Matthew’s Birthday Part II and Farewell Cusco

I can’t believe I forgot to add these pictures and moments of Matthew’s birthday in Cusco. FYI Matthew’s birthday was on June 25 and was celebrated on the 25th and 26th of June.

When we made it back from our tour of Moray and the Salt Mines Matthew and I decided to stop into this super touristy and what we thought was over priced restaurant Inka Grill for lunch. The main courses at this restaurant range from 25 – 50 sols. Now the exchange rate is 2.75 sol = 1 US dollar. So S50 = about $18. I know that doesn’t sound like much for a nice restaurant but when you get used to paying S10 for lunch (that includes an appetizer, meal, beverage, and dessert) S50 has a lot of shock value and super touristy non-Peruvian restaurants are not what we came here for. OMG —– do not choose a book by its cover. This place is freakin fabulous. The food was DELICIOUS aka Muy RICO! And worth every sol. Its got a great atmosphere and the drinks were pretty good too =) You can see more pictures on their website http://www.inkagrillcusco.com/

After lunch / dinner we returned back to home (Edith’s Casita). Unfortunately Edith’s grandfather passed away earlier that morning.  Earlier that day the rest of the house guest and I helped with lunch and told her that we would all go out to dinner so that we would not be a burden on her. Edith’s family came over that evening shortly after we returned home. They were all great and helped Edith uplift her spirits. Edith’s grandfather was 106 years old; most of the family was ok with this because he lived a very long life. Edith was affected by his death a little more because he raised her from when she was a baby.  But as I said everyone’s spirits were lifted and it ended up being a great evening.

“Smiley” the mom of the Swedish guest that were staying at the house even got Matthew a birthday cake since we didn’t have one the day before. People are amazing, you meet them one day and you are family the next. It doesn’t matter where you are from or what you look like kind people are kind people =).

So in the beginning we came to Peru with the intentions of visiting both Cusco and Lima and then deciding where we would settle for the time being.  We chose Lima. Cusco is great, it has tons of activities to do for tourist and there is quite a bit of culture that is very interesting. However, it’s very cold in the evening a little too cold for us and we would prefer to live in a city like Lima that has more options for entertainment. In addition I was never really able to adjust to the altitude, walking up stairs or a steep hill/mountain was way too much for me. I never got the lung capacity required to be comfortable.  We will be back to Cusco before we leave we have yet to travel to Manchu Pichu =).  I’m actually going back in August with one of my BFF’s Keisha =).  Matthew will go back when he has someone of the same species (Y chromosome) to go with him lol.

FYI we are in Lima now and moved into a great apartment in the Barranco district.