Life as J

After a long day yesterday, today was much more relaxed - a rest day in the White City before heading to Cusco. Breakfast was at the hotel, which turned out to be pretty good - made to order, and served on the top floor with amazing views in all directions. My fully loaded scrambled eggs even came plated with a little stencil of the Peru logo in spices - a nice touch, which made me appreciate today being our only chance to enjoy this breakfast!  It felt indulgent to have the luxury of sleeping in, taking our time to eat breakfast, and then just meandering wherever we wanted to go. Outside, the sun was very intense, even in the morning, I guess due to the higher elevation - so we had to seek refuge in stores or find streets with more shade. This led us to Calle Mercaderes, which was dedicated to pedestrians, similar to Jirón de la Union in Lima's historic center. We were able to try some tumbo juice, and freshly-made frozen yogurt with strawberries and cherries to help beat the heat...

Two o'clock in the morning is when we set the alarm, in order to be ready for pick up by 2:45 for our Colca Canyon tour. I think I managed to get a few hours of sleep - and the anticipation of seeing the canyon and visiting hot springs was enough to motivate me to wake up in the darkness.  As soon as we got on the bus, the tour guide gave us the plan for the day: drive to Chivay (which would take approximately 3 to 3.5 hours) to have breakfast, stop at viewpoints in the Colca valley on the way to the canyon, hike to a viewpoint in the national park to see the giant condors, hot springs in Yanque, have lunch in Chivay, go to Patapampa to see the volcanoes, check out alpacas, then head back to Arequipa. First things first - sleep on the bus. This was actually my preferred coping mechanism to deal with the rolling hills, winding roads, and high altitude - I still felt a bit queasy at times, and had to put on my seatbelt to avoid getting bounced out of my seat, but thankfully, no nause...

Flying to Arequipa was pretty smooth - getting to the Lima airport in rush hour traffic took about an hour from Miraflores, and was not cheap by Uber (around 100 soles for an Uber XL). I'd definitely recommend arranging a hotel shuttle, which was only 35 soles. The Jorge Chavez airport was pretty busy - tons of people flying domestic, so every area of the airport had lines: baggage drop, security, boarding. Luckily, there are lots of staff available to help the lines move relatively quickly - but I can see why they recommend arriving 2 hours early.  Once we landed in Arequipa, we discovered there is only one baggage carousel in the airport, so finding your bags is pretty easy! From there, there is a strict bag check, to ensure you are not bringing any fruits or vegetables into Arequipa - it wasn't a typical customs check because no one checked our passports or asked any questions, so it's only to prevent agricultural contamination. The hotel was a 20-minute drive through so...

For our last day in Lima, we decided to take it easy to start - wandering over to Kennedy Park (a.k.a. Miraflores Central Park) to enjoy the many cats. At first, we didn't see too many, but after awhile, we saw them everywhere - dozing in the sun, lying under benches, climbing trees. Some were friendly, while others were a bit more shy - all seemed pretty well looked after, a few were a bit skinnier than the others, and there were signs encouraging people to adopt the cats. It was neat to see how the landscaping in the park accommodated the cats - lots of shade from large trees, trees with lower branches to enable safe climbing, open spaces to avoid startling the cats.  Outside the park, it was pretty quiet because the streets were blocked off to cars! After multiple days of dodging traffic, it was a bit strange to see the streets devoid of brake lights and honking. Apparently, citizens are encouraged to take Sundays as rest days and get outside for some exercise (during the day) -...

We started the day with errands and the historic center, then ended with luxury. Let's start at the beginning!  Laundry is a little different in Lima - unlike other cities where you might have self-serve laundry machines and the need for a lot of coins, there are laundry services instead. In Lima, you drop off your dirty laundry at a lavanderia and can expect to pick up your clean clothes a couple of days later, or the next day if you choose express service (keeping in mind that most places close on Sundays). We needed a service that was a bit quicker and, if necessary, open on Sundays since today was a Saturday, and we'll be flying out of Lima on Monday. Luckily, we found a place pretty close to our hotel that offered same-day service - when we dropped off our clothes, we were able to tell them what clothes shouldn't be tumbled dry, and take a video to serve as a record of inventory. They spoke pretty good English and were super helpful, guiding us through the local proces...

The sun was shining brightly for us on our second day in the capital city - today, we decided to try Chicharrón sandwiches for breakfast at El Chinito. Even though we had to wait a while, it was totally worth it to get piping hot sandwiches stuffed with pork belly - the additional onions and chili sauce paired perfectly with the meat. A breakfast fit for champions! From El Chinito, we headed back to Surquillo to show off the market to my in-laws, this time paying extra close attention to the fruits. We ended up buying chirimoya, mango, dragon fruit, and strawberries to eat later. With a bit more time on our hands to explore, we covered every corner of the area - sampling basil ice cream, a few more local dishes at a different cevicheria, and papaya juice in between browsing all the different products on sale. It was fun walking around with someone who is more familiar with the language and the local food.  We were able to take a quick break at the hotel to drop off the fruits, befo...

After a bit of hassle with the bank to unblock my credit card, and learning why the hotel charged me in USD instead of Soles, we began our first official day in Lima! FYI - hotels in Lima will typically charge customers in USD because the USD rate is actually better than the Soles rate! That is not true of any other business (e.g. restaurants, shops), but it's common for hotels in South American countries like Peru and Chile. The hotel had a complimentary breakfast, which was pretty decent - I was able to get some vegetables and fruits to start the day, but left room for more tasty things later. Since the schedule was wide open for spontaneity, we headed towards Mercado Nº 1 de Surquillo (i.e. outside the touristy Miraflores) to see a bit of typical Peruvian life. Along the way, we stopped at a grocery store, board game store, and a coffee shop - tons of interesting things to see! I think the prices were a bit steep because we were in Miraflores, and some of the products we saw wer...

Without any direct flights to Lima from Vancouver, a connecting flight was necessary. Thank goodness we planned to only have carry-on baggage! Since our itinerary was with 2 unrelated airlines, and the layover in Cancun was less than 2 hours, checking in bags would have been too risky. In the end, it all worked out. Our departing flight was on time, and landed early to Cancun, which gave us a bit of breathing room, even with Westjet deplaning taking a bit longer than expected. We did end up learning a few things about the Cancun airport. The automated customs machines do not work consistently - you may get redirected to a human customs officer if the machine gets temperamental, which may end up being a bonus if you like collecting stamps in your passport. There is a free shuttle that goes between terminals 2, 3, and 4 but the signage isn't great - there should be doors to the shuttle waiting area in between the nearest exit and the throng of taxis, with a digital clock that will pe...