Tour of Arequipa

 

Even though we got in after 3 I woke up around 6:30. My cold is much worse and that may have contributed to my not being able to sleep as now a cough has started, yeah!  We went down for breakfast at 9:30 just before they stopped serving and then went back to bed.  We had a 2 o’clock tour of Arequipa, our driver was the same guy that picked us up from the bus at 2:30 AM.  Maya was our guide, and she was very good.  We went to a couple of viewpoints to see the see the city from above and the volcanoes that surround it.  We then walked around the city, Maya even helped us get cold medicine for me from the pharmacy. It's pretty nice, with interesting squares and, of course, cathedrals.  They have an interesting way of displaying Jesus on the cross that I've never seen before.  They put things on there that were used at the time of the crucifixion.  These include the spear used by the soldiers to check if he was alive, the ladder used to take him down, and other things like that.  We then completed the day with a tour of the Santa Catalina monastery, which was like its own city in the 1700s.  It’s amazing how big it is.  Each sister had their own little house, and there were streets and shops and everything.  All inside the walls of the monastery. 

On Maya’s recommendation, we had dinner at Chi Cha across the street from the Monastery, it was pretty good.  deb saved me from using tap water to wash down the medicine we got at the pharmacy.  Back to the hotel to medicate me and try to get sleep.  A good day, other than how crappy I felt.

Nazca

I'm happy to say that we had a decent breakfast buffet today. Best one so far. Jose picked us up and took us to the little airport for the Nazca lines flyover.

There were seven of us in a Cessna, which was cozy. From what we read online the night before, I was supposedly overweight, but no one said anything about it. This flight was really cool. Seeing the figures with our own eyes from above was awesome. The only issue I had was my headphones kind of sucked, so I was missing a lot of what the co-pilot/guide was telling us. This was probably made worse by the head cold that I had. Jose drove us back to the hotel, and this was interesting to say the least.

Traffic in Peru as a whole is crazy, with no one paying a bit of attention to the stop signs or the lanes. But this took it to a new level, Nazca is a small little dusty town and there are basically no traffic controls at all, other than speed bumps. We got stuck in one spot where it literally looked like bumper cars. A lot of little cars wedged up against each other at all angles. Jose decided to get around this traffic clot by taking a quick left into a gas station and running through the gas station to come out back onto the street on the other side of the cluster. Only problem with this maneuver was, besides the gas station being extremely narrow, another car was coming into the gas station opposite the way we were trying to exit and we almost had a head on collision. So that was fun.

After we survived the ride back to the hotel, we walked down to Mamashana restaurant nearby and had the best meal up to this point, by far. This restaurant had Taquenos appetizers which were absolutely amazing. They were light, fluffy, Filo-type dough filled with cheese. The entrees themselves were also pretty good. After lunch we walked around a little bit, got some souvenirs and stacked up on snacks and water at a grocery store for our next bus ride. This bus ride was supposed to be 10 hours long! As it turned out, this bus ride was actually more like 11 hours as we left about 3:30 and got in at 2:30. But there was some good views along the way, with the ocean crashing right up against the desert and the setting sun and dust adding color. It was after three by the time we got to our bed. Long day, but good (thankfully we had good food).

White Islands boat tour

Started with breakfast at the hotel, where we had cold eggs and hot milk. The food here is definitely different than what we are used to. Then a two-minute ride to the dock for our boat tour to Balestra Island. But the seas by that island were too rough, so instead we went to the White Islands. These are named the White Islands because they're covered in bird poop, so kind of disgusting and interesting at the same time. There were a lot of different kind of birds there and neat little sea cave we went partially into. On the way there and back we saw a lot of sea lions. Unlike in the Galapogos, these sea lions were in the water, actually moving, not acting like bum sleeping all over town. On the way we also saw the Candelabra geoglyph, which was pretty cool. It was a quick tour. Then we got back on the bus for another 4 hour ride, this time to Nazca. We got to Nazca and Jose met us. He's a young guy who speaks very good English and really seems to know his stuff. He's the best representative we've had so far on this trip. He got us to the hotel in time for dinner, and after last night's food adventure, we decided to just eat at the hotel restaurant. Despite the waiter really not speaking English very well, we actually had a really good meal, sitting out by the small pool. We then went to our room and relaxed before bed. Tomorrow we see the Nazca lines.

