After the Amazon, we flew back from Puerto Maldonado to Cusco, then on to Lima. I must say it was nice to settle into a modern hotel in Lima, Peru’s capital of nearly 10 million people, for the last two nights with our fellow frosty tops, who are all leaving on 23rd, either for NZ or elsewhere in South America.
We had almost a full day tour around Lima, including a visit to a shanty town (slum), which took about 3 hours….and was about 2 hours too long! But it was interesting, as they differ totally to the slums of Rio de Janeiro – still extreme poverty, many having no running water, electricity or sewage, but a much calmer sort of an atmosphere. Our guide said that 70% of Peruvians live in shanty towns like the ones we visited, which is a pretty sobering fact. The historic centre of Lima is quite pretty though, with some lovely old cathedrals and buildings. Our last night’s dinner was a great night, in a local restaurant, eating whatever we fancied, from “Cuy” (guinea pig – only one taker) to “Ceviche” – raw marinated fish or seafood, a Peruvian delicacy – to “Lomo Saltado”, literally “jumping beef” but in fact stir-fried beef with veggies.
Next morning we saw everyone off in the van to the airport, which was actually really sad, after all living in each other’s pockets for a whole month, and Steve and I had two more nights in Lima in the same hotel. We were especially sad to say goodbye to Bill, the guy who was on his own from Auckland, with whom we spent heaps of time and whose company we so enjoyed – we’ll really miss his sense of humour. We were absolutely exhausted and when we think back on all that we’ve seen and done with the group in a month, we know we could never have achieved that on our own, even if at times the pace was a bit faster than we would have liked. Plus we had such great company and so much laughter, we really enjoyed it all. Pretty damn lucky that we all got on so well, with such a small group of 11.
On 25th we flew from Lima to Quito and after 2 aborted attempts at landing in Quito due to the wind, we ended up at the coastal airport of Guayaquil for ages then after much faffing around while we stayed on board the plane, we finally landed in Quito more than 3 hours later. Our hotel was near the airport but is absolutely in the middle of nowhere, but close to Quito Airport, so the lady owner, who didn’t speak English, very kindly cooked dinner for us and brought it to our room. She had 3 dogs – a Husky plus the smallest Chihuahua I’ve ever seen and a bi-polar Doberman who bites everything that moves – feet, legs, ankles, and then became as docile as a kitten the next minute.
Had a big repack for the Galapagos islands and left one suitcase at the hotel, as limited luggage is allowed on the plane and boat, as we’re staying there again for a night on the way back before heading into Quito city for two nights to see the sights. Looking forward to the Galapagos part of our trip but not so much to the 4am start to get to the airport for our very early flight to Baltra, near Santa Cruz island where we meet the Ecogalaxy II catamaran (8 berth) for the start of our Galapagos adventure.
2 Frosty Tops Do South America 