Peru Adventure Day 8-9: Homeward Bound

There are only 2 reasons for this post: I think the pictures are entertaining, and the story will show you why Bean and I are such good travel partners.

We had to get up very early to catch our first flight from Cusco-Lima. We were at the airport by 7am, checked in and ready to go. First of all, the Cusco airport has absolutely nothing in it. So we sat there, and sat there, trying not to fall asleep while waiting to board. We noticed that our boarding time was delayed, first from 8am (flight leaving at 8:30am), then pushed back to 8:20, and it kept going back from there. We were supposed to land at 9:30am, which gave us 3.5 hours between our connecting flight from Lima-Miami; plenty of time to get our bags, wait in lines, and get on our 2nd flight of the day.

All told, we landed at about 10:15, got our bags as quickly as possible, ran through the airport and found an agent to give the mobile phone to, and ran to get in line to check in for our next flight, leaving at 1pm. There were only 3-4 people in front of us, but it seemed like everyone was complaining about something and nothing was getting resolved, and we were in the only open line. A big group from our same flight got lucky when they opened another line, but we were at the front at that point and figured we would get through pretty soon.

By the time we got up to the desk, it was a few minutes after 11am and that was the cut off for International flight check in. There was nothing they could do for us. We explained that our flight was delayed and we'd been waiting in line for 45 minutes. Since it wasn't their airline, it was a regional airline, there was nothing they could- I should say 'would' do for us. They told us to go back to Star Peru airlines and have them re-book our flight.

I haven't mentioned that the reason we chose the 1pm flight was so that we could spend a nice night in Miami to close out our trip. We had the hotel room booked and were looking forward to that evening. The only other flight available to get us to Miami left at 11:30pm and flew overnight. When we booked the trip, we purposely did not choose that so that Bean could go to work rested that next day.

Long, irritating, stressful story short, Bean handled the people calmly and persistently, and did what it took to get us at least on a flight home. Meanwhile, I cried and fell into a puddle on the ground.

We ended up re-booking on the overnight flight, spent $400 for the flight change, and had to lose our $200 hotel room for that night. In the middle of dealing with all of this, AT&T saw that I was using too much international data and decided to shut it off. !!!! So I had to deal with changing my phone plan and adding international service just so I could coordinate the details we needed to coordinate to make sure our travel insurance would take care of some of this for us.

We did everything right. We were early to the airport, we spaced the flights what should have been enough time apart, and we were still stuck in the airport for 10 hours. Our next hurdle was getting checked in for our flight, which we couldn't do until it opened at 7pm. The first hour or two was spent dealing with all the crap. Our travel insurance told us to go to the first airline and ask for a letter stating that the flight was delayed, just to prove that we had no control over the situation. They were really good at making me feel better and giving me confidence that we would get at least some of our money back.

Here's what we did to fill the rest of the time.

Ate nasty Papa John's pizza. The food court was pretty busy and we were definitely there the longest. We saw so many people come and go.

 I bought a book. Then I got a manicure, which was awkward because the ladies wanted nothing to do with me. But it filled about 30 minutes! And then I waited an hour and got some icecream. All of these activities were made to fill 3 hours of time. I sure look excited about all that time in the airport! Side note: I ended up finishing the entire book before we landed in Dallas.

At about 6pm, Bean started going down to the ticket counter every 15 minutes to see if the line was forming and/or open yet to check in. All we wanted to do was have them take our bags and know we had a seat on the flight.

When we got up to the ticket counter, the agent looked at the paper we handed him, paused, and walked away to 'check on something'. I freaked out and started crying. Bean stayed calm and explained to the guy what we'd already been through, he did some work and got us good seats in the middle of the plane on a exit row with extra leg room. When they finally took our bags, we needed to celebrate!

 So we got some Lays, wine, and beers. We met a girl in line who had dredlocks and seemed like a free spirit. She was having issues and needed to call home. We overheard her, and gave her all the coins we had left- we weren't going to use them anyway, and figured we should try to make someone else's day better since ours had been so bad already. As soon as we could go through security, we bought a couple of souvenirs, woke up our dredlocked friend to make sure she got on the flight, and got on the plane!!

Apparently I ordered dinner from the flight attendant, and I don't remember it at all. Apparently she was mad that I ordered the dinner and didn't eat it. I was sleeping the entire time. Bean should have know I was sleep-talking because I asked for the meat option. I NEVER order airplane meat!

We finally landed in Miami, and had a short layover before our flight to DFW. Here's the gross American breakfast we ate:

 And finally, FINALLY! We made it home, and got our bags.

We were ecstatic to be on our home turf, done with the unnecessarily long travel day(s).

All in all, the trip was absolutely incredible and life changing. I've already shared the lessons I learned on the hike, but the one that really hit home for me on this last day is there is nobody else in the world I would have rather been on that trip with. Bean is my perfect complement, my perfect travel companion. We communicate well, enjoy the same things, and it always works out as long as I'm with him.