Arrival in CUsco- Wed pm
After our arrival at the Ollantaytambo train station and our minivan ride to Cusco, we got to our hotel, Aranwa Cusco Boutique, at about 7 pm. The hotel facade was unimpressive, but once inside, it was lovely. We checked in quickly, got our room key, the wifi password, and chit for a free pisco sours in the hotel bar. We were led to our room by a porter.
The hotel was like a museum with antique pieces and displays throughout. We were on the second floor (via elevator) and down a long hall to our suite. There was a sitting room and then a separate bedroom with full bath (#225). The sitting room was the size of a typical hotel room. Then through double doors was a large sleeping area with TV, fridge, desk, padded chair, and then into the bath with 2 sinks, separate toilet room, separate shower room, heated towel rack, and claw foot tub with shower wand. Margi took a 2 minute video of the room.
Follow this link to video of our room. (USE BACK BUTTON TO GET BACK HERE)
We described our bags which Vipac dropped off to the porter who went to fetch them. The room felt cool, so Margi tried to work the modern thermostat. When the porter returned with our luggage about 10 minutes later, we asked him to adjust the thermostat to get some heat.
We decided on room service as it has been a long day. We got cerviche and a pizza plus wine. When the server arrived and brought in the food, we asked HIM if he could adjust the room temperature. He basically did the same thing as the porter. After our dinner, we got the extra blanket from the closet and put it on the bed. With the lights in the room and heat in the bathroom, the room has warmed SLIGHTLY but we snuggled in the bed and were fine through the night.
tour in and around CUsco
In the morning, we got up and got ready to meet Al at 9 am. The room was still too cool, but we manage. Margi had a slight frustration because she could not find the sunscreen that she swore she put into her backpack. And then she could not find her ponytail band. After extensive searching we later found the sunscreen in MY backpack and the ponytail band on her wrist.
So, we left for breakfast a little late and stopped at front desk to ask them to check on heat in our room. I WhatsApp Al and told him we would be out at 9:10 am and he was ok with that. The included breakfast buffet was good with hot dishes, fruit, bread, ham, cheese, yogurt, cereal, coffee, make your own waffle, and you could order eggs.
At about 9:05 am, we met Al in the hotel lobby and then got into the minvan to start our full day tour.
We first went to the Saqsaywaman Fortress which was a ceremonial fortress of huge structures overlooking Cusco. Click here to view pics.
Next was a visited to Puca Pucara watchtower which was a gateway in a valley that allowed the Inca’s to control who visited Cusco. Click here to view pics.
Next we visited a Llama farm and store. Margi had fun feeding and petting the llama’s.
We were skeptical of places like this, that guides suggest to you, but this store was impressive and Margi did some serious economic damage here. I was happy because they had a place for me to sit while Margi was shown around by a nice sales lady. After this, we stopped at an Inca tourist souvenir shop, but bought nothing.
Next we visited Qenko, an ancient temple of Puma where Inca’s performed sacrifices. The actual site of these sacrifices was in an underground passageway. Alternatively, Al suggested that it might have been an ancient surgery center.
At this point, it was lunch time and we asked Al if there were any places near our hotel or in central square where we could dine outside. He thought he knew of one. We drove to the central square where Al got out with us and went down one side of the square. Al found the place and bounded up the stairs to find out if the roof top dining area was open. It was, so we agreed to meet at 2:30 pm at our hotel and Al left us.
So, we climbed THREE flights of stairs (and remember that Cusco was actually the highest elevation that we visited) and were the only patrons on the roof. Waitress took our order of hamburgers and wine and took a bit of time to get our drinks. But it was sunny and pleasant and we enjoyed the view.
Our lunch came and was good but neither of us could finish. As we wanted to get back to the hotel for a short nap, I went down and found a waiter to get our check and a take-away box. We planned to give the scraps to one of the many dogs wandering about. I paid with credit card and then we went down three flights to the street. Turned right and walked to next (smaller) square over, around right side, and up street to our hotel. As we walked up the last block to the hotel, we found a dog to give the scraps, but he was a little fussy at first and finally ate it all up after we dumped it out of the take-away box. LOL
When we stepped out of the elevator on the second floor to go to our room, we were hit with a strong chemical smell, like someone was painting with an oil based paint or lacquer. While it was less intense in our room (down a long hall from the elevator), we could still smell it. We closed the doors between the sitting room and the sleeping area which helped and we napped a little.
We met Al in the hotel lobby at 2:30 pm. The original itinerary was for us to do a walking tour of Cusco in the afternoon, but by that point, Al recognized we were walking adverse, so we continued on a walking/minivan tour.
First we visited the San Pedro market, which was great. The market was busy and offered everything from vegetables to coffee to tourist souvenirs to Alpaca clothing and Pisco and coca leaves. We ended up buying some chocolate and some coffee .
Back to the minivan and we took a short drive to the Dominican Convent. This was built upon an Inca temple and still contained some of the original Inca structures inside. It also contained art works from 18th century Peruvian artists and was connected to the actual convent.
