Fairly uneventful
day. Arranged to meet Alex and Branwen at 1 to discuss possibly
traveling together to Lake Titicaca. I planned on sleeping in until
about 11, but woke up around 830 and went and got the continental
breakfast at the hotel. Got on the internet to discover my payment
had been taken from my bank and marked as paid, but funds were not
available yet. And I was running out of cash. I decided to call the
bank after I sent them an email. They said because it was a new
account it wouldn't clear for about 5 days for a cash advance. Not
happy. Mark and I took our stank-ass laundry down the street a bit
and dropped it off for 3 hour laundry service for s/44, or s/4 per
kilo. Then we went to meet Branwen and Alex in the square. I peeked
into the cuy restaurant I wanted to eat at and they didn't accept
cards. Getting fairly annoyed as I am almost out of cash. I decide to
call the credit card company while our laundry was getting done. The
company said to go to the bank and not the ATM, after I had to ask
for the manger and explain my situation. I did that, but the bank
only did cash advance fo Visa, I have a MC. Arrgh! I tried the ATM
anyway, and this time it worked! I got a bunch of money this time,
just in case and we went to Kusikuy, the cuy place I've had my eye on
for days.
A really cool
little place with a great view and a multi-colored glass ceiling.
They said it would be an hour for roasted cuy, so I got the fried cuy
and the others all got the “set menu”. They got soup, chicken
with rice, dessert and a drink for s/20! Pretty sweet deal. I got my
fried guinea pig, a stuffed pepper, soup and a tamale for s/60. Worth
it. I ate the cuy and all the others tried it as well, I even tried
some of the brain. The brain was not for me, but the rest was kinda
like dark meat chicken. Mmmm....cuy.
After lunch, Mark
and I went to get our Bolivian visas. We were told at the office that
we needed more stuff to complete the process. I had everything before
my bag was stolen in Lima, but everything I needed was accessible via
internet, so we found an internet cafe around the corner from the
consulate's office, I pulled up and printed an email, made some
copies, made the $135 USD deposit required at the local bank, got the
deposit slip, and the visas were ours. The office was in basically a
house and the woman there had only like 2 things on her entire desk.
It was weird. We caught a cab back to the square, met back up with
the others and bought our bus tickets for the night. We decided to go
with a cheaper place than before for s/45 each with cama seats and a
direct route to Copacabana, Bolivia. Then we walked back towards a
market we had seen on the way, and I got a great deal for myself and
pretty much finished my souvenir shopping. I bought like 15 hats for
like s/75! We had a last meal of sandwiches, avoided all the
solicitors, and went back to catch the bus. Forgot to mention
earlier, even the hotel we stayed at was cash only! So have access to
lots of cash if you're in Peru! A lot of money now into cash advance
fees. About $14 USD every time I take out money. And my card isn't
working again! Oh well. Get back to the bus station to leave on the
overnight at 10:30 to find out we were duped. Not the same seats we
were shown in the pictures, the price printed on the tickets was
less, not a direct route, etc. Lesson: Don't take the cut-rate
company. And it was really cold by the window seat.
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