Malone Travels (London/Paris, Yucatan, Peru): Peruvian Paradise

This day began on board our flight from MIA to LIM. We were afforded approximately 4 hours of sleep last night after a half-day of travel. This morning we went through customs and got our passport stamps at the Lima airport. The process was swift and efficient, the customs officer didn't even say anything to us. The Lima airport is an excellent clean modern airport on part with other international airports. After customs we had to exit the secure zone and re-enter for our flight to Cuzco. I was worried about this transition, but it ended up being a non-event. We were delighted with our bargain-basement airline, Star Peru, which charged us only $120 per person (RT) from LIM to CUZ (LAN would have been well over $400 per person RT). Our quick 60 minute flight was enjoyable and we were given a small snackbox and a Peruvian newspaper that we'll be bringing back home.

Upon arriving at the cuzco airport, Amy and I both felt a bit out of breath, but not really a problem. We picked up our bags within 10 minutes and met our driver in the parking lot (which was prearranged with our hotel, Ninos Hotel). Fortunately he was adept at navigating the muy loco driving conditions of Cuzco, unfortunately, he didn't speak a lick of English. Despite this, he was able to point out several attractions to us on our way to our hotel and we were able to discover the driving age in Cuzco... 13.

Apparently, Ninos Hotel has 2 hotels. I assumed that we were in the first hotel, but we weren't. After we seemed to check in successfully and were sipping our "welcome" cup of cocoa tea (it's excellent, BTW) the front desk lady informed us that we are actually at the second hotel. Apparently to me, "Edith" sounded like "Edic" (which is what Eric sounds like when pronounced by a spanish speaker). One of the cooks at Ninos 1 got us a cab and took us around the block to Ninos 2. We thought that we were going to get a worse deal, but the two hotels really are almost identical (as claimed by the front desk lady.) Attached are pictures of the courtyards of each hotel and pictures of our room.

Ninos 1 ^

Ninos 2 ^

Coca Tea

Same clothes as Friday!

We checked in, showered, cleaned up and then slept for 3 hours.

Then we woke up and ate at the little Cafe here at the Hotel. Amy will blog about the food later tomorrow. It was excellent.

After food, we walked around Cuzco, which reminded us of Old San Juan (narrow streets, spanish-style buildings). We saw several churches and arrived at what we thought was the Plaza de Armas (central square of Cuzco) but ended up being a small park two blocks away from the Plaza. We took several pictures (see below) and luckily we didn't get too lost, we made it back just as it was getting dark. After returning, we had dessert at the same cafe h:ere at the hotel and now we're about to crash at 9:30. We're extremely happy to be on vacation and even more happy to be in Peru!

Peace