Ciao, Cusco!
I don´t know how it happened, but we wound up spending lots more time in the Cusco area than we had planned. Considering we already had mixed feelings about the place already (pretty nice city, but the harassment on the street is very tiresome), our last 24 hours in Cusco really sealed a very negative view for us.
On Sunday, we left the jungle at 6 in the morning and travelled all day to arrive in Cusco around 7:30 p.m. Karen already mentioned how terrible our meals were all week in the jungle (I´m still trying to regain my appetite). In Cusco we had a very so-so Chinese meal and then headed "home" to the hotel that we had stayed at on 3 different occasions for a total of 11 nights and we wanted to stay just one final night. So we show up at the hotel at 9 p.m. only to find out that the hotel is full and they gave our room away! Talk about loyalty. We had confirmed 3 times before we left for the jungle that we wanted one more night and that we might be late arriving. What happened is that other people arrived wanting to stay 5 nights which clearly trumped our 1 night stay so it was easy for them to give our room away. Of course, no one would take responsibility for erasing our names and a mysterious "new boy who works on the weekends" was blamed. Well, after travelling all day we were tired and irritable and just wanted a room. Fortunately they found us a room just down the block that wound up being just as good and saved us some money as well, but still. Very annoying for us to stay at one hotel 3 times and then get dumped so easily. Oh, did I also mention that this hotel charged us for requesting extra pillows on a previous checkout? They didn´t tell us when we asked for the pillows, only when checking out.
But worse was yet to come...
The new hotel had a good breakfast which was just as well because our final lunch and dinner in Cusco were both fairly terrible.
On Monday, we had a bus to Arequipa (where we are now) at 8:45 p.m. Since our clothes smelled like jungle, we needed a wash and were debating whether to do the laundry in Cusco or wait until Arequipa. Well, we had used one lavanderia twice already with no problems so we decided to go with them again (despite Lonely Planet´s recommendation to never trust your laundry on the last day in any town). We dropped off at 10 a.m. and they said it would be ready by 6 p.m. (like the previous two times). We go back at 6 and they say "no, we said 7". OK, a lie, but still 7 was no problem for us. At 7 I go back to get the laundry and it´s not there and now the story emerges that some machine broke or something and they had to wait for someone to fix it. OK, but why did no one mention this at 6? Anyway, I stress to her that we have a bus to catch at 8:45 and have to be at the bus station at 8:30. She absolutely 100% guarantees me that the clothes will be there at 8 on the dot. I tell her I don´t care if the clothes are wet, dry, not clean, whatever, we just need the clothes at 8.
At 8, we go back. No clothes, no lady. I talk to some other lady who says the other lady went to the laundry place (it wasn´t done on site) at 7:15 and it´s supposedly only 15 minutes away. But no one can tell me where this lady is or where our clothes are. 8:15, still no sign. Now we go back to the hotel and do some crisis calls to the bus company and the tour company we bought our bus tickets from to see if we can hold the bus for a few minutes and to at least let them know we were still coming. Now it´s getting down to crunch time and we have to decide between leaving all our laundry behind (not really an option) or forgoing our $60 bus tickets to Arequipa and leaving the next night. Neither an appealing option. 8:30, still no sign. Finally, at 8:45 the lady shows with our laundry. She looked like I should treat her as some sort of savior for delivering the clothes! Although frankly, I still don´t know what we would have done if she didn´t show up at just that moment. I didn´t have time to get the story from her as to what happened (it would have just been more lies anyway) so I just grabbed the bags of laundry, gave her a piece of my mind, and then ran back to the hotel. Jumped in the next taxi and threw all our bags in and gave the classic line "bus station, and step on it. Extra tip if you get us there in 5 minutes or less". Well, fortunately we managed to make it but with, oh, just a wee bit of stress and much headache. At the bus station we were a bit out of sorts so Karen´s backpack almost got left behind and she also dropped her money belt which fortunately someone spotted. Fun times all around.
