Gym's Ramblings: Exiting the Andes

Exiting the Andes

On Wednesday, May the 8^th, 2013, we got up bright and early and packed up our belongings. After the breakfast that was included in the Monasterio package, we went to check out and meet with Eyner our guide. Our guides had looked after us, and our luggage, very well for two days. Now they were going to take care of the last task of getting us to and through the airport, for the return flight to Callao (Lima). On the 20-minute drive to the Cusco airport, Eyner offered some interesting discourse on Incan gastronomical practices that are still popular in the Andes today. He said his family still eats guinea pig on special occasions. In fact, the real connoisseurs like Eyner’s mother, prefer the delicate meat in the guinea pig’s head. Apparently, there is also a small bone in the temple of a guinea pig that, if found, is revered by the locals as having the same qualities as the wishbone in a turkey or chicken. Who woulda thunk it? We said goodbye to Eyner at the airport but still had Luis with us to see us to Callao.

We only experienced a one-hour delay of the StarPeru flight departure on the return leg and thank god that our head guide, Luis was still there with us at the airport. Our group may not have made it through there without him. The Cusco airport was a bit of a muddle, especially when your Spanish is no muy bueno. The only way to describe the scene is that the departure lounge was like an large arena, with multiple, poorly numbered doors leading to air bridges that planes randomly park beside. Gringos must guess which corner of the arena is best to wait for their flight to come in to. And, by all means stick close to your local guide in the Cusco airport, if you have one.

After leaving Cusco, we arrived at the Callao International Airport with no further issues and loaded onto the bus that would take us into Lima from Callao. As we drove in from the airport, I realized what I had been missing and inhaled deeply of the sea level air, thick in oxygen.

Luis dropped us off at the Country Club Hotel, another Orient Express property. The one-night stay at the Country Club Hotel would be the last time the group from the M/S Marina would be together. That night and early the next morning we said goodbye to the survivors from the Andean expedition, some of which we had we had met three weeks before, at sea in French Polynesia.

We still had three nights to explore the capital and the next day, we would be moving from the Country Club Hotel in the upscale district of San Isidro, to a hotel on the beach, in an even nicer district called Mira Flores.