Peru Day 3 (Cusco) Part 1

Courtyard at The Hotel Miraflores

Well it has been a couple of weeks since my last post.  Unfortunately the trifles of life, like work, have gotten in the way once again.  Here is the next segment in the series, enjoy.
I awoke to the ring of the house phone waking me up.  I looked blearily around the room trying to wipe out the sleep and get my bearings.  It was 7 AM Lima time and one quick look around the room and I realized I must have been dead asleep.  My travel companion seemed to be missing.  I hopped out of bed, took care of the morning grooming in the form of brushing my teeth, showering and then putting on the same clothes for the third day in a row.
If variety is the spice of life, then certainly I was finding the lack of it makes for the ease of life.  Elk walked in right as our backup alarm was ringing on the rented phone and we went off to eat breakfast in the hotel lobby.  Breakfast smelled like a mix of strong coffee and homemade bread being baked in a brick oven.
 The aroma worked it's way into the hallways and consumed the downstairs lobby area.  If I was not hungry before I certainly was now.  The breakfast room was bright and sunny and reminded me of a little European sidewalk cafe, only it was inside and open to the central courtyard of the hotel and the large fountain.  We sat ourselves and almost immediately struck up a conversation with the man at the table next to us.  He was an older man from the states who spent quite a bit of time travelling in South America, specifically Peru.  The waiter brought us the standard breakfast of the hotel which consisted of freshly made bread, cut fresh fruit, coffee in a little carafe and hot water.  Our ignorance about the coffee was soon realized when we poured it straight from the carafe into our cups and started drinking.  The strong espresso like coffee was good, but overpowering.  We quickly realized it was being served Americano style and cut it with the water.  I had 1 and a half cups, my usual morning indulgence.  Our neighbor, chuckled a little and then told us to add lime juice to the papaya to cut the after taste and sweeten the fruit.  This was good advice and it was a delicious breakfast after which we headed to the front desk, checked out and met Raphael our new cabbie at 8 AM.  

To Be Continued ...