Journey to Peru

Feb 11, 2014 1:42 AM

Months ago, my friend Alli and I booked tickets to fly to Lima, Peru. Neither of us had ever been, so we decided to venture together. We booked at different times on the same day. The result was that we were on different flights from San Francisco to Atlanta, but we were on the same flight from Atlanta to Lima.

After we booked the flight, we essentially forgot about it until a couple of weeks ago when we realized that we had to start booking hotels an tours. We also had to get the appropriate immunizations.

We rushed around to get everything done in time. We met a couple of times to make plans, and we both made doctor's appointments.

Suddenly, it was February 10th and time to fly out to Lima. We boarded our separate flights (Alli boarded hers about 8 hours before me as she had a much worse connection).

Now, we are at the Lima airport. We are basically stuck here for the next 5 hours until our next flight leaves. I was expecting a fairly empty airport, mostly shut down. I was wrong. Near arrivals, there are dozens of taxi drivers and hundreds of family members waiting to pick people up. Apparently, a number of flights come through Lima in the middle of the night, so the airport doesn't really shut down. All the restaurants are open, as are the kiosks and convenience shops.

Lima airport.

Every few minutes, an announcement comes over the speaker at a very high decibel. For the first hour or so, we were dealing with the loud scraping noises of metal chairs and tables being dragged across tile flooring as the cleaning crew. And now, we are being serenaded by music emitting from Manos Morenas (yes, that's the real name of a nearby restaurant).

From here, we fly to Cusco. From Cusco, we will take a bus or maybe a taxi to Ollantaytambo, Sacred Valley. Only another 7 or 8 hours of travel time left.

Sigh.