Although
not obligated to a ridiculously early start, we were nonetheless up by 05:30; no
doubt the result of the excitement that had been slowly building over the past
18 months since first opting to celebrate my 50th birthday in Peru!
As the taxi wasn’t due to pick us up until 06:45, we had plenty of time for
some "final"" packing, re-packing and a leisurely breakfast.Yesterdays’ last minute flight changes, prompted by Qantas’ 5th schedule change, had Quentin totally rearranging our flights to Lima, and in the process managed to secure seats on the same flight as Simon from Sydney to Santiago, Chile. Alas there were no seats left on the same onward connection to Lima, Peru, but we managed to book a flight scheduled to depart just 45 minutes later instead, with all three of us then able to travel together to the hotel on the other side of the city.
Running our way through the airport (being guided by Bob Reece on the various fast options available) and after barging our way through customs (in the process losing our little do-it-all-tool, shampoo and shower gel to overly conscientious airport personnel) we arrived at the gate only to be informed by Simon that our next flight would be delayed too. Sigh….
After a patient wait of an additional 75 minutes, we were allowed to board our flight. On submitting my boarding pass to gate personnel red lights started flashing and the message “seat allocation issue” came up. We were then handed new boarding passes indicating we have been given a free upgrade to Premium Economy! The Gods were clearly taking pity on us. This reminded me of Simon’s flight to Africa to climb Kilimanjaro with Darren Reeder, where he ended up being upgraded from Economy to Business class and was then offered a seat in First Class by one of the other passengers, while Darren had paid full fare for a business class seat.
It’s
now 14:00 and sitting very comfortably in our quite spacious seats, sipping my
3rd glass of bubbles and hoping lunch will be served shortly. So
far, so very good!…..After
an uneventful but long 2nd leg of the trip we found ourselves in the
LAN VIP lounge of Santiago airport. As Simon thought we’d continue the rest of
our journey together it was not until nearly gate closing time when he realised
he in fact was booked on an earlier flight than us and therefore had to rush to
catch his flight. Our flight was scheduled to depart some 45 minutes later but alas
was also delayed an hour due to backlog of passengers still waiting to clear
Immigration. This meant Simon’ had to wait for us at Arrivals in Lima airport
longer than planned. Sorry Simon!Onto our 3rd and final flight and another 3:30 hr later we finally reached Lima. Immigration was a very expedient process, as was the luggage delivery. Our local guide Ralf, did a good job of driving us through Lima’s Rush Hour traffic and dropped us off at our hotel around 19:00. A quick shower and out by 19:30 for a drink and a bite. As Simon not only discovered his suitcase had been interfered with and therefore had to break it open, he then discovered he’d forgotten to pack short sleeve shirts: a perfect reason to do some local shopping!
We
then went in search of some local cuisine and Peru’s famous Pisco Sours and after
three of these rather potent concoctions we elected to head back to our hotel.
However, on the way back, after petting dozens of wild cats in the local park,
we found ourselves at another bar, sipping more Pisco Sours as a final
nightcap. The table next to ours was occupied by 3 local ladies who were also
enjoying a jug of this lethal beverage. Suitably emboldened with liquor and wanting
to reveal our fluency in Spanglish, we engaged them in riveting conversation. At
last, at 23:30 we crawled back to the hotel for a well-earned sleep!
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