Back to Lima
Trip Start
May 28, 2010
1
8
Trip End
Jun 06, 2010
Lima, Peru
Saturday, June 5, 2010
The check in process was smooth, we even got on an earlier flight to Lima. The security check point was odd. There was exactly one person manning the station. I don't think she even glanced at the X-Ray machine as our stuff went through. When it was time to board the plane to Lima, everyone lined up at the gate as usual. There was some commotion and then they announced that the gate had changed. So, we walked down to the new gate and got in line again. After a few minutes, there was more commotion, but no announcement, and people started going back to the old gate. After another little while the people who were on the plane that we were to board finally got let off and then we were finally allowed to board. The short, one hour flight to Lima was uneventful.
Back in Lima, we had five hours to kill before we had to check into our international flight to Atlanta. We stored our bags in the airport for 3.50 soles per hour per bag. We then hired a taxi to take us to the main plaza in the city, Plaza Mayor. There was a walking route in the guidebook and it seemed closer than Miraflores. The cab ride took about 45 minutes and went though some pretty sketchy parts of town. Plaza Mayor is huge and has a large cathedral and the president's residence along side it. It wasn't quite what we bargained for, though. There weren't very many shops or restaurants and the walking route was partially blocked off by what we couldn't determine. So, we decided to take a cab to Miraflores, which is the main tourist part of town.
The cab from Plaza Mayor to Miraflores was only about 20 minutes long and cost 20 soles. We were dropped off at the main park area. There were plenty of shops and restaurants. In the park itself there was a little craft fair and people dancing in the ampitheater. We walked the circuit that the guidebook recommended and stopped in a couple shops. When we got hungry we went to a restaurant that also had free Wifi. We had one last Peruvian dinner, looked at pictures on the computer, and checked the status of our flight. After dinner, we went to a couple last shops and the caught a cab back to the airport. The cab ride back to the airport was something. It was pretty much the epitome of a crazy foreign cab ride. While making a left into the airport, I thought for sure we were going to be hit by on-coming traffic.
Finally (and safely) back in the airport, we collected our bags and went to check in. There is a reason Adventure Life said to be at the airport three hours early. There was a huge line at the Delta ticket counter. We waited fifteen minutes just to have our passports checked to actually get in the queue. Luckily, they had an Skyteam Elite lane so we used that, which saved us an hour at least. Past check in and through security, we made one last purchase at the duty free shop. I really wanted to get a bottle of pisco to take home. Finally we arrived at the gate and caught up on our journals before boarding began. The flight was at 12:20am, so this was going to be a loooong trip back.
