San Cristóbal

We treated ourselves this morning to breakfast out at Café Punchay. This was more an excuse to use the WiFi and sit in the peaceful courtyard for the morning, but the desayuno set was a simple combination of scrambled eggs (I snigger immaturely whenever saying huevos revueltos, imagining ordering revolting eggs) and some of the best ciabatta bread I have tasted, with coffee and banana-mango juice.

The eggs are revolting

Having whiled away a few hours there, we segued directly to lunch at Café Morena. While by no means expensive, this restaurant is by far the most expensive place we have eaten in during our stay in Cusco. However, we came to try the causa (or causita) - a classic Peruvian cold dish of layers of yellow potato flavoured with lime and yellow pepper, filled with avocado and (in some cases) tuna or chicken mayonnaise. Morena's menu promised a vegetarian version, but today there was none. Disappointed, I settled on a portobello mushroom 'sandwich', which was good but nothing terribly special.

Fancy serving comes to Peru

K opted for quinoa chaufa - a fusion of Asian flavours with the quintessential Andean grain. A couple of pisco sours - one flavoured with chicha morada, the other with passion fruit - were colourful, flavoursome, and wonderfully presented.

Chicha morada pisco sour

As yesterday was the festival of Santa Ana, so today was a similar celebration of the patron saint of travellers, Saint Christopher (San Cristóbal). Climbing yet another of Cusco's near-vertical streets, we arrive at the church of the same name. Offering a superb view over the city centre, the square in front of the church was home to a collection of cusqueños in an already advanced state of revelry. There was, as yesterday, plenty of drinking (Cusqueña: "La cerveza de los Puruanos"), eating of roast guinea pig and other fatty foods, and dancing.

View over Plaza de Armas

Festivities at San Cristóbal

Unlike yesterday's festivities, there were no dancing troupes - although plenty of locals were dancing and waving handkerchiefs in the air, while several bands and sound systems competed with one another from all corners of the plaza. Today is the start of several days of celebrations that will culminate on 4th August with a procession. However, for now the icon remained resolutely within the confines of the church. The image of Saint Christopher is awesome icon, his face wracked with anguish, a palm tree in one hand, baby Jesus on the other shoulder, flanked by small Andean figures with full-face balaclava and long-nosed mask we saw yesterday. In another image on the church, a small aeroplane accompanies the saint, underlining his important role in keeping people safe during travel, which also includes drivers and might explain the attitude to road safety in South America. As we were about to leave, another band appeared out of nowhere - sheet music attached to the shoulders of the player in front - marched directly into the, until then, contemplative silence of the church's nave and burst into a rendition of 'Happy Birthday'. Well, I suppose this is a fitting tribute for the saint's anniversary, if a little incongruous with the surroundings. Peruvian festivities are certainly a lot more festive than at home.

Banging the drum for the Saint's birthday

Dancing at San Cristóbal

As the festivities got rowdier and we were entreated to join the drinking, dancing, or both, we made a move home. We searched vainly for somewhere to sell us vegetarian causa, but discovered that Peru is as in love with chicken as everywhere else we have been in South America. Pollo features as an undisclosed ingredient in just about every dish. As a close second, we bought papa rellena - a fried potato encasing a filling normally comprising beef - from a hole-in-the-wall vegetarian shop on Plaza San Francisco.

Papa rellena

As a distinct bonus, we passed a small picarones shop (Picarones Ruínas) that we had assumed would be closed - its unmarked door remaining resolutely closed all day with no posted opening hours - only to find it open for business.

Picarones

A pan of hot oil in the doorway was being tended by a young girl who slid circles of pumpkin dough into it to create the delectably crunchy picarones 'doughnuts' that are served with a sweet syrup. With very sticky fingers, we returned home.