Still being sick I woke up very late for me. I really did not feel well in the morning so I just stayed in bed until about 9:30. Typically I wake up at about 5:30 so this was fairly unique for me. I got cleaned up and packed and by 10:30 I was downstairs to check out of the hotel. I left my main suitcase in the hotel storage and carried my backpack around for the day. I started off the morning by going around the local tourist shops in search of magnets and other knicknacks until around 11:30 or so. This meant I walked up towards Larcomar but did not go all the way to it. When I was done I sat in the park with the cats on a bench basically in front of the McDOnald's. Daniela was supposed to meet me at noon but I was sweating profusely even though the weather was overcast and perhaps a little cool. I suspect this was due to being ill. While I was waiting Luis called me and said he was coming by to give a gift from the company to me. I told him where I was and a few minutes later he arrived and gave me a gift of shot glasses with depictions of the Nazca lines on them. That is one of the attractions in Lima I still have not seen. I accepted the gift and he and his wife were on their way to a church thing. It was after all a holiday.
After that I moved more to the center of the park to wait for Daniela. She was about a half an hour late and apologized profusely. She explained she was helping her brother with a trip she had booked for him before she left and lost track of time. I teased her about being used to Peruvian time via Luis. I had to explain to her that I was not feeling well for the past day or so and that our plans of possibly getting sushi were out the window. She said ok and suggested perhaps pasta. I agreed to that. I figured I could find something bland, cheesy and binding in a pasta menu. We walked a fair distance out from the hotel into San Isidro district. The restaurant was named Danica. She had apparently worked there for a month or so some time before. I ordered a water (I know, very sad) and a gnocchi cuarto quesos (with 4 cheeses). I figured that would be safest for the situation. She ordered a Thai pasta because she had her heart somewhat set on Asian food. The food was fairly good though perhaps mine was a touch salty which is to be expected with all the cheese I guess. In any event I enjoyed it and ate the whole plate hoping it didn't come back to ruin me. We chatted throughout lunch and after we were done and settled up we walked deeper into San Isidro where we went to the Olive Park which is filled with olive trees. We saw this on the first tour on Saturday and I was disappointed we didn't get to get out of the bus to take some pictures. I had mentioned that just as we left the restaurant so she took me there. It was not very far from the restaurant at all. We walked through the whole park. It is a very expensive area of Lima. The houses are old and very large. The park is supposed to be more than 400 years old. They harvest the olives each year and process them and dispense them to the residents of the district based on how good a harvest it is. It might be one amount per person or one amount per household if the harvest is bad. We had seen them harvesting when we were on the tour. I should mention we also saw Huaca Pucllana while we were walking. I was surprised at how close that really was to the hotel as well though we didn't go back to it. We also found a small ice cream stand she knew in the area and each got some ice cream. She really likes ice creams with alcohol in them. I think I mentioned she loves desserts in general before. So we got some ice creams with alcohol in them. I would have to look at the picture to get the name for mine. It was actually quite good. She went on to tell me about all the alcohol flavored ice creams she had tried including a pisco sour flavor her aunt in the highlands makes. We walked back to the park to sit down and eat the ice creams before we started back towards Miraflores. We took a slightly different route than we had taken before and it was basically a straight show to the El Parque del Amor that we saw on the bus tour. We decided to settle there and just talked as the sun set (which was sort of a sad thing as the heavy overcast prevented it from being anything but a gradual darkening. I had already told her about my ability to bring sun with me when I travel and I had to explain that I failed today probably because I was sick. She accepted that. WHile we were talking an elderly woman fell down the stairs where we were setting and hit her head and started bleed. Daniela sprung into action and found a park security guard and called an ambulance. Fortunately the woman didn't appear to be too badly hurt after all but it was still sort of scary. She appeared to be going to a church group meeting in the park or something like that and before an ambulanced arrived she had moved down to be with the group. I couldn't understand anything that was being said but at least she seemed to be ok enough. We didn't get to find out when the ambulance arrived because it became time for me to head to the hotel to get my stuff and be brought to the airport by Luis. After she dropped me off we parted ways. She was to go to a friend's in Miraflores before she went home since she was already in the area. It was a very nice day and I really enjoyed it. I am glad she came all the way to Miraflores for me.
