After the jungle adventure we decided to try and get to Cusco. I contacted a tourist company (recommended by a friend) that organises treks to Machu Picchu to understand the situation in Peru. She confirmed that things were slowly going back to normal. This sounded encouraging and we decided to fly from Quito to Cusco since we didn’t have much time. The Inca trail ends in January every year because of the rains.

So we headed from El coca to Quito by bus. We were in Quito only for a day. Arjun’s thorn related infection worsened. It began to be painful. Our Airbnb host recommended a clinic and we quickly went there. Once we reached the clinic, the nurse dissuaded us from getting treated there. Apparently, this minor intervention required a plastic surgeon and it was to cost us 500 USD! This was their procedure. Although the plastic surgeon might have done wonders to Arjun’s finger… who knows, Arjun may have become a finger model, we decided to go to another clinic recommended by the nurse. Everyone here were thoroughly professional and the doctor was really kind. He told us to take the cable car and have a bird’s eye view of Quito. We did just that. Except that the weather conditions worsened just when we reached and we couldn’t see beyond 2 meters. Thunder, lightning and a hailstorm! The wait to get back was loooooong.  We walked around the historical centre in the evening and woke up very early to catch our flight. Unfortunately, our Airbnb host didn’t turn up to collect his keys as he thought we were leaving in the evening! We left the keys in an envelope near the doorstep before a few panic calls and jumped into a cab to catch our flight. We had 2 stopovers – Guayaquil and Lima. At the airport in Lima,  Arjun was charged for his guitar as it wasn’t a standard size. This made us mad. Noone has ever charged us for taking a guitar with our cabin luggage. We reached Cusco after a series of unfortunate events. Cusco airport was empty near the exit. Noone holding placards, no taxis, not a bird in sight except for police personnel. Once we walked out of the airport we took a cab to our Airbnb.