Peru #1: Journey and Arrival

My journey down to Cusco went basically as planned, with a few surprises along the way. 
From Phoenix, I had a layover for a couple hours in Houston.  I decided to stop into the United Club with one of my guest passes since I heard United was revamping the food offerings.  I was happy to see that the new food had arrived in Houston!

This was lunch.

As I sat and waited for my flight, and looked at the other people, I began to question everything that I had packed.  Why didn't I pack yoga pants, flats, skinny jeans, or stretch pants?  I totally had room in my suitcase for all of this stuff.

My flight to Lima left on time and seemed to be full.  It was a large plane, with two seats on either side and three seats in the middle (in coach.)  Soon after takeoff, we were given dinner.  The choices were chicken or pasta.  I got the pasta, of course.  It tasted fine.

Of all the cities they could have put on this map, they chose Cleveland.

Dinner.

I watched a movie, "Still Alice", while I ate.  (Side note: I highly recommend the movie.  And I hope I don't end up suffering the same fate as Alice!)  After that, I tried to sleep as much as I could because I would be spending the night inside the Lima airport once I arrived.

I thought my first Spanish test wasn't until Monday.  Little did I know this Customs form was my real first test, as it was written only in Spanish.

Snack before landing.  That's a turkey sandwich, so the snack wasn't of much use to me.

The plane landed a little early, shortly before 11pm.  The very first thing I saw when I got off the plane, in the exit ramp, was an ad for my phone.  I guess they are really trying to push this thing in South America.  Or I'm just that cool!

The inside of the airport looked very, very nice and clean.  And it had seats that you could lay down on.  That made me feel much better about having to spend the night there.  I walked to Immigration and the lines moved quickly.  The man at the counter may not have even said one word to me, and after about 2 minutes I was on my way.

Next I had to go to baggage claim to pick up my suitcases.  I was ecstatic (seriously) to see that they had FREE luggage carts.  Since I had two full-size suitcases, I was definitely going to need one.  (Side note: I had one bag packed with my items.  The other bag was almost entirely stuff for the kids at wherever I end up volunteering.  Also, this second bag was one that I had donated to me by a friend after asking if anyone had an old or worn bag that they no longer needed.  My intention is to leave the bag here and not lug it all the way back home, unless I end up buying tons of souvenirs.)

After receiving my first bag, there was no sign of my second bag.  I waited for a while because there were many other people still waiting for their bags.  After realizing that no new bags were being delivered, I went to the baggage counter to let them know that my bag was lost.  I was smart enough to do this before the ten or so other people who were still waiting.  After giving my information, I was told that my second bag never left Houston.  I was obviously upset, but glad that it wasn't my primary bag that was lost.  The man at the counter was nice and helpful, spoke perfect English, and explained that my bag would (should) arrive the following day, but I would have to go to the airport in Cusco to pick it up.  Great.

Will I ever see this bag again, and will Peruvian kids ever get to play with this stuff?

After that, I went through Customs.  That was also a very quick process, and did not seem very formal or organized.  Unfortunately, they did not have a place to drop off your suitcase if you had a connecting flight.  Upon exiting, there were lots and lots of people standing in the arrivals area waiting for loved ones.  I was a little confused as to where to go, but figured I would have to go to the airline check-in counter to drop off my bag.  There was no entrance to that area from the arrivals area though, which was also annoying, so I had to physically exit the airport, walk along the sidewalk about 100 feet, and then enter through another door.  I even had to show my passport to a guard to enter.  (I've never had to do that before.)

It was midnight and the check-in counters were empty, except for LAN and a few American airlines that had late night flights.  My flight to Cusco was on Avianca, and I was bummed to see that their counters were closed.  This meant I was stuck in the airport entrance area until those counters opened.  This part of the airport was nowhere near as nice as the interior that I saw earlier.  At least there were a few seats.  So I sat there with all the other tired people that had to wait with their luggage.

Fun times. 

I asked the young man sitting next me to confirm that what I was doing was correct, and he said it was.  He was from Ecuador, and was doing the exact same thing.  He told me that the Avianca counters opened at 1am, so that made me a little happier.  I dropped off my bag as soon as I could and then headed toward the gates.  I had to pass through Security first, which was similar to the process in the US.  I was surprised though (and very glad) that the agent let me keep my full bottle of water.

