Pisco Sour, dealing with hustlers, and peruvian prices

The plane flight to Peru wasn't that bad. TACA airlines is far superior to anything in the US. They were giving out not bad for airplane food breakfast omelets and free alcohol drinks. It was about 5 hours to San Salvador, which has the dubious distinction of having the highest murder rate per 100,000 people. After a 2 hour layover, it was a 4 hour flight to Lima. At Lima, we were picked up by the Hotel San Antonio Abad for free. The accommodations were ok...some of the thinnest walls in the world. We were tired from traveling so we decided to et some food and then pass out. Lima has the hustle and bustle of an industrializing city with the air to go along with it. Still not as bad as China or even Havana. We ate at an overpriced Italian restaurant with mediocre pizza and tried yuca fritas served with mayo. It was here that AL tried and fell in love with the national drink of Peru, the Pisco Sour. It's a limey tasting drink with frothy egg whites on top of it...totally to her tastes. American franchises I noticed in Miraflores. Dunkin' Donuts, McDonald's, Pizza Hut, Papa John's and Starbucks were everywhere.

The flight to Cuzco from Lima was really expensive. $802.00, but there is no direct flight to Cuzco from he Bay. You have to go through Lima. Cuzco is high up in the mountains and yours truly is prone to motion, altitude, and whatever other sickness is out there. So to deal with it, I followed local customs and traditions...coca. In the tea form and the candy form. It's a lil energizer. AL really liked the pick me up but I didn't feel any huge difference. I blame it on my 20s.

When we got to our hostel in Cuzco, we were met there by a hustler. The taxi driver actually handed us off to him and told us that the guy would take care of us. AL and I figured he was working for the Hostel with the way he came in and ordered tea for us and sat us down at the table. He started talking to us and wrote up a list of things for us to do in the short time we were in Cuzco. He also reserved train tickets to Aguas Caliente for us. Anyways, the duded wanted to charge us $900 to do a tour of the Sacred Valley, take a train to Aguas Caliente and all the tourist stuff. I was like "No Way! Too Expensive!" Then he started lowering him price to $700. All the warning signs were going off so I had to ditch the guy. I said I had to go to my room and settle in 1st. There we checked prices in Lonely Planet and came back down to the guy to say no way. Then he wanted $225 for each of us. I said no and the guy started getting belligerent. He started asking me if I was an adult or was I a serious person. So now the guy was starting to insult me. I told him to cancel the ticket and he said it was impossible. Yeah, right! I said let's go the train station and he said he wanted $50 per person to go to the train station. I laughed and said no way. Now the dude was really pissing me off. So I said let's go tot he tourist agency on Avenida del Sol and see if the prices were right, knowing there was no way he'd go to the government agency. We started to walk that way and on the way I stopped a white guy and asked him if he'd been up to Machu Picchu and how much did he pay. The guy was part of a tour, but he was saying the price on his ticket was $8. I knew that was too low but a lot better sounding than $225. After that, I knew the guy's hustle was completely blown. I got that wonderful feeling that I get when someone's gig is up. Then I was all about going to the tourist agency. Dude sarted cursing at me and it brought a smile to my face. Sweet Schadenfreude.

So when we got to the train station we could only get on a train from Ollantaytambo which is a little Incan city 2 hours away from Cuzco. Tickets from there to Aguas Caliente were $129 for the both of us. Wayyyyy better deal. The lady at the train counter also told us that there were already tickets in our name and they would have to be canceled and the guy would have to pay a 10% cancellation fee. Sweet Sweet Schadenfreude! The guy lost money talking to us.

To tour the Sacred Valley in Cuzco you have to buy a general ticket which cost 130 Nuevo Soles or roughly $46. Travel Tip: Things get cheaper and more negotiable for the same service the farther you are from the main tourist area. The Plaza de Armas is the main area and so I checked out prices there and walked away from that area. One of the things about Cuzco is that it's really high up in the mountains. 10,800 feet. I have never popped more ibuprofen in my life. We found a place called mapi trek peru that cost 60 NS or about $21. Once again, way better than the $25 per person our hostel was going to charge us and infinitely better than what the hustler wanted.