We went back into the minivan and we were driven a short distance to the Cusco Cathedral which was on the main square. The cathedral consisted of three naves, one of which was where most of the weddings are held. In the main nave, the largest, they were having a ceremony to renew the flowers in one of the side alters (forgot what it was about). No pics allowed.
Outside the Cathedral, Al asked if we want to walk a bit to see an 11 sided stone. So, we walked uphill to the right of the Cathedral for a few blocks and saw an original Inca wall with an 11 sided stone. On the walk up, Margi tripped on the cobblestones and almost fell except she was able to grab Al’s arm and saved herself.
It is now 4:30 and the tour was over. We were so happy with Al (Alvaro Jimenez Espinoza) from Vipac. He was sensitive to our needs and had a wealth of knowledge and patience. We had been told that $20 per day is the standard for a guide, but we gave him more as we appreciate him so much!! We parted after he maked sure we knew our way to the hotel and he told us that we could contact him on WhatsApp if we needed something during the rest of our stay.
We took a leisurely walk around the perimeter of the Central Square, looking at the shops but not stopping as we have all day tomorrow to shop. Margi was a little cold, so we found a coffee shop with a second floor window overlooking the square and stopped for cappuccino and a piece of lemon meringue pie. At a little after 5 pm, we returned to our room. The chemical smell was still there (we had hoped it would be gone after work for the day stopped). Again, we closed the internal doors in our suite which seemed to help.
After a nap, we decided that neither of us was very hungry so we did a small room service order. One pasta dish to share and some ice cream. While waiting for our dinner, we called the front desk to complain about the chemical odor. They said that they would send someone up
Our dinner arrived in about 25 minutes and we ate on the bed to avoid the worst of the smell. We finished eating, put the tray in the hallway, and as directed, called back down to tell that the tray was ready to be picked up. At about 8:15 pm, the service guy showed up with a fan (small fan on a pole), set it up in the sitting room blowing out, and we prop’d open the door to the hallway with a chair. He said the smell should be gone in an hour.
The smell was getting less and less but we left the fan running and the door open all night!! We plan to speak to manager in the morning.
Friday – our free shopping day in CUsco
As we had no schedule, we didn’t get down to breakfast until about 9 am. Then we went out to shop and explored Cusco some more. We walked down to the Central Square and then down most of the side alleys off the square. We went in and out of interesting shops, with me looking for a place to sit while my better half shopped until she dropped. By the end of the day, we had successfully completed our gift buying. At one of stops at our hotel, we stopped at the front desk and asked to have all our extra hotel charges (2 room service and laundry) comp’d due to the persistent chemical smell. The manager was not available so we asked that he be informed and we would stop back later.
Here are pics from around Cusco streets.
We had lunch in the small square below our hotel, sitting outdoors. The lunch came with a “free” pisco sour. Margi got a hamburger and I got alpaca. All good. Again, we took our leftover meat and found a deserving dog in the Central Square. We also stopped during the day at a small bakery which was just at the end of the block from our hotel and we got an afternoon cappuccino and pastry.
When we got back to the hotel, we met with the manager. He did not seem to have gotten our message and started by saying that the smell was now all gone. I explained that we were glad the smell was all gone but we were leaving in just 12 hours and had been suffering with it for the previous 48 hours. I asked that he consider comp’ing all our extra charges and he agreed to look into it. About one hour later, he called to say all room charges have been removed from our bill. I THINK that when he found that the room charges were a relatively small amount, he was fine with it.
Come dinner time (7 ish), we weren’t very hungry and didn’t want to do room service as they had already comp’d everything, so we got a small bite at the bakery at the end of the street (where we had coffee earlier). It actually had a full kitchen/dining area in the back. Margi had pizza and I had a salad, both good.
As this was our last night in Cusco, we packed our luggage back up. Margi had a collapsible soft bag and got all of our purchases into it. She planned to carry this on our plane trip tomorrow. We were scheduled to be picked up at 6 am and found that breakfast does not start until 6 am, but the hotel would pack us a box breakfast. But, we got a call from Vipac person saying that they would delay pickup until 6:15 am so that we could get breakfast.
On Saturday morning, we got up early, closed our luggage, and brought our own luggage (on wheels) down by front desk. We left luggage there and got to breakfast at 6 am but they were still setting up. We got something to eat and then went to lobby to meet Vipac person and minivan to airport. The trip to airport was about 20 minutes through surprisingly heavy traffic. The Vipac rep went with us into the terminal to help us check in. As we were walking in, the minivan driver ran up as I had forgotten my backpack in the minivan. I was SOOO grateful as the backpack contained most of our spare cash, our passports, and my camera. OOPS!!
Vipac rep did all the check-in stuff, gets luggage tags for Iquitos, and stayed with us until our luggage was taken by the airline. As we were familiar with the airport, we said goodbye to our Vipac rep, went through security, and found the correct gate to wait for our 8:35 am flight to Lima (and then onto Iquitos).
Hit back button and select Amazon.