The alarm went off at 6 a.m. but I laid in bed for a little longer. I could hear Mom in the shower getting cleaned and ready for the day. I eventually got up and put on my clothes and got my stuff organized and back in my suitcase and back pack. We made sure we had everything and headed down the stairs. Amy and Rhonda were down there waiting. We were suppose to meet our rep and driver at 7:45 a.m. Meanwhile, we chatted with Amy about her adventure from Dallas to Lima and getting in so late the night before. She said it was an adventure to say the least. We were down there for about 15 minutes before our rep and driver arrived. Our flight left at 9:50 a.m. and we had to be there an hour before it left.
We piled in the van with our luggage and a lady and her daughter hopped in with us (they were from Florida and traveled to South America quite often) for a ride to the airport. It took about 10 minutes to get to the airport and were dropped off at the departure signs. We gave them a tip and went into the airport.
We wandered through the airport trying to figure out where we needed to go. We found the correct kiosk, which was the Latam Airlines, printed out our boarding passes and our bag tags. Rhonda dropped her boarding pass on the floor and Mom had to pick it up for her or she would have walked away without it. We sorta figured out how to put the tags on our luggage and then we were escorted to the ticket desk to drop off our bags and off to security we went. I saw that we were in the same area we were yesterday when we left the airport and I saw the correct door number we needed for the virtual cache. I stopped Mom for a couple seconds while we got a selfie with the door.
We went through security without any problems except that Rhonda couldn't find her iPad to take out of her stuff when it went through the x-ray machine but did eventually find it.
We went to our gate and that's pretty much where we stayed until it was time to board the plane. I chatted with Ben on his way to work while we waited for our plane to be ready Rhonda and Amy went to the Starbucks, over by another gate, to get their caffeine fix while Mom and I guarded our bags. We had to double mask inside the airport and while we were on the plane to Cusco. Each seat at the airport had a hard plastic divider between them so we could keep separate from each other.
Peru means business when it comes to Covid, this is why their numbers are so low compared to the US, where it is on the rise because Americans think Covid is a joke. Peru also relies on tourism so they will do all they can to get people to come to their country and feel safe.
It was finally time to board and we got to our seats in row 9 and Amy and Rhonda were behind us in row 10. We were only going to be on the plane for about an hour. I spent most of it catching up on the journal. As we approached Cusco, we could see the Andes Mountains and the city starting to appear below us. We took a few pictures from the plane. We made or final descent and watched the landscape and buildings as we got closer to the ground.
We got off the plane, again it was very organized, and we went into the small airport, grabbed our luggage and headed outside to meet our rep and the driver. We had to walk to the street to find them. We wheeled our luggage away from the building and the crowd and found the rep holding the Larson x4 sign. We piled into the van with our luggage. They said it would be about 20 minutes to our hotel.
We drove down many streets, some very narrow, saw a lot of people walking, waiting for the bus, some stray dogs running around, lots of statues and historical monuments. There were a lot of Incan art, murals, colorful buildings, churches and decorated town squares.
We pulled up next to our hotel on one of the narrow roads and went into the hotel with our luggage. We had our temperature taken and some hand sanitizer was squirted into our hands. We were checked in quickly and taken into a side room with our rep for a brief overview of our days in Cusco. We drank Coca leaves tea which is suppose to help with the altitude since Cusco sits at around 11,000 feet. We got our keys and wheeled our bags to our rooms. Mom and I were in the frog room and Amy and Rhonda were in the rope room. We got settled in and relaxed a bit. The altitude started to get to us and we all fell asleep for a couple hours. They recommend that you take a nap or relax the first couple hours while you are here to avoid altitude sickness. My head hurt really bad.
Amy had set up a reservation at Pachapappa, a few blocks from our hotel, around 4:00 p.m. and we overslept by about 20 minutes so we quickly got ready and walked to the restaurant. We were hoping they still had room for us even though we were late. We arrived and they said there was no problem with us getting there a tad bit late. It wasn't busy so they sat us right away with English menus. We were given little paper bags to put our masks in, some silverware and some small dinner rolls that were handmade with some spicy sauce.
Our waiter came back a few minutes later and got our orders. Mom and I shared a pizza, I had a water and a mango, ginger and passion fruit drink, Mom had a water, Amy and Rhonda had the same thing for food which was lamb, potatoes and a salad, the same fruit drink as me, water and carbonated water. We ate and hung out for about an hour, basically until it started getting dark.
We paid and tried walking back to the hotel but were bombarded with the locals who were trying to sell their wares. One of the ladies talked to Amy before we went into the restaurant and Amy told her maybe later...that woman actually sat outside the restaurant waiting for us to finish dinner before trying to sell her stuff. We went directly to Amy who did end up buying stuff from her. I found some art I wanted to buy so he took us to his store a few store fronts down and I looked through it. I ended up getting three pieces for about $180, since American money was more valuable than their Sols. I figured most of the art was going to be a little pricey so I just went with it. I chose a water color of a Peruvian city center and gave it to Trish, an acrylic of Machu Picchu and one that was painted into llama skin, which was a lot of symbolism and Incan culture scrolled on it. They were pretty cool. I thanked him and paid.
We walked back to the hotel and my headache finally went away after I got food and took some Advil. We got settled in again, tried to figure out our TV and the heater and had to ask for help at the front desk. The young man was happy to come help us. We managed to figure out how to stream to the phone to our TV so we were able to watch Tampa Bay and Dallas. TB was lucky to win that game. I got in a shower, wrote in my journal for a little bit and then got ready for bed around 11 p.m. We had our first full-day excursion bright and early the next day.
Next Adventure: Peru: Cusco City Tour (Day 4)
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