Peru - Day 5 {Rude Awakening}

We were looking forward to a couple of hours relaxing in the lodge before our motorboat ride back to Puerto Maldonado but we never got our wake up call so we were totally running late. I was a little sad about how things worked out. We grabbed a quick breakfast, ornament from the gift shop, tried to buy a decor item and failed, and snapped a quick picture of our cute room key. We were sad to leave. I had to fight back the tears which is totally ridiculous. It was just such a cool experience and we loved every minute of it.

Our cute sloth key

A farm along the river

Fray and Dino

Puerto Maldonado

We stopped by Inkaterra's lodge and Butterfly House in town to get our luggage and boarding passes, and check out the Butterflys. Then we headed to the airport. Inkaterra really does provide 5 star service. Dino stayed with us at the airport until we went through security to make sure everything went okay. I wish the rest of our time in Peru had been 5 star!!!

A Monarch butterfly at Inkaterra's Butterfly House

Another cool butterfly

Of course our flight to Cusco was delayed. And of course our hotel did not have a taxi there to pick us up. And of course we missed our tour for the day because of the delays. We were missing Inkaterra already. Our first impression of Cusco was not a good one. Not only did our hotel not send someone to pick us up but we didn't know which taxi company to use which resulted in a very stressful situation. We ended up getting totally ripped off by a taxi driver and there was nothing I could do about it because I felt like he was the only safe taxi driver and he knew it. I was super mad and hated Cusco already. When we finally got to our hotel the altitude hit us hard even though we had been taking pills for altitude sickness. Our room was on the 3rd floor and there was no elevator. We just about died taking our luggage up the stairs. The hotel had told us via email they could book tours for us so I asked the girl at the front desk to book us on a city tour the next day and it was like pulling teeth trying to get her to help me. I couldn't believe it. I was so bugged. I really wasn't liking Cusco or the 3 star service! We decided to walk around the main plaza and as soon as we stepped out of our hotel (it was right on the main plaza) we ran into our friends from our group in the Amazon! We were so excited to see them. We all decided to tour the main cathedral together and were able to share a guide. The cathedral was super cool and Danny and I especially liked the artwork. I hate that you can't take pictures inside!! When we came out of the cathedral it was dark and the city looked beautiful.

Cusco's Plaza de Armas

The cathedral

Our friends from the amazon minus Doug (he's taking the picture)

Our friends had already eaten dinner but we hadn't so we decided to grab some dessert/dinner at a pizza place nearby. As we were eating in the upstairs restaurant a stray dog came inside sniffed my food and proceeded to enjoy the salad bar! Gross! I couldn't believe it. It's miracle we didn't get sick on our trip.

We tried to get a good nights sleep since our tour the next day didn't start until 1:30pm but there were people partying in the plaza ALL night long. June is a month long festival in Cusco and they take their festivals very seriously! I wish I would have know so we could have stayed a little farther from the plaza.