zaterdag 1 augustus 2015

Day 28: the final countdown

Today we left for home, but we would take off only at 9 pm, so plenty of time to spend in Lima. After a small breakfast, we, well Elien decided she wanted to do some shopping or browsing at least. Since we had some time left before we had to be at the famous restaurant astrid y gaston, joachim went along with the plan. 


After a few hours Joachim was tired of shopping and we went for a drink, some lemonade. We strolled around in the Kennedy park, which is also a cat sanctuary. Time flew by and we went to the restaurant or so we thought... 
Arriving at the adress where the restaurant is supposed to be according to the lonely planet, we noticed something odd. The restaurant did not look like a fancy venue, but anyway we went in and asked if this was the restaurant. Because there was no name on the door nor any indication of astrid y gaston we were very sceptic. And indeed, this was not our restaurant, it had moved to another location. Luckily the new owners pointed us the new location on the map. We rushed outside and quickly got in a cab, to get there as quickly as possible, because instead of being 10 minutes early, we were now running late! Elien was already stressed out and hoped that the restaurant did not give away our table. The traffic certainly was not helping, but after a hell of a taxi ride we made it, only 25 minutes late. Whatever we do related to Elien's birthday turns in a fiasco, everything that can go wrong, goes wrong, murphy's law! However, we were already one day later so we hoped the worsed had passed, and luckily this was the case they did not give our table away. Time for our 32 course dinner, which we both enjoyed, where we got an introduction to the whole peruvian kitchen. Every dish was a work of art, where the cooks carefully placed the food on the extraordinairy plates, having the most unusual shapes.  They were produced by several peruvian, but also european artists. 

We tried to take a picture of every dish but everything looked so yummy that we forgot some. We were too eager to eat them. Too soon the 32 courses were in our stomac and the time came to leave lima. Our taxi driver concourred the lima rush hour and dropped us off save and sound at the airport. We spent our last soles on peruvian liquor, pisco, and off we were. 
Bye bye south america! Hasta la vista! 

donderdag 30 juli 2015

Day 27: last day in Lima

After a rough night for Elien, since she has been struggling with stomac problems the last few days, we decided to sleep in. Bzz, bzz,bzz the alarm clock went at 8.30, time for a relaxing bath. After the bath and breakfast we went on a guided city tour of downtown Lima, organized by free walking tours in Peru.

Day 26: Bye bye Cusco, Hello Lima

Our final moments in Cusco we decided to explore the city one more last time. After a delicious breakfast, we went to the San Blas square.

dinsdag 28 juli 2015

Day 25: the sacred valley

Because we couldn't get enough of the impressive Inca ruins, we booked a tour to the sacred valley, where we would visit some more... you guessed it: Inca ruins. But before we could start our trip there was a more pressing matter, our first hot shower in 5 days, finally! After a nice breakfast we were picked up and off we were. 

Day 24: Machu Pichu!

The climax of our trip, Machu Pichu, still unexplored territory for us, but not for long. Slowly our trip has been building up to this moment, where we first acclimatized to the altitude, and finally we walked all the way to the trailhead of our final climb. We got up early to get a glimpse of an empty Machu Pichu. 

Day 21,22 and 23: Salkantay trail

After a pick-up at 5.30 and a rather bumby, zigzag road we arrived at marcacsa. The starting point of our salkantay trail.

donderdag 23 juli 2015

Day 20: perfect match

After a good night of sleep in a warm and cosy room we were as new and ready for a whole day of Cusco.