Cusco and Lima, Peru: Day Nine (4/21)

Day Nine (4/21) transit from Cusco to Lima

On our final day in Peru we had an early flight from Cusco to Lima to spend one last day with our local friend Andrea in Lima. After arriving 30 minutes early, checking our luggage into lockers, we headed upstairs for a quick breakfast at McDonald's. They don't have english muffin or biscuits on their breakfast menu, instead they use regular hamburger buns and just add egg, sausage and cheese with a ton of mayo. We ordered a McHuevo with french fries as they also don't have hash browns. Again the egg were runny and the meat was super dry and tasteless.

We left the airport to head to the Barranco district of Lima to meet Andrea at the Bridges of Sigh. Then we went for a drive near the beach to check out the ocean and the old local resort areas which sadly no longer have sandy beaches and have giant rocks and tons of rubbish.

After a beautiful drive, we went to visit Andrea's house and meet her dog, Kahlo, a Peruvian hairless dog. Kahlo was a smart and beautiful dog who was extremely friendly and affectionate. We took Kahlo  to visit Andrea's friend, Roxy's house to play with her 3 Peruvian hairless dogs, one of which, Luna was a champion dog.

Finally it was time for lunch. We decided to go to La Rosa Nautica which was on the ocean. We walked along the pier to get to the restaurant itself. It was absolutely breathtaking! We started off our meal with Pisco Sours of course and shared all the entrees. A big thank you to Andrea and Roxy for taking such good care of us and ordering the most amazing dishes.

We ate like pigs, well at least I did. We had chicken with oranges. The chicken was tender and juicy from the oranges and the oranges despite being cooked still maintained a lot of it's juices which were sweet and succulent. It was served with a yellow Peruvian potato which tasted like a Yukon Gold but more buttery without any butter. It was naturally rich and had the consistency of mashed potatoes when baked.

Next up was the infamous lomo saltado. This one had incredibly soft and tender beef that was salty that paired perfectly with rice. It was so good I had to go for two bites! The red onions were cooked just so they were crisp and not soggy. The acid from the onion cut through the richness of the beef well.

My dish of choice was next, fresh catch of the day, local Peruvian fish which resembled seabass. It was flaky like chilean sea bass, dry like farmed salmon yet light like a sole filet. It was presented in a parchment paper box with a light sauce of wine and citrus with vegetables and rice. It was a nice refreshing course to cut through the richness of all the meats.

Our last and best dish ever was the tuna ceviche. It was served with sweet potato wontons. The tuna was so fresh, better than blue fin tuna that is sashimi quality. There were no sinews and the flesh itself was like butter. It was seasoned with fresh lime juice and those of so famous and oh so tasty Andean chili's. It adds just the right amount of heat that paired well with the crunch of fresh raw vegetables. It was so good we ordered two as we couldn't get enough with just one.

And you thought we were done? No, we still had to eat dessert! We had this great carmel pudding like dessert with cinnamon meringue on top. It was amazingly rich and light at the same time. I had literally 3 spoonfuls of this sticky, ooey gooey concoction. Yummy!

We ate all of this with this view. Isn't it breathtaking?

After lunch we needed to do some walking so we headed to the Indian Market to buy last minute knick knacks and to Wong's, the local supermarket to stockpile on our favorite Peruvian goodies. Wong's is pretty amazing. It is like a high end grocery story but with Walmart prices. I really had to exude some self control not to buy everything in the store. I love how everything is packaged and properly put in its place. It was not messy or disgusting like a Safeway, which btw I hate shopping at unless forced. I bought my beloved habas saladas (roasted, salted fava/broad bean), plantain chips, quinoa , alfagores kit and aji sauce. I can't wait to make Peruvian food at home!

Finally it was time to say goodbye. We made a quick restroom stop at Roxy's to say goodbye to Kahlo and called a cab to take us to the airport. After our heartfelt goodbye's, hug's and kisses, we got into our taxi to drive along the beach to enjoy on last sunset before we left Peru.

When we arrived at the airport in Lima, we went to the lounge to play Innovation one last time before leaving. Defeated and famished, we went to Manacaru for our last meal in Peru. I ordered an avocado  artichoke and cheese sandwich with olives. I absolutely love avocado esp. the ones in Peru. They have a mild creamier flavor than it's American counterparts. They are bigger, light green on the outside and always organic. The best way to enjoy it was with lime juice and a little salt. Even between two pieces of bread it tasted amazing. I wouldn't recommend the Manacaru because they had poor and slow service. They ran out of spinach which is what the artichoke replaced and it was difficult to explain the substitution and tell them no mayo. After 45 minutes, I finally got my sandwich which was soggy but I was so hungry I didn't care. I just wanted my avocado sandwich which is still preferred over nasty airline food.