We didn´t have time to check our laundry when we got it as we had to get to the bus station. So when we arrived in Arequipa the next day and finally checked we realized we were missing: my quick-dry towel, Karen´s swimsuit, and HALF of all the underwear that Karen brought on this trip. So we must have lost well over $60 worth of stuff due to the lavanderia´s mess-up. In return, though, we did manage to get someone else´s t-shirt and a lonely sock that isn´t ours. Fair trade?
So, as you can see, we were more than happy to finally say ciao to Cusco. It was very disappointing and just sheer bad luck that the hotel we used 3 times previously and the lavanderia we used twice previously both managed to let us down (the lavanderia more spectacularly).
Unfortunately Karen and I are both feeling under the weather now (I think I have mild flu). I was already feeling a bit ill on Sunday, so running up and down hill between the hotel and lavanderia multiple times didn´t help me much.
We are now in Arequipa, which is the second largest city in Peru and is a lovely city. And the harassment on the streets is only about 1/10th of Cusco. Karen says it reminds her a lot of Salta in Argentina. Like Salta, though, it has the problem of not being pedestrian friendly even though it´s a big walking city. Cars always think they have right of way versus the pedestrians. I don´t know why they paint crosswalks on the streets because there are very few stoplights and the cars never stop for pedestrians.
Anyway, Arequipa has one of the loveliest climates anywhere, with temps almost always in the 20s Celsius year round and some of the lowest rainfall anywhere. Supposedly it´s sunny 350 days a year. The main problem it has, though, is that it´s located in one of the worst locations in the world for natural disasters. It suffers about 2 major earthquakes each century (last one in 2001) and is surrounded by more than a few volcanoes. The volcanoes provide a brilliant backdrop to the city, but it´s also not the most comforting sight.
On Sunday, we left the jungle at 6 in the morning and travelled all day to arrive in Cusco around 7:30 p.m. Karen already mentioned how terrible our meals were all week in the jungle (I´m still trying to regain my appetite). In Cusco we had a very so-so Chinese meal and then headed "home" to the hotel that we had stayed at on 3 different occasions for a total of 11 nights and we wanted to stay just one final night. So we show up at the hotel at 9 p.m. only to find out that the hotel is full and they gave our room away! Talk about loyalty. We had confirmed 3 times before we left for the jungle that we wanted one more night and that we might be late arriving. What happened is that other people arrived wanting to stay 5 nights which clearly trumped our 1 night stay so it was easy for them to give our room away. Of course, no one would take responsibility for erasing our names and a mysterious "new boy who works on the weekends" was blamed. Well, after travelling all day we were tired and irritable and just wanted a room. Fortunately they found us a room just down the block that wound up being just as good and saved us some money as well, but still. Very annoying for us to stay at one hotel 3 times and then get dumped so easily. Oh, did I also mention that this hotel charged us for requesting extra pillows on a previous checkout? They didn´t tell us when we asked for the pillows, only when checking out.
But worse was yet to come...
The new hotel had a good breakfast which was just as well because our final lunch and dinner in Cusco were both fairly terrible.
On Monday, we had a bus to Arequipa (where we are now) at 8:45 p.m. Since our clothes smelled like jungle, we needed a wash and were debating whether to do the laundry in Cusco or wait until Arequipa. Well, we had used one lavanderia twice already with no problems so we decided to go with them again (despite Lonely Planet´s recommendation to never trust your laundry on the last day in any town). We dropped off at 10 a.m. and they said it would be ready by 6 p.m. (like the previous two times). We go back at 6 and they say "no, we said 7". OK, a lie, but still 7 was no problem for us. At 7 I go back to get the laundry and it´s not there and now the story emerges that some machine broke or something and they had to wait for someone to fix it. OK, but why did no one mention this at 6? Anyway, I stress to her that we have a bus to catch at 8:45 and have to be at the bus station at 8:30. She absolutely 100% guarantees me that the clothes will be there at 8 on the dot. I tell her I don´t care if the clothes are wet, dry, not clean, whatever, we just need the clothes at 8.
