Tuesday - Sept 26, 2017 Ottawa-Lima

Up at 5am to begin the trip to Lima.

·      8:55 AC Ottawa to Washington, 1hr 36 min

·      11:59 United Washington to Houston, 3hr 13min

·      16:40 United Houston to Lima, 6hr 35 min

In spite of the short layover time in Houston, we managed to make all the flights, never got bumped, and arrived at Houston at precisely 23:15 as expected.

We waited and waited as the bags were delivered, but when they finally closed the gate our bags weren’t there. Into the line to resolve the issue. It was a very slow process dealing with each customer, thankfully we were third in line. We had a transfer arranged to pick us up at the Lima airport, and as the time ticked by, I was getting worried they would give up on us. In fact, I was slightly concerned they wouldn’t even be there, because the agent that booked our tour kept getting our start date wrong in the material she sent us.

Finally our turn, the bags were in Washington. They would be on the plane arriving in Lima at 23:15 on Wednesday. However, by then we were going to be in Cusco. It then took about 15 minutes to fill in all the paperwork to get our bags to go to Cusco on Thursday.

When we went out at around 00:15, thankfully our transfer agent, Walter, was still there waiting for us. He had guessed that the bags were missing.

Wednesday - Sept 27, 2017 Lima-Cusco

It took about 25min for the taxi to get to our hotel, Casa Andina Centro Miraflores, in the Miraflora district of Lima. 

Apparently Lima has a bit of a bad reputation, but this the safest district.

For us, Lima was just an overnight stop, a stepping stone to get to Cusco and the Inca Trail. We had very little time here. On route, Walter told us a bit about the history of Lima.

There’s evidence of habitation here dating back 7,000 years. Early settlers came here to fish. They were followed by more sophisticated cultures who left temples and pyramids dating from 3,000BC, some still standing. Around 500AD, the local oracle, Pachacamac, was established, meaning it was ancient even before the Inca’s arrived in the 15^th century. Currently, the population of Lima is 11 million. Most of the influx is Peruvians moving here from surrounding rural areas.

We had free time in the morning to explore Lima on our own. We walked to the Pacific Ocean, past lots of shops, a lovely park, and a large Basilica. 

The park had volunteers caring for feral cats, which included an adoption service. The shops at the waterfront were pretty much all popular American chains. There was a lovely park there, with lots of people jogging, biking, walking their dogs, and playing with their children. This was all built on a cliff overlooking the ocean. We looked for a way to get down to the ocean, but there was a freeway running along the bottom of the cliff, and no path down anywhere close to where we were that we could see, so we gave up on that idea and just walked through the park.

After that we went to the big market in the district. There was lots of fruit, flowers, meat, fabrics, herbs, spices, etc etc. The handling of the meat seemed a bit questionable to me, but hey, this is Peru. 

There was also lots of feral dogs that seemed to be enjoying the meat waste. We each bought a lovely Peru wool hat, to keep us warm on the Inca trail.

·      3:20 Avianca Lima to Cusco 1hr 33min

Walter came to pick us up at the hotel at 12:15pm and escorted us to the airport. He was a very interesting, friendly guy. He looked like a bit of a street person, really. It sounds like he has a lot of experiences – working varied and different jobs – travelling around the world – adopting an abandoned, injured Labrador dog that he nursed back to health and is now his loyal companion. He escorted us through the airport right to where we entered security, pointing out the best places to eat. We took his advice and had lunch at Parados, delicious chicken. He also made sure we each got a window seat on the left side of the plane flying to Cusco, which was a really good tip. It was a perfectly clear day and the view of the Andes Mountains out the window was magnificent. Landing at Cusco was quite exciting, the pilot had to turn the plane on its side and then straighten out to avoid hitting the mountains as we landed.

We were met at the airport by our new transfer agent, Joseph. Joseph is 30 years old and still living at home – just like Kristjan. He was very nice and spoke English, but his responses were limited. I was never totally convinced he understood what we said.

In the whole of old Peru, there was undoubtedly no place that was as deeply revered as the imperial city of Cusco, which is where all the Inca kings held court and established the seat of government.

Legend states that the city was founded around 1100AD when the original Inca Manco Capac, having descended from the sun and risen from Lake Titicaca, plunged a staff into the soil and declared it fertile enough to support a city, a city he called Cusco (popularly thought to mean ‘navel’ of the earth).

Cusco is a ‘magic space’. 

The cultural and religious center of the Inca world, it was once a truly awesome city, dazzling with gold, silver and precious stones adorning its fine buildings. The seat of the God-king, the Inca, it was built to reflect the might of the empire. Despite its brutal sacking by the Spanish conquistadors, it remains an exciting and vibrant place, much more than just a tourist town. What was essentially a back-packer Mecca, Cusco has grown up, but it has done it in style.

It is the undisputed archeological capital of South America, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It stands at 3360 meters, and provides a place for people coming to Peru to do the Inka trail to acclimatize.

We arrived at our hotel, Casa San Blas around 6pm.


Joseph briefed us for our stay in Cusco. Tomorrow, Thursday Sept 28, was a free day. On Friday, we would have a guided tour of Cusco and a briefing on our trek. It was safe to buy things at the main square, where the government guarantees their authenticity.

The hotel is set in a 17^th century house and was very charming and authentic. Each room has been named after a textile icon, interpreted in accordance with the ancient knowledge possessed by Andean weavers. The wisdom saying of our room was tenderness.

We went to the hotel restaurant for dinner at around 8:30pm, and we were the only guests. Perhaps we missed the dinner rush? In any event, the dinner was very reasonably priced, and very good.