Tim & Denise Tiner Travels: 2021 October - Day 04- Peru

Today is travel day. Marc and Heidi successfully checked themselves into our AIRBNB around 2 AM. We were all up, showered and in an UBER by Enriques taxi by 8:30 AM. Three of us went at 8:30. Enrique then returned to pick up the next group at 9 AM. Our flight to Cusco was leaving at 11:30 AM so we wanted to be a bit early not knowing how the airport would handle security and stuff. To get into the airport we had to show our tickets. Only passengers can get into the terminal. Once in the terminal we found the domestic LATAM desk. The lines were huge. However, the huge lines were for people wanting to check luggage. We went to a kiosk and a young lady came over and pretty much did the whole process for us. We did not have seats which she noticed. So she escorted us to another desk and within 5 minutes we had our seats and our boarding passes. Getting through security was smooth. So we had about an hour in the airport to visit and stuff. The flight to Cusco was about an hour in the air. And when they announced that we were landing it never really felt like we descended. It was pretty interesting. We are up really high.

At the airport, we.came out and began to look for a taxi. The first guy I approached told me it would be $30 to take us to our AIRBNB. I said go fly a kite. The next guy told me 30 soles ($7.50). We said ‘sold’. We went to a nice large van and off we went. The ride was about 10 minutes or so through some crazy streets on all kinds of streets. Along the way, we passed one of our churches. It turns out there are 7 chapels here in Cusco. Once in our apartment, Scott called the mission home to see if they were having church. They said they were. So we will be going to church tomorrow morning before we go do some touring.

Our driver dropped us on a busy street and pointed down an alley way saying we needed to go there to find our place. As we walked the door numbers to our fight were 459, 472, etc.. We determined that we would be walking a long ways. So off we went. I even showed a young man our address and he told me it was like three blocks away. But someone called out my name….Tim! And our host, Aime, heard that and came out of door on the other side that we had noticed. We would have totally passed it. The AIRBNB is pretty amazing. We are in the historic part of town. Everything is quite close, stores, the main plaza, and so on. So after putting our stuff into our rooms, we decided to go find the SuperMercado to buy supplies for tonight and tomorrow. We also stopped at a small restaurant and bought some empanadas and took them back and ate them at the BNB. At that point, we streamed the sad BYU game for a couple of hours. After the disgusting loss, we decided to head out for dinner.. It was cold in the BNB so we all bundled up a bit and headed out to a restaurant that we researched. We found it quite easily and went in. As we sat down, we noticed a young lady sitting by herself. We did not say anything. She was about to start eating her meal. She heard discussing what to order and then spoke up sharing what she thought about a drink she had ordered and we were going to order. From that point, a great conversation began. Eventually, we invited her to our table. Her name is Julian and no kidding, she is from Sacramento. She is from NY upper state but is starting a new job in Sacramento. She has travelled all over the place, mostly alone. She is alone here and going to hike the Inca Trail to Machu Pichu. That is a 3 day, two night hike. And as it turns out, she will be on the flight next Sunday morning very early that we will try to get on from Lima. So we will probably try to meet up with her again. She told us that her hotel would not take a credit card and she had to us all her Soles. She went to banks and things to try to use her credit card. But there was a PIN issue. Anyway, we said, hey, Venmo us some money and then we will go to an ATM and pull some Soles out for you. Which we did. It worked great. After that she departed and we began to tour the Plaza de Armas. i don’t think we’ve been attacked by vendors as much as we were tonight. One guy followed us everywhere trying to sale painting that he painted. Marc eventually bit and bought one for $10. Later we went into a store only to see the exact ‘painting’ that Marc bought. It was a total hoax…a basic print. Nonetheless, a good souvenir and memory for Marc. We hit a very nice store and shopped a bit and then came back to our BNB to go to bed. We’re all really tired.

It has been another great day in Peru…..

Pictures:

Picture of a Peruvian woman packing all her gear to sell. We see lots of these ladies. Some have AlPaca’s whom are the cutest animals ever.

Me wedged into the plane. I actually caught the scab on my knee from my bike ride and ripped part of it off. I took it all the way off later and it started to bleed pretty good.

They have herbal teas here for helping stomach disorders and high elevation sickness. So during the BYU game, for which there is no remedy, we had tea and cookies.

This is a native Peruvian drink. It is purple in color and had a very nice taste. It is called Chickamorada and it is also called ‘Purple Corn’ drink.

Empanadas!!!!

Our new friend Jillian. Nice young, adventurous, young lady. I hope she does well on this trip.

Me trying to find the BNB in the narrow alley way.

All of us at dinner…Denise, Michelle, Heidi, Jillian, Marc, Scott and Yo

Another picture of the Plaza de Armas….but look in the background as the lights go up the hill. Cusco center sits down in a valley and lots of homes on hills all around.

Having a good time in the van to our BNB….

Plaza de Armas….still with our valuables in our pockets!

Another Peruvian woman packing all her gear. They are pretty much everywhere trying to sale lots of things.

The group in one of the many alley ways that make up the historic part of town.

Passing our church. I don’t think that is one that we will go to. There is one only an 8 minute walk from where we are. But maybe this will be it. We’ll see.