Iconic Peru

Our flight departs from Lima in the middle of the night, and our transfer pickup isn't until evening so we have another full day in Lima. We arranged late check-out with our hotel for $50.00, well worth it. A relaxed breakfast, then a walk down along the Malecon to Locamar for cappuccino. Very low visibility today, even worse than when we were here before! But it's sure nice to be at sea level again, we have so much more energy. We stop at a supermarket to buy Pisco and chocolate. A bit of a break in our hotel room, then off for lunch at the Cevicheria Miramar. Another trip to the market to pick up a few last things. As we go through Park JFK there are some beautiful new floral displays. Walking back to the hotel we are really aware of the air pollution. We meet Diane and Bill for a last Pisco Sour before getting our transfer to the airport. Traffic is crazy and it takes over an hour to get to the airport. It makes Vancouver traffic look civilized! The airport is quite bu...

We had a nice relaxed morning, breakfast at 8:00am, a little walk along the pedestrian shopping street, repack and ready to leave at 10:20am. Puno's streets always seem to be busy, and they are quite narrow so we need to walk a few blocks to where our bus can pick us up. Staff from the hotel take the luggage. It's about an hour drive to Juliaca airport which is fairly small. Luckily Karen has a pass for the lounge so we have a comfortable wait. 1 and 1/2 hour flight to Lima, then about an hour drive to our hotel. So nice coming back to the Antiqua Miraflores. Karen and I go for a walk to get money from the ATM. Because this is the 1st of the month, long lines everywhere. All of the banks charge outrageous fees for withdrawal, 20 soles to take out 200! Much better to pay by by credit card if you can. Our group goes out for our farewell dinner to a lovely restaurant called Panchita about a 15 min walk from the hotel. Their specialty is meat skewers, and we have the beef he...