Off the Sidewalk

Here we are. We had a delayed takeoff from the US but an uneventful flight to Lima. After filling out our Andean Immigration Card and indicating our “main porpouse of travel” we arrived Lima after midnight. The taxi ride to our hotel was mildly terrifying. My first impression of Lima was that Baghdad couldn´t be much different. Skeletal dogs and gangs of men roaming, fires of trash burning along the streets, partially destroyed buildings and wall-enclosed homes everywhere. Our driver took a circuitous route, I don´t know if it was for our protection or what, but if that was the safest route, I would hate to see the dangerous one. After first stopping at the wrong hotel, Hotel Carmelo, instead of Hotel Carmel, we were at our stop for the night, well, only for about 5 hours. At 6:45 the next morning we were on the road back to the airport. In daylight and along the route taken this time, Lima looked a little better. I have to say, however, that the Lima airport is very nice. Immaculately clean and well organized. After stopping at the airport McDonalds for a “McQueso” sandwich and some jugo (juice), we caught our quick flight to Cusco.

Cusco is a charming town. One of the highest cities in the world, at 11,400 feet, Cusco feels like another world. We´ll be here for a few days so I´ll post my impressions later. It´s lunchtime now so we´re off for lunch Peruvian style.

This is the Plaza de Armas, the main square in Cusco.

Suecia Street is only steps from Plaza de Armas. Hotel Del Prado is about 3 doors down on the right side. The hotel is small, clean and very nice.

Narrow streets leave little room for pedestrians and trucks. This is the street going up to San Blas church.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 5th, 2006 at 11:01 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.