Saturday, January 28, 2006
Goodbye Peru, Hello Ecuador
Another 4:30 am rise. Our hotel in Cusco included breakfast, and breakfast was served from 4:30 - 1030 every day. This was also the case in Quito. We had to be at the airport at 6am, and still needed to pack.
Today was another typical airport day in South America, with a lot of waiting around airports and delayed flights. We flew Cusco - Lima then hung around for ages (thank God that Pat is a Gold Frequent Flyer with Qantas, so we are able to use the international VIP lounges) before finally getting on the Lima - Quito flight. We finally got to our hotel at about 4:15PM, and decided that a priority would be to see if we could get some laundry done, as we were joining our Galapagos cruise the next morning.
After walking around for a while, we met a nice local at a bookstore who told us he lived near a Lavanderia and would take us to it. It was only about 5 minutes walk. It was about 4:45, and the lavanderia girl, after a lot of discussion, told us she could get it all done by 6:30PM. The charge was per kg, and our washing cost US$2.40!! The hotel charged more than that for a hankerchief, and double for "express service"! This was without a doubt the best bargain of Ecuador!
Next morning was to be another 4:30 start, as we needed to meet the Galapagos travel agent at the airport at 6am to pick up our tickets for Baltra.
We got to the airport as planned, and after waiting around for a while, our travel agent arrived at around 6:30am and we got organised. More delays of an hour or two, and we were on our way to Galapagos.
Today was another typical airport day in South America, with a lot of waiting around airports and delayed flights. We flew Cusco - Lima then hung around for ages (thank God that Pat is a Gold Frequent Flyer with Qantas, so we are able to use the international VIP lounges) before finally getting on the Lima - Quito flight. We finally got to our hotel at about 4:15PM, and decided that a priority would be to see if we could get some laundry done, as we were joining our Galapagos cruise the next morning.
After walking around for a while, we met a nice local at a bookstore who told us he lived near a Lavanderia and would take us to it. It was only about 5 minutes walk. It was about 4:45, and the lavanderia girl, after a lot of discussion, told us she could get it all done by 6:30PM. The charge was per kg, and our washing cost US$2.40!! The hotel charged more than that for a hankerchief, and double for "express service"! This was without a doubt the best bargain of Ecuador!
Next morning was to be another 4:30 start, as we needed to meet the Galapagos travel agent at the airport at 6am to pick up our tickets for Baltra.
We got to the airport as planned, and after waiting around for a while, our travel agent arrived at around 6:30am and we got organised. More delays of an hour or two, and we were on our way to Galapagos.
