2021 October - Day 04- Peru - Goodbye Lima, Hello Cusco

 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.

Our alley way to the BNB….

It got cold so the girls found blankets and huddled on one bed while we listened to the dreaded BYU game.

The kitchen area of our BNB.  It is more ‘outside’ than the rest of the house.

Took this to show that they sell some dairy products in a bag here.  Denise thinks that is fascinating.  I bought some chocolate milk!

2021 October - Day 03 - Peru - Lima Coast, Larco Museo (Museum)

 We all slept like babies last night.  Already tired.  But the big difference was having nice, heavy blankets to put on us so we did not get so cold.  I was up around 7:30 AM and quickly showered.  After showering I came out and Scott was in the living area reading.  The girls eventually got up, got ready and came out and had some food we had bought at the store the night before.  Scott actually made some hot chocolate for us all to drink.

Again, at about 11 AM, Enrique returned and drove us to Miraflores…a more upscale, touristy part of Lima.  It sits up on a bluff and looks down onto the ocean.  I’m sure the view up there is pretty amazing.  However, all day it has been cloudy (marine layer) and visibility not so good.  And it was a bit colder today than yesterday.   Anyway, we walked along through some malls and parks and eventually we walked down some stairs down to the very rocky beach.  The beach there is quite long and there were tons of surfers out in the water.  There were lots of folks trying to get you to rent their surfing gear and buy surfing instructions.  We walked the beach a bit and ended up at a pier that had a big restaurant on it.  So we thought we’d go there for a late lunch.  As we walked up the pier, a man grabbed us and told us the wait was 45 minutes.  But he had a table on the pier where he could serve us the same food.  So we did it.  It was a great location and the food turned out to be quite good.  The waiter had lived in Florida and spoke really good English which was fun.  After eating, we walked down to the beach again so Denise could put her toes in the water…which she did.

After putting toes in the water, we hailed an Uber and headed to the Larco Museum.  This is a popular museum with lots of Pre-Colombian era artifacts.  As a matter of fact, they have a number of rooms with tons of artifacts not on display, just on shelves, that you can check out.  It was like being their back room.  Anyway, it was full of cool stuff to see and a video to watch.  They even had an ‘erotica’ section that had artifacts that taught the birds and bees to any who ventured in.  Pornography in the pre-Colombian era!  Anyway, we moved quickly through that portion with one of our eyes closed.  :-) The grounds of this museum was really pretty with cool plants and flowers.  We really enjoyed our time there.  As we left, we asked about a place to eat from one of the security guys there.  He recommended a ‘chicken’ place a few blocks away.  So we went there.  For 100 Soles ($25)…we got a mountain of meat, French fries, Salad and a 1.5 liter of soda.  We declined the soda though.  We asked to substitute water…but they would not do it.  So we just bought a water that we shared.  The meat showed up to our table on a grill and had a ton of chicken, pork chops, a variety of beef and two large sausages.  We could not eat it all.  And it was really good.  But the highlight was the fact that a pastry shop was across the street.  So after dinner we had to go over there.  It was awesome pastries and we could not get out of there.  Everything so cheap.  I think I said a 30 minute taxi ride is about $5.  Amazing.

Well, we are back at our place now arriving around 7:30 PM.  Oor other friends, Marc and Heidi are in route to Lima and will arrive at 1 AM in the morning tonight.  And then tomorrow at 9 AM, we head to the airport to catch a 11:30 AM flight to Cusco…which is at 12,000 feet above sea level.  Amazing.  The rest of trip will be at high altitude locations.  

The trip here in Lima has been fun.  Driving is crazy to watch as you sit in the seats.  The areas are like other South American locations where you have some nice areas but most are a bit sub-standard to our way of living.  But the people are so kind and fun to get to know and to talk with.

Pictures:

Our dinner tonight…what a pile of meat and French fries.  We could not eat it all.

Colorful things flying over our heads at the mall in Miraflores.

Looking down on the beach in Miraflores.

The sandy beach (not)…..looking at the pier where we ate at.

Another picture of our pile of food.  We had a big salad before all this!

Rows and rows of pre-Colombian artifacts.

Some of the head and face gear that they used to wear.  I think our society is headed there with such jewelry, tattoos and such.

