Sleep was a little restless last night. I woke up several times practically gasping for air because of the altitude. I think what was happening is that a Preston’s body (mine specifically) builds a sort of muscle memory for exactly how deeply to breath when fast asleep to use the absolute minimum amount of energy and get just enough oxygen. I think that muscle memory didn’t get me enough air and I woke up a couple of times just because I needed to breath a little deeper for a bit. Weird.
So, after waking up we went down and had some Coffee in our hotel courtyard, which is extremely pleasant in the sunlight.
We took a walk down to town center, Plaza de Armas, in search of some breakfast. We ended up at a cafe where we had what we might consider the worst breakfast ever! We vowed to choose a little more carefully from here forth.
We then walked down to check in at our hiking trek company, Peru treks. we paid up the remainder of our tab first. There was a bit of a dollar bill debacle. apparently every US bill they accept needs to be in perfect, pristine condition. there was about 20 minutes of everybody emptying out their wallet and trading bills of varying qualities, and we ended up just barely getting enough crisp bills to pay the remainder of our balance without needing to track down a bank. we then had a quick debriefing with one of the guides and we were on our way, all set for our 5:20 pickup on Friday.
Lunch in courtyard. Down time for a while in our room.
Next, we paid a visit to Cusco’s largest food and artisan market, San Pedro Market. One thing I saw that I had never seen for sale before we’re cow snouts.
Snack and drinks at another plaza. Much better, but it was starting to get pretty cold. Actually, it got really cold! Some of might need to go buy some warmer clothes.
Walked around and shopped a bit. Dinner at a place called Greens Organic, where we had more ceviche, and Eric and Alyssa ordered alpaca, which apparently, is delicious.
Peru/Galapagos
We had a nice morning sleeping in and took our time packing our bags for our 11am check-out. Our day kicked off to a great start when we came down to the lobby and Eric’s bag had finally made it from the airport and arrived safely at out hostel.
On the recommendation of the amazing hostel owner Gonzalo, he gave us a ride to breakfast at a bakery run by a friend of his, called El Pan de la Chola. The homemade bread and caprese sandwich we had at this place did nothing short of blow our minds. And the place was super bright, lively and a little bit hipster.
From there we walked back towards Parque Central for second breakfast. At Lucha Sangucharia we had some tasty sandwiches and moseyed back down tot place to wait for our cab to the airport.
Our flight to Cusco was an easy one and we landed after dark, where we got a shuttle to our hotel. We are staying at a hotel/hostel named Niños Hotel, where we all are sharing a big, 5-person room with, to our extreme delight, has wonderfully hot showers! A much appreciated upgrade from our last place. There is also a beautiful open air courtyard in the center of the building and a restaurant with a warm, welcoming fireplace.
We unloaded our bags and headed down to the restaurant and ordered their specialty, pumpkin soup. Maybe it was the long day of travel speaking, but we all agreed that the soup was some of the best we’ve ever had.
Adventures
We spent most of the day. Flying from MSP to Lima through Houston. We got into Lima and found our ride to our Hostal where we were to meet up with Sarah, Eric and Stephanie. When we arrived at 11:00pm they weren’t there, and they had the only key, but we got a text from Eric from a couple hours ago saying that they were at “Cafe Cafe”, at the main park, so we left our bags in the lobby and went out to try to find them.
Long story short, we did end up finding the others, but not until after we narrowly missed them, we walked around a bit, they went back to the hotel and cabbed back to where they thought we were, and we bumped into each other on a street corner by the park. It was a slim chance that we were able to cross paths, hopefully it will be a sign of good luck to come. ( we’ll need good luck if Eric is to get his lost luggage back from the airport before our next flight tomorrow afternoon). We have a nice 5-person room at this hotel and will surely sleep great tonight.
the little restaurant who’s tacos saved our life.
Peru/Galapagos
