Day 45 – Thursday, March 12, 2026

I must admit I felt a bit like a cowboy in the Wild West without his rifle - for me, my beloved bike was at the workshop.

In my hotel, there was a pretty interesting instructions about the usage of the shower. It was quite helpful indeed.

Now I know what those knobs in the shower were for

I did some more sightseeing in the eclectic town of Lina, sometimes I had to pinch myself whether I am in France, Spain or the the center of Bucharest. Regarding Budapest, "my" city was mentioned on a plaque, it having Art Nouveau buildings just like Lima - see the Casa Courret I had depicted.

Art Nouveau building

Could have been in EUrope...

...this one, too...

Cool suits

At noon, there was a change of guard front of the presidential palace - alas, as the square was closed for the fear of protests/demonstrations, it could only be seen from the far. As far as I understood, it is daily at noon, so if you happen to be in Lima, schedule a trip there at twelve. It reminded me of the Ministry of Silly Walks by Monty Python ( https://youtu.be/iV2ViNJFZC8?si=Oop9a4P4rAxtTbPB). I had seen something similar at the Pskistani-Indian border, in a place called Atari.

It is not really visible, but these soldiers have throw their feet high in the air

I get a haircut outside downtown, crossed a roaring river for that, then walked back to downtown (i.e. 5 minutes later, there is not much to cut on my head). I then visited a wonderful (and, mind you, free) pre-Columbian museum. The building is a former bank headquarters, there was a gigantic safe door where all the Inka gold is kept.

The building of the bank servefd as a museum

A safe place to store the treasures

Some of the treasures

History of couple of centuries staring at you

Usually, I am not a big fan of street performers - so all the more memorable mention to the guy who was playing his broom and the cyclist somehow hanging in the air.

I was impressed - very original!

...but how???

Taking a nap

I had booked an afternoon flight to Cusco, but the departure was changed till late at night. Still, I had no idea how getting to the airport would be and whether I would find everything - so I left headed out to the airport, taking the airport shuttle just minutes away from my central accommodation. The bus cost about $2 and I got there quickly - I do have to mention that as soon as we left the pretty downtown area, it turned into a rather uninteresting, industrial area.

The airport is a new one, the check-in process was a breeze, I made it through all control within minutes. Some airports could learn from Lima. Without realizing, a mishap happened. I grabbed something to eat and when sitting down, I wanted to check something on my phone - then I realized it was missing. I asked someone to call my number - and phew - somweone responded and it was the lady at the check-in counter.

While they assured me it would be handed over in time for check-in, I thought it would be prudent for me to pick it up at the counter. So I took the exit and was re-untited with my phone. This had a price, though. When going through security the second time, the system realized I had already gone through - and I had to pay, I believe, USD 12 to be cleared the second time. Oh well.

The clock was creeping slowly as I waited for boarding. I thought there would be hoards of foreign tourists - quite the contrary, as far as I could tell, it was mostly local families of multiple generations - who were not frequent flyers. I have never heard so many old ladies and children cry out at every slight turbulence (of which there was plenty). I was a bit disappointed that noone clappd when we landed.

We arrived at the small Cusco airport - the runway seems to form an integral part of town, flanked by town homes. The city is at an altitude of 3,500 meters and it was quite chilly, around 10 degrees, and drizzling. I was now in a completely different part of Peru. It was only at 10 pm by the time I got dropped off my hotel by a friendly Uber driver (cost of ride: €4).

My plan was to visit Machu Picchu the following day - I thought to take a train in the morning and return in the evening. As usual, I had not done my homework - I did not have an entry ticket for the site, neother one for the train. The young and friendly receptionists were a bit puzzled by my ignorance. While not impossible, the "base camp" for the visit, called Augas Calientes, is rather far (couple of hours, more about that later) from Cusco and then the visit usually takes a couple of hours. From the base camp, one either needs to hike up to the sanctuary or take a bus.

After some discussion and haggling, they helped me come up with a plan. I had a booking at that hotel for the following night as well, they cancelled that for free, nice of them. When looking at the prices of the train ticket - over USD 150 for a return journey - I was a bit shocked. They offered an alternative: a bus ride that would take six hours (as advertized), for USD 20. Sounds good, I booked that for the following morning.

Then I went for a late-night walk in the beautifully lit Cusco. Castle, governmental buildings and huge churches were baking in floodlight. I saw a lot of youngsters performing pub crawling, some were so drunk, they were lying on the street. I was a bit frustrated that evening - the stupid airline stole my afternoon where I could have been better prepared for the trip ahead. I also had trouble "reconciling" the wonderful monuments with the Ballermann feeling in town. It was also cold after many weeks of baking in the sun, plus I felt a bit nauseous due to the elevation.

Beautiful Cusco at night - 1

Beautiful Cusco at night - 2

Beautiful Cusco at night - 3

It was after midnight that I went to bed and my alarm was set to 5:30 am - not a long night. Worse, I banged my right nail (the one next to the pinky) into the leg of the bed - even weeks after the incident it was still "insulted".