Another picture of the beach and the bluff that contained high end shops and hotels.

To get into the eatery where we ate for dinner, we had to wash our hands, get our temperature taken and so on.  It is pretty amazing what they are doing here relative to Covid.

We are in lovers park…so we took advantage of it.

At Larco Museum, they had some amazing plants.  This big one was a huge cactus!

Tip toeing out into the water…a bit too far as Denise got her pants all wet.

Walking up to the entrance of Larco Museum……

All the hills are covered in this netting and ivy is slowly crawling up it and covering it.   Someday it will be really beautiful.

More pictures of the artifacts at Larco Museum….

Denise enjoying the ocean water….

Lovers park…..no kidding!

The view from where we ate our lunch today…..

This guy was our bread server at lunch.  We paid to have bread and he kept the bread coming which was really yummy.

This was an amazing display of an entire head dress that they had uncovered.  It was pretty cool.

2021 October - Day 02 - Peru - Downtown Lima

 Our adventure in Peru began a bit uncomfortably.  Our beds were small.  The blankets did not cover us and we were quite cold.  And as always, I was awake by 6:30 AM.  And to top it off, the showers…not hot water.  So guess who took the coldest shower of his life.  It was really rough but I made it through that.  Once Scott, Michelle and Denise were up, Scott contacted the host as we needed hot water and more towels.  The host responded quickly and eventually a young man knocked on our door and showed us where the switch was to turn on a water heater.  Yeah!  We have hot water.  While we were gone, someone came by and left a key to closet where more supplies were including towels.  Yeah…we’ll have more towels for tomorrows showers!

At about 9:45 AM, Scott and I set out to find a Mercado.  We headed up the street passing lots of street vendors and small tiendas.  But we never found anything significant.  But on the way, by a bank, a man was buying dollars and gave a pretty good conversion rate.  Scott sold some dollars to get some Soles.  The rate was 41 soles for every dollar.  The man was very nice, even made sure got all his money down to the penny…or whatever their smallest unit is…as Scott turned away without all his money.  The man was very honest.  We kept walking down the street looking for a big Mercado.  We found one…but it was more of an open air, crazy market kind of place.   On the street, we asked someone about a SuperMercado and if one was close.  He said to go to the Metro down the street.  Now we thought he meant the subway.  But it turns out that Metro is the name of a SuperMercado….and there was one on the other side of the overpass that we were by as it turns out.  We never saw it and never got there.  We finally found a little tienda as we could not return without anything for our walk.  Scott was looking for Yoghurt for Michelle and this tienda had the liquid form for 2.50 soles.  I decided to get one for Denise too.  I thought 2.50 meant 250 Soles…which would have been almost $60.  Fortunately the lady was honest and showed me that it was only 2.5 soles…..60 cents in US dollars.  Crazy.  I lucked out with their honesty.

Enrique wanted to take us into town, the center of Lima.  The driving here is pretty crazy.  And it was extremely busy getting down town.  It had something to do with some month long celebration.   But I believe was do more to the protesting that was going on concerning dignitaries that were visiting the Presidential Palace on the Plaza De Armas.  As a matter of fact, we could not get into the Plaza De Armas due to the tight security around 1 PM.  But the police told us around 3 PM it should be open.  So we went to a church where the catacombs are where some 25k people are entombed.  

I think the tour cost 10 soles per person ($2.50)…pretty cheap.  The Iglesia de San Francisco was huge and pretty impressive.  And the catacombs were pretty cool too.  But the highlight for us was probably the Churros we found and ate on the street before entering the church.  They were awesome!  2.5 Soles….you do the math…60 cents.  We shared one it was so good.  I hope we find these again somewhere in our travels tomorrow.  Anyway after the tour, we came out to a plaza where a man had something that caught our eye that he was selling…some butterfly toys.  We bought one for each grand child…they are pretty cool.  Anyway, we asked about where to eat and this guy says, come one, I will take you.  Off we went to a place where there were some ancient house foundations on the river that apparently run clear out to the river.  But what caught our eye was across the way was a mountain that had such colorful housing.  Scott asked him what people paid to live there thinking that was where the rich and affluent lived.  But he said that was where the poor people live.  Totally opposite to the USA.  Those who have great views pay lots of money to get that.  Not here.  Anyway, the restaurant he took us to was pretty awesome.  The food was really yummy.  And as it turns out, that was both lunch and dinner as it was nearly 4 PM.

