We enter the final hours of my grand adventure. I awoke early in Cusco and had breakfast of Juevos Rancheros.
I checked at the local airline office and found my ticket had been moved to earlier in the day. It was scheduled to leave in 3 hours for Lima. I told the agent that I would head over to the airport soon. She instructed me to hurry and that she would call the gate to preprint my ticket. Of course I then hurried to the airport only to get through security and wait another 2 hours.
On the plane back to Lima I met a couple of solo travelers and agreed to meet them for a drink in the Mirasflores district of city. I left my luggage at the airport and followed them to their hotel, which was basically a family’s house downtown
They had a table just like one I had back in my place in the States
One of the travelers was a woman from Equador and another a gentleman from Spain. The guy from Spain did not speak English, so the Equadorean woman played translator (she spoke English). It was awkward because whenever she went to the bathroom, we just looked at each other until someone said something like, “this room is big, no?” or, “I like the green wall”. We bummed around the city taking pictures
We ran into a outdoor festival where they were serving all of Peru’s favorite dishes including Guinea Pigs
After dinner we went into the bar district. As we crossed a street this huge fat man called over to me and gave me a hug. He asked how long I had been in town and how it was good to see me again. I fumbled a bit not sure what to make of the situation. He asked about a mutual friend, I assume, and then asked if I needed the green or white stuff. I said I would think about it and get back to him. I am sure it was a routine they use to avoid looking like street drug dealers but it pretty much freaked me out as I thought he was gunna drag me into an alley and rape me.
Eventually we ended up in a bar to watch a soccer match between the 2 best teams in Peru. It ended 2-1 as someone scored in the last seconds. The whole area went ape shit, with half the people celebrating and half looking like the were gunna start flipping cars in anger.
We quickly exited and found a German Beer Hall. This place was hilarious because you had all these little Peruvians dressed as the Von Trapp family
We drank too much and spent the night playing some stupid game involving the mouth of an alligator. Of course we found it increasingly entertaining.
We closed the night at a dance club
I crashed at their place until 6 am when I made a made dash for the airport after a brief altercation with the landlord over compensation for my spending the night at his house. I made the plane and was happy to be on my way back to the States. Looking back, I had a few mishaps but considered myself extremely fortunate to stay on schedule.
In a few months I will be coming back to Peru to explore the Amazon, and that will be one of my greatest challenges thus far. “You gotta test yourself everyday”. Oh, and par for the course I came back sick and could barely function for 2 weeks, hence the delay in the this blog reaching the press.
Until Next Time
Darren
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