When we arrived at the hacienda, Hacienda Cusin, we were shown to our rooms, and then we went for dinner. The whole place is a converted house and stables, it’s unbelievably colonial with catholic paintings and statues and in the dark with absolutely no one around, candles lot and some music playing, it reminded us all of the haunted house ride at Disney, very creepy. However the staff came into the dining room and gave us some menus, they were so friendly and the food was absolutely delicious so we felt a lot better after eating. When we arrived in our room, we had hot water bottles in our beds, fires lit in our rooms and comfy beds waiting for us, for a good nights sleep.

The next morning we woke up to sunshine beaming through the windows, we got up and dressed for breakfast and headed back to the dining room, this time seeing the hacienda in day light and realising how beautiful it is, (the dining room was also a lot less creepy in daylight) for a delicious breakfast of eggs and fresh fruit. As it was such nice weather, we then went and put some deck chairs out in the beautiful garden area behind our rooms and a mat for lounging on, on the floor, but then of course then sun decided to go in and the clouds rolled over and we were left in shade. Change of plan needed, so we all dressed up warm and decided to go for a walk to explore the surrounding country side and the big lake. After walking through not very nice streets, just general third world town scenery, we arrived at the lake after about an hour and along with it came beautiful images of the surrounding country side. If you looked past the piles of rocks randomly left and the houses falling apart, the lake was absolutely stunning and looked over huge vast hills and mountains, covered with colourful houses. There were woman washing their clothes in the river leading into the lake, and men right by the chopping down huge reeds and making them into bundles; apart from that there was literally no one around and the lake was completely empty. We then decided to hike a bit up the surrounding hills to get a view of the lake from above. On the way up we passed fields with cows grazing and corn rows and every single house we passed, dogs would run to the gate or door or even straight at us if there was none of the latter, it was really scary, especially when they came really close barking and then basically followed us until they got bored. Once we were high enough we had absolutely stunning views over all the farming fields, the town and the huge lake, the sun came out and we were all sweating (not sure if it was from the hot sun with all our layers on, or nervous sweat from fear of the dogs.)
Eventually our walk through the fields and along the hills took us back to the main square, where we then walked back to our hacienda. When we arrived back, it was lunch time, so we sat in the outside terrace and had some lunch while the sun shone down on us. Because of the heat we decided to spend the afternoon back in our garden spot, relaxing in the sun however ofcourse the clouds came over and we were left in shade. Determined that it was a hot day, we all stubbornly sat there with our books until about half an hour later when the clouds had moved on and we were left in sunshine for the rest of the afternoon (well on and off but who can complain). After book reading, napping, scrabble and tea in the gardens, the air became cold and it was time to go in. The entrance way to my parents room is a little living area shared between two rooms (the other one isn’t occupied) and so we all got comfy on the big leather sofas, with our complimentary popcorn from renting the film, and watched Super 8.
This took us to dinner time, where the dining room wasn’t new to us and this evening was filled with guests and full of life. Dinner was, once again, delicious and then it was time for bed.

This morning when we woke up the sky was filled with clouds. We ate our breakfast and then headed down to the hacienda stables for some horse riding! Unfortunately Charlie is very scared of horses (more so than me and mummy) and so she didn’t come but the four of us were given our horses with huge South American saddles, and then we started our journey. It was a two hour horse trek, with the horses starting off quite skittish but they soon relaxed and got into a rhythm in the tranquility of the mountains. We climbed actually quite high into the hills and had amazing views of the farm land, covering huge areas, until soon it was time to make our descent. Riding horses like this is easy enough as we actually didn’t have to do anything except sit on them, not even steer, but soon we all had the numbest bums in the whole world, and with the horses walking steeply down hill on rubble for a good half an hour, I think I have the most bruised bum too!
After arriving back at the hacienda, the sun had decided to appear just in time and we lay out on our blankets in our little garden area, and enjoyed our last day together.

The hacienda:

The lake walk:

Horse riding:

And now I start my long journey home! After leaving the Hacienda yesterday at 4.30 for an 8.15 flight that is two hours, the flight way delayed and then took longer that stated and I landed at 11.15. There was then the longest queues EVER for passport and I was at the back, yes literally the last person. Luckily I didn’t have an luggage to collect but in Lima all bags have to then go through scanning, even hand luggage and there were huge queues for that too!

Luckily mummy had booked me into the Costa del Sol Ramada hotel which is literally right in front of the airport and actually really lovely and so check in was super easy and at midnight I was in my huge room with a choice between two double beds, and a huge bath calling me this morning.
Three more flights to go until I’m home…