After eating, we went back to the Plaza de Armas to walk around and get pictures.  It was finally open and the protests and such had died down.  It is a very large and pretty plaza with really cool buildings all around.  Lots of police because of those in the Presidential Palace whose motorcades were waiting for them to exit.  Who knows who was here.   Anyway, after hitting the bathroom (and they all cost .50 Soles to use), we started our long walk to the Magical Water Show in a park.  The 2.1 mile walk took a long time.  But what was interesting was the fact that Peru was playing Chile (or Ecuador) in a soccer match in the big National Stadium and to get to this water park, we had to walk right by it.  By now, with was around 6:30 PM and the traffic and crowds were getting large.  It was pretty crazy getting through it all.  We finally made it to the water park around 7 PM.  The water show was going to start at 7:30 PM.  

The water show was like Disney’s Fantasia with blades of water being a movie screen for pictures of Peru and such being shown.  I did not follow the story well, but the water show was pretty and done well.  It was nice to sit and just relax as it felt as though we had been walking all day long.  After the show, Scott and Michelle wanted to walk to a Starbucks to get a hot chocolate.  So off we went walking the streets of Lima again.  We eventually found it and enjoyed some muffins and hot chocolate.  At the end, we summoned an Uber which worked out great.  Only 15 Soles for about a 20 minute ride.  That is less than 4 bucks.  Pretty cheap if that is indeed the price given.  

We arrived back at our place around 9:30 AM.  But we were not done..  Guess what, you know that Super Mercado we wanted to find in the morning?  Well if we had turned to our right instead of our left, we would have found a large Super Mercado only one block from our condo complex1  We just laughed.  Anyway, we went there and bought some supplies for our breakfast in the morning.

It is now 11:22 PM.  Last night the condo complex was so quite.  Tonight…they are all partying.  So loud outside.  I guess they are thrilled that Peru won 2-0.  It is time for me to retire.  I’m beat.  Tomorrow we plan to head to Miraflores…where we will do some beach time.

Pictures:

Washing porch by the kitchen in our condo.  Kind of interesting this place is.

If you look closely, one of the chairs looks like a ‘butt’ chair.  We found that funny.

The pretty water show…

We made it to Lima….

Ahhh….I did have one picture at Bush Airport.  We get food for ‘free’ from our credit card Priority Pass program.  So we eat at the Cadillac Restaurant in terminal A each time we have to do that.  We get nearly $60 worth of food there without paying a penny.

This place was in the park where the water show was.  Since Denise and  I will be celebrating 40 years of marriage next week, this was pretty appropriate.

Some nice artwork that we saw in a mall that we stopped in.

Yep…we are in Lima.  Hard to believe.

Crazy characters.   The short guy was ‘Johnnie’ who sold us the butterfly toys and took us to the restaurant for lunch\dinner.

Eating lunch by the river…which was almost dry!

I think the next picture is at the airport after we had landed and were waiting for Enrique to show up.  Lots of people out there waiting for rides or offering taxi services.

Yummy churros!

Another lunch\dinner photo.

One of the churches nearby.  Lots around this area.

More water show pictures.  It cost us $1 to get into this park.  Everything is pretty cheap here.

Just a crazy photo when the camera is on the ground and us looking at it.  Above us are some colorful umbrellas.  Made me think of the street in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

I’m not sure what this one is….I’ll update this after I ask Denise!

The group getting close to call it is night at the water show.

This is the square at the Iglesia de San Francisco where the Catacombs are.  Lots of pigeons there.

2021 October - Day 01 - Peru - Travel to Lima Day

 We made it to Lima!  But boy the adventure it has been leading up to getting on an airplane to go to Peru. The stress in getting a Covid test, wondering if we would get on a plane and then wondering where we would stay if we got there for the first night led to a few sleepless nights.

