Cusco

Cusco is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the "Historical Capital of Peru", hosting nearly two million visitors a year.

And it shows.

Tourism appears to concentrate on the Main Square, Plaza de Armas, the streets surrounding it, and the historical San Blas area situated on the hillside just above Plaza de Armas. I assume most of the city's 400,000 inhabitants can live their lives quite undisturbed by the tourist masses, as the city stretches far and wide with most buildings having just two or three floors.

However, my first Couchsurfing host lived right in the middle of San Blas, which I was excited about at the beginning, as it was supposed to be the best area to be in. And true, the narrow streets were very picturesque, and I loved the Quechuan street names and ancient white stone buildings that originate from the times before the Spanish conquerors had set their foot in the country.

If there only had been anything else left from times past. But no; this was a real tourist heaven. Or hell, depending on how you care to see it. Yoga, reiki, massages; hand-made scarfs, handicrafts, lama wool, alpaca; organised tours to do Machu Picchu, to do drugs with a shaman, to do paragliding or liquor tasting, to do a real Peruvian (I wouldn't be surprised); hostels with a bar, hostels with a view, hostels with oh-so-quaint colourful deco; vegan food vegan food VEGAN FOOD!!

Every place had a beautiful, hearty hippie name such as Mother Earth or Sister Moon or Universal Balance – or then "Inka" anything. In Spanish of course, to be cooler. And while I love yoga and vegan food and am fully aware of the complexity of foreigners travelling somewhere and demanding to get the really truly authentic experience (or, perhaps worse still, being horrified that a lot of other travellers want to see the same place as you), I could not take it.

It didn't make me sad because of the locals who were the owners of those businesses; I understand they have to earn their living and sell what people buy. (An important question, though, is whether those places are even owned by locals.) But it made me sad because of the vast masses of people who fly to Cusco and buy a reiki-shaman beer tour with a view and find it lovely. That's what I find so disturbing.