Travel notes for those interested

We used Inca Experts as our “white glove service” for Peru; it’s our standard plan for visiting third world countries when you’re doing a large variety of places/things. Inca Experts had great materials, the custom itinerary was exactly what we were looking for, and the handoffs from location to location were seamless. There were a few problems with hotels, but I’d put that in the “not in their control” category. I do recommend them. We flew business class on Copa Airlines, the Panamanian National Airline. The seats were fine, the food was mediocre, the wine list was very limited, and there was NO LINEN SERVICE. I know, sounds very bougy, but on these long haul flights, you pay a fair amount for business class (and our expectations have been set by airlines like Qatar and Emirates). But it was also $3,000 less than the equivalent flights on American Airlines, and the flip side of “you get what you pay for” is “you don’t pay for things you don’t care that much about.” So it was all good. The only thing that I found odd is that there was no internet service on any of the flights… been a long time since I’ve had a flight without Wi-Fi.

For hotels, out favorite was Tambo Del La Inca, a Marriot Luxury Collection hotel; we will be looking for those on future vacations.

Second favorite was the Sofitel in Panama, but I covered that in the “Panama” section so I will skip it here. Third was the Palacio Del Inka, another Marriott Luxury Collection hotel. This one had an interesting history, housed in a 500-year-old mansion that was once occupied by Gonzalo Pizarro, brother of the Pizarro we ran across so much in Peru. It’s also built on top of an Incan Sun Temple (a lot of modern Cusco sits on top of Inca ruins). On display are two hundred original paintings from Escuela Cusqueña, a school of art that was born in Cusco in the 16th century.

Also worth mentioning was lunch at the Morena Peruvian Kitchen, which served food so beautiful it seemed a crime to eat it, along with innovative cocktails.

In Panama, we had an equally impressive dinner at Caleta (covered in the Panama section).

On the not-so-great list was the JW Marriott in Lima; at the top of the cliff looking out over the ocean, across from a park and a shopping mall built into the cliffs, it looked nice but they overbooked so we were downgraded to a two double bed room looking out over an alleyway and a KFC.  Not what you expect from a five star hotel.  They did, however, serve a mean pisco sour and the only martini I've ever seen with a mushroom in it.  Or, correction, "shittake," because I tried to order one the next day and the bartender didn't speak much English and we were crossing wires when I said "The mushroom martini."  But then I pointed to the jar of mushrooms and his eyes lit up.  "Ah, SHITTAKE!"  "Ci"

And then, last but not least ... well, actually, ya, least ... the Sumaq Machu Picchu, the hotel we stayed at in Machu Picchu.  Beautiful room and elegant dinner, but the radiator in the room was stuck in "on" position and it turned the room into a sauna over the course of the evening.

And that's a wrap on the Peru/Panama/Machu Picchu trip!