Ok, so I admit my pre-travel blogging has suffered over the last few years and that I have not been updating people as to when I am traveling. This trip is of course for Daniela's birthday and to bring back some of her stuff for the eventual move here. It was planned for her birthday as we didn't know how long it would take to get to the visa needed to get in. We have only basic plans and are not doing anything for travel inside of Peru. We are only staying in Lima in the apartment that my family stayed in for the wedding. It is right above her office. I arrived to the airport a bit early by getting a ride from David. He brought Murphy along and Murphy wanted to do the whole sit on me and lick my face thing but fortunately he calmed down after a couple of minutes. I brought two bags for this trip but I also was upgraded to business class seats (I guess the flight may not be full for a change. I picked Copa Airlines based on price and timing of the flights. I have a long layover in Panama which is a small airport but realistically I deal with that versus later arrivals to Lima. I guess my Star Alliance Premier status gave me the free instant upgrade (apparently for both flights which quite rocks). Copa departs Logan from terminal E but the place was a ghost town on this Saturday morning so the check-in, security (with no TSA Pre) and such was very fast and easy. I got to the gate more than an hour before boarding was to start. The plane was waiting on the tarmac but not on the gate yet. I assumed unless there were other reasons for a delay we could probably get out on time. Fortunately there was just a short de-icing delay but nothing more than a couple of minutes. Of course it was snowing as a last statement from the winter in Boston this year.
The plane was a 737-700 and I was in seat 3A at the back row of the business class section. I got on quickly and had no issues with getting my backpack in the overhead. The flight was about 6 hours long. They did not have individual seat entertainment even in business class. The movie on the overhead was The Theory of Everything which I wanted to watch but the video and sound was screwed up so it became difficult to enjoy missing so much. I do wish to watch it for real because it seemed legitimately interesting. I had red wine and the meal had 2 courses which were served rapidly in succession. Unfortunately the first course had a sandwich which was good and that was followed too soon by a pork medallion which I didn't end up finishing. The food was good and tasty, just too much. There was also a salad, roll and butter (olives in the roll) and ice cream with caramel sauce for dessert. I slept after the movie finished for quite a while after turning over to a music channel with about an hour loop of songs and listening to that repeatedly. The flight had a few bumps on the way down as we passed through a brief rain storm.
Panama airport is really small. Ironically I landed at gate 31 and needed to go to gate 30 but 4 hours or so later. I chose to wander the whole airport and found the upstairs food court where I had a couple of Cerveza Panama drafts (it was an average beer at best) and a Cheeseburger in Paradise. The name of the bar/restaurant was Margaritaville Air so I guess that makes sense. The burger was ok but not spectacular. Really eating was about killing time more than anything. After a while I wandered the airport again and then after the previous plane departed gate 30 I found a seat there and waited out the last hour or so.
Not many folks boarded at group 1 so I was on quick again with a spot for my backpack up top. I stole the window seat instead of the aisle seat which worked out well for the family that was together in the business class area for this flight. I was in seat 4F where I should have been seat 4E. This plane was a 737-800 and had one more row of business class so I was still in the back row. They had a full course meal also but I mainly nibbled on things. The main was chicken with jasmine rice and the first course was a cream of tomato soup that looked like ketchup so I didn't try it (it was far too thick to be right to me). I had mostly water and one glass of red wine here too. They showed Gravity on the overhead and I basically watched it though I didn't much like it. Couldn't believe what was going on or care much about the character. I fell asleep for a bit after that listening to the same loop as on the first plane. This flight was 3 hours and 10 minutes long. It was bumpy most of the way but not horribly so.
When we landed I got stuck in a stupid line for immigration (my fault, Chinese kids who couldn't fill out the forms correctly or communicate in either Spanish or English well). Still it wasn't too long and my bags were both among the first off the carousel. I had already texted Daniela and she picked me up with Edwin and Donna. Edwin drove and I met them outside and jumped in the car quickly. It was definitely better than finding a taxi.
Everyone was awake still at 11pm and Edwin and Donna stayed. They made some chilcanos and we toasted then watched a news program for a short while. After a bit they went to get something to eat (at around midnight) and they all got soups at an open 24 hours restaurant named Rico Rico. I didn't eat because I was stuffed. When they finished we came back to the house and got cleaned up and went to bed for the evening.
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