Departure from Cusco and a Brief Stop In Lima

(Sept 27-28)

Our route from Cusco (CUZ) to Santiago (SCL), with an overnight in Lima (LIM)

Our next real destination was Santiago.  To get there, we would fly from Cusco to Lima, spend a quick night in Lima.   After getting to know our New Zealand friends so well on the hike, we wanted to exchange photos and contact information.  Of course, on the four-day hike, no one had a laptop or even a pen and paper. As we would all fly out of Cusco at approximately the same time, we agreed to meet in the airport to make our exchanges.   After a bit of a tour of the airport trying to ensure that our departure gates were behind the same security checkpoint, we met up with the Kiwis.  They were barely recognizable after showers and with makeup.  I’m sure we looked different too.  First priority (for us) was getting contact info (easy) and pictures from the NZ-ers.  We had our wee laptop so we simply popped their SD cards in the toaster and copied the photos.  Getting our photos to them was a bit trickier since they didn’t have a laptop with them.  The chosen solution was to copy our photos onto the SD card from their camera (after reducing the resolution for our 2GB of pictures would fit).  Once our mission was accomplished we boarded our (separate) flights to Lima.

Once in Lima we collected our baggage and began the negotiation process to hire a cab to our downtown hotel.  The taxis are not regulated, but there seems to be a bit of price-fixing with the major airport taxi operators.  They all come equipped with official-looking laminated sheets indicating the (exorbitant) fare to each part of the city.  Even more interesting is that not all of the fare sheets from the same company list consistent fares.  (And if you’re not careful they’ll try to charge you the same rate in dollars instead of Peruvian Soles – a 2.5x increase.)  We insisted in paying a fare s/.10 lower than the “published rate,” and of course everyone rebuffed us.  Eventually one “official” driver did a good deed and matched us up with an unofficial driver who was willing to accept our price. We walked with the driver to his car (in short term parking) and then waited while he walked over and paid for the parking at the kiosk. Of course to exit the airport the driver removed the magnetic “Taxi” sign from the roof to exit as a private vehicle.

Our hotel downtown was in the Miraflores district, an upscale neighborhood in Lima and a prime tourist district.  The hotel was the Llaqta hotel.  Try pronouncing that one without assistance (we’re still not sure how - Yockta?).  The room was basic but clean and included breakfast. 

Hotel room.

The hotel offered laundry service as s/.7 per kilo, which we took full advantage of with all our dirty clothes from the hike.   We sent in two full laundry bags, and they were returned 6 hours later in a single brick-like bag all clean and folded.

Clothes to be sent to the laundry

C with the laundry

For dinner we walked over to the seaside (and cliffside) Larcomar shopping complex and Mango’s restaurant.  We ate at Mango’s on our last trip to Lima in January and enjoyed both the food and the pisco sours.  This time it was the cold, cloudy season so there wasn’t the same majestic sunset over the Pacific as the last time we were here.

After dinner we were tired and returned to the hotel to sleep.  At 10:00 the next day we would head back to the airport for our flight to Santiago, Chile.