Cusco to Lima
Monday September 2, 2019
We spent a short morning in Cusco, trying to see some of the city before our flight to Lima. We took a taxi to town and split up. I ended up going to the market to grab some food while the others wandered around the main square. There may have been some Pokemon related activities as well. As we met back at the Plaza de Armas, there were hundreds of people congregating for a parade of some sort. Tons of kids were dressed up in various costumes - almost like Halloween - there was a Disney group, a superhero group, a cowboy/western group and more. None of the group had any idea what was going on, but it was interesting to watch nonetheless.
In Lima, we took a taxi to the central square and had lunch at Bembos, a burger joint. The group really wanted ice cream as well, so we tried to get some from KFC, but it wasn't very good (and Nancy ended up dropping her ice cream anyway). From the central square, we walked to Chinatown via some various museums that Alfia wanted to see. Chinatown was kinda depressing and dirty, so we didn't stay too long. The group was fascinated by this bakery selling mooncakes and roast pork.
We took another taxi to the tourist area, Miraflores. We spent some time walking around Larcomar, the open air shopping mall overlooking the Pacific Ocean, and we left to walk to a nearby restaurant for some seafood. As we were walking, we began to realise it wasn't accessible by foot, so we ended up just taking a taxi. The food was good, perhaps a bit too sour on the cerviche, and some of the dishes were sold out (we were there pretty late), but it was a nice place to have our last meal in Peru.
On reflection, Peru was an awesome experience. No photo accurately captures the majesty of the Andes and Machu Picchu as you look down from the mountain top that you've just walked up. The food was excellent. I didn't expect to speak as much Spanish as I did, and even I surprised myself with how much I was able to communicate. Google Translate definitely helped a lot, but I picked up a lot of words just by walking around as well. It's a pity we didn't have longer, because there were some really nice places to visit in and around Cusco, like the Rainbow Mountain. Maybe we can visit again in the future, and perhaps stop by Bolivia and Argentina?
Posted by Jeremy at 6:00pm on Monday September 2, 2019 :: 0 comments :: 