Turns out I was right about not sleeping well in the humidity. Not a great night’s sleep. In reality, most of it was probably spent
awake! I guess you’d probably get
accustomed to it after a few days…
Breakfast was a bit disappointing – just bread rolls and some scrambled
eggs. I wanted some orange juice (as
listed) but no, they didn’t have any. I
got some other juice, perhaps star fruit, but it didn’t really hit the spot.
We packed up, left out bags in the store room and headed out
for a couple of hours before our taxi turned up to take us to the airport. We had been quoted a good hour and a half to
get to the airport, however it seems unlikely, as it only took about 45 minutes
from the airport, during the first part of peak hour. We decide to leave about half an hour for the
trip, so that means the taxi will take us at 12pm. OK, off to explore.
The hostal is pretty much only a street away from the
Miraflores cliffs, right near the lighthouse.
We have a beautiful day, almost hot in fact, with blue skies. I’m under the impression that Lima is usually
mired in cloud and Andrea has never seen a blue sky in her various visits
here. We must be in luck! Wandering the footpath along the top of the
cliffs, there are many people exercising.
One lad jogs past with his shirt off and I make some comment to Andrea. She doesn’t respond. I think her mind is elsewhere!!
Further along, paragliders are taking off and there is a
line of young tourists waiting to go with them.
It looks rather exciting, but not for me. The girls profess no interest either.
Feeling a bit hungry now, we catch a taxi to the Larcomar
Mall to have a wander around. I’ve
visited previously and been underwhelmed by it, however we’re nearby and a bit
peckish, so why not. As expected,
despite it being about 11AM, very few stores are open. I decide to grab a couple of bottles of water
from the Starbucks there, however a girl in front of me is engaged in deep
conversation with the cashier and neither of them has any interest in me. They just continue chatting (there was no
buying of anything involved), while after about 2 minutes of this, steam starts
issuing from my ears. After a further
minute or so, I gave up and walked out.
Shame Starbucks, shame!
So, hungry and thirsty, we bite the bullet and head for a
restaurant overlooking the cliffs. The
outside, shaded tables in the breeze and mostly taken, however as we were about
to go somewhere else, as waiter suggests going inside. Refreshingly, it is airconditioned, empty and
we can choose a window-front table.
Fabulous. We order and wait. The food is fabulous, the water cold, the
service prompt. Thanks Tanta, you made
our morning!
Getting a taxi back to the hotel proves a bit problematic as
the one key linking road our taxi driver wants to use is closed for
maintenance. We spend more time than
desired in a minor traffic jam, then we finally get moving and arrive at the
hostal. We retrieve our gear and wait. The taxi is late by about 5 minutes, which
for me is 5 minutes of stressing about missing the flight. Oh dear…
We’re eventually on our way to the airport. Traffic is heavier than expected, however our
driver again manages to scare the bejesus out of us and makes it to the airport
on time. Check-in at Peruvian Airlines
is remarkably smooth and apart from a delay to the flight, hooray, everything
is going to plan. We wander the shops
outside security for a while, get bored with that, and pass through security
without issues. The delay to the flight
allows us the opportunity to chat with a lady and her grand-daughter who are
from Iquitos, out in the Peruvian jungle.
They are heading out for the summer holidays and if ever we find
ourselves in the area, we are invited to look them up! They have tried to fly out this morning,
however a problem with the travel permissions for the grand-daughter means that
they have to go to a Public Notary and sort out permissions. The rest of the family went on without them,
and they will catch up in the evening.
They’re not entirely pleased, but are coping with it by that Latin ability
to remain calm in light of the endless queueing required to get a simple thing
done. It still does my head in.
After a looong time waiting, we eventually queue to board
our flight. Fifteen minutes later, the
staff are handing out sandwiches and soft drinks, with the queue having not
advanced one centimetre. After some more
interminable waiting, we eventually board, the plane takes off and we are on
our way!
The flight to Cusco is over some spectacular mountain
scenery, with several snow-covered peaks jutting out amongst the clouds. Arrival into Cusco is well documented as
being, well, interesting. The city has
grown to the point where it now surrounds the airport, and with all the peaks
around, not to mention dark clouds, it’s a bit of a hair-raising landing that,
of course, finishes well. It has clearly
been raining and we overhear that around 7 other planes have not been able to
land during the day, likely explaining our delay from taking off. Shame nobody thought to mention it to the
passengers…
We are offered various taxi services, some of which are
clearly over-inflated for the tourist marker.
We choose what seems like a much cheaper option, but later find out it
is still double what we could have paid.
Poop. At least he knows the way
to the hotel. They also extort another 5
soles out of us for dropping us at the door of the hotel, rather than in the
Plaza and having to walk uphill to the hotel.
It’s not much, but it’s the principle of the thing. They should have just been upfront!
The hotel is lovely.
We’re offered coca tea and lollies upon arrival. We’re offered an upgrade to the room with the
panoramic windows at no extra cost. We
get lots of recommendations from the owner.
We settle in and are pleased.
Dinner is just down the road at a local Peruvian joint. Lovely owner again – he does the waiting etc,
while his wife does the kitchen. They are
also full of useful advice and don’t try and upsell us on anything. A lovely quinoa soup, followed by papas huancaina
and I’m ready for bed. Problem is the
walk back up the hill. For us newbies,
there’s a lot of huffing and puffing before we get back to the hotel. More coca tea and we’re ready for bed. The panoramic view of Cusco’s lights is
beautiful, however the disco just down the road presents some concerns. Still, we’re so tired we are off to sleep quite
quickly.
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