Our delicious breakfast spread - delivered to our table!
View of Cusco from our hotel
On July 6 we had a morning flight to Lima. We were picked up by a crazy driver - Taxi Willy. He kept giving Brad lots of suggestions on where to take me, which was nice, but he kept laughing about El Parque del Amor (the park of love). We stayed in a nicer area of Lima this time, called Miraflores. We had a nice dinner after checking into our hotel - the portions were HUGE though! We walked around downtown for a while. The weather in Miraflores was not great. We could see the ocean from our hotel, but just barely because of all the fog. It was also cloudy and rainy.
On July 7 we took a bus from Lima to Paracas, a tiny and remote area in the desert and on the ocean. We sat on the top deck of a huge luxury-type bus. We got a meal and watched a movie. The bus station in Paracas was seriously tiny - it was one room with no walls but a roof and some plastic chairs. We had a hard time finding our taxi, but eventually we did. We stayed at the Paracas Doubletree hotel, which is the NICEST hotel I've ever stayed at!!! They have a gorgeous pool along the ocean, with beautiful beach chairs and umbrellas. Our room faces the ocean! I think Brad decided to spoil me with this hotel at the end of the trip, knowing how tired I'd be. Because the weather here was similar to Miraflores, we didn't get to enjoy the beach or pool, but we spent lots of time in the hot tub. I would LOVE to come back and stay at this hotel again during our winter (their summer). This was one of the first beds that was comfy and we actually had pillows that didn't feel like flat pancakes!!!
Heading to Paracas!
Paracas "bus station"
Paracas area
Our sweet hotel room! Notice the balcony there ...
Our living room!
View from our balcony!
Part of the pool
Hot tub
Rest of the pool - love it!
On July 8 we got a shuttle from our hotel down to the boat docks. We were taking a boat out to the Ballestas Islands, where tons of birds, penguins, and sea lions spend time on the islands. Since it's winter and bit chilly, there weren't hundreds of sea lions, but we definitely saw 10-15 of them! It was so neat! And amazing to see penguins in a warm climate (they were humboldt penguins). We also got to see a carving in the sand side of a mountain that was similar to a nazca line, but thought to be made by pirates. We did not get to go down to Nazca to see the Nazca lines on this trip - maybe next time!
The boat going to the islands
Our boat tour guide
Pirate symbol in the sandy mountainside
Ballestas islands!
Birds everywhere!!
And penguins!
And sea lions!
Hard to see - but inside this cave area are tons of sea lions relaxing on the rocks out of the wind!
That afternoon we took a bus back to Miraflores. We spent the next day exploring more of Miraflores and got a few souvenirs of food we liked at the grocery store. We also walked to Larcomar, a mall mostly outside and on a cliff overlooking the ocean. It's pretty pricey but neat to walk around and see! We had lunch overlooking the ocean - Brad finally got his ceviche! We also walked through El Parque del Amor, thanks to Willy's suggestion. It was weird to see so many couples kissing while tourists, locals, and kids just walked past them!
The ocean - got to see lots of surfers!
El Parque del amor!
Yep - it's a huge statue of people kissing!
Along the walking path on the ocean, there were tons of little work-out stops like this! Crazy!
Brad's ceviche lunch!
Larcomar Mall!
We also walked down to the shopping area. We got some Pinkberry (my favorite!) and Brad stopped and "made" a Pisco drink - like a wine cooler - free sample.
At 6pm we took a taxi to a park with tons of fountains that are lit up at night. Some of them are interactive and you can walk through/under them. We LOVED this park and wish we would have had more time there.
Surprisingly, he didn't get wet really at all...
Not wet at all!
This fountain is an illusion - the water is actually shooting UP into the center!
Big fountain #2 with the light show!
Fountain #1 holds a world record for being the tallest fountain!
Kiddie play fountain
At 7:45 a taxi picked us up at the park, brought us to our hotel so we could grab our luggage, and brought us to the airport. It was time to go home. Or so we thought....
At the airport, we had a horrible experience. We waited in line to check in at the counter for over an hour! We learned that our flight to Florida was delayed by an hour, meaning we would likely miss our connection to Chicago. Our flight left at midnight - an hour late. Neither of us got any sleep over the red eye flight - Spirit planes are tiny and squished and the seats were rock hard. We ended up landing in Florida at about 6:30am. At a normal flight, you would be able to run and make the connection, but unfortunately we had to go through customs, etc., so we missed it. We got to the ticket counter feeling upset but hopeful - it was, after all, 7 in the morning and surely we could catch another flight easily.
Well, we found out Spirit only had two other flights to Chicago that day - 4pm and 8pm! I started crying. I was so tired and just wanted to get home. Here it was 7 in the morning and we couldn't leave until 4pm!?!?! But the news got worse - the 4pm flight was overbooked! The 8pm flight was full too, so she could get us out the next day at 7am. I was in shock - stranded at the Florida airport? I wanted to go home!!!!!! Oh, and more good news - since the original delay was due to weather, we couldn't get anything from them - no meals, hotel, taxi, etc. Great.
Well, I cried more and Brad started arguing a little. Finally we argued our way into a hotel and 3 meals each. The woman said she could put us on standby for the 4pm flight, but it didn't look good. We couldn't go on standby for both. So if we didn't get on the 4pm flight, we had to come back out to the ticket counter and get on standby for the 8pm. We left frustrated but hopeful. We used one of our vouchers to get breakfast, then went to our hotel and took a much needed nap. The hotel was really nice, and when we woke up we spent some time outside in the hotel pool and hot tub.
We got to the airport around 3pm to check in and wait to see if we could get on the 4pm flight. We used another vouchers for a late lunch. We did NOT get on the flight. There were four other people waiting on standby, and only one of us got on. We quickly ran out to the ticket counter, wanting to be first on the list for the 8pm flight. Brad seriously has no vacation days left after this trip, so he really couldn't afford to miss another day of work. We were #2 and 3 on the standby list. We used our final vouchers on dinner, then waited around. The 8pm flight got delayed, as did every other Spirit flight at the airport. I will not fly Spirit again...
But good news - we got on the 8pm flight!!! Funny how that ended up being good news, when I was originally soooo upset about missing our 7am flight. But I seriously just wanted to get home. We were in dirty clothes, hadn't slept in 24 hours, sick of traveling... We got into Chicago around 11pm and had to get our car at our hotel. Poor Brad had to drive the two hours home - I stayed awake to help keep him awake. By the time we got home, got our stuff inside, and went to bed, it was about 3am. I got to sleep in the next day, but Brad HAD to go to work. Poor guy.
So that was our trip. It was a great trip, but tiring. I have never traveled for so long before, and didn't realize how tiring it would be. We saw some great sights. There were some things we didn't get to do that we would definitely do if we had the chance to go back. If you ever go to Peru, I have lots of tips and recommendations, so be sure to let me know!
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