Muchos Hornos

This morning we went for a walk uphill (at 11000+ ft, no easy task mind you) to try find a good overlook of Cusco's center square and historical district. We found a nice overlook from a nearby church plaza.

On our way back down, we passed through the neighborhood of San Blas which is more of an artist's area with a more "hip" vibe to it. It featured many narrow cobblestone alleys, which somehow still supported vehicular traffic.

We also saw the ubiquitous old women in traditional garb holding an alpaca and hoping to charge tourists for a picture. While it is a photogenic scene with the old streets in the background, it's very much not real. It's about as authentic as the Winnie the Pooh on Hollywood Blvd smoking a cigarette. Anyway, our flight to Lima was at 1:00pm, so we headed back to the airport.

Though the flight is just over an hour, the two cities could not be more different. As the plane descended, the suburbs of Cusco came into view and we caught a glimpse of industrial works, radio towers, and shipping containers before touching down at Jorge Chavez International. It was a short trek to exit the terminal, but then a 40 min drive to the Miraflores district on the coast. We had decided to get a cheap hotel just as a base of operations before our red eye at almost 2am. That way we can at least shower or something prior to spending the next day flying.

 
We went for a walk along the Pacific Coast. It was very bustling and the warm air and humidity was a nice change from the dry and thin air of Cusco. Our bodies seemed to appreciate it anyway. We eventually caught dinner at a restaurant overlooking the ocean before stepping out again to take a few pictures at night of the slow-moving traffic on the coastal highway below.

After a bit, we walked back to our hotel to get organized prior to our flight. Our current plan is to take Delta back through Atlanta since it has 26 seats open in first class. Unfortunately, there is a note that it may be "payload-optimized," which is a fancy way of saying they can depart with seats open in the interest of "weight-and-balance." Wish us luck. We could use a nice seat. We even showered.