At 8, we go back. No clothes, no lady. I talk to some other lady who says the other lady went to the laundry place (it wasn´t done on site) at 7:15 and it´s supposedly only 15 minutes away. But no one can tell me where this lady is or where our clothes are. 8:15, still no sign. Now we go back to the hotel and do some crisis calls to the bus company and the tour company we bought our bus tickets from to see if we can hold the bus for a few minutes and to at least let them know we were still coming. Now it´s getting down to crunch time and we have to decide between leaving all our laundry behind (not really an option) or forgoing our $60 bus tickets to Arequipa and leaving the next night. Neither an appealing option. 8:30, still no sign. Finally, at 8:45 the lady shows with our laundry. She looked like I should treat her as some sort of savior for delivering the clothes! Although frankly, I still don´t know what we would have done if she didn´t show up at just that moment. I didn´t have time to get the story from her as to what happened (it would have just been more lies anyway) so I just grabbed the bags of laundry, gave her a piece of my mind, and then ran back to the hotel. Jumped in the next taxi and threw all our bags in and gave the classic line "bus station, and step on it. Extra tip if you get us there in 5 minutes or less". Well, fortunately we managed to make it but with, oh, just a wee bit of stress and much headache. At the bus station we were a bit out of sorts so Karen´s backpack almost got left behind and she also dropped her money belt which fortunately someone spotted. Fun times all around.
We didn´t have time to check our laundry when we got it as we had to get to the bus station. So when we arrived in Arequipa the next day and finally checked we realized we were missing: my quick-dry towel, Karen´s swimsuit, and HALF of all the underwear that Karen brought on this trip. So we must have lost well over $60 worth of stuff due to the lavanderia´s mess-up. In return, though, we did manage to get someone else´s t-shirt and a lonely sock that isn´t ours. Fair trade?
So, as you can see, we were more than happy to finally say ciao to Cusco. It was very disappointing and just sheer bad luck that the hotel we used 3 times previously and the lavanderia we used twice previously both managed to let us down (the lavanderia more spectacularly).
Unfortunately Karen and I are both feeling under the weather now (I think I have mild flu). I was already feeling a bit ill on Sunday, so running up and down hill between the hotel and lavanderia multiple times didn´t help me much.
We are now in Arequipa, which is the second largest city in Peru and is a lovely city. And the harassment on the streets is only about 1/10th of Cusco. Karen says it reminds her a lot of Salta in Argentina. Like Salta, though, it has the problem of not being pedestrian friendly even though it´s a big walking city. Cars always think they have right of way versus the pedestrians. I don´t know why they paint crosswalks on the streets because there are very few stoplights and the cars never stop for pedestrians.
Anyway, Arequipa has one of the loveliest climates anywhere, with temps almost always in the 20s Celsius year round and some of the lowest rainfall anywhere. Supposedly it´s sunny 350 days a year. The main problem it has, though, is that it´s located in one of the worst locations in the world for natural disasters. It suffers about 2 major earthquakes each century (last one in 2001) and is surrounded by more than a few volcanoes. The volcanoes provide a brilliant backdrop to the city, but it´s also not the most comforting sight.
posted by Kevin at 5/31/2007 12:11:00 AM
3 Comments:
so sorry to hear about your misfortune in cusco. we nary had any encounters with the street hawkers in cusco or any of the cities we visited in peru and argentina. maybe it's because everyone thought Kevin was Nicholas Cage ;)that or we probably blended in with the locals. we count ourselves as extremely lucky that we hardly had any bad experiences in our travels (did our laundry twice and on our last day in lima and got back all our clothes without delays) to peru and argentina. hope you guys recover soon from your intestinal problems.
Sorry about the hassle with the laundry. When you stay in Chicago, I guarantee you won't have to worry about your laundry getting stolen. We may not have a place for you to stay, but your laundry will be ok :-)
I'm touched everyone was concerned about my lost laundry. I will reassure you all that I have bought some new underwear (made with Peruvian cotton!) and we will only probably have one more round of washing to do before we head to the US. Considering we've done laundry in South America more than 30 times now, we think we've been pretty lucky that we haven't lost more stuff. And since Brian Irwin has now gotten a flashy new place (with laundry machine included) to share with his soon to be bride, Kevin and I will definitely exploit it when we get to Chicago!
Post a Comment
<< Home