We had the last breakfast at our Hospedaje. Every place we go, they have scrambled eggs for breakfast. I normally like eggs but am getting pretty sick of them.
John and I figured that a Hospedaje is a place where you stay with a family.
Now is the perfect time to discuss our luggage woes. Going over all these cobblestones, somehow, I managed to lose the rubber on one of my suitcase wheels. Meanwhile, early in the trip, John’s luggage which has just 2 wheels and works like a rolling duffle bag, had the support bar between the wheels break so the wheels splay outwards instead of being parallel to each other. Whenever he pulls the luggage it starts wobbling from side to side more and more violently until it topples. It takes about 5 strides before the toppling effect occurs which makes for a slow walk anywhere with his luggage. He’s found that it rolls better if he pushes the luggage in front of him.
I think new luggage will be the big item on our Christmas list this year.
We both managed to get our luggage out of the Hospedaje and down the log, pedestrian cobblestone walkway to the main road where our prearranged taxi picked us up. We have been using a company called www.taxidatum.com for airport transfers and they have been great with good prices.
The drive to Cusco was gorgeous but I did get very stressed when we were driving down the narrow, steep streets in Cusco.
We dropped our big suitcases off at our hostel in Cusco. We are only taking our backp
acks for our four days in the Amazon. Our new hostel was also down a long, pedestrian alley but fortunately our taxi driver and the hostel manager hoisted our heavy cases on their shoulders and ran them uphill to our accomodations while John and I huffed and puffed behind…Cusco is at a higher altitude so it really affects us until the body adjusts.
Back in the taxi, we were quick to arrive to the airport which is right in the town. Since we were early, Latam Airlines put us on an earlier flight to Lima which gave us more leeway time to catch our flight to Puerto Maldonado,
They also had really good wifi in the Lima airport (albeit only one free hour of it).
A man with incredibly bad body odor was standing behind me in the line up to board the plane. It was so bad that I had to stop myself from gagging….fortunately he was seated far behind me.
Upon arriving in Puerto Maldonado and exiting the plane onto the tarmac we could immediately feel we were somewhere tropical. I could feel the humidity and a slight scent of smoke was In the air.
The hotel transfer taxi waiting for us. On the short drive to the hotel, we passed some of the largest chickens that I had ever seen.
We are staying at the Copasu Hotel which is quite nice though it’s on a main road so it is a bit noisy outside. People of all ages are on motorcycles. There are also many tuktuks as well as other vehicles.
We went to a recommended Peruvian bbq restaurant called El Anticucho. Google translate was giving us some really sexual menu translations, John opted for the sexiest option and I was also unsure of what I ordered…but it was delicious.
Tomorrow we go into the jungle.
COSTS:
Accommodation in Ollantaytambo: Hospedaje Kuchuwas Backpacker- $18 USD per night
Transfer from Ollantaytambo to Cusco hostal to airport (1.5 hours)- $37 USD with www.taxidatum.com.
Accommodation in Puerto Maldonado: Copasu Hotel- $45 USD per night
Flights from Cusco to Lima then Lima to Puerto Maldonado $75 cad per person