The landscape of the Andes is anything but uniform. Dry, unfarmable land, cool and humid cloud forests, and moist wetlands make up an infinitely diverse region. We had little idea of how many micro climates and landscapes we would be seeing traveling southeast to Cusco through Arequipa, and Puno.

We traveled exclusively by bus, in several classes of service: a luxurious over-nighter with food, movies and bingo (really!) delivered us from Lima to Arequipa in 15 hours, a front and center seat on a double-decker gave us a thrill ride to Puno, and a $6.50 cheap and painful 500km burn put us in Cuzco several hours after the promised arrival (the bus drivers were drinking and picking up hitchhikers).

Climbing steadily higher and higher in elevation over several days (Arequipa 7,800 ft, Lake Titicaca 12,500 ft, and Cuzco 10,800 ft) gave us a a chance to acclimate to the elevation gradually, and we were lucky to not suffer any ill-effects. The Andes are one of the only places on the planet where Coca leaves are legally consumed, and we followed recommendations to subdue headaches and acclimatization with coca tea or by chewing the leaves.

Not extreme in any way, coca leaves are a very mild stimulant, which constricts blood vessels and regulates the heartbeat. The leaves are simple looking, similar to a bay leaf, and have a grassy, green flavor. We both found the taste nice in tea, and when chewed it’s somewhat more astringent — a quality which can be lessened by adding an alkaloid called ilucta made from quinoa ash.

Arequipa was beautiful, and our afternoon there turned into a longer 3 day stay. The town reminds us of San Crisóbal de las Casas in Mexico, but instead of brightly colored buildings “The White City” is like a blank colonial coloring book; the town gets it’s nickname from the white stones which are used in local construction. There are several magnificent churches — one particularly beautiful with a red brick interior. Several museums keep the basic tourist happy, but we were even easier to please, just walking up and down the small streets. We took a taxi to nearby Sabandia, where we walked through a restored mill and were able to see more of the rural landscape. The highlight of the city is the beautiful snow-capped volcano El Misti looming over town against a clean blue sky.

We spent an afternoon at the Santa Catalina Monastery — an entire city, it seems, of beautiful maze-like architecture which housed a mysterious cloistered community inaccessible to the public for hundreds of years.

The nuns of Santa Catalina came from the wealthiest families in Perú, each paying a dowry of up to the equivalent of $50,000 to live within it’s walls. Each inhabitant had a unique and beautiful private space, often with it’s own large kitchen. Most nuns lived with 4 servants and slaves. Walking among the rooms and corridors it’s clear how wealthy many of the nuns must have been, having the pleasure of living in such a marvelous idyll. We were told that even the church was critical of the opulence found at Santa Catalina. See more of Santa Catalina Monastery here.

Huge, luscious cakes, referred to as tortas here, seem to be a favorite dessert all over Perú, and Arequipa made us take notice — a whole street is filled with torta shops, offering up absurd decadence in every color and flavor.

In town we saw the same circular wood-burning ovens as at the monastery, still in use turning out some of the best pizzas we’ve had in South America (it’s amusing, actually, how much worldwide popularity pizza has achieved). Many more photos from Arequipa here.

Puno is located on the shores of the puma-shaped Lake Titicaca, the world’s highest lake.

Though we didn’t have much time in this area, we were able to visit the Uros (floating reed islands) on the water. We took a boat tour from Puno to three different islands, where many tourists go to see the Uro lifestyle, foods, and society.

It’s difficult to say whether tourism to these areas is helping the people (the women spend the majority of their day catering to the consumer desires of tourists) or simply reducing their traditions to bite-sized samples. Nevertheless, Wikipedia has more interesting information about the reed islands. A few more pictures from Lake Titicaca are on our flickr, here.

Next, we came to Cusco, a tourist haven and starting point for Machu Picchu treks. The reality of Cusco is a large, well rounded city. While tourism has taken over a large part of the city, the Peruvian culture still stands strong.

We investigated San Pedro Market with its locals-only reality of food preparation (read parts of animals you have never seen much less eaten) and Pisac which is a smaller city with a large market split between the sins of the tourist and the needs of the locals.

On the way back from Pisac, we took a 10km downhill walk into town past four Incan ruins and a palatial view of the city. More from Pisac here .

Within the town, restaurants serve wildly different and exciting cuisines from the Americanized burger to the street grilled Anticuchos. Some of our favorite restaurants were Los Perros, Heidi Granja and Jack’s (although at this point we were suckers for comfort food).

A favorite and yet hard-earned neighborhood in Cusco is San Blas. The neighborhood is spread atop a steep hill, hard work on the lungs at this altitude, and has views of all of Cusco. Venture high enough and you stand at the foot of a Christ statue. Much more from Cusco, here on flickr.

Its hard for us to sum up these cities in a post. We raced through them, flirting with the depth of the culture and feeling our impressions were just the surface of a place — ranging from poverty to wealth while maintaining a complexity to culture and cuisine. It’s sad to generalize areas that seem larger then you encompass. Often the best views of the cities are from taxis racing through neighborhoods and bearing down on pedestrians at high speed. But any country or city with an awareness and care for itself like Perú asks for more consideration. While in Cusco, we encountered a parade showcasing the native costumes and two different strikes demanding more for their environment and social welfare.