(Day #8) Manta Ecuador to Peru

We arrived at Manta, Ecuador early in the morning. We had to have our suitcases downstairs by 7:45 am. We learned on our short bus ride to the airport that Manta is the tuna capital of the world.

AirCuenca was our chartered plane taking us from Ecuador to Peru. We had this huge plane and about sixty people going to various Holland America tours. The plane was checked out by the police and their dogs.

Once we got to Lima, Peru we had to do immigration, customs, recheck our suitcases, and get on the next plane in just over a hour. This plane was a commercial flight to Cusco and we really had to hurry to get on.

After we landed in Cusco we board a bus to take us to the Sacred Valley, another two hours away. As we left Cusco we saw very poor houses. Most of the homes had the cross and the bull on top of them.

When we reached the Sacred Valley, we were very grateful for a very nice hotel to stay in. Most of the village looked very poor.

The biggest problem of the day was there was no meals planned into it. We had breakfast on the ship and we didn't get to eat until 7:30 that night. The meal was cooked in a pit in the ground.