We got to wake up a bit later than the previous two days but
still it was not really late. Daniela,
her mom and I got out of the hotel at about 7:15 and walked to the Plaza de
Armas to take a few pictures. We are also able to visit a church that was open
that early on the way as well as sit in for a couple of minutes at the mass in
the cathedral. We headed back to the hotel by 8:20 and had a quick breakfast
and before you knew it the van was arriving for the transfer to the
airport.
This time the plane was only about an hour late which is
certainly much better than my previous record for the trip but still it was
late. In the airport everyone did a little of souvenir shopping and George and
I had empanadas from the snack shop. Mine was accompanied by a coffee. The moved our gate in the process but the
domestic flight area is so tiny in Cusco it really didn’t matter.
The flight itself was short and easy. I sat next to Sara and
Sue and we talked the whole time. They served a ham and cheese sandwich with a
dulce de leche cookie as a snack for the flight. Since no one checked luggage disembarking was
easy. Our transfer van was a few minutes
late but not really by much. We drove to Daniela’s house and picked up
everyone’s luggage then drove to the Hotel Arawi where everyone else would be
staying for their last night in Peru. At
the hotel we had lunch. I had a hamburger which was a bit overcooked for my
taste, but probably it was safer that way. Daniela snuck out and brought in a
birthday cake while we waited and we had that before she and I had to rush out
the door and into a taxi back to her house.
We rushed through a very quick repacking while the taxi
waited then immediately raced to the airport. The driver was a champion at
getting around and through Lima traffic
and every second helped. Daniela raced
in for check in while I dragged the luggage in. The security guard at the door
followed me to Daniela who had my passport for check in to make sure I was
really who I was. We ran through the airport to security and rushed through
that as best we could. Fortunately the domestic lines were not long still. Then I chased Daniela to the gate where we
were sent to a wrong gate and then had to run back to board just at last
call. I do not know if we could have cut
it any tighter.
I didn’t stop sweating from all the running and carrying
baggage until probably half way through the flight. It probably didn’t help the
air wasn’t blowing too hard at first. I was able to sleep a little bit and had
tea for my service in the flight. The flight itself was uneventful with only a
couple very small bumps.
When we got to Piura we had to call the hotel for advice on
how to get there. We took a taxi to a “bus stop” where we signed on for a combi
ride to Mancora. The bus had to fill up before they would depart. When we
signed on there were two more spaces after us to fill up. They did but the two
guys were armed with a bag of beer. Daniela put up a small protest but
fortunately they weren’t really drunk and obnoxious after all. The drive was 3 hours long in a cramped van.
Because my bag had the laptop I kept it on my lap the whole ride as there was
nowhere else inside to fit it and we didn’t want to put it on top like the rest
of the baggage. I was able to sleep some of the ride. I thought I was going to
be a bit nauseous during a couple spans where the driver took some switchbacks
very rapidly but I did survive it after all.
We made it to the hotel at about midnight or just a little
after and the attendant checked us into our bungalow. We did a quick unpacking and then it was
immediately to bed.
The pictures from today are found here.
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