Last night we had the nice awards ceremony for the ITF MT1000 in Peru. It was held on the center court (Cancha 3) under the lights and trophies were given for age divisions from 30 to 85, singles/doubles/mixed, men and women. They started with the oldest women so our singles and doubles awards were given out half way through the ceremony, but we stayed till the final mixed trophy was awarded.

When we returned we found out that the washer had broken with our clothes in it, sopping wet, and nothing was drying in Lima, it was so misty and humid. Tim and I found a laundry willing to dry the clothes and they stayed 30 minutes past the 8pm closing on a Saturday night till they were dry which was nice. (It turned out that someone using the machine previously had clogged the drain pipe accidentally with bikini underwear, but the machine wasn’t fixed till noon and we had to leave at 1, so we couldn’t take advantage of the repair).

I changed our flights from 8pm to 4pm for Sunday, which was easy for Susan and Tim (turns out you can do this for a $23 fee…unless. you have added an extra piece of luggage…they had not). If you add a piece of luggage and pay for it you can no longer change it without paying the fare difference. Just something to ponder if you ever fly LATAM Airlines.

Today Susan and I organized for our week long trip to Cusco and Machu Picchu. It was rainy and misty and wet in Lima today so not a great day to be out and about.

We got an XL Uber (around $20 with tip for a 40 minute ride with luggage), which was preordered and arrived early, to the airport. It’s a brand new airport (lounges aren’t even open yet, the mezzanine is under construction). I got a really good warm turkey sandwich for lunch and we boarded around 4 pm for our short flight.

We flew over the Andes…we went up and didn’t go down much when we landed…Cusco is at 3400 meters of elevation, just over 11,000 feet! We actually saw a bit of sun, though it went from light to dark quickly since we aren’t far from the equator. I’ve never flown so close to the mountains before and for the most part the mountains were brown and barren till we approached Cusco.

We leave early tomorrow for our Sacred Valley Tour, then go to Ollantaytambo, then to Machu Picchu after a hike. The next three days I’ll be posting as I can from my phone.