Hilton Garden Inn Cuzco

Room booked: cheapo standard 2 double beds
Room received: upgraded city view room 2 double beds

This is a nice new property with a fantastic breakfast buffet. Our room was on the main floor, rooms beginning with a 0. Floors 1 – 3 are actually lower than the main floor with 3 being the lowest, so the hotel floors essentially go backwards.

Made to order eggs, tamales on offer, tons of fresh bread and pastries, cold cuts/cheese/olives, fresh juices, and lots of staff milling around. Also, noticed in my Hilton account I got 1,000 bonus points for this stay for trying a new Latin American HGI.









Wondering around Cuzco on a Sunday morning



There was a marching parade going on, and this group, they had the music pinned to the backs of the people marching in front of them



This dog wanted to be part of the marching



Kuntar VIP Lounge (CUZ)

Now I’ve visited some “interesting” lounges via Priority Pass and this one is no exception. Once you go down some hall ways that look like they should be airport personnel only, you’re greeted with this:



Walk in and there was an odd constructioney smell, smelled like some type of adhesive. It was also rather warm as the AC didn’t seem to be on. Ok. Enough of that, I picked this one over the landside lounge as it said alcohol wasn’t included. But I didn’t find any of the hard stuff. Fridge was full of Coke, Fanta, and Inka Cola. I ask the lounge attendant and she gladly gets me a beer. It happens to be in a locked cabinet and room temperature. If you’re wondering, Cusquena is actually drinkable at that temp.

The food options were equally meager. Mostly potato chips and other very light snacks.





Avianca J CUZ-LIM

I did the bid for upgrade a few days before departure and got it for just over the minimum. PDBs of water or OJ were offered, but that was it. The FA was so lazy that there was a lady that boarded late and all of the waters were taken by the first wave of PDBs. He didn’t even bother to pour a glass of water and wound up offering her a choice of OJ or…OJ. The bizarre drink choices continued to the meal. There was no wine available, and the only liquor option was Johnny Walker Black. So the booze was limited to that or beer. Very odd…

Nice big comfy seats



View climbing out of the city







Tuna wrap and beer for lunch



I had my final Taxidatum driver waiting for us and it took us about 45 minutes to get from the airport to the Hilton

Hilton Lima Miraflores

For this one I was flipping between the Hilton and the Doubletree. The Hilton was ~$40 more a night, but still a good price during Hilton’s big sale this summer, so I went with that for the lounge access and it looked like a nicer property and I wasn’t disappointed. I was upgraded to a room on the 9th floor which is one of the Executive floors (unsure the difference between regular rooms).

Our room





Executive Lounge (11th floor)





I took breakfast in the lounge each day and it was pretty good. 3-4 hot items each day (eggs, bacon, potatoes, etc). The open bar from 6-9 was also pretty solid. 1 beer option, but a good liquor selection. They had Tanqueray, Bombay Sapphire, Chivas Regal, and a couple other options.
Our first day in Lima we mostly spent the time walking around and taking in the area. For a drink we walked down into the Barranco District, the next area south of Miraflores, and went to the Barranco Beer Company.



Good beer, the IPA wasn’t as hoppy as many American craft beers

We got an Uber back to the hotel which cost only S/9

We took our dinner in the lounge that night which was even better than breakfast. Dinner tonight was beef which was super tender, pasta, bruschetta, and a couple other options.



Our second day was equally laid back with no plans besides my Mom picking up some souvenirs and going out for an awesome lunch at La Mar. La Mar is only open from noon to 5 pm.





Plantain chips, corn, and various sauces which are provided gratis



The crab empanadas we had as an appetizer were absolutely fantastic.



The main event: the mixed ceviche



Awesome meal. This place filled to the brim starting at 1 pm with area professionals coming out for lunch. I recommend getting here before 1, or late in the afternoon for a late lunch.

On our walk back to the hotel, stopped for dessert and a coffee at Café Haiti, which is right by the main park in Miraflores.



Traffic back to the airport was pretty heavy, as it took us an hour. The fare was surprisingly low though. The hotel bellhop called us a radio taxi, which he said would be a max of S/50 as they have lowered their rates to compete with Uber. Our fare wound by being only S/33, or about $11.

AA LIM-MIA

Priority check in was a breeze. AA provides access to the Sumaq lounge, which is also accessible with Priority Pass. I wasn’t very hungry so I stuck to a Jack and coke and didn’t explore the lounge food. What’s nice is the lounge looks to have an outdoor patio area.

Storage area on the left side of the seat



Lots of legroom





Tray table to set the IFE tablet on



PDB



Mixed nuts and Woodford Reserve on the rocks



Dinner; I went with the steak. Whole meal was on 1 tray other than the dessert (which I skipped anyway). The other options looked like they were poor, pasta, bahia shrimp, and coq a vin. I pre-ordered the coq a vin but asked the purser for the steak instead and it was no problem. The coq a vin looked really unappetizing. This steak wasn’t as good as the one on the flight down as it was a bit tougher, but the sauce was nice.



I ate the meal while watching a movie on the tablet they FAs passed out and then went to sleep and slept almost straight through to descent into Miami.
After landing and quickly getting through customs and immigration, I went to the Centurion Lounge to try to grab a shower. Unfortunately I was told there were 5 people in line and the shower would not be available until 7:30 am, so I went to the D30 Admirals Club. Managed to get my shower only ~20 minutes before boarding started.

AA MIA-IAH

For this flight it was a small F cabin of only 8 seats with service from a great FA who offered open bar PDBs.

I had pre-ordered the bruschetta omelette which was confirmed. The fruit, sausage, and potatoes were pretty good, but the eggs were definitely barely on the edible side of the equation. I really wanted a UA cinnamon roll instead of this bread though



I passed the flight by watching the mindless comedy “We’re the Millers” and before we knew it, we were landing in Houston around 8:30 and I was back in my car and on a conference call by 9am

Thanks for following along everybody. Now I’m relatively stuck at home until my EK F trip to Italy in November, other than a couple of short domestic work trips.