Not a very nice view

Today I went to Chicago, or at least, I flew into Chicago O'Hare Airport and then set off in the opposite direction to the suburb of Schaumburg. Schaumburg is not a very nice place, it is full of outdoor shopping malls and business hotels and motorway intersections. However, my customer, US Cellular has an office here and I had a meeting with them.
To get to DCA (Reagan National Airport in DC) I booked the Super Shuttle, not that I can't claim a proper taxi, but because they are reliable and actually turn up on time. You can track your shuttle on-line until it reaches your door, on a map and know that you will get to the airport on time. Booking a taxi does not mean it shows up, and it is always a gamble to trek up to Wisconsin Avenue to just catch one.  This morning I checked as usual when I got up where my shuttle was and it turned out it was just around the corner (literally), which was a bit stressful as it was not supposed to pick me up for another 30 minutes. I quickly gathered my stuff and got ready, but it continued to hide around the corner. When it finally showed up (on time) I asked the driver about hiding around the corner and he was surprised i knew. He said he was early and did not want to stress me, which I guess was nice.
Meeting went well and we checked in to a different Hyatt (Regency) than normally, as the usual one was full. I must say I am NOT impressed by the view from my hotel window.

Day 1 Peru & Bolivia Trip - Lima & Cusco

1 new country (Peru), 2 new cities (Lima and Cuzco)

Challenges:
- Find and pay for taxi from airport
- Book Train and Entrance tickets to Machu Picchu

Arriving Lima just after midnight, quite tired after having had to chat to a 16-year old missionary, first time out of Canada from a tiny rural village, most of the 8-hour journey. Flight (American from Dallas, TX) ran out of drinks, there were no movies or power plugs.
Luggage took ages to get out and long queues through customs. Alastair had prebooked a taxi for me to meet before you got outside, as the ones you catch outside the airport can be pretty dodgy. I had a map of where the taxi-desks should be and did find a sign with my name on. However there was no person holding on to the sign. I did get a driver though who whisked me out the back door to avoid the crowd, which made me feel a bit like a celebrity not wanting to be noticed. The driver spoke no English, and on Day1 I really could not remember any Spanish at all to have any type of conversation. Half way to the hotel I realized that he may not take credit cards and I did not have any SOLs at all and not enough USDs. I showed him my Visa card to try to find out if he would accept it and he happily stopped at the next ATM, where I took out the maximum amount, hoping it would be enough. At the hotel, the doorman confirmed it had already been charged to the room so not to worry.
After a short rest, we looked at the view from the Hilton Miraflores roof terrace, whilst having breakfast. I am told it is always foggy like this. The sea is just behind the two tall buildings.

The hotel was nice and I had forgotten their great shower gel and other toiletries. They also did a decent breakfast in the executive lounge, along with snacks and drinks throughout the day.
We had time for a short walk around the Miraflores area of Lima and a short rest by the pool in the fog, before heading back to the airport and flight to Cuzco.

At the airport we found that Peru Rail had a stand. Clever! So we headed off to book train tickets Cuzco - Aguas Calientes (Machu Picchu) - Cuzco. That turned out quite impossible. There were no return tickets. This is because many people trek into Machu Picchu (on the Inca Trail) and take the train back. In the end the booking agent suggested we take the last train of the day to a town called Ollataytombo, 2 hours from Cuzco and try to find a taxi or bus back from there. Having no choice we booked this.
Back in lounge we then started booking tickets for the entrance to Machu Picchu itself. During the 1 hour we spent there we never managed to get them booked on the government website. Payment kept crashing.

Arrived in Cuzco safely after around an hours flight and quick discussion with taxi driver at airport. He seemed OK, but then immediately after picking us up he wanted to stop for fuel. In my logical mind, you fill up your taxi with fuel before picking up passengers, but Alastair's slightly more South-American thinking came up with the logic that he took the car over from someone else and then was late to catch the passengers at the airport coming in from Lima. I still don't approve. Also he had no change!
We checked in to our hotel, Palacio del Inka, a very nice hotel in the old part of town and  got upgraded to a Senior Suite... yes, more space, but there were no proper windows, just balcony doors in solid wood and not sure about the decor:

In the evening we had a short walk around the old town in Cuzco and found a place to have dinner. They had all three of the typical Peruvian dishes on the menu, Cervice (raw seafood), Guinea-pig and Alpaca. Cuzco is far from the sea, and Alastair has had bad experience of Cervice before so we ordered the other two. The Alpaca was excellent and the Guinea-pig tasted nice, but it was very hard to get any meat off it.

















Achievement Status:

- Got to Lima hotel OK from airport
- Train tickets bought, but not return to Cuzco from Machu Picchu
- No entrance tickets to Machu Picchu

Thanksgiving weekend - Day 1

Don't read this series if your are in a cold and nasty place, but wished you were sipping a daiquiri under a palm tree instead. That's what I did.

So, Thanksgiving coming up - what should we do? No idea! Left Alastair downstairs one evening and he decided that if most Americans stay at home for Thanksgiving to spend it with their families, going somewhere would be a good idea. With autumn finally arrived here in DC, somewhere warm might be nice. So he checked all the flights from DC and came up with Nassau, Bahamas.

Off we went, on the eve of Thanksgiving out of DCA, there were no people! No queue to check-in, no queue through security and no people in the lounge. I would have thought, as we were travelling domestic the first leg, DCA - MIA it would be chaos, but not!

Off we went on a reasonably full not to completely full flight to Miami. Not bad being an AA flight as flights go and at MIA we had booked a motel-room between the runway and the freeway. It lived up to it's Day's Inn reputation, but what do you really need for a few hours sleep. First greeting in hotel room was a load of flyers from various pizza delivery places - hmm, don't they do food here?

It looked pretty shabby. After un-loading we headed down to the bar / restaurant. It turned out they had stopped serving food and had some special club/dance evening, with entrance fee. We asked if we could jut have a beer at the bar, and as they were empty, they agreed. The music was so loud we could not talk to each other at all. There was nobody there and we would gladly have stayed for at least a few drinks and a snack, if they turned it down a notch - but no way. Left around 11 PM - not sure how many travelers staying at a cheap airport motel will go out clubbing all night!

The hotel in itself, I thought was put-up-able but after spending $40 more at the Sheraton going back, perhaps not... You get what you pay for as they say.