Nov 4 Cuzco to Lima and Goodbye Arzu!

And again we are up early. The mess in the room is still big and our taxi to the airport is coming at 6:40. We hardly manage now to get everything inside our bags, but still we are outside and ready to get back to sealevel in time.

The airport is crowded with people and we are not sure whether we will manage to get to the front of the line before check-in stops. Luckily we find 3 self-check-in machines and we try to get boarding passes. For me it works, but Arzu cannot be checked in. So I wait in line at the baggage drop off and she is trying to find someone to help her. The lady tells her to go to counter 69, but in the 25 min she is there, there is nobody helping the about 20 people in line. When I am almost at the front, she joins me again and then she gets a boarding pass without any issues. Puh, that was close. We were already thinking about how to get to Lima on a different flight.

Once we land, Arzu is breathing the nice humid air of the sea, she is very happy and I have to admit that also my body also enjoys the amount of oxygen it is getting all of a sudden.

We grab a cab and let us drive to my hotel. It is in Miraflores, but the street is under construction, so we have to drag our things through the dirt for the last couple of meters. The room is not ready yet, but we can leave the luggage. First I need to find a laundry service and I am once again crazy bag lady. I could wash the stuff myself, but would be stuck there all afternoon, so I decide on the luxury service of having them do it for me - like I did all my vacation. I never had the chance to do it myself so far.

We have lunch and then want to do some shopping. I need some fancy shoes for a meeting in Boston on Wed night and Arzu can always shop :)

We go to Larcomar, one of the coolest shopping malls in Lima with a view of the ocean. Unfortunately it is very misty and so we don't see much. There are mostly small shops and lots of restaurants. So we are done fast without finding anything. We go to Starbucks and research other malls, let the taxi driver drive us there and are amazed. This is huge and has more than what we are asking for. After some fruitless attempts I find boots and am very happy. Luckily our luggage is already full, otherwise we could spend a lot of money here.

Going back to Larcomar, we pick a nice restaurant with a now clearer view of the ocean and celebrate Arzu's last supper... With Pisco Sour, the Peruvian national drink. I think we have more than what is good for us, stupid happy hour :)

When we get up and go to the hotel, we are both drunk!

Arzu gets in the taxi to the airport and I try to find the laundry service again where literally all the clothes I am not wearing, are. Luckily. I find it and luckily I didn't bring any money with me or I would have gone for a haircut right then and there, which might have looked funny, a drunk non-Spanish native trying to explain what she wants.