Overall, thank you Peru for sharing your people, culture, history, cuisine and stories with me. This has been one of the most memorable journeys I have taken in my short lifetime and will never forgot all the kindness, experiences, and yumminess you have given me. I will forever cherish every second I spent in your country.

Aguas Calientes, Machu Picchu and Cusco, Peru: Day Eight (4/20)

Day Eight (4/20) in Machu Picchu, Peru

Hallelujah for an ice pack and rest. I'm now ready for Machu Picchu but have with a heavy heart decided not to do Wayna Picchu due to my ankle. I'm so bummed because they only take 400 people per day (200 for the 7 AM time slow and 200 for the 10 AM time slot). We booked our entire Peru trip around reservations to Wayna Picchu. Sigh.

We started off with a hearty breakfast at our hotel. Surprisingly the food was decent which was unexpected given our accommodations the previous evening. I ate freshly grilled flat bread, scrambled eggs, hot dogs, pancakes and sauteed plantains. Yummy.

Post breakfast, we walked down to the bus station sans day pack as the hotel was nice enough to let us leave our day packs in storage totally making it worth not staying in a hostel. A quick 30 minute bus ride later, we reached Machu Picchu.

Irving, our Lllama Path guide took us to see the Temple of Sun, Inka house, Group of Three Doorways, Main Square, Ceremonial Rock, Observatory, Temple of Three Windows, Agricultural Sector, Main Gate and Storage Units.

At 10 AM, I sent my friend off to Wayna Picchu with jealously and said goodbye to our guide, Irving. Here are some pictures my friend took on the way up to Wayna Picchu.

While I was waiting, I explored Machu Picchu armed with just my iPhone. Deciding that walking in the heat with a sprained ankle was a bad idea, I settled in to watch movies on my iPhone while waiting. With my friend safely back 2.5 hours later from Wayna Picchu which required cables like Half Dome, I'm glad that I made the decision not to go up. $66 USD versus dying seems like a no brainer. With just 1.5 hours left, we quickly took a few more pictures before heading back to Aguas Calientes for a quick lunch before our train back to Cusco.

A quick tour to see the Urubamba river near the bus station and main square, we decided to play tourist one last time and take a few pictures.

Afterwards, we settled for lunch at Indio Feliz. Prices here are high but portions are super big. We started with homemade buttery rolls which totally hit the spot since it was already 2:30 PM by the time we sat down to eat.

We order one main course, trout. One with garlic sauce and one with just lime. Each came with rice with chopped tomatoes, fresh thickly sliced potato chips and a side of local vegetables that included sweet potato, tomato and green beans. It was absolutely delicious. I would highly recommend ordering the simply grilled trout with just lime as it was so refreshing, light and most importantly, tasty. I struggled to finish my food but decided to pack up my potato chips for te 4+ hour train ride home.

At this point my camera ran out of batteries so all pictures moving forward for this entry were taken on my iPhone. Sorry folks! But post lunch we hung out in the main square just people watching until we got on the Expedition train to Cusco, a long but soothing 2 hour train ride. There is something about trains that just lull me to sleep. I haven't had such a good nice sleep as I did on the train ride even though I was sitting totally upright. After a 2 hour super nap, we arrived in Cusco and took a 2+ hour windy bus ride to downtown Cusco. I wish I was tired because with the altitude change, cooler weather and windy roads, I felt extremely car sick. I had to use all my might not to vomit and I was wide awake.  When we finally arrived at the bus stop, our Llama Path local guide picked us up in a private car to drive us to our hotel 10 minutes away. When we checked in to Tierra Viva Saphi again we could definitely feel the altitude change again. A quick freshening up, we were off to our final meal in Cusco. We tried all the places that were recommended and/or highly rated so today we play tourist and deciced to eat whatever we fanciest. We decided to go to the main square and find a restaurant that was packed and hope for the best. We ended up at Inka Grill. We started off with boiled Peruvian potatoes served with aji cream sauce. Not bad but I wish the potatoes were at least room temperature and not cold.

Next course was my avocado and tomato salad. After eating out for the past week, I was really craving something fresh and light. This was perfect with a squeeze of lime and salt. I was in heaven eating my avocados. I was doing the happy dance inside. Yippee!

Our main courses were lomo saltado and sweet potato ravioli. I tend to like vegetarian or fish options. I'm not the biggest fan of meat and I wanted to go light. Boy was this a mistake. This has to be one of the worst pasta's I have ever ate in my life. I ordered the pasta with the parmesan cheese on the side. Lucky for me as I used the cheese to eat with my avocado and tomato salad. This pasta was so sickingly sweet (think pure sugar) and heavy without any cream that is was inedible. I was hungry and managed to eat 2 pieces before calling it a day. The lomo saltado wasn't worth writing home about. The meat was tough, the sauce was extra salty and the papas frites were super soggy. It also had way too much onion and sauce and not enough rice. At the end of the day we were so beat we didn't care. After our meal we went to pack up for our early flight and final day in Peru.