A vegan in Cusco, Peru

After a few days in Cusco, I think it's safe to say that this has been my favourite place we've been to so far. The town is so beautiful, with small cobbled streets and really nice open squares in the center. Also the fact that there have been no problem at all finding vegan food is of course a huge bonus. I mean it's almost like it's been too many choices!

Most people come to Cusco to learn more about the inca culture, see all the ruins and of course go to Macchu Picchu as this is the historical capital of the Inca Emporium. And so this is the reason why we've come here aswell; to chill out for a bit before starting the inca trail. Cusco is a good place to spend a few days before doing this, to get used to the altitude and all. To do the inca trail though, you have to book it faaaaar in advance. Unfortunately you can't just turn up in Cusco and expect to be able to do it. Not at all. We booked our inca trail with Peru Treks in October.. And for now I think they are fully booked until September even.

Many tourists buys a weekly pass which enables them to go and see all the museum, see all the inca ruins and everything culture there is the see here. But we thought that we're gonna see a lot of stuff when we do the inca trail so we passed on this pass and have had a few adventures on our own.

We went on a walk uphill to the Cristo Blanco statue for example. The view from up here is stunning, and may I add, free. We continued to walk a loop around the Sacsayhuaman, an inca ruin which is often referred to as a fortress up on the hills of Cusco. They charge you to get in on the actual ruins, but we found on our own walking tour that if you just take a loop around the whole thing you can see it really clearly and close up anyway. 

We also went to the Animal sanctuary in the Sacred Valley one day. The animal sanctuary arrange buses from Cusco out to where they are (about 22 km from the city), but we found it to be much cheaper to just get there on our own. We just took one of the local buses both there and back for 20 soles in total for both of us. You just have to be patience and wait a little bit for a bus to come by on the way back

The sanctuary have staff working there who seemed really happy to show us around a to all the animals. They don't charge any fees for visitors, but they do rely on donations to be able to do the work for the sick and/or wounded animals here. When we visited we saw an Andean bear cub that had lost his mum, condors, lamas, dogs and, Guys new best friends, the naked dogs.

Besides these things, we have strolled around on the streets of the town center (which are by they way the most slippery streets ever, be sure to ware good shoes. I've lost count on how many times I've almost slipped and fall!), we've seen the crazy fruit markets where all juice ladies are nagging you to buy THEIR juice cause that is the best one even though all of them seem to be exactly the same for the same price..

We've gone to the coffee museum (free entrance and you learn loads about coffee) and we've tasted chocolate tea and chocolate marmalade at the Choco museum (also free entrance, but if you wanna do a workshop it costs loads, so no thanks)

Oh, and the best thing is oficurse how I've started the days every morning here in Cusco; by going to the Yoga Room on Carmen Bajo street (in a bohemian area called San Blas that is so pretty). I bought a 3 class pass for 50 soles and I'm so glad I did. The yoga room only have a small studio, but the atmosphere is so warm and welcoming and Kat, who started it and who has been my teacher was really great! In the down stairs but they also have a juice bar which was unfortunately on holiday when I was there, but usually they have vegan ice cream and burgers etc, wow!

Just opposite the yoga room, you'll find my favourite place in town: Green Point - the popular vegan restaurant. As I mentioned in the beginning, being vegan in Cusco is a piece of cake (literally), but it's been hard to not spend too much money at Green Point. The prices here are pretty moderate for being Peru, but oh my gosh, the food is absolutely amazing and the staff is really friendly aswell. 

The big menu makes the food-decision-making almost overwhelming. They have breakfast, lunch and dinner and if I could've afford it I would've gone here three times a day, without a doubt. But unfortunately I've had to pick and prioritise. 

We went there for coffee one morning (yep, they have every kind of plant based milk you can imagine, so I tried the cappuccino with Brazil nut milk, yum). It wasn't that yum that I felt like paying 9 soles for it though, but still, it did the trick.

 

We've also had dinner there two times by now and both times we shared a banana, chocolate, maca, coconut shake (sharing it was really enough, they don't charge you 10 soles for it for nothing!)

For food we've had the lentil burger and the seitan sandwich and they are both divine. All the sandwiches and the burger comes with you choice of mashed potato, fries or mashed sweet potatoes or sweet potato fries. For only 15 soles I got pretty darned full, even though these were the cheapest main on their menu.

Next to the restaurant, they also have their store "Green Stop" with many different vegan items, books and more. We bought the tomato-onion freshly baked bread there one day (one loaf for 4 soles) and it was just bliss. Almost tasted like pizza!

Because of their popularity they apparently also opened up Green Point II in the San Fransisco area. They are only opened for breakfast and lunch though, so we haven't had time to go there just yet.

But if you want to find a little bit more wallet friendly vegan food in Cusco, it is not a big of a challenge (expect for Sunday's when many restaurants are shut). Another favourite restaurant of mine is El Encuentro. Now, there is two of them and I don't know if they are like a chain or anything. But the one we went to was slightly cheaper and is on Calle Tigre, just a few (read long and steep) stairs away from our hostel. 

This is a vegetarian restaurant so they do have a lot of cheese and eggs on the menu, but are very vegan friendly as well. It is here we have continued going for coffee every morning as they make lush coffee with soy milk. Like every other restaurant they have set menu for lunch (not only for lunch, you can have to set menu all day which is a two course meal with salad  buffet for only 6-7 soles! They offer about 2-3 options for main). But since I am a pastaholic, I immediately chose to go for the vegan bolognaise for 14 soles - a lot of food for a very reasonable price! Guy tried their vegetarian double cheese burger which he really enjoyed aswell.

One day we accidentally ran into another vegetarian restaurant; Mamma Mia. Everything is really cheap here aswell - you get a main for about 12-18 soles, they have pizza, pasta, burger etc and they do breakfast, lunch and dinner. We went there for a little breakky and had coffee (unfortunately no soy milk) and a tofu sandwich. Very yummy, but not too filling.

 

And for a Sunday dinner, when almost everywhere we actually wanted to go was shut, we tried one of the many small falafel gems (unfortunately we realised afterwards that we could've walked up the street a bit more for a much cheaper falafel deal, but oh well, at least the falafel was amazingly good) at El Durum. For 13 soles we got a filling falafel wrap each with both hummus in the roll and even more to top up with on the side. One cannot complain when one gets so much good hummus in one meal, right?

Now we only have a couple of days left before we get picked up at 4:30 in the morning to start the Inca Trail. So next time you hear from me will have to be when we're done with that. Hopefully we've succeeded as well. Love love and love to you all.