Peru > Back to Lima

Today, our return flight to Amsterdam is already on the schedule. But first, we have to travel from Cusco to Lima. At nine o’clock we have breakfast at the hotel, and around ten we drive with two minibuses to Cusco Airport.

Peru - On the last evening, enjoying the Peruvian buffet with the whole group

At the airport, we are rebooked onto an earlier flight. Due to the bad weather forecast, this is probably also the last flight to Lima today. Our luggage is quickly checked in, the airport tax is paid, and our hand luggage is screened. At 10:50, just twenty minutes after arriving at the airport, our plane is already departing. Just before boarding, we say goodbye to our tour leader, Rik. He stays behind here. The flight to Lima takes just over an hour. In the Lima airport terminal, our luggage takes a long time to arrive. We start to seriously doubt whether, with the hasty check-in, the baggage was actually loaded onto our flight. Fortunately, all our bags appear with the second batch. Outside, Rosa is already waiting for us. She is our guide for the city tour of Lima. Here we also say goodbye to Kristina. It feels rather strange after spending four intense weeks together. Kristina waves us off enthusiastically. The city tour takes us to the center of Lima. On Plaza San Martín, we visit the Gran Hotel Bolívar — an 80-year-old luxury hotel that has partly fallen into decay. The tour continues to the central square, Plaza de Armas. Here, we take a short walk past the remarkable post office, visit a church, and explore Plaza de Armas itself with its many neocolonial buildings.

Peru - The library in the San Francisco monastery The church contains catacombs with an estimated 25000 buried

The beautiful wooden balconies are particularly striking. Passing by the railway station — closed for years due to the risk of terrorist attacks — we finally reach the church and monastery of San Francisco. Here, we visit the monastery with its old library and the catacombs, where Lima’s former residents were once buried. Back outside, we continue our city trip by bus to the residential district of Miraflores. Miraflores lies on the coast, and here we have the opportunity to get something to eat. On a terrace, we have a drink and strike up a conversation with another Dutchman sitting nearby. Around six o’clock we return to the airport. After checking in (by now it’s past seven, as things move rather slowly), we spend our last Sols on coffee. At eight o’clock, we board the plane.