Subject: I'm a little late in this report, but it's been a crazy trip!
Date: Sun, November 29, 2009 4:11:04 PM
Buenos dias from Lima, Peru -- on my last day of this trip!
Time-travel back to Thursday:
My flight from San Francisco to Miami to Lima was pretty uneventful, but I loved the fact that our captain pointed out on the Miami-Lima flight that we're flying over the Panama Canal, when we couldn't see anything below late at night! Gotta appreciate airline pilot humor! The plane landed in Lima and I took a cab to my hotel in the Miraflores district -- about an hour's drive away -- reaching at midnight, then back out the next morning at 9 to the airport again, to catch my plane to Cusco.
I don't know what made me think I should book a hotel 1 hour away from the airport for just the few hours stay!
Anyway, the flight to Cusco was remarkable. My flight was scheduled to depart at 12:05pm. I checked in for that flight (had to check in my bag which I HATE doing), then started waiting for 11:35am boarding time. Well, my flight ended up being canceled! There were about 10 people waiting at the gate (probably the only 10 people scheduled on that flight) and when we went up to the agent she said we've all been rescheduled on the 12:10pm departure! That's right -- 2 different flights departing from Lima to Cusco 5 minutes apart! The agent said don't worry about your seats, you will have the same seat assignments.
Yeah right.
All of us (English-speaking tourists) walked to the other gate, where there were about 100 people waiting... I had the sense enough to go verify with this gate agent that everything was ok, and she said that I had been scheduled on the 2:30pm flight, and my bag was also re-checked for that flight, but "just wait here and if there is any room we'll call your name. You're on the top of the waiting list". This is why I hate checking in bags.
So I walked back to where the other 10 people from my original flight were standing and told them what happened to me, and they should also go verify with the agent. As it turned out, we all made it on that flight, and I was expecting to wait in Cusco airport for 3 hours for my bag to arrive on the 2:30 flight.
Then there were a few miracles, but first about the landing in Cusco.... :)
Cusco is located in a valley surrounded by mountains up to about 5000m tall. The city is at about 3600m. The approach into Cusco airport is one of the more difficult approaches in the world, with the pilot having to manuever in between a few mountain peaks and then make a hard turn and descend sharply into the airport, then brake hard upon landing, since the runway is pretty short. Also, because of the mountains it can get very windy and Friday afternoon was overcast too. One of my cousins is a commercial pilot and this whole landing reminded me of the stories he's told me about his experiences of landing in the Middle East in duststorms! Going through all that weather-related mess and then making a perfect landing in Cusco is really something I can appreciate! :)
After landing I walked down to the baggage claim and stood there like an idiot hoping against all common sense that I'd see my bag pop out of the little window onto the baggage belt... and MY PRAYERS WERE ANSWERED!!!! :) My bag was among the first ones out!!! This was amazing! This was nothing short of a miracle! Every time I've been forced to check in a bag against my wishes I've not seen the bag again for at least 24 hours after landing! This was just too good, and it put me in the right mood to now enjoy Cusco!
After this, I was taken for a ride -- literally and figuratively! I went to the "official" taxi counter and asked for a taxi to my hotel. He said it'll cost 50 Soles (1 USD = 2.88 Soles) and I accepted. Mistake #1. Once in the taxi, the driver started chatting with me, asking where I'm from, what I'm doing etc. Then he offered to take me to a few sights -- sort of like renting the taxi for a day. I've done this in India (or more accurately, my parents have), so I thought it might be a good idea here too. The deal was that he'd take me to my hotel; I'd check in while he waited for me; then he'd drive me around town first giving me a driving tour of the city, after which he'd take me up a hill called Saqsaywaman which has some ancient Inca ruins ("a good introduction to Machu Picchu"). I could spend as long as I wanted walking around there, and he'd bring me back to the hotel after that. All this for 250 soles. I accepted: Mistake #2. (It was only later I realized that 250 soles is almost $100! Talk about being taken for a ride!)
Well, other than charging me 250 soles for something that I could've easily arranged on my own for under 50 soles, the cab driver was actually pretty good! He knew his history, and I asked him a few pointed questions that I knew the answers to from my own research -- he knew that too. Sooo I ended up trusting him in spite of him "stealing" 200 soles from me. We went up to Saqsaywaman and the cabbie took my picture with some llamas (another tourist trap, but I obliged and gave a "donation" of something like 5-6 soles to each of the llamas' owners). Then I walked around the mountain, going to the ruins.
That was nice -- there are large rocks here which have survived since the Incas, but I liked the place more for the views. The mountain is about 1000 or so feet higher than Cusco, and gives fantastic views of the whole city! Thousands of red-tiled roofs all around the city... just beautiful! From here I got the sense of the size of the city -- later I found out it is home to 400,000 people! I must have missed this fact in my tourbooks and internet research earlier -- in my mind Cusco was a little village and a just starting point for people traveling to Machu Picchu... But seeing the city laid out under you makes you realize how big it is!
The high elevation was getting to me and I hadn't had much to eat throughout the day, so I went back to the cab and told him to take me to Plaza de Armas instead of my hotel, which is the main "town square". He even offered to wait for me to go eat lunch and said he'd drop me off to the hotel after I was done (that was our deal -- back to the hotel), but I said I'll walk back from here and let him go...
Plaza de Armas is gorgeous! Yes it is very touristy, but that also made me comfortable walking around with my camera in hand -- everyone was doing that! There's a park with a water fountain and surrounded by a couple of cathedrals and shops all around, including restaurants with balconies. I went to "Aji restaurant" and sat on a private balcony (only made for a single table) while eating my lunch -- at 4pm. And connecting to the free wifi and reading up on Machu Picchu (among other things).
BTW, for future reference, to whom it may concern: please don't send me text messages while I'm traveling internationally ... otherwise I'm going to start charging you for them! :P
After lunch I just roamed around some of the plazas around town, strolling lazily back to my hotel and grabbing a pizza and chocolate cake to-go for dinner..
Next morning was the train to Machu Picchu....
(To be continued -- later)
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| November 26 | Contents | November 28 |