall into ancient fountains, rushing creeks, waterfalls, and Andean terraces doing what they were designed for: growing bumper crops. During the low season your Sacred Valley tour will lack the crowds of the high season, but you’ll gain hillsides covered with wildflowers and dozens of species of birds found nowhere else. The Sacred Valley is home to Mitred parakeets, Sword-billed hummingbirds, and Bearded Mountaineer hummingbirds, all striking birds that photographers and birders will love.
Indulge in Andean Cuisine
Peruvian cuisine has gone global and many of its most emblematic dishes are from Cusco, which sits at the crossroads between the rainforest and the high Andes. In the low season, markets overflow with tropical fruits like lúcuma from the Amazon and unique vegetables like maca from high altitude regions. Since it’s summer in South America, you’ll get to taste all manner of fresh fruits and vegetables that aren’t available during the high season. Sign up for a cooking class so you can replicate some of your favourite Peruvian dishes when you get home.
Cultural Festivals
Catholic holidays in Cusco are heavily layered with Quechua culture. Expect to see fantastical costumes representing Andean spirits, like the Qhapaq Qolla’s knit white masks representing the spirit of alpacas. Parades and plazas fill with Andean dances, complete with flutes and drums. Many holidays change depending on the date of Easter, so check your calendar for Día de Comadres the Thursday before Carnival and Día de Compadres two Thursdays before Carnival. Madre means mother in Spanish and Comadres celebrates sisterhood and the women in the community, while Compadres celebrates brotherhood and paternal links. Carnival also falls sometime during the low season.
Top Experiences
Bajada de Reyes Magos
January 6th has one of the most extraordinary cultural events in Cusco. The Catholic Epiphany is celebrated with Andean dances featuring fabulous costumes and live musicians. Some dance troupes are accompanied by brass bands and others by traditional Andean flutes and drums.
Learn Weaving at Workshops
During the high season weaving workshops are crowded and artists quickly reel off their explanations of how to spin alpaca yarn, dye it with natural plants and minerals, and weave their intricate patterns. In the low season, you may have the workshop to yourself. Artists are more relaxed, so you’ll have time for a more personalized demonstration, and be able to get to know them and ask about the cultural significance of their designs.
Get the best shots without the crowds
Cusco is full of postcard-perfect spots for photographers, but in the high season you can wait all day to try for a shot without crowds of strangers. In the low season, you can bounce from plaza to plaza and market to market, getting photos of you and your friends in all the best locations. Be sure to ask locals for permission before taking their picture, but since there are fewer international visitors, they’re more likely to say yes in the low season.
Food and Drink
Hot Andean Drinks
It may be summer, but at 3,500 meters above sea level, nights are cold and Cusqueñians have a wealth of hot drinks to help. Carts appear in plazas every evening, selling tall glasses of emoliente, a hot herbal drink thickened with flaxseed. The adult beverage of choice is té piteado, pitchers of hot black tea spiked with pisco and served with wedges of lime.
Trout Ceviche
The essence of ceviche is raw fish marinated in citrus juice until it looks cooked, and Cusco is famous for trout marinated in flavourful local limes. Hundreds of families in the Sacred Valley have small trout ponds, fed by fresh glacial streams, that produce some of the best trout in the world. Trout ceviche is infinitely more sustainable than ceviche made from Peru’s overfished seas, and just as delicious. In Cusco it’s served with slices of sweet potato and kernels of giant white corn.
Lomo Saltado
One of Peruvian cuisine’s claims to fame is its fusion of Asian cooking techniques with Andean ingredients and lomo saltado is its favourite offspring. Strips of beef are stir-fried with ají amarillo (a yellow pepper), tomato and onion, then served on top of a bed of fried potatoes. Chefs get creative with the sauces used in the stir fry and with the potatoes. Peru has over 4,000 varieties of potato, so you may find your beef on a pile of round pink potatoes, oval purple potatoes or slices of bright yellow potatoes.
Insider Tips
See all of Pisac
Pisac is the biggest archaeological site in the Sacred Valley, and the most popular day tour from Cusco, but many travellers leave unimpressed. The conventional tour takes an hour and only visits the top 20% of the site. Insist on a full tour, which takes about 3 hours and will follow the ridge down past the touristy area to the Intihuatana, the most sacred part of this ancient Inca city.
Go to Tipón
One of the best archaeological sites near Cusco isn’t in the Sacred Valley, so most travellers miss it. South of Cusco, but close enough to take a city bus, is the Inca city and water temple of Tipón. A series of wide terraces cascade down a hillside, with numerous canals and waterfalls. Tipón is built so that no matter where you stand, you either hear water rushing next to you or the sound echoing off a stone wall across from you. Tipón is best experienced in the low season, when its fountains are fullest.
See Machu Picchu in the afternoon
Most tourists buy the earliest tickets for Machu Picchu, but mornings are often foggy. The latest tickets in the day are 3pm and they sell out last but can be the best. You’re more likely to have clear skies later in the day and the angle of the sun in the afternoon also makes rainbows more likely. Plus, you can drag your feet and stay until the whole site closes, as it’s easier to prolong a tour later in the day.
Good to Know
Plan outdoor activities in the morning
Afternoon thundershowers are almost a daily occurrence during the low season. Plan your hikes and outdoor activities before 2pm and then have a long, slow lunch while the rain pours down. Spend the afternoons in museums and markets but head back out when the rain stops to look for rainbows.
Street dogs have homes
Cusco is home to hundreds of dogs who act like they own the streets and plazas, but you’ll notice none of these dogs look hungry. Shop owners and street vendors take their dogs to work with them, and then let them roam free all day. Since they have homes and families, they’re not aggressive like strays in other places around the world, and they don’t need to be fed.
Reconsider Rainbow Mountain
If you want to see Rainbow Mountain, save it for your last day when you’re most acclimated to the altitude. It’s a hike up to 5,200 meters above sea level and a miserable day if you’re new to high altitude. Do other hikes first, like the Temple of the Moon in Cusco, Inti Punku in Ollantaytambo and Waqra Pukará, which rivals Machu Picchu. Be aware that Rainbow Mountain is one of the most oversold places near Cusco, photos are highly edited and bear little resemblance on reality.
