Landed in Lima after a good flight and all bags counted for. Now, a bit nervous as we had a lot of boat stuff in our bags and should really pay tax on them although we are a yacht in transit. Peru has a million ways to get money out of you.
So walking slowly through the airport, scanning who is watching and trying to judge the right moment to go through….and we picked it. The scary looking woman was busy with somebody else and we legged it, me being soooo interested in what the kids had to say. Phew.
Weather still grey although not so cold. Had to clean the flat few times from dust and soot and we were back.
Popped over to La punta next day but didn’t have access to the key as the guy who looked after the boat wasn’t there….no prob.
Back next day and I must say, wasn’t awfully impressed with his job. Yes, the sofa cushions were cleaned but it was a lot of bird shit ( although this amount was nothing to the next one I didn’t know about yet), and he had cleaned the nuts and bolts of the mast with some kind of acid which left marks on the mast, chris NOT happy.
Anyway, overall ok.
The following week I booked up our Cusco trip. We had to get a move on if we were to see all we wanted. I asked the kids if they wanted to fly or take a bus. BUS! They all shouted. Great, cheaper for us.
We booked with Cruz del sur, an excellent bus company. The VIP seats are like business class on a plane, you get to choose your dinner and breakfast, how cool is that? And movies to choose from on your individual tv screen. Who cares if the buss trip will take 23h…?
Booked Airbnb for the first few legs of the trip with Javiers help, he was amazing to find me all these places. So all good? Not….
5 days before the bomb was dropped again by customs. Paperwork old, must start again, go out 200 nm. WTF!
I just cried. I didn’t want to do another pointless trip. I would have to cancel all my bookings and loose a lot of money on that…..we had enough. We were ready to just chuck it all in, sail back to Ecuador, whatever but this and more money.
So the plan came to this. Sail back to Ancon, a few hours away from Lima. Stay there. Chris will do this with few other people. I will stay here in the flat and pack. Turn the AIS off( they can track you on that) and come back on the Monday as our boat can sail super fast, she is a swan after all….as long as nobody starts to calculate how fast we had sail….
Our bus was leaving 2 pm on that Monday, Cris turned up at the flat as we were leaving with Javier with minutes to spare. Jeez, stressful!
Finally we were on our way to see Peru. Luxury to just sitt and watch movies, kids on iPads, food served and then cosy down for the night under a fluffy duvet.
Sometimes in the night we started to climb up and over the Andes. Curving and swinging….needless to say, Alice was sick as dog, Charlie just once and James was up and down to the toilet, puking…..the journey took 23h and in the end of it James said I had ruined his life. Alice couldn’t even speak….oh well, they chose.
First glimpse of the Andes…..beautiful.
In Cusco we found our Airbnb, got a lovely welcome with hot coca tea and comfy beds. What wasn’t advertised was that part of the roof was missing in the lounge area. Bloody freezing, try to sit and watch tv then. We all felt a bit dizzy, headachey and of course tired so didn’t do anything the first day. 
The next day we went to coricancha museum. Basically it used to be an Inca temple and when the Spanish came they built a church over it. You can see the beautiful stone work of the Incas at the bottom….
Cusco is a beautiful city. Built in a valley that used to be a lake a long time ago….
The next day we took a journey even higher up in the Andes, to a little community called Chawaytire…..
moodyfinn 