First Few Days of the SA adventure- Lima and Cusco.

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We have successfully arrived in South America. Starting with 2 days in Lima and then a quick flight to Cusco. We arrived in Lima at 10:45pm and finally made it to our hostel (the crazy streets of Lima kept us awake on the drive to the hostel, i doubt road rules are enforced! -Blue House at about 1 am. After a quick chat with the friendly manager we got some much needed sleep. The next day we didn´t have solid plans and decided to wing it walking around the Miraflores, Barranca area. We hiked all the way up to the edge of Lima where there is a lit cross which symbolizes the war between Peru and Chile and a redeemer statue. Then we hiked back down the hill and had lunch at the fisherman´s wharf - chita frito with Yuca and salad and a mixed sea food platter. After a big meal we hiked back to miraflores, past the main square and parque del amor. We wanted to try the local pisco sour drink and the manager of the hostel said it would be cheaper to buy a bottle and make it ourselves...so we did and shared a few with the hostel. We finally made it to bed early as we had a lot of ground to cover!

That night we were able to talk a bit more about what to do and see in Lima and the hostel manager, albiet a bit drunk, helped us with local transport. We planned to go to Pachacamac then if time allowed to Lima Central. That morning we set off fairly confident using the combi van public transport system that zips through Lima. So we might of got off at the wrong stop on the way to the Panamerican highway but then after specefically asking how to get to Pachacamac (20 min away) we ended up in Lima Central )1 hour away)... turns out we took the bus in the wrong direction... oops. It all worked out as we were able to explore down town lima and see the changing of the guards at noon. From the plaza mayor we decided to save time and take a taxi to pachacamac about 1.5 hours away on bus. After a longgg taxi ride and only 40 soles($16) we made it to pachacamac at 2:30pm. Elliot also discovered a local delicacy of pachacamac, chicharron - marinated, fried pork. We explored pachacamac for an hour and a bit and jumped on another local bus...thank goodness this bus was correct and less that 20 minutes later we were on the road that lead to our hostel. As it was quite hot we showered changed and headed to a local restuarant for dinner and to check out a local inca ruin after. Also tried a real pisco sour at a bar near the hostel, egg whites and all.

We headed to bed late that night and had a taxi booked for the airport to cusco at 8am. After a delay we arrived in cusco at 2pm ish and checked into our dorm. Unfortunately elliot either ate something or found out what mountain sickness is and didn´t leave the dorm room besides to visit the toliet. Hopefully a good nights sleep and meds will help! I am not finding the altitude to much of an issue although ocasionally i have to take an extra deep breath. I spent the afternoon getting information for the Inca trail, Amazon tour and exploring the local market. I will have to be a solo traveller tonight and then we plan on doing city things tomorrow followed by a bit of the sacred valley on Sunday. We leave at 4:30am for the amazon on monday morning. We will be celebrating new years in the plaza de armas!



Will post more sooN!

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Comments

[Nicole]

WOW!
Awesome guys sounds like you're having an amazing time! Bummer Elliot that you were sick I do hope that you have fully recovered by now. Love ya x