Peru: Day 7 (back in Cuzco)

On our last day in Peru, we woke up rested and refreshed after a good night's sleep. The free breakfast buffet at the Casa Andina seemed better the second time around, with quinoa cakes, small pancakes, toast made from round Peruvian bread (quite good), yogurt, cereal, and more.

After checking out and leaving our luggage, we headed up the hill towards San Blas, in a quest to buy some alpaca clothing. We ended up stopping at a store along the way, and making a very large purchase (I think six or seven people ended up buying things), with lots of bargaining. Sweaters which were originally quoted at 65 soles ended up being around 35 soles in the end, and gloves that were originally 28 soles ended up being 15 soles. I'm sure we could have done better if we had spent more time and effort, but we were already quite happy with the prices at that level.

We spent some time in the San Blas Square itself, where there were lots of street stands selling souvenirs. At one point we even walked into a small courtyard that looked like part of someone's house, but there was a souvenir shop there, too:


Afterwards, we walked back through the Plaza de Armas (dropping off our purchases at the hotel along the way) and returned to the Plaza de San Francisco. For lunch, we decided to graze off of the food stands in the Mercado Central:


D ordered a chicken plate that came with soup, salad, and rice, and only cost 3 soles total. I myself picked up a few more tamales (and confirmed that I liked the sweet ones better than the salty ones), and then we ordered a plate of mixed ceviche to share.

For "dessert", we bought fresh fruit/veggie juice from this woman:


We had been hovering in the area of the juice stands for awhile, when suddenly a random guy told us in English that we should order from one particular woman, and that he would tell her what to make us. It turned out that he was American but had been living in Cuzco for about 6 months, and he was showing his visiting friends around. Anyway, he said a few things to the juice vendor in Spanish, told us to pay her 12 soles, and then left, as she started to cut up ingredients. Every so often she would hold something up, like a carrot or beet, to confirm that we wanted it. The entire process took quite a long time, and in the end, the drink contained mango, pineapple, orange, banana, beets, carrots, alfalfa, bee pollen, maca powder, honey, and a mystery “extract”. (There may have been some additional fruits that I'm forgetting.) Anyway, it sounds terrible but was actually very tasty. We drained 5+ glasses and paid her 15 soles (the price seemed not very well determined and I didn't have any change).

After eating, we walked back to our hotel to catch a taxi to the airport (10 soles per van, 2 vans for 13 people). While we were waiting, I ran back up towards San Blas to buy some Peruvian pastries. I ended up with a pretty good apple tart, a much-too-sweet chocolate cake, and an extremely delicious caramel-filled, chocolate-glazed puff pastry. I ate half of it on the spot.

We got to the airport in plenty of time, so we were able to deal with the cancelled return tickets; the first of our many hurdles on our way home. I finished off my last few soles by buying a bottle of pisco for my coworkers (they had free samples at the duty-free shop!) and some Britt candy. Two delays, one rebooking, and 32 hours later, we arrived at home.

Later we joked that the four-day hike had been less tiring than the long trip back. It had certainly been much more rewarding!