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Published: June 29th 2017
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Geo: -33.4691, -70.642
Natalies cough keeps getting worse, and I haven't had a remotely proper sleep for over a week. Peru has probably been the most exciting experience of the honeymoon, but definitely the least comfortable. Were both tired and exhausted and Natalie is sick. After the amazing Grand Finale of Machu Picchu yesterday, were both hoping to relax a while in Santiago. We were awake at 6, due to various noises (a pulsating sound, some hammering and loud voices) and up around 9. Most of our group had already parted and it was time to say goodbye to our guide Will, who has been great and certainly helped us have a great time in Peru.
His final recommendation was to go to a place called Jacks for breakfast. We had plenty of time to head there before our 12noon transfer to the airport. So we checked out, left our bags at reception and one last time made the journey from our hotel down the perilously narrow street towards the main square area. Jacks was a popular place, a queue out the front awaiting tables. It was worth the wait. Wow, what an epic feed. I ordered the Gordos plate which was
an absolute mountain of toast, eggs, bacon, mushrooms, beans and potatoes. We wandered around a while, picking up a few last souvenirs before we were joined by Ben and Hazel for our transfer to the airport.
Todays flightplan; a domestic hour flight from Cusco to Lima, then a connecting international 3 hour flight from Lima to Santiago. Turns out both flights were tiny LAN jets, and we were in the back row for both. A few things; If you can avoid using LAN (especially for long flights), do so. It seems the longer the flight, the worse the aircraft and the more they jam you in. Our longer, second flight today was a way worse jet than the first. The seats are very narrow and my knees were welded into the back of the seat in front and halfway out into the aisle. If the guy in front had reclined his seat, all the bones in my legs would have been broken, and Id currently be some sort of slug like creature. Neither flights had screens for entertainment and the dinner flights feed was a pre packaged ham and cheese roll. Its also worth noting that if you're ever in
Lima, spend your remaining PRS (Peruvian Sols) BEFORE you clear customs. On one side, theres a variety of restaurants and stores that have reasonable prices in the local currency. Once through customs, prices escalated quickly, basically tripling, and everything was quoted in USD only. We had 53PRS (or $20AUD approx) left to spend which bought us a magnet, bottle of water and two packs of Mentos.. We saw a 15cm tall guinea pig plush toy for 380 PRS or $150AUD. Seriously.
When we finally arrived in Santiago, around 11.30pm (2 hour time difference from Lima). Nats Australian passport would cost us a Reciprocity fee. Only Australians and Mexicans have to pay it, and Aussies 4x the amount of Mexicans. Goodbye $130USD. Its a strange fee, only payable if you disembark at an international airport in Chile. So far wed transferred at Santiago by plane and stopped for tours in Chile at Punta Arenas, Puerto Montt by ship and disembarked by ship at Valparaiso. This time, there was no escaping it. Being a late arrival, tonights accommodation was at the Manguehue Airport Hotel, 5-10mins drive away. Fortunately this included a free airport transfer which we managed to find without too much
trouble. Whilst the hotel didn't have record of our prepaid booking we managed to secure a room. The room was nice and bed extremely comfortable. We were in bed by 1am. Tomorrow we will checkout at 1pm and take a cab to our final hotel in Santiago central for our last 4 nights.
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