We had planned to have a late breakfast at Greens (we ate there before) at 9:15. However, Rich Rediker had such a bad night the management comped us a free breakfast buffet AND free transport to the airport. So we had a wonderful buffet and did a bit more shopping before a late checkout at 12:30 or so. I followed Ricardo's instructions to Walon - a sporting goods store and purchased a Cusco club team soccer jersey. Club Cienciano - nice jersey at an affordable price (not a knock off). Supposedly a 10-15 minute van ride to airport for a 3:15 flight to Lima. Dinner in Lima before a 1:40a.m. flight to Dallas. We hope to sleep most of the way.
View from our balcony.
Overlooks the Army training center.
The little narrow street below our room. Another Inca stone wall. Cusco reminds us of Spain. Makes sense.
After I bought my Cusco soccer shirt I waited in Plaza de Armas for Rich and Richie but they went walking for a while back to the huge market. I was people watching - I want to be this guy someday!
A couple of street shots.
Panorama of the Temple of the Sun - Right next to our hotel.
Palacios Del Inca Hotel lobby.
Connie spotted these ladies down our alley from our balcony. She said a moment before one lady was feeding a baby goat with a bottle. Doh!
Connie did this one as well. Good eye!
Arrived at Lima airport with no problems whatsoever. We thought to try and store our bags at the Costa del Sol Hotel at the airport so we wouldn’t have to lug them around in Lima for dinner. Once the hotel saw that we had stayed there the first night they stored 11 bags for zero dinero! It would have cost a lot of Soles to store the bags at the airport.
We also negotiated for a van to take us the 12 miles or so to where we were to have dinner in Lima.
I shot these on the quick from our van on the way to Astrid y Gaston.
Now for the drive…… I have NEVER EVER seen worse traffic in my life. Not even Mexico City could compete. It seemed to be organized chaos with lots of just sitting with horns honking. It took about 1.5 hours to go the 12 miles - The driver kept trying different routes and running into roadblocks. Rich wanted to het out and walk - his phoe app would have gotten us there) but the driver didn’t want to let us. He was concerned for the gringo’s I think. Eventually we arrived at this beautiful restaurant.
Rich had reserved 4 seats at a special 29 course tasting dinner at Astrid y Gaston’s Casa Moreyra (rated one of the top 50 restaurants in the world). Gaston Acurio is Peru’s most famous chef and the dinner was to die for according to others on Trip Advisor.
Here are Richie Steingart and Connie outside Casa Moreyra.
Connie and I opted for one for Gaston’s different restaurants La Barra that is located in the same building. This building was once the home of a rich Spanish guy back in the day. So, we were seated overlooking the kitchen prep area and watched the organized chaos once the orders started pouring in. We were there right when La Barra opened at 7:30 and most didn't arrive for some time after.
Right in front of us were 2 chefs that were preparing small salads and it was quite interesting. Tasted each one a bit before handing it off for the final plating. They would mix up a sauce and pour it into a squeeze bottle labeled with masking tape! Pretty hight tech! The sous chef was off to the right and he would call out each order to the other chefs and they would all respond with a yell. Then each chef involved in that portion would kick in and start the prep work. Little tweezers to add the tiniest bit of a flower as a garnish for instance.
This was our view of the kitchen. Pretty cool to be able to watch it all.
There was another guy that was responsible for the final plating and it was incredibly detailed. Wiping the edges of the plates ott just so and making sure the presentation was perfect. At the end of our meal he came over and when we told hime we were going home to Chicago we found out he worked for Charlie Trotter in Chicago - “On Armitage” he said. Small world. I told hime we were watching hime prepare the plates and he said he had to do it "just so" or Gaston would “kill him”. Thats him on the right and the sous chef is in the foreground.
We decided (quite by accident if turns out) to have an entire fish prepared for us. While we were looking at our options it seems we ordered the fish. Prior to the fish coming out we had selected an appetizer that we had tasted on the trek. Casau - 1/2 half potato shaped into a filled tube with fish tartar and deep fried sea weed (as best as I could discern) on top. Delicious! This was half the order - we portioned the other half off before I thought to take a picture.
We asked the waiter 3 times what type of fish we were eating and we still don’t remember. Delicious fish is my name for it. The whole fish appeared on a platter and since we looked befuddled they "opened it up” for us to eat. It came with caramelized onions and deep fried bread croutons in a butter sauce. We could not eat the whole thing - we told the waiter we needed more friends to share with. We actually ate quite a bit of it but were ultimately defeated. No desserts - way too full.
Afterwards since we finished about an hour before the tasting menu Connie and I walked across the street to a cafe and had a coffee and hot chocolate while we accessed their WiFi network. Around 10:00 we walked back and saw our van driver waiting for us just as we had asked him to. We got word to the others that he was waiting and they came out at about 10:10 and we got into the van and headed towards the airport - slightly worried about the traffic.
On the way they told us about their dinner. It all revolved around a story about Peru and the different foods you encounter. They got to visit their kitchen before the meal and met the head chef (not Gaston). Wonderful presentation, delicious combinations of foods and a book at the end that detailed every one of the tastings - with recipes for all of them.
The trip back to the airport was only about 25 minutes - no drama whatsoever. Recollected our bags and walked across the street to check in. They other 4 were flying Delta and we American and because we were flying 1st class (them) or business class (us) we all had access to the airport lounge. Pretty nice seating, lots of food (just what we needed) WiFi - they 2 hours passed pretty quickly. Their flight was 20 minutes or so before ours so we said out goodbyes from the lounge.
Boarded our flight right on time (1:40a.m.) and put the seats into full flat recline and slept straight through until about 7:00. Quite peaceful - when we neared Dallas they served us a nice breakfast.
Deplaned, cleared customs and found that our flight home was cancelled……….
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