Lima, Peru (Post #117)
Mike writes…
On April 5th, 2006 we left Nazca on a Flores bus at 6:15 a.m. bound for Lima. The funny thing about most of the long distance South American buses we have ridden is they are both long-distance and local buses. This means that while our ride from Nazca to Lima could probably have been made in 3-4 hours it took about 7. It can be really frustrating when the bus stops in the center of some small town to pick up a handful of passengers (who end up standing in the aisle for lack of space) only to stop 30 seconds later to pick up a couple more (the second group COULD NOT have been bothered to walk to extra 100 meters to the actual bus stop). Anyway, besides the mild frustration of stopping every 10-15 minutes, the bus ride was uneventful.
Upon arriving in the bus station in central Lima we were greeted by a taxi driver with an official looking badge on his shirt who offered to take us to the Miraflores district where our hostal awaited. Twenty minutes later we arrived at Albergue Miraflores House without incident. Upon arriving we were greeted by the House´s jovial owner, Francis. This ended up being one of our favorite budget-level accommodations on the entire trip and most of this is due to the friendly and dedicated attitude of Francis. As a demonstration of Francis´ dedication to having a great hostel, after we rated the place (very highly mind you) on Hostelworld.com and commented that we would have traded the T.V. in our room for a mirror and some hooks (for clothes, towels and such), he went out and bought these items, installed them in the room and emailed us pictures of the improvements. This is all in the matter of 2-3 days! Wow!
We didn´t do too much in Lima besides go out to dinner at a Tex-Mex restaurant recommended in the Lonely Planet and spend the night in the relaxing Miraflores House. The next morning we prepared for our flight to Cuzco at our leisure and took a taxi to the airport at around 10:30 (for a 1:15 flight).
Upon arriving at the airport and going to check in , we learned that our flight would be delayed until 4 p.m. but LanPeru gave us a voucher for a free-of-charge lunch. We spent the next few hours eating and using the internet cafe to write up our blogs about Arequipa and Nazca.
About 1 hour before our flight we headed through security and, shortly after, to the gate from which we expected our flight to leave. Our flight was supposed to stop in Juliaca and continue to Cuzco. When we got to the gate, the attendents told us our flight was canceled. This was quite confusing to us because the sign at the gate clearly indicated the flight was going to Juliaca. Apparently, the plane was only going to Juliaca and stopping which we learned after practically forcing our way backwards through security and standing in line for an hour back at check-in. Our primary concern at this point was that our luggage had already been checked in. Fortunately, it had been pulled off the plane before it departed for Juliaca.
Eventually we learned that buses would be transporting all passengers stranded by canceled flights to a Lima hotel. Several flights were canceled and LanPeru would have to bus 200 people to a hotel. The bus ride was about 30 minutes and we were full of anticipation as to what type of hotel we would end up in. I figured it had to be halfway decent because not all of the travellers were “backpackers” used to staying in budget accommodation. As we turned a final corner Michele spotted a high-rise Sheraton and joked that we would be staying there. But it was no joke!
We waited in line for about 45 minutes to check in and took the elevator up to our 16th floor room on the Sheraton Prefered Members Floor. WOW!!! The view from our room was fantastic and this was by far the best room we have had on the trip and for the normal nightly rate of over $300USD (which LanPeru paid) it should have been. Here´s a picture of the bedroom part of the hotel room we will no doubt fondly remember during our trip around the world. Note that this is only the bedroom part of our room. There was also a bar area with marble countertops that was separated from our room by a glass wall, as well as a sink area complete with fuzzy slippers to keep our feet warm, a separate desk/office area, and of course an awesome bathroom with several 6 foot long plush towels.
After bathing in the splendor of our room we headed down to the lobby to gorge ourselves on the buffet dinner and find out what time our flight would be the next day. It turned out most of the passengers were going to be leaving on the 5:40 a.m. flight for which they would recieve a wake-up call at 2:30 a.m. Well, we didn´t have to be in Cuzco at any particular time (because we had nothing specific planned) so we tracked down a LanPeru employee and asked if we could take an afternoon flight. He assured us we could and encouraged us to enjoy ourselves while staying at the Sheraton (there´s also a casino inside the hotel). We were a little bit skeptical about whether he was going to take our request seriously with 200 other passengers to deal with but we continued on to the dining hall.
Our buffet dinner was one of the best meals we´ve had on the trip (again, as it should be in a $300/night hotel). After several visits to the buffet we spotted the LanPeru employee we had talked to about an afternoon flight. I asked him in Spanish, “So, we don´t have to wake up at 3 a.m. to take the 5:40 flight. Right?” Obviously we really didn´t want to recieve a 2:30 a.m. wake-up call if we didn´t have to. He again assured us it was no problem to give us an afternoon flight.
We returned to our room and watched cable TV for a few hours before going to sleep on some of the most comfortable beds we´ve ever slept in.
Unfortunately, Michele answered the phone at 3:20 a.m. and was greeted with a hotel receptionist apologizing that it was so late but we needed to be downstairs in the lobby in TEN MINUTES to catch the bus to the airport. Michele argued with the woman for a few minutes and was then transferred to a LanPeru Airline employee. After a few minutes the LanPeru woman told Michele it was okay, we would be put on an afternoon flight. Still groggy frome being awakened in the middle of a deep sleep, I called LanPeru back to confirm our afternoon flight. Again we were assured seats on an afternoon flight.
So, we slept in until 8 a.m., had a fantastic all-you-could-eat 5-star hotel breakfast buffet, packed up, and got a bus to the airport. Without further incident, we boarded a 3:40 p.m. flight to Cuzco and arrived at a little after 5 p.m.
Cuzco is the subject of subsequent blogs…
Tags: Category #28: Peru
Michele Harmon
Hi, I don´t know if you´ll check your older posts, but i messaged you there. I figured i might as well try here too, since its more likely you´ll notice this one. I read that you crossed the border from chile to peru in a collectivo. i am about to make the same trip in a week and thought it might be the cheapest way to go. if there is a chance you could tell me about how much it cost that would be great. ill be checking this site again to see if you´ve replied.
thanks,
Camille
Wow! What a great experience! What an airline! What a hotel! It made me happy just to read about this segment of your trip. There’s no doubt about it: you two truly deserved this pampering. And I esp. like the part about the “fuzzy” slippers. Any pictures of two pairs of world-weary feet all decked out in that luxury?
Hope the rest of the trip continues in this vein of great luck.
Have fun!