We got to sleep in this morning. Wake up call was at 6:30am and had another delicious buffet breakfast at 7:30. We boarded our bus for drive to the airport as we had a 9:25 scheduled flight that actually left at 10am. Same airline and same type plane. We had time to do some shopping in the airport where I decided to buy myself a beautiful pull over sweater made of Alpaca. (small animal that looks like a llama) Rebecca had bought a silver pendant inlayed with precious stones with matching earrings at a market in Aguas Calientes. She also bought a beautiful sweater from a woman as we boarded our bus at the hotel that morning in Cusco for only $10. I also bought a decorative bottle of pisco for my bar. Pisco is a grape based brandy (42% alcohol) that is used to make Pisco sours, basically national drink of Peru.
Ok, we arrived back in Lima airport shortly after 11:30 and boarded buses for 40 minute drive to the main square in Colonial downtown Lima. Our new guide talked non-stop for the 40 minutes with Peruvian history again. After taking some pictures of the beautiful Cathedral, Presidential palace, and other government building on the square, we had an incredible lunch at the Casa Aliaga. This huge house has been owned and lived in by 15 generations of the same family and was built during the Spanish colonial period. There are several rooms used for banquets for special groups. It is not a restaurant. President Bush had dined here when he as visiting Peru. It was an amazingly beautiful place. We were first served pisco sours and hors'doerves in a parlor while our guide talked about this house's history. Then we had a short tour of some rooms in the house before sitting down for our lunch. Service was perfection served from silver trays. We had a very nice asparagus souffle as appetizer, followed by beef, potatoes, broccoli & carrots. Pear crepes for dessert but we declined. Seems like we had been eating non-stop for 3 days. After two pisco sours and a nice Peruvian red wine with lunch I was ready for a siesta. No time though as we boarded the bus for our 40 minute drive back to the ship. Now docked next to us was the Silver Seas Spirit cruise ship. It is also going around South America and Silver Seas is a luxury cruise line just as Regent Seven Seas.
It was sooooooooo nice to be back home on the Mariner. We had a fabulous 3 days but we love our suite and being on the ship. We were basically exhausted and definitely not hungry, but went for a glass of wine before dinner then dined in Compass Rose at 8pm. We just had a small Caesar salad and a very tasty red snapper fish entree. No bread and no dessert. Gotta cut back. We had seen the production show with ship's singers and dancers on the first segment so skipped it and headed back to our suite. I managed to get my 3 days worth of photos synced to Picasa web before crashing in bed. (Photos not on blog yet but are now ready to do that tomorrow) We sailed from Lima at 6pm heading for our next port, Pisco, Peru.
