We woke up at the decent time of 8:30am so that we could get packed, eat breakfast and figure out how to get to the airport. Alyssa set off to pick up her laundry and get some fruit at the grocery store, while I finished packing and triple checked the room for anything we might have left behind. We asked the guy who worked at our hostel what the best way to get to the airport was and he said there was a bus that would take you there for $2.50 soles. Considering we had read that you needed to take a taxi and that it could cost up to $40 USD, this was great news! He said that he (and his dog) would walk us to the bus stop and show us which bus to get on. He was so nice! We grabbed our stuff and walked the few blocks down to the street where you could hail a bus. He stopped the bus for us and made sure they knew where to take us. We were really appreciative of this since it would have been a much bigger hassle for us to try to figure out on our own. This was a bus that local people take to get around town so naturally they didn't have any space for our big bags. We managed to awkwardly hold them in the seats with us, rearranging as people got on and off the bus. The bus ride was about an hour but we got to the airport with no issues.
Once at the airport, I immediately remembered where everything was. Katie and I had spent a night in the chapel/walkway of that airport the last time I flew to Lima and it all came rushing back to me like it was yesterday. We had plenty of time to grab some lunch and wander around before our flight.
Once we arrived, we headed outside hoping that our hostel had sent their van to pick us up as we requested. Sadly, there was no van for us so we negotiated with cabs for a while, trying to get them down from $40 soles. Alyssa negotiated a cab driver down to $32 and we were on our way. When we arrived at "Flying Dog" I was a little concerned because it was on the complete opposite side of town from where I had stayed in Cusco before but it ended up being in a very convenient area. The hostel was very nice with a big kitchen, large living room and nice bedroom.
It was very cold in Cusco at night which I hadn't expected since during the day it is almost hot. I was also suffering from altitude sickness for the first time on our trip. I was extremely dizzy, out of breath and always had a headache. I resorted to drinking a lot of coca tea which is supposed to help but it didn't seem to have much effect.
Alyssa really wanted to eat some local food so I let her pick the restaurant- she chose "Don Thomas". At first I was unsure about the place since it seemed pretty expensive but after walking around and seeing the prices at other restaurants I realized they were all expensive! The most popular local food is cuy (guinea pig) but I just couldn't bring myself to eat one since I had once had one as a pet. They serve them as a whole fried guinea pig, teeth and all! Instead, we decided to try alpaca. The meal started off with an appetizer of roasted corn kernels that reminded me a lot of corn nuts, lol. They have something like 800 different varieties of corn in Peru so it is a big staple for them.
Alyssa got a Pisco sour but I couldn't make up my mind on what to drink. The waiter recommended a drink for me that he said was made from a fruit so I decided to give it a whirl. When it came out, it tasted exactly like a mud slide. This was not what he had described to me so I called him over and explained that this drink was made with chocolate not a fruit. He laughed and went over to the bartender to get something. He came back with a fruit paste that had the consistency of fig but did taste a lot like chocolate. It was actually delicious!
Alyssa ordered the alpaca so we could try it and I ordered the lamb which I still am getting used to eating (I've only had it a few times before...poor tasty baby lambs). The lamb was amazing! The alpaca was a bit chewy and reminded me of an overlooked steak so although we were glad that we tried it, we decided we wouldn't order it again.
After dinner, we headed to "Paddy's Pub" to get a drink. Luckily it was still happy hour so we could get two Pisco and sprites (called "Chilcana") for $10 soles, which is a great deal. We hung out for a while but since it was Thursday, not much was going on and we headed home around 12:00.
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