Amusingly, Luis was actually early for what time he said he was going to pick me up by about half an hour and I was exactly on time instead. He had to do donuts around the block while waiting for me. I got in and got my bag and packed the shot glasses into it when he came around and I loaded up and it was off to the airport. The ride was very easy because there was no traffic at all with it being a holiday and we were there in less than half an hour. The check-in desks didn't open up for another 15 minutes but because I was a premier passenger I didn't have to wait very long after that to get checked in. Luis waited for me and we had a tea before he left me to head back to pick up his wife and I to go through security and wait for the plane. The security check was fairly easy. They had an immigration check as well which I survived easily because I retained the bottom form from my initial entry with my passport. It appeared a few Americans forgot to do this and had to go through a secondary line. I did a little bit of knicknack shopping in the airport then headed towards the gate. The posted boarding time was 9:00 which seemed very early for a 10:38 flight and it indeed was because they didn't actually start boarding until 9:38. Every single carry-on bag was inspected before boarding the plane but being premier again helped me get through and on pretty quickly.
The plane was a 757-200 The flight itself was probably ok. There were few bumps but the Peruvian woman next to me was the type that believes her seat extends 7 inches beyond her armrests and I had to maintain an uncomfortable defensive position with my arm to keep her from sticking her elbow into my side. This is the single biggest pet peeve I have on flights and I was fortunately able to maintain balance with this one because she didn't keep pushing. I just couldn't move my arm or she would take the space immediately. I didn't eat anything except a roll for the full meal. I watched a Japanese film called the Train Brain Express which as a buddy film comedy about two guys who are big train nuts and how their lives intesect and their hobby intersects with their jobs. It was a strange movie and the two rastafarians that worked with one of the guys were very funny. After that I tried to sleep and maybe got about 4 or 5 hours of intermittent and uncomfortable sleep. After that I basically just watched the flight map for the rest of the flight. They served a muffin and I had some coffee with that before we landed. We were in that wierd seat in the plane that one of the windows is missing, presumably where there had been a different transition area when the plane was in a different configuration. It made it tough to see the take off and landing, which I like to see but I got a few glimpses of both but better of the landing.
I realize now why people dislike Newark's airport. While it was inocuous going out of the country it was fairly miserable getting back in. I did manage to get through the immigration line fairly quickly because I got off the plane fast but then I had to wait for my luggage to come through. A bag got stuck on the carousel two bags before mine so I had to wait even longer. After about 5 minutes they freed it and I was able to get mine and then came the miserable part. Customs inspected every single bag that came through. You were better off being a group because they sent them through the agricultural inspection which got them through much faster. Being an individual you really got punished. After having everything pulled out of my bags and then having to put it back I was able to get through and recheck my bag for the final flight and then head over to the gate. It took around an hour from landing to getting to the gate. Not really fun at all. If I had had the chance for my Global Entry interview before this trip I would have been able to avoid most of that. Unfortunately that is this upcoming Friday instead. When I found a seat at the gate I started typing up this to kill the time before we actually were able to board. At least I didn't have to change terminals during the process.
The flight was on a Bombadier Dash 8 Q-400 which is a small turboprop plane. I was at the very last seat in the plane (so much for Premier status I guess, well I did got on in the premier groups but still, I must have booked the last seat, it was a window seat). Even though the weather was warm and didn't feel to breezey in Newark the takeoff was quite interesting as the plane made some funny feeling bounces while we ascended and turned. It probably felt worse because I was at the back of the plane. After we got up to altitude (which was not high at all) I sort of looked out the window and I think nodded off until they anounced we were approaching for landing. The Spanish girl next to me went white knuckled on the armrests as we wobbled our way into the landing. It was definitely much windier in Boston. We landed safely though it was obvious that the wheels did not all touch at the same time. The flight attendant in the back of the plane lost her book during the landing and the passengers had to hand it back to her after we touched down.
From there it was a small wait to get off the plane since it was so tiny and then on to the baggage carousel. I was fairly early in the baggage roulette and got outside and called to find my Dad was just a few minutes away to pick me up. There was a bit of traffic but we were able to avoid most of it and I arrived at home tired and feeling rancid from the lack of shower and properly sleep. All the same it was no time for bed.
All in all it was a good trip in Peru. It was trying at times with the class and Lima traffic will definitely take years off your life if you pay attention to it but I think the general experience was positive and the students and their coworkers were happy with the training. I think the best part was meeting Daniela because I like meeting genuine and interesting people when I travel and she is definitely both of those. I am happy to be home at least for being able to drink water out of the tap again, but I will miss Peru a bit.
The pictures from today are located here (all pre-flight).
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