Today was a pretty uneventful day spent by slowing working my way closer to Machu Pichu. During the rainy season (now) apparently trains don’t run all the way from Cuzco so I had to begin the morning with a two hour bus ride to the nearest train station. The drive (the parts I didn’t sleep through) was gorgeous, though. Then I boarded a train for the remainder of the journey and more great views. The train was very well done, good service, good snacks and the extra large windows were great for the ride. The town at the base of Machu Pichu is called Aguascalientes (because of the hot springs) and it’s a funky little place. Much like Cuzco it’s got a very international feel because of all of the tourism coming in from all over the world. But it is a tiny little place tucked along the river. I had lunch at a neat place called The Tree House which had excellent food. I was unusually tired, though, so I basically just rested for the remainder of the day as I had yet another early start in store for tomorrow.

Leaving for a very compressed trip to Machu Pichu today. My timing couldn’t have been better, either. Peru has been experiencing massive flooding lately and the word was that running water was getting cut off to Lima. I had enough time to pack and get some work done before heading to the airport and right as I was finishing up to leave our water ran out. It’s an easy flight to Cuzco from Lima, just over an hour. Spoiler alert, the domestic lounge at the Lima airport sucks. Made it to Cuzco and then met up with another Remote for an extremely important event, St. Patricks Day! It just so happens that “The World’s Highest 100% Irish Owned Pub” was only a ten minute walk from my hotel. As we both had early days the next day things didn’t get too crazy and it was still a relatively early night.

Another early start to the day and I headed right over to the work space. I had a lot to do to try and clear my schedule for my departure to Cusco tomorrow. Broke for lunch at a mediocre sandwich joint across the street, J. J. Sandwich. I intended to work through the rest of the evening but got distracted by a dinner invitation so I ended up heading back over to the JW Marriott with a fellow Remote. Then called it a day.

Another productive day. Was up and at the work space early. Broke for lunch at this little place Smutis across from the office. It was alright but I don’t know that I’ll return. Basically worked right through until eight or nine and then called it. On the way home I stopped at this sandwich place La Lucha Sanguchería Criolla that had some of the better fries I’ve ever had.

Actually did get an early start to the day today and was up and a beacon of productivity at 5am. Which was good because I got a little bit distracted around lunch. Some of the other survivors of our weekend trek were going to my favorite, La Mar, so I had to go as well. Killer ceviche at this place. Then it was back to the workspace to work for the rest of the day. Around eight I was really hitting my breaking point so I headed over to the bar at the JW Marriott, my hangout at home in these situations. The one here is nice, looks out over the ocean but the really great thing about this place is they have excellent live music every night. Worked there until around ten or eleven and then called it a day.

Still pretty worn down from the weekend. I had intended to snap right up and get to work but that didn’t happen. I wandered around and got breakfast at La Bonbonniere which is in this really nice mall that overlooks the ocean. Not a bad spot for breakfast. Secured some replacement clothes at that mall and then headed over to the work space for the rest of the day. On the way home I got sidetracked by a small Italian place that was just ok and then called it a night.

A hectic day today. Tomorrow we are heading out at the crack of dawn to hike up to Rupac which is the site of (I believe) the best preserved Incan ruins in Peru. I decided to head over to Homemade for breakfast and to work for a bit but their WiFi wasn’t up to the task, plus breakfast was underwhelming… On my way over to the work space I recalled that two of my very few articles of clothing had been ruined the night before so I swung through Larcomar to look for replacements. Despite just being a mall, this is a pretty cool place. It’s built down into the cliffs of Lima overlooking the ocean with a park on top. I quickly got annoyed with shopping, though, so I gave up and headed to the office. I worked for a while and then broke for lunch at Trattoria Don Vito. This is kind of a cute place. It had decently good food but it tries to be way classier of a joint than it actually is. I headed back to work but got a wee bit distracted by a happy hour invitation. So, ended up at this Irish pub, Houlihan’s which was a surprisingly decent representation of an Irish Pub. In Lima there is (for some reason) this place called “Calle de Pizzas” or Pizza Street which is a little pedestrian block full of places that sell, yes pizza, but also a weird combination of Peruvian cuisine. Some other folks were having pizza there so we turned up for that. And then naturally we had to have an after dinner drink at The Old Pub, an English themed place on that same street. All in all it’s exactly what you want before an early morning and a tough hike.

Sad to say that I stopped by Starbucks on the way into the work space this morning. But, I will say this for the American chains around the world. It’s always interesting to see the local twists that they add to the menu. Worked for most of the day and then walked over to BarBarian to have some beers with another Remote. It’s a cool place, typical craft beer joint playing excellent American music. You’d never know you left the States. I still had work to do so headed home in the evening to take care of that.