The plane to Lime is full mainly with families with kids, bringing all their household goods. Each one had two huge suitcases as hand luggage, that barely could fit in the isles between the seats. After quite a while of pushing and struggling, all people were happily seated and we could take off. And then the rattling started: Phase one - the quest is to drink as much soda as you could as it is free. Phase two - to try not to pee yourself till the WC gets available, having in mind the constant queue of at least 5 people. Phase three - to return quickly to your seat and ask for more soda. And this did not stop until we landed in Lima. Total circus making it impossible to sleep in the plane
We arrived in Lima airport about 7pn still with our winter clothes and shoes.As soon as we went out of the AC room the heat and the humidity stroke us and we felt and looked ridiculous. It was good that we had organized a hotel pick up in advance and after about an hour later we found ourselves relaxing on the bed. We had booked a hostel in the tourist district Miraflores, and as you can image there was no AC so in and out the temperature was almost the same, but we were so tired that we could fall asleep even in a sauna
The next day we walked around in Miraflores and Baranco - the newest and most expensive neighborhoods in Lima. The sun was so strong that Rudy sunburned for minutes. The surroundings were pretty neat - new buildings, clean and tidy with ocean view, and the biggest attraction that everybody asked if we saw it was the Larcomar Mall (just a shopping mall - nothing extraordinary to be seen) The ocean itself was quite dirty - or at least the yellow foam on top of the waves left us with that impression. We wandered around, tried a few freshly squeezed fruits and the local people we approaching us all the time - where are we from, what are we doing there, have we tried their famous dish 'seviche'. Really friendly people, easy-going, and all were giving us advices what we should see and try while we are in Peru. To be honest it was quite hot for us, as we arrived from a place with temperatures below zero, so most of the afternoon we spent in the shadows of the trees in the park. Which was nice as we had a chance to talk to the people and just enjoy the atmosphere. For dinner we decided to try the 'seviche' and may be i had different expectations but i did not quite like it. Or just the place was not preparing it tasty, who knows?
At 7 in the morning was our plane to Cusco and when i saw it i was startled - it was sooooo small. Of course there is no way it can be a big plane as Cusco is surrounded by huge mountains but still..The airport there was also really small, with no gates or bus that takes you from the plane - the flight attendant just opened the door we walked over the track by ourselves
Cusco is the ancient capital of the Inca and is situated on 3500m above the sea level. According to Inca legend, the city was rebuilt by Sapa Inca Pachacuti, the man who transformed the Kingdom of Cuzco from a sleepy city-state into the vast empire of Tawantinsuyu in 1438. The difference with Lima was huge - amazing mountains, normal temperatures and fresh air and of course here we started seeing people dressed with the traditional Peruvian style. It made me a great impression how short are the majority of the people - not that me and Rudy are that tall but compared to them we were one 'head' above all, which caused a little bit of inconvenience when we used the local public transport and we barely managed to sit together on the seat :)
Of course we were impatient to see and try everything, besides the grilled guinea pigs on a stick they were selling at the local market. We could feel that we are in the mountains - the heat from Lima was gone and even though February is the rainy season, it rained only during one night. We saw the temple of the sun, the cathedral in the center, the local market where they sold amazing fresh juice from papaya, passion fruit, mango and a lot of fruits that do not know the name. We turned it into a tradition to drink a fresh every morning instead of coffee and we felt so energized all day after that.
In all the forums I've read it was mentioned that due to the altitude we will feel weak, dizzy and so on. Well, we had no problems at all but even though, for the sake of science research, we tried the most famous Inca medicine for high altitude sickness prevention, that was in the form of candy, tea, leaves and even beer :)
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