New Friends Are Fun

After the hike and the 4am wake-up calls every day, we tried our best to sleep in. In this case, sleeping in meant waking up at 6:30am haha. 

We knew we needed to get a COVID test to get back into the US in a couple days and we knew we didn't want to figure that out in the big city of Lima. One of the other hikers we met said that getting a covid test in Cusco was easy. So we ventured down to the front desk to ask about it. The front desk attendant was amazing. She called the place and set up for the nurses to come at 9:30am. It was only $10 to have the nurses come to our hotel (as opposed to us taxing over to the hospital and stuff) so we did that. 

We enjoyed a delicious hotel breakfast. We thought the nurses would do the test in the lobby area but they did not. They came all the way to our room and did it in there. Slightly embarrassing! We had not done any cleanup after the hike so the room was a complete disaster. I actually was about to shave when we got the call from the front desk so I had to wash it off haha. 

The tests went super smooth and the nurses were very nice. After that, we just hung out and finished getting ready to leave for the day. We left our big backpacks at the hotel front desk for the day because our flight wasn't until the evening. We were a little nervous because we didn't really have a plan for the day. We had seen most of the things in Cusco already and didn't have time to venture far out of the city. 

So we went to the San Pedro market again. We tooled around the stalls some more and took in the sights and smells. We ran into the couple from the train again so that was funny. We also saw a few other couples from other tour groups as well. It appeared that everyone was in the market after the hike! We always get a magnet for our trips so we picked those out. 

With no real plan, we walked to a street by the market. Turns out it was shopping day in Cusco! The road had SO much stuff going! There were fruits, veggies, meats, etc in outdoor stalls all over the place. There were so many people and colors and noise. It was fun to just wander around and take it all in. We felt way less touristy and more like real life.

We were starting to get hungry so we walked over to an Irish pub in Cusco that supposedly had good ratings. It was closed. We didn't really know what to do at this point since we did not have cell service. We ended up just kind of walking around and found a nice pizza place. Lacey suggested we give it a shot and it ended up being excellent! 

They had wifi so we got our negative covid results (yay!). The pizza was awesome. Beer and pisco sour were tasty. It was just a really good experience. We also talked to a couple from California that sat at a table near us. It's funny how with fewer American tourists, everyone seems more friendly and more apt to strike up a conversation. 

After we finished eating, we started to walk back up to the San Blas neighborhood to check out a bar. At one point, we stopped to point something out. I happened to look across the street in a small shop and lo and behold it wad Derek and Olivia! This was the NY couple we met on the trail. 

It was serendipity!! The 4 of us talked for a bit in the street and then Olivia and Derek left to go get lunch. Lacey and I looked at each other after they started walking. Then we ran after them and invited ourselves to get lunch with them haha. They said they would have asked if we wanted to come but didn't want to intrude and knew had just eaten. So funny. 

The 4 of us went to a restaurant called "ceviche" in the main square. There were no tables available but Derek convinced the host to give us free drinks to wait for a table. So we got free pisco sours! We talked about travel and jobs and it was just really great. A table finally opened upstairs. Lace and I split a ceviche and a "pisco punch." Olivia and Derek both got beers and a ceviche. 

The food was really tasty and so interesting in a good way. Ceviche is basically fish cooked in acid. So you marinade the raw fish in lime juice and other stuff (leche de tigre) and it becomes cooked enough to eat. It also had corn nut-type things, sweet potato, and onions. 

Again, it was so nice to talk with them about the tours and life and travel. It was our version of a "last trail dinner" that the bigger groups got on the trail. It was sad to leave them but they had to get to a massage appointment at their fancy hotel haha. 

Lacey went and got her own massage at a massage parlor near the main square. I went to the Starbucks right by it and used wifi and got a hot chocolate. 

We were both genuinely sad to leave Cusco! The city captured our hearts with its views, food, sights, smells, and small-town feel. We grabbed our bags from the hotel and took a taxi to the airport. It was always surprising how cheap the taxis were--only about $8 for 30 minutes.  Airport was easy except there were people on their speakerphones again. 

Flight back to Lima was short and sweet. Because of the late arrival, the shuttle to the airport was much less eventful than our first one! We hung out in our hotel room and went to bed fast. What a great day yet again.