Bus to Paracas

This morning we were picked up by a shuttle that took us to the bus station, where we boarding a bus to Paracas. At the bus station we were kind of lost. We did find our way to where they took our bags, but our bags were overweight, the limit is 20kg per person. After we made a futile effort to move enough stuff into our backpacks and generally looked helpless and confused, the agent waived the charge just to get us away from him. There were a few stops on this bus ride and after the1st stop we discovered we were in someone seats, who knew they were assigned? It does show the seat in very small print on the bus tickets. We definitely looked like rookie travelers today. After long (about 4 hours) bus ride a guy met us for the short ride from the station to our hotel-the Paracas Sunset. It was bright and sunny when we got there so we decided to go out by the pool. But when we got out there, the sun was now behind the clouds so we stayed out there in the overcast for a while then decided to get something to eat by the beach. We read up on a couple of restaurants and decided to go to El Galeon because they were supposed to have good scallops. As it turns out the way they make scallions here is kind of disgusting so that didn’t go too well. They serve the scallops on the half shell and you end up tasting their nasty parts, definitely not what we were expecting. The calamari and Spanish rice were good but the shrimp that came with the rice was not. I tried a Pisco and ginger ale drink, which wasn’t great either. It pretty much tasted like flat ginger ale. To complete the experience, we were “waited on“ by two girls who were more interested in their phones than actually paying attention to us. We had to wave our arms and say “Cuenta” so they would give us a check and we could leave. Very disappointing. We then tried to find ice cream, but there was a strange lack of ice cream places in the area, considering it was very much a beachfront/touristy area. The one that we did find wasn’t very good. The cream was just not creamy, so after we each had one sample we passed on the place. We bought a big jug of water and then headed back to the room. Another early night. The weird thing is the sun goes down around six here right now, because it’s almost their winter solstice, so it feels much later than it actually is.

Lima city tour

Today we were scheduled to do a city tour of Lima. They were about 10 minutes late picking us up in the morning. Once we were picked up, we toured the Mayor Plaza, Lima Cathedral and Museo Larco. These were all interesting in their own way. With the lava Cathedral was probably the most impressive. It was very ornate and cool to see. After the tour we had “linner” at Tantas in Larco mar, with a view of the ocean. Food was meh, but the view was really nice. Larco mar Is there a huge restaurant in shopping area. Were you saw a British couple with a 2 liter of water when he asked where they got it? They told us Wongs in the mall so we went back in and bought water there. We then ordered an Uber and waited until it showed up, which was also kind of interesting given the traffic in Lima. When we go back to the hotel Deb napped while I read the paper and listened to a book. We then went out for ice cream (also meh). We then headed back to the hotel to chill before going to bed.

Full day of flying

Highlights of our day flying to Lima: We had a small adventure on the drive to O'hare. We ran into construction traffic and got routed to a lane that was going nowhere. Meaghan and I realized we were in the wrong lane and she was able to get back over to a faster lane. So for a minute or two we thought we might be late but it worked out really well in the end. I think Meaghan was more worried about us making the flight than I was. As it turns out we had plenty of time, even with this happening... I didn’t have pre-check on my boarding pass. Met Deb at gate after going through normal security. I actually wasn't sure what I had to do, it has been years since I went through security with the common folk. At the gate, they were asking for people to check their carry ons and they checked our carry on through to Lima, nice! When I looked at my American Airlines app I saw that I never updated my passport information, so it was showing as expired. That must be why the TSA pre-check didn't get on my ticket. We had a three and a half hour layover in Miami., This allowed us to have lunch at TGI Friday's. All our flights were on time. We found our drive with no trouble. It was a pretty long ride to the hotel, and we got in a little before midnight. The lobby is being remodeled, but otherwise it was a nice hotel.

Last day in Hawaii and trip home

Our last day in Hawaii, Boo! We went back to the Hungry Hono for breakfast and another frappe. For some reason the thin mint frappe did not taste the same as before, we think because a different person made it. Since our flight wasn't until 9:00 at night we had a whole day to explore and generally relax. The first thing we did after breakfast was lay by the pool for a little while until it was checkout time so that Deb could get some color and I could just relax. After that we did a little shopping for souvenirs at Walmart and then went to the Sadie Seymour Botanical Gardens. This was maybe the smallest Botanical Garden in the world, unfortunately there wasn't a lot to see here, but it was free. We checked out the thrift shop right there, but it was a very thrifty thrift shop, everything there was at least 20 years old.

We then went over to a small beach and watched some kids body surfing which was kind of entertaining, we also just kind of relaxed and enjoyed the sea breeze. From there we drove to a farmers’ market where we bought some more souvenirs. From there we walked over to the Kona shopping village and browsed through some shops. It was actually pretty hot, and mall-itis was really starting to hit me. Because of this we decided it was time for early dinner. We ate at the Kona canoe restaurant right on the ocean where we made a meal of happy hour appetizers and finished everything off with mud pie, which was delicious. We lingered there a bit and watched the sun go down. A pretty good way to end our time in Hawaii.

Once we got done with dinner we had to head to the airport and gas up the rental car along the way. Our gate at the airport was open to the outisde on all sides, like a gate patio. Of course, a woman waiting by us told Deb how much she liked her nails. We got on our plane to Seattle on time with no issues, we had a 2-hour layover in Seattle, so we grabbed some breakfast at the airport and waited for our last plane home. Our flight home was interesting at the end as it was very windy in Chicago, so we had a pretty bumpy ride coming in but we got in on time and made it home to our house. 7 flights, 7 airports, 3 rental cars and 2 sons providing airport drop off and pick up, quite a trip. Oh and 4 people told Deb they love her nails, actaully a couple less than I was expecting.

Hawaii is a beautiful place; I am really glad I got to visit. I’m not sure if we’ll be back but if we do return, we will be sure to hit Kauai, as it is supposed to be the most beautiful of all the islands.