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Published: September 6th 2013
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So we got married…and decided to celebrate with a 5 week trip to Peru and Colombia. South America isn’t particularly conveniently located from Australia so getting to Peru required a 4hr flight from Australia to New Zealand, then a 12hr flight from New Zealand to Chile and finally another 4hr flight to Lima. The flight from Chile to Peru was quite enjoyable as you fly along the Andes so the view was pretty awesome.
We had rightly assumed we would be fairly exhausted so booked an airport pickup with our hotel. We arrived in Lima at about 6pm which was right on peak hour. I was able to practice my Spanish with the driver which was fairly exciting – particularly when I actually understood what he was saying (I think) and was able to respond. After checking in at the hotel we walked to a restaurant area nearby to grab dinner, it was actually fairly difficult to find somewhere serving Peruvian food (we did consider sushi at one point) but eventually found a place and ordered successfully in Spanish.
The next morning we woke up bright and early for our 7am flight from Lima to Cusco. We managed to
get seats on the left hand side of the plane which meant we were able to enjoy the amazing view of the Andes. We shared our plane with a large group of high school students – a school excursion to Machu Picchu certainly beats any of the ones I went on.
On arrival in Cusco we survived the onslaught from the taxi drivers and managed to grab a cab for S12 rather than the S30 they first suggested. There were road works on the street our hotel was located on so the taxi driver had to drop us about 100m away from the front door. We both grabbed our bags and powered up the slight hill, got to the hotel and stood at the front desk puffing away like 80 something year olds who smoke 20 packs of cigarettes a day – if only we’d remembered that we were at altitude!
After checking in we headed out for breakfast (cheese sandwich and pineapple juice for S2) and then set off to explore the historical area of Cusco. The historical zone is quite a pretty area – at it’s heart is the Plaza de Armas which is a large
square surrounded by tourist shops, restaurants and the obligatory churches. From the Plaza we wandered around the streets admiring the architecture and people watching. Lunch was a yummy traditional Peruvian dish called Aji de Gallina which is quite like a very mild chicken and potato curry served with rice, egg and an olive. Following lunch we decided to head back to the hotel and have a one hour power nap as we were both fairly exhausted after the long flights…and woke up four hours later.
The next day, following a full nights sleep despite our four hour nap, we had chicken noodle soup, cheese sandwiches and pineapple juices for breakfast (S3 each) and then set out in the rain to find the office of our tour company for our 4D/3N Inca Trail trek. Somehow we took the longest route there (which may or may not have involved walking straight past it before realising far too late that we’d gone way too far) and, after a short talk with the girls at the desk, decided to hire a 15kg porter between us for the trek – this is quite possibly the best decision we’ve ever made.
We had a
snack of empanadas on the way back to our hotel for a short nap in the hope that the rain would have cleared by the time we woke up. When we did wake up (four hours later) it was still raining a bit so we decided to give San Blas a miss and have lunch slightly closer before picking up some last minute supplies for our trek. We had another quiet night in the hope that we wouldn’t be quite so tired the following day!
Fortunately the next morning when we woke up we were feeling much more refreshed and ready for the Wayki Experience and our Inca Trail trek.
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