So, I had spent the last day and a half traveling on four airplanes just to get here in Cusco.

My final flight landed at the Cusco airport at 11:30am and I had a friendly face waiting for me.

Lunch with Spencer

My friend Spencer who I work with has been here in Peru and Bolivia for the last month and today was actually his last day as he was flying out as I was flying in.

Obviously it would have been better if the timing was a bit better and we got to spend a couple days together here in Cusco but, oh well, at least it was nice to spend a couple of hours with him catching up on travel stuff.

Although I had been up for more than 24 hours, we grabbed lunch in a the one and only restaurant in the small Cusco airport and I listened as he reminisced about his time on his trip.

If I was already excited for my trip, hearing him talk about all the stuff that I’m going to be soon doing really ramped me up.

Around 2pm we said our goodbyes and I was off in a taxi to my hostel.

A much needed nap

I checked in shortly after and was shown to my 6 bed dorm room and, wouldn’t you know it, I was the only one checked in.

Oh, this might be nice!

A room to myself on the first day of my trip after a long, grueling travel day!

I got myself situated and unpacked some stuff before I finally turned out the lights, pulled the curtain around my bunk and crashed.

I actually set the alarm for 7pm just so I’d have time to get out to grab some dinner.

The last thing I wanted to do was just sleep through til like midnight and then have no food and, even worse, nothing to do.

Some new friends

After hitting the snooze a couple of times, I finally lugged myself out of bed to find I was no longer the only person in the room.

While I was asleep four other people had checked into the room including a duo of Irish travelers who now live in Australia.

Shomeek and Bono (nope, not that Bono had themselves had a long travel day spending 18 hours on an overnight bus arriving from Huacachina.

They were just about to head out to dinner as well so I joined them and, man, what a meal we had.

First Peruvian Dinner

We went to Nuna Raymi restaurant which served Peruvian dishes.   I had read good things about it on some travel blog so I had it marked on my map.

I a quick little detour going to the wrong map marker (ah yes, Finding Todd can truly get lost sometimes), we arrived at the restaurant and headed up the stairs to the dining room.

I started with a variation of a Pisco drink called Inka Pacha which was made with banana, passion fruit, basil and ginger syrup.

The three of us decided to share a couple of appetizers.   We ordered a plate of Alpaca skewers and a ceviche dish.

Well, somewhere along the way our Alpaca turned into a second dish of differently prepared ceviche and we weren’t going to say anything, cause, you know what, that dish was on point.

For dinner I tried the pork belly which was served with rustic potatoes, cheese and pearl onions.

A very filling dinner for sure and the conversation throughout was a nice way to start my trip.

It’s always great to connect with fellow travelers and hear about their adventures too.

After dinner we headed back to the hostel and by 10:30 we were all tucked away in our beds.

First day of my Peru/Boliva trip is in the books.

Let’s see what tomorrow brings…