Days 8 and 9 – 3/23-3/24/12 – Cusco; Lima

The Ubiquitous Alpaca Picture

Dear Reader, our voyage is coming to an end, and thus is this round of blogging.  Friday and Saturday were travel days, with Friday seeing us head to Lima from Cusco and Saturday seeing us head back to the ATL.  While in many ways my favourite days of this trip due to a lot of solid leisure time with my family, there is little to tell of interest to anyone other than ourselves so I will wrap up this travelogue.  I must say, however, that this trip wildly exceeded expectations.  Peru is a hell of a lot more than just Machu Picchu, with parts of Lima like Miraflores and San Isidro being as beautiful as any urban areas that we have visited.  I did not realize the degree to which Lima has rebounded from the awful civil war and terrorism of the 1980s and early 1990s to become a truly thriving regional economic engine.  Given a reason, I would very seriously consider living here.  Cusco was something else entirely – far more of the Andean capital / Spanish colonial city that I expected and much more in line with places like Quito and Panama than with Lima.  Despite the obvious Andean and Spanish connections, however, the vibe of the town reminded me most of Kathmandu, which really took me by surprise.  I will leave you, dear Reader, with one last though on Peru:  this country has done something that none of the other 30 or so that the Lady and I have been to this century has accomplished.  During this entire trip, we did not hear a single rendition of Hotel California.  Congratulations, Peru – you have broken a streak well over a decade long!  And thus, Dear Reader, I bid you adieu until our next journey.  Until then, I hope your life is well and your travel is smooth!

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Day 2 – 3/17/12 – Lima

I had no idea Lima was so beautiful

Hot Damn!  Gentle Reader, you may have picked up a trend in these pages that as the Blogger and the Lady have progressed in our careers, our trips have become increasingly, well, swanky.  This trip bumps things up quite a bit in that regard, as it is our 10^th anniversary so we did not concern ourselves greatly with economy.  This showed once we cleared customs last night and were met by The Most Interesting Man in the World, Victor, who was our Mr. Wolf for the Lima legs of our trip.  Simply having a guide at all is a huge change from our historical approach of “get free ticket to most random new Delta destination, pick out a couple of places to stay, then wing it,” but with TBJ along for the ride we felt it best to have things pretty well locked down.  We did quite a bit of research, came up with a detailed itinerary, and then realized that every place that we planned to stay (along with the train we planned to take to Machu Picchu) was owned by Orient Express, so we called and got a personalized tour for less than we would have spent had we gone it alone.  This turned out to be a sound decision, paying almost immediate benefits, as customs was a bit of a mess, we had some confusion around where to get our gate-checked stroller, and by the time we made it through arrivals we were rapidly approaching being stressed out.  Victor immediately created order our of chaos, had his people take our bags, and escorted us to our waiting mini-bus for our ride to the hotel.

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Day 1 – 3/16/12 – Atlanta; Lima

Hello again, Dear Reader!  In the words of the one-time sexiest woman alive, time makes you bolder, children get older, and I’m getting older, too.  Evidence of my age abounds, starting with the grey in my hair and continuing through the brace on my knee.  TBJ has gotten older himself, and is not a smiling, running, climbing, flirting 18 month old.  And as for getting bolder, well, the Lady (who remains teimelessly beautiful) and your Blogger are on our way to Peru for vacation with that smiling, running, climbing, flirting 18 month old in tow.  Fortunately, TBJ is a great kid, and in honey badger-like fashion, doesn’t seem to give a shit about very much that befalls him, remaining happy and cheerful almost always (except when he’s not).  This makes the prospect of our days in cities like Lima and Cusco pretty bright.  On the other hand, he’s a toddler, which means that he will hike around Machu Picchu strapped into a backpack on my back.  This will be interesting, and despite several “training” sessions, is fraught with potential for disaster.  Regardless, where your Blogger and the Lady go, so goes TBJ, so the three of us are ensconced in our seats on the way to Lima.

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