I hate Hot
Springs II. With a name like "Hot Springs" in a town whose attraction
is actual hot springs, I can only conclude that they get off on watching
confused tourists hike up an immense, unnecessary hill, huffing and puffing
their way to the medicinal waters of the aguas calientes at the top only to
find that their bags and tour guides are waiting in a restaurant by the train
station at the bottom.
By the time we found
Hot Springs II (because one wasn’t enough), it was too late to order anything
but the pizza without missing our train.
The pizza came
quickly and caliente, right out of the oven, but that’s about all they did
right. One Pizza had a few juicy
mushrooms, soft artichokes, and salty pepperoni-esque sausage swimming in a vat
of greasy, grocery-store-bag cheese. The cheese made long, slightly-soggy
strings when you tried to pull the slices apart, but there was so much of it
that it sloughed off the slices in chunks.
The Meat Lover's had an even mix of
sausage, pepperoni, and ham, but it was hard to appreciate anything in the
midst of all that cheese. The papery-tasting crust didn't help.
I walked
into Hot Springs II fully prepared to hate it thanks to the stress of finding
it, and the pizza only helped me along. Despite the stress, I remained
reluctant to bid the beautiful Machu Picchu goodbye, so I guess it’s a good
thing Hot Springs II made me a little less inclined to linger.
When you go
through an ordeal like the Lares Trek, there better be a shining light at the
end of that torturous tunnel. Our light was a hot shower in Machu Picchu town and
a hot meal without the side of nausea at Indio Feliz.
If you started
by slurping the syrupy Andean elderberry liqueur from the Andean Trujillo Melon like we did, everything got fun pretty fast
because that liqueur is a lot stronger than it looks!
The theme of
the appetizers was clearly, "We just got a new melon baller and we're not
afraid to use it". The Avocado with
Papaya was a pretty baller way to start; a glass of the smoothest,
creamiest, ripest avocado balls I've ever had with an olive oil and lemon
dressing that was out of this world.
Indio Feliz is
as touristy as you'd expect considering Machu Picchu town doesn't have permanent
inhabitants, but the menu does have native items like the Andean red trout,
which is prepared in every possible way. Our Salmon Trout with Quillabamba Mango is filleted fresh, and the
soft, sweet mango goes well with the fish. The Salmon Trout Meuniere meshed
perfectly with a squeeze of lemon.
The Tender Beef Skewers were as tender as
they promised, though "entire steaks on a stick" would have been
a more accurate name. The beef was as medium rare as we wanted, with red
peppers and onions, all nicely roasted. A little more salt wouldn't hurt, but
it definitely hit the spot for some post-hike protein.
The Homemade Apple Pie has a flaky crust
with soft, stacked apples. A little taste of home away from home, except the
pie was more like a tart.
The Bistro
style Creme Caramel is rich and firm
but turns to cream in the mouth. This fancy French flan was made just right.
I wasn't
expecting much from Machu Picchu tourist-town. My only hope was that the food
would be good, but the fusion of Peruvian and French could really go either
way. Indio Feliz definitely went the good way, and although it wasn’t the most
authentic food in Peru, I definitely felt feliz for being a tourist at Indio
Feliz.
