25&26.06 - Day 6&7 - Santiago, CHL to Lima, PER to Cusco
Friday 25th June 2010
Sneak out of dorm and hostel at 6:30am, taxi to airport for our Peruvian and
Bolivian escapades. Inauspicious start as our first flight to Lima
is delayed resulting in us missing our connecting flight to Cusco . Our 08:40 flight finally leaves at 11:15.
On the plane we befriend mother and daughter
pair Vikki and Victoria (yes really) who are in the same boat as us – though
their situation more severe as they’re due on a train tour first thing on
Saturday morning. We process quicker than them at Lima
On
discovering the Jacuzzi and sauna we dash back to our room, don our swim trunks
to take advantage of the amenities. Sitting in the frothing Jacuzzi I reflect
that I never though backpacking would be so hard. We get a little ahead of
ourselves with excitement over dinner; interpreting “free three course dinner”
as anything from the menu. It seems though we’re not the first people to get
put up by the airline and as we’re eyeing up the duck breast, the menu is
snatched from our hands and we’re brought back to earth with a Set Menu. No
complaints about the end result though – surprisingly delicious.
With
yet another start on our newly scheduled flight, it’s early to bed (in part
also to enjoy the bed itself). It’s really a day lost but fortunately we’d
allowed two days in Cusco before the trek
departs and we’d been very fortunate with the hotel. So a day lost but an
afternoon and evening of luxury gained.
Lima to Cusco, Peru
Saturday 26th June 2010
I could get up most days at 6am if meant a buffet breakfast like that. Whilst at dinner we’d been singled out from genuine guests, breakfast is a level playing field. Getting your money’s worth at a buffet is easy when it’s free. As I munch on my bacon sandwich complemented with freshly squeezed orange juice I again curse LAN for delaying our flight…
No troubles with our Lima to Cusco flight this time around. Exiting the plane and walking along the tarmac we already feel out of breath due to the thin air at 3,300m. Taxi to the Plaza des Armas and we lug our bags up hill to our intended hostel. Fully booked.
We’re recommended an alternative hostel and as the owner can see we’re struggling organises someone from the new place to collect our bags. Well just Krish’s bag as it turns out; he clearly looks the worse for wear out of the two of us. We settle into our three bed room – all the rooms around the outside of a small courtyard containing a solitary tree complete with resident hummingbird – before checking in for our Lares Trek due out the next day where we meet our guide Freddy.
At this point we realise that it’s only Krish and I on the trek. Which gives you some idea of the profits being made out of the gringos when they can afford to run it for just two people.
Next up lunch; four course for $4, but not before bumping into the American mother and daughter left at Lima Cusco in time. We went our separate ways with that American tradition – the group hug.
Spent the rest of the day ambling around Cusco buying snacks for the trek along with hats and gloves for the cold nights from a market - $2.50. Early dinner followed by a cheeky ice cream and with another 6am start beckoning, to bed.