To start with, Peru requires a negative PCR test within 72 hours before leaving for Peru.  So Utah has a free service for doing Covid testing but for a PCR test they only guarantee the results back within 96 hours.  Most people said it would be back in 24 or 48 hours.  So we went to Bountiful to get our test on Monday after 5 PM so that the test would cover flights to Lima on Wednesday and Thursday.  But there were no guarantees we would get the results back before any of our flights.  So on Tuesday at 5 PM, I decided to call them to inquire if there was any way to know when the results would come back.  The fellow indicated that that he could tell me and guarantee anything.  But he did say that we could drive to Salt Lake to get a free rapid PCR test for those traveling.  But he said they would close at 7 PM.  So we dropped everything and drove down to the Department of Health out by the Utah State fairgrounds.  No one was in line and the test was quick.  But they kind of got mixed up on Denises citing my birthday for hers when they asked.  We got them corrected and they then got the right test kit with her birthday on it.  She tested, they said we’d have results sent to us in 45 minutes.  So off we went for home.  At about 5:45 PM, I got my results (really fast)…I was negative.  At 6 PM, I received another email saying my results were in.  Denise had received nothing at this point.  So our minds started to turn.  At about 6:15 PM, we decided they had messed up.  So we jumped in the car headed back to Salt Lake City to get her tested again.  About the time we got near the fairgrounds, her results showed up.  Negative.  Yahoo….but we had driven twice to Salt Lake City in 1.5 hours.   But we were glad that we had results.  And…a few hours later, Monday’s results showed up.  So we really did not need the rapid one.  But whatever, such is Covid life and all the crazy rules in place that in my opinion, don’t do much for anyone.

Later that night, I checked status on our flights.  We needed to get to Houston.   United had lots of planes with lots of seats available to Houston.   Pretty odd.  So getting there was going to be easy.  But the flight to Lima was tightening up.  The 48 seats that were once there, were down to 26 and there were 20 standby’s listed.  Denise was 17 in the queue.  I was just a bit higher.  But it caused my mind to wonder what the morning would bring and if we would not get to Lima.  But all my worrying was for naught.  By the time the Lima flight left, there were 39 seats open and Denise had only moved to #20 in the queue.  We ended up getting a whole row in Economy Plus to share.  It was nice.  The flight left a bit late, but arrived on time at 11 PM.  As we ate lunch in Houston, I was working with Scott Hayden on getting an AIRBNB that we could get to after landing and clearing customs.  He grabbed one and coordinated a person to pick us up at the airport to take us to the AIRBNB, which was close to the airport.

Getting through customs was pretty easy.  They directed Denise and I to the old people line (Scott and Michelle, who came in later at 1 AM, were not allowed in that line).  This line moved quick.  After clearing customs, we ended up outside where there were lots of people looking for people of offering Taxis.  We were approached many times for a Taxi and just told them that we were looking for ‘Enrique’.  One man came up, understood what I was saying and starting yelling Enrique to the crowd.  I just smiled.  No one responded.  I then told him that I had a WhatsApp telephone number for him.  So he called him for us.  He coordinated a place to meet up and within 5 minutes Enrique was there taking us to his car.  We tipped the man who helped us a few bucks and got in the car and off we went to the condo. 

We arrived at the condo pretty fast.   There was a security guy there.  It was about 12:30 AM.  He took our credentials and then escorted us to the condo.  We are in Peru.  Where we are at seems to us…pretty run down.  Anyway, we got to the door and we needed a code or a key.  The security guy did not have this and we did not either.  Hmmm…..so Scott had sent me the number of the host.  I thought the number was a Peru number and had the security guy try calling.  Turns out it was a USA number and the host lives in Jersey.  Denise tried calling…but that did not work.  So she sent a text to that number and low and behold she responded with the door code….we were in.  

The condo has 3 bedrooms.  One room had a full size bed, another was supposed to be a bed for two…but it basically a twin bed.  The other room has bunk beds.  So we chose the biggest one.  Since Scott and Michelle were landing at 1 AM…I kind of stayed awake to text with Scott on what I had learned about getting here.  I was in bed when he started texting.  I responded.  But his last text, asking me how much I had paid Enrique, I never saw until the morning.  I must have fallen asleep.  And I never heard them come in!  It had been a long day, with a stressful sleepless night before.  But we made it to Lima, Peru!

Unfortunately…no pictures from our flight down.  Nobody wants to see pictures of Bush airport!