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8th May 2010 |
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I get up at 7.00am
and prepare for my pickup at 8.00am to take me to the airport, at 8.20 I
begin to worry that they are not coming for me so I call the emergency
line that is in my travel pack, it turns out that one of the guides called
my hotel last night and left a message to say that they will not be coming
to collect me until 8.45, I did not get that message.
I get collected and am taken to Cusco Airport, along the way there seems
to be some sort of parade to celebrate mothers day. I check in and proceed
to go through security. I board the plane and it takes just over an hour
to get to Lima.
At Lima I meet a rep from the tour company I will be having a city tour
from, we go to his minibus and he tells me we need to go and pickup the
guide, 50 minutes later we arrive where we are due to pick her up, but she
is not there, we wait another five minutes until she turns up.
We then proceed to drive around only stopping once to walk from the main
square area to the San Francisco Church and spend about 20 minutes there
looking around. We then get back in the minibus and drive around a bit
more and after less than two hours the guide leaves and I head back to the
airport.
I think that this tour was a complete waste of time and money, I actually
paid well over the going rate for this tour as it was a custom tour with a
pick up and drop off at the airport instead of a central hotel, I was
expecting about four to five hours visiting interesting sites and got
nothing of the sort, if I wanted to just drive around I would have hired a
taxi for a few hours.
When I got back to the airport the driver gave me a customer satisfaction
form to fill in, and I did as honestly as I could without resorting to bad
language. I think I will put in a complaint when I get home in the off
chance I can get anything back, but it is not the money I am bothered
about it is just the waste of time. I don’t know if I will ever be back to
Lima so could have missed the opportunities to get to see some of the
major parts.
At the airport I get something to eat, change my Peruvian Soles to Chilean
Pecos (450 Soles = 75,000 Pecos) and wait around for my flight to
Santiago.
The flight takes a little over three hours and I arrive in Santiago at
1.20am. I am staying at the Holiday Inn at the airport so I only need to
walk out of the door and I am there, I check in and go to bed. |
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Getting to Lima |
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Lima City Tour |
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Getting to Santiago |
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The Holiday Inn, Santiago Airport |
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