I kept a journal while I was there for three weeks. I will simply be posting my journal entries, with some embellishments where I didn't have enough time to write down all the details. With these entries, I will include the associated photos. If you are interested in reading each time I post, please send me an e-mail and I will add you to the list.
Now...May 21st, 2012 1:00 pm CST
"We are on our way to Peru! our current flight takes us to Atlanta from Milwaukee, then we fly to Miami. Once there, we will find our bags and check-in with American Airlines (we are currently on Delta) and wait four hours until our flight to Lima. We have a five hour layover in Lima before getting to Cuzco tomorrow morning.
We are in the last row of seats, right by the lavatories. Yuck. It is very loud and has no window. Luckily, this flight is only 1 1/2 hours.
Travis is eagerly awaiting the drink/snack cart, but by the time we get it, we will be in Atlanta! The pilot just said we are flying over Indianapolis with one hour and three minutes to go!
5:50 pm EST
We are descending into Miami as I write this! Travis has been chatting with out seat mate, and it turns out she is Peruvian! Sounds like she lives in Europe now. I'm excited to get off the plane and have dinner. We quickly grabbed a sandwich to share in Atlanta, but we were in a rush to catch the plane. I hope we find a good place to eat!
Dinner in Miami
5:30 am Peru Time (PT)
We are finally in Lima and are waiting to go to our gate. Travis and I are both exhausted I took out s./100 (one hundred soles [pronounced "sew-lays"], Peruvian currency) and the ATM gave me a s./100 bill that the airport food places can't break. I bought a water with my card :( (I found out later that each time I used my card in Peru, I was charged and international fee. The charge on my $1 water was $0.04.) There are "typical" food places, like Dunkin Donuts, which I will have to tell Ben about. Travis just went there to grab some breakfast, actually.
We have to wait almost four hours until our flight to Cuzco. Travis did not sleep at all on the last flight (I did) so he may nap while we wait.
7:30 am PT
We just had our first encounter as awkward tourists! At the airport coffee shop, Travis had a cup of coffee. (This was a place where you could sit down and have a waiter take your order and bring it to you. This is what Travis did) But when it came time to pay, we were at a loss for how to do it. The shop had gotten really busy and it was difficult to attract the attention of the Spanish-speaking waiters. We watched other tables but couldn't see how they were paying or if they were tipping. People seemed to hand off money in a "secret" fashion to waiters (was this a payment? was it a tip? we had no idea.) Eventually we were able to communicate that we wanted the bill, and Travis gave the guy s./10 for a s./6 bill. We waited for a bit and watched the waiter hurry around other tables, taking orders, and figured we should just leave, not knowing if we had any change coming! We will have to ask Marla how restaurants and tipping work. (We did ask, and typically you don't tip, unless you are at a nice place. When you tip, it is no more than 10%).
At the coffee shop
9:30 am PT
We are on our final flight to Cuzco! I was laying when I wrote my last post- ended up sleeping in the airport for about an hour. We are sitting next to a Japanese man who lives in Toronto and is backpacking in Peru, Bolivia, and Chile alone with little knowledge of Spanish! He says many Japanese people do the hike he is, and is hoping we will run into some on his adventures.
My Spanish-speaking abilities are slowly poking out, and I am becoming more comfortable using Spanish with airport/airline employees. Travis seems to be nervous and stumbling yet, but I think that is because he is tired."
We landed in Cuzco, found our bags, and were greeted by Marla and her fiance, Ismael (pronounced Ish-male). We took a bumpy cab ride through Cuzco and made it safely to Marla's house, where we had lunch:
No comments:
Post a Comment