Back to Sea Level – Lima Peru
LEGS…HURT…OH-MY-GOD…OUCH.
This morning I slept in a little for the first time since my arrival in Peru. When I get up around 8am I feel like I’ve run a marathon after hiking Machu Picchu Mountain yesterday.
I have a few hours to kill before my 3pm flight to Lima so I spend it hobbling around Cuzco one last time.
My flight from Cuzco to Lima Peru is uneventful and I get to the stunning JW Marriott Lima around 5pm.
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The hotel is beautiful and right across from the beach in the upscale Miraflores neighborhood. It is great to be back in a nice big hotel with a huge bed and hi-speed internet access.
I drop my bags in my room and head across the street to the Larcomar Center on the beach. It’s dinner time and I’m famished.
While at dinner I met Javier, a tax lawyer for the Peruvian government who lives in the neighborhood. He is with his sister and her boyfriend who are going out dancing after dinner in the Barranco neighborhood. It’s just down the beach and they invite me to come along.
I accept and we all have a ball dancing the night away at a salsa club.
The next day the weather is lousy so I take advantage of the morning to catch up on some sleep. I spend a little time checking out Lima that afternoon but fatigue gets the best of me after a few hours.
And before I know it, it’s time to head to the airport again.
KLM: Lima-Bonaire-Amsterdam-Paris
My business-class flight on KLM that night is less than impressive.
It’s an old A330 plane without laptop power ports or power seats. The food isn’t great either but the worst part is the middle of the night stopover in Bonaire (an island off the coast of Venezuela) at 2:00am.
We take off from Lima at 9:30pm and 4 1/2 hours later we land in Bonaire. Everyone has to get off the plane while they change crews, fuel and clean the plane. After an hour in the airport, which consists of one room with enough seats for about half the people on the flight, we re-board the plane at 3:00am for the continuing flight to Amsterdam.
But there is one thing I did like about KLM. They give all business class passengers a cute little gift at the end of the flight. You get to choose a miniature model of one of the old Dutch houses along the canals in Amsterdam and other old-age towns in Holland.
They are each numbered 1 thru 87 (one for each year KLM has been in business). And they even give you a book showing where your particular house is located. It’s such a cute idea and I look forward to collecting more of the houses. It almost makes up for the lousy seats and the hour-long stop. Almost.
We finally arrive in Amsterdam at 5:30pm and I catch a quick flight to Paris for an overnight layover.
Tomorrow – on to Croatia!