Cusco has many trendy and hip bars - of all the clubs that I visited, Mandela Bar with its exotic, tropical African motif was by far my favorite. Located in the tourist ghetto and historic neighborhood of San Blas, Mandela has loads of ambiance and during “the season”, the club really rocks with a variety of local bands and artists performing nightly. On the night that I visited the club, there was a very eclectic two-man band – a female vocalist with a very gruff and gritty voice backed by a guitar player extraordinaire who could pick ‘em with the best. Their repertoire consisted mostly of rock classics of the 60’s and 70’s mixed in with some popular reggae standards as well as a couple of new agey-hip hop tunes. I really the dug the vibe and the music at Mandela. A couple of Pisco Sours really put me into a mellow mood as well…

Home to many local artisans and expat artists, San Blas reminds me a lot of my hometown of San Francisco. with its steep, narrow and cobblestone streets.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 1st, 2008 at 11:04 am and is filed under Peru, travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.