Day 10; Saturday April 10, 2010

We were up at 5:30 a.m. for our last few hours in Cusco. We packed our bags and called the kids back at home. We had breakfast in the hotel and then walked down to the square for some last minute memories and souvenirs. As we were walking we met a young man named Milton selling his drawings at the square. He said he was a student at the University going to school for tourism and he was selling his pictures to make extra money. We told him what type of souvenirs we were looking for and he offered to walk us to a local market where we could buy this type of merchandise at a better price. After we shopped we took him to lunch and bought one of his paintings. It cost us around $35 US dollars for the lunch and painting. Milton was a very polite and kind person, so the amount of money we paid him was more for the kindness he showed us and for being a tour guide for a couple of hours, and not the painting. We headed back to the hotel to wait for our ride to the Cusco airport. We arrived at the airport just in time to board. The ticket agent told us our bags were checked in all the way to Miami; we heard that before. The flight from Cusco to Lima went smooth. We checked the luggage belt at the Lima airport and found one of our bags going around the belt. We informed one of the baggage handlers and they took care of the problem. Linda found a Starbucks in the airport so we ordered up a cappuccino and a coffee. We had a long layover in Lima, around 8 hours, so we rented a locker to store our carryon bags and then hired a Green Taxi to take us to the Mila Flores mall. This was a fine recommendation from Ayul. The mall was three stories and built on the side of the hill facing the Pacific Ocean. The driver also offered to return and pick us up at 8:30 p.m. to take us back to the airport. We walked around the mall and grabbed a bite to eat at a restaurant called Havana’s. We sat in the park near the mall and watched the kids skateboarding. As the last hours of our trip to Peru were drawing to an end, we had the opportunity to watch the most beautiful sunset in Lima; what a way to end a vacation. We met up with taxi driver at 8:30, as planned, and after a harrowing ride through the city, we made it back to the airport safe and sound. We boarded the plane at around 12:30 a.m. for our flight to Miami. All I remember about this flight was sitting down, grabbing a blanket and pillow from the stewardess and then landing in Miami; we both slept the entire flight.