Our Stay In A Wonderful Hotel

This is Pablo with Elder W. I have neglected to write about our wonderful friend.

He is the maintance man for the condominium building we live in. He has been working here for 9 years; from the beginning, even while the constuction was going on. He is very good at all odd jobs, he has even fixed my clothes dryer. He is here each weekday and half of each Saturday. We are happy to know him. He is very diligent at making the tenants happy. He also delivers our bills to us, with a little laugh each time.

We told him we would be traveling, he smiled and told us our apartment would be safe.

This is inside the Hotel Libertador. It is an old residence. A very old residence. This is one of the sitting rooms. It is a comfortable room for reading or just sitting or visiting with other guests. The structure itself is at least 400 years old. It was restored in 1976 to be a hotel. We are told by many of the staff that it was one of the many homes for the explorer Francisco Pizzaro when he visited Cusco. The wall behind the couch is an original "Incan" wall.

The furnishings in the hotel are authentic reproductions of the period.

This is one of my favorite parts of the hotel. It is the door that opened for the animals to enter this part of the building. Our waiter began to show us how the door opens. The wooden bar accross the door slides into an opening in the wall, you can push it about 8 feet into the wall accross the other side.

There are two different types of material in the walls of the hotel. The original stone is below the newer rock built by the Spaniards. When the Spanish came through the country, they destroyed many original churches and buildings, for what reason I do not know.

This a carving of the Pizzaro Family Crest. This one is hanging in the dining hall. Many years ago, these chandeliers used candles, (I can't imagine lighting all the many candles) but now they are electric. They hang in every public room of the hotel.

The seat backs of each chair in the dining area is leather carved with the same crest. They are beautiful and confortable too.

A waiter remembered our visit with our family last Christmas. He remembered that our tree grandsons were very polite. We loved hearing that, and I am sure his mother will be too!

This is my favorite photo. We are in front of that fabulous door. As we were leaving the dining room after dinner, the head waitress asked if she could take our photo. We were delighted. She has worked at the hotel since it's opening. I think I understood her to say about 24 years.

There are 4 Libertador Hotels in Peru. At Christmas we stayed here and also in Puno, on the edge of Lake Titicaca.

The staff knew we were interested in the history of the hotel, so our waiter showed us the "secret" room where they store the wine. When we told him we did not drink wine, he was a little suprised, but then he saw our name tags and said "Claro" which is of course in Spanish.

But I thought this would make a cute photo, so to Elder's surprise, I snapped the photo. The cabinet is a beautiful very ornate cabinet. The funny thing to me, it was not chilly or there were not many bottles. They must have another storage area.

After dinner we went out to the courtyard. It is in the middle of the grounds. The hotel is kind of in a circle of sorts with the courtyard in the middle. They did that a lot in the haciendas. So, here is Elder W. after a very good meal enjoying the night air.


So...I wanted a photo too!

The night was so nice, we had actually been told it might rain. We went prepared with our umbrellas. I felt a little foolish taking umbrellas to Lima; we thought we could buy them on any street corner just like Quito. No, No. We have not seen an umbrella for sale. It does not rain in Lima, at least where we are. Outside of Lima, it rains a little more often.

As it turned out, we did not even need them, the weather was warm and sunny.

I will finish the trip in my next entry. It is getting very late, and I am making too many mistakes!

So, until I write again, (hopefully soon)

Hermana W.