Una Visita al Mercado

Today was a pretty laid back day as we needed to make sure we we're rested and ready for our big day tomorrow.  

We had breakfast at the hotel which was a lovely buffet spread. 

I had a bowl of mouthwatering fresh watermelon (delivered straight from the kitchen,  not risking the buffet since they also had pineapples) and this yummy beetroot, cucumber and watermelon juice along with my main breakfast.

At breakfast, I was slightly annoyed by this guy at the table across from ours who seemed to be on a video call with no headphones/ear pods. When I mentioned it to Ny, who had gone to breakfast ahead of my sleepy self, she said he'd been like that since before she sat down.  Fast forward to after breakfast when we saw his friend sitting outside - I commented on his Thai tattoos, then we asked if he was a travel blogger or something as we noticed the other guy was on Instagram live the entire time we were at breakfast- turns out they are. Tatted guy is named Brodie and no ear pod guy is a friend he made who took Brodie's course on being a digital nomad. You can follow him here if you're interested Brodie's Insta - not the live at breakfast guy but his friend

After breakfast we wandered off in search for the San Pedro Central Market (Mercado Central de San Pedro) to take a peek at options outside of what we've seen in the City Centre. Turns out that just beyond the Plaza San Fransisco archway (pictured below) was the kind of market I was looking for. There's a bigger one in Sacred Valley but that's a bit of a drive away.

I would call it a successful market day - grabbed a few odds and ends.  My most important purchase was a stuffed alpaca that I wanted for photos. There we so many options but I finally found the perfect little guy - blog post coming about how I chose his name!

After the market, we head back towards the Plaza de Armas and found a nice looking steakhouse for a late lunch. 

It was delicious! I could only eat half of my humongous burger 🍔 😋 😅

All in all, a good day in Cusco and an early night as we prepare for our full day adventure to Machu Picchu!

La Vida es un Viaje

Life is a trip

So far the theme to this one seems to be "delay' 😅🫣 but in addition to being a trip, life is also good so no complaints. 

Our flight from Lima to Cusco was delayed - and we didn't find out until it was time to board 🙃

Thankfully, the Jorge Chavez International Airport was pretty comfortable and also had this beautiful graffiti artwork to enjoy as we waited.  

I had grabbed a few things from one of the shops once we had cleared security (which was much easier than some other countries).

Time passed pretty quickly and we were back en route in no time. 

Pro-tip: If you're ever travelling on LATAM Airlines and have the option to upgrade, I'd say go for it.  We scored seats in row 2 and with the upgrade they automatically block out the middle seat.  

Anyway, the views on the short one hour hop were beautiful 😍 so many mountains that were literally right there.  

We arrived safely in Cusco in no time at all and thankfully had no immediate issues with the altitude 🙌🏽🙏🏾

I felt like a real VIP with our prehired driver waiting for us with my name on a sign 😅. 

The ride to the hotel was enjoyable- we communicated with our driver,  Bruce, through Google Translate on his phone lol. 

Later in the evening, we ventured down to Plaza de Armas which is the city centre. We picked up SIM cards and then decided to come back to the hotel for dinner. 

You can see it's a pretty steep walk down so we caught an Uber back up to the hotel. 

Alpaca was on the menu- literally lol

Ny and I both decided on mocktails as alcohol isn't recommended until after you've acclimatised.

I enjoyed my cucumber ginger refreshing drink and the alpaca wasn't bad either! Somewhere between beef and lamb I'd say 🤔

Pretty good for a first night in Cusco!

Layover in Lima

We've arrived safely!

The flight wasn't too bad - we had a delayed start and then some turbulence here and there but overall it was fine.  It's late and I'm tired so catch up tomorrow.

Xo Nai/Maia

The {Very Delayed} Adventures of Ny and Nai

Hey, hey! Welcome back- it's been a while. 

As you probably noticed, I did not do a great job of keeping the blog updated on my last international trip.  My bad! You should see my drafts though lol... maybe I'll have time to go through everything and fix it with my newfound freedom 🙌🏽

If you're here, you most likely know of the drama that was my last summer break- thank you for the COVID, Place-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named 🫠🙄😷🤒🤧.

Because of that lovely end of year gift,  Ny and I were forced to cancel our trip after initially pushing it back with hopes I'd be over COVID in about a week.  Boy, was that estimate wrong 😩.

Anyhooooo- fast forward to this year,  we're finally on our way to PERU 🇵🇪!!!! 🎉🎉🎉

Plans have changed a little bit,  starting with a quick hop to Florida to drop off the Marley girl for her summer visit with Grandlady and Uncle.  Following that,  Ny <del>chauffeured</del> drove to Miami where we at long last boarded our flight to Lima, Peru.

After a short delay on the tarmac, we are currently en route. 

It is my hope that I'll stay on top of the blog this time, so please stay tuned...