Flying South
SUMMARY:Got to O'Hare, just in time, but then my flight was delayed. Enjoyed people-watching and sipping coffee to relax (I know, that's not how caffeine's s'posed to work) after a hectic week of moving. Made a few friends on the way down, including a Brazilian business man who offered to show me around Rio di Janeiro, and a girl named Jessica as I took my first steps on Peruvian ground. One of my bags got lost, but my driver was waiting with my name on a sign (another life dream accomplished!) to take me home.
FOR DETAIL LOVERS, ONLY:
Whew! Well it has certainly been an interesting couple of weeks! I'm definitely behind on my updates, so I'll do my best to catch up, but it might take a couple posts. It's strange to think that such a short time ago, I was frantically getting things together and taking care of the last few details before I left to catch my plane in Chicago. I barely got to the airport in time to check my luggage. As I stepped into the security line at O'Hare, I knew I was on my way! All I had to do was get through the metal detector, grab my X-rayed items, and get to my gate. Once on the plane, I could relax.
I was a bit tired and cranky on the trip to O'Hare, namely because it had been such a strenuous week, trying to get everything moved out of Winona, and tossing it in my room (and other various locations around the house), but also because I hadn't had any coffee yet, and by 2:00 pm I was beginning to develop that ever-dredded caffeine addict's headache. I know, I know, I've been saying for two years that I need to cut down on the coffee. But you have to understand that there's a direct correlation between the time of year/amount of work/amount of caffeine consumed, and I was just coming of the high season . . . finals/graduation.
So you can imagine my relief when I made it through security and got to my gate only to find out that my flight was delayed! Yes, I said relief. Most people would be upset, but with only a half hour before the scheduled takeoff time, I had been concerned about boarding my plane. The delay gave me a chance to zip over to Starbucks (conveniently located right across from my gate) and grab a mocha, which I proceeded to nurse for approximately the next hour. I did a little bit of reading and a lot of people watching (airports are great for that), and enjoyed the sarcastically humorous announcements from the American Airlines staff, reporting that the plane was somewhere on the O'Hare grounds, but the service crew was taking their sweet old time prepping the plane, and the tower had readjusted the takeoff time but "believe me, it's not realistic". Seriously, the crew had an attitude that probably reflected the attitude they were receiving from ornery customers! They weren't rude, just sarcastic. And once we finally boarded the plane, they were flippant and flighty (no pun intended), making comments like "we wanna get out of here as quickly as possible, so let's all cooperate" and "yeah, so we're headed to Miami but our flight safety video is only in English and French. No Spanish, sorry 'bout that." I, having remedied the caffeine shortage and not minding that my 9.5 hour layover in Miami was being shortened, was able to thoroughly enjoy every moment. We scurried out of there and were on our way!
As we took off I discovered I was sitting next to a Brazilian business man, on his way home to Rio di Janeiro before skirting over to Santiago, Chile and Buenos Aires, Argentina. Well this was just a fabulous tribute to my first excursion in South America! We chatted a bit, until the in-flight movie came on and he went to sleep (I watched the movie). He woke up as we were beginning to descend, and after chatting a bit more, he pulled out his business card and told me to give him a call if I headed to Brazil. With a "ciao" and a wave, we parted ways in Miami.
Since my flight had been delayed, my layover in Miami was shorter than anticipated . . . only about 7.5 hours instead of 9.5! I wandered around for a bit, enjoying the humid Florida warmth coming from the entrance. I talked to a couple that was also flying to Lima (Their flight was delayed due to fog in the Lima airport--I've since learned that this happens several times a week at this time of year in Lima. The fog lingers throughout the winter.) and chatted for a bit with a guy my age who was on his way north, having just come from Lima. After journaling for a little bit, I gathered my two carry-on bags and my pillow into a little nest, wrapped my infamous fleece blanket around me, and went to sleep. I slept surprisingly well, considering the bright lights of the airport combined with a mix of overhead music and music playing in one of the nearby restaurants. To top it off, the local time was announced every fifteen minutes. I must have been tired though, because I drifted off almost immediately.
When the local time was announced as 4:45, I decided I should get myself up and refreshed so I'd be ready for check-in. I was still a bit groggy when I got up to the desk, but I made it through the mixture of Spanish and English and was informed that both my bags had been transferred successfully to Copa Airlines (I flew American for the first leg of the trip). After another security check and a quick stop at the gift shop, I boarded the plane, and was off. I couldn't help blowing a kiss out the window at my homeland, as the engines roared and I was lifted off of U.S. soil for the next three months. Technically, I guess the Embassy counts as U.S. soil, but that didn't occur to me in the sentimentality of the moment.
I had one more layover before Peru, in Panama City, Panama. I didn't leave the airport, so I guess I can't add Panama to the international tally quite yet, but I did get to see the Panama Canal from the air! Very exciting! There are ships galore surrounding the entrance to the canal, and it felt like a historical moment, perhaps because I remember learning about the construction of the canal in a distant grade school history class. I snapped plenty of pictures, fully appreciating the symbolic passage from north to south, Atlantic to Pacific. After sitting in Tocumen airport for about 45 minutes, I boarded the final plane. Destination: Lima, Peru.
The flight went quickly, since I napped much of the way, and was entertained by entertained by the little boy sitting in front of me the rest of the time. So I was caught by surprise when I glanced out the window and, instead of the clouds I was expecting, I saw a myriad of winding rivers. I wondered if any of them might be the Amazon, having no clue where I was or what the Amazon might look like from that height. When I saw the river that I think was the Amazon, I realized just how off my concept of distance and size had been. I may have been wrong, but whatever it was, this river was much bigger than the others I had been look at. I am sure of one thing, though: I have seen the tallest mountain in Peru. The pilot announced it as we were flying by, and although it didn't seem that much taller than its neighboring snow-capped peaks, it was still very impressive. The clouds returned as we began to decend, so that when they suddenly parted and I saw how low I was and that the mountains had been replaced by the wavy Pacific coast, I gasped out loud! Within minutes, we were touching down. Bienvenido a Lima.
I disembarked, and as I was walking toward the baggage claim, taking in all the sites, a guy came up to me and said "You love your pillow". I looked down at my arm, clutching it with excitement and smiled as I explained that I'd had to sleep in the airport the night before. His girlfriend came up and we began to chat as we stood in line for the customs check. Who would have guessed her name would be Jessica?! I took it as a sign that I was in the right place. We exchanged numbers as we waited for our bags. All but one of mine had come out by the time they left, promising to show me around if I called, and as we said our good-byes, an airport employee came up and asked if I was missing a bag. It turns out I was! I'd been so engaged in chatting that I hadn't even realized the same bags were going around the carousel unclaimed and mine wasn't one of them! I filled out a form, giving them the only contact information I had: My boss's number and the Embassy address. Since there was nothing more I could do, I headed out to the receiving area. I grinned as the doors parted and an old dream came true: There was my driver, holding my name on a sign, waiting to take me home.
posted by Jessica @ 8:41 AM
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