Once inside the terminal, I found a corner seating area and made myself at home.  There were a lot of people sleeping there overnight.  Most of them were probably going to Cusco also, as the first flights did not leave until around 5am.

 Selfie from my airport bed.

So far, I would like to say that I am remembering to do this 60% of the time, but that's probably overestimating.  It is such a hard habit to break!  (You are supposed to put the toilet paper in a garbage can next to the toilet.)

I put my belongs right next to me, had my arm through my purse strap, and slept as best as I could for a few hours.  I wasn't expecting to be able to sleep at all, so even two hours was pleasantly welcomed.  The flight to Cusco boarded quite early (about 45 minutes in advance) and we took off on time, shortly before 6am.

It was still dark outside when we took off.

Sun rising over the Andes (and the clouds) shortly after take off. 

The flight to Cusco was fairly short, but I still took advantage of being able to get a little more sleep.  I must have been in a dead sleep, because I did not hear the flight attendants when they came around to serve drinks.  When I woke up at around 6:45am, still in a groggy haze, I was stunned by what I saw outside.  (I was lucky enough to have a window seat on the left side of the plane.)  The sun was shining bright and there were huge, snowy mountains towering over the clouds.  Was this actually real?!  It was one of, if not THE, most beautiful scene that I have ever viewed with my own eyes.  My first thought was "Holy s***!"

If this doesn't make you want to come to Peru, I don't know what will.

Almost to Cusco!

After landing in Cusco, I was picked up by a van service through my education/volunteering program.  There was also one other person, an American boy, who arrived on my same flight.  This was a Sunday, and to my surprise we were taken to our school, Maximo Nivel.  We were given a short orientation and were showed around the school a little bit.  After that, we were dropped off at our new homes!

I was under the impression that for the first week, I would be staying at a dorm/hostel.  So I was pleasantly surprised to find out that I was staying with a host mother, Patricia.  She welcomed me in, showed me around, and explained some things.  Her house is actually an apartment/flat.  It has four bedrooms, a living room/dining room, and kitchen.  It is a much bigger place than I expected a typical Peruvian person to live.

View from the living room. 

View from the hallway. 

Living room and dining room.

One of my new housemates, Noisy. 

Also Chango... 

...and Chaska, who is still a puppy and totally crazy.  (Fun fact: Chaska means "star" in the Quechua language.)

I am sharing a room with two other girls.  They also arrived the same morning as me, and were asleep when I entered the room.  Patricia introduced me to them and we chatted a little bit.  One is 18 and from Canada.  The other is 19 and from Brazil.  They guessed that my age was 20 or 22, so that made me feel REALLY good!  They were shocked when I told them my actual age.  I decided to try to sleep also, so that we would all be on the same schedule.

Our crowded room, but we like it.

I slept until nearly 2pm.  No one else was awake yet, so I just sat in the living room.  Noisy came over to check me out.  He started biting at my socks so I sat on my feet.  Before I knew it, he made himself comfortable in my lap and we were fast friends.

I tried studying a Spanish workbook I brought, but I was still tired so it was difficult for things to soak into my brain.  Once the other girls woke up, Patricia offered us some lunch.  We had a creamy leek soup and bread.  I liked it.  I spent the rest of the afternoon alternating between studying, settling in, and napping.

We ate dinner at around 8pm.  I also found out that there are many other foreign students and volunteers living in the house.  Three girls from Belgium, who are volunteering as occupational therapists, joined us at dinner.  For the meal, Patricia made breaded chicken filets.  Since I don't eat chicken, she made me an omelet instead.

Eggs, potatoes, and veggie salad.  Oh, and bread, of course.

There was even dessert!  A pancake-crepe.  Yummy!

Next up: School starts!

P.S.  My internet access here can be very spotty or slow, and because of this it is very tedious to upload photos to this site.  Plus my days have been quite busy, so sorry for the delays on my posts.  I still plan to post new ones semi-regularly though.