Trip to Peru, Part 1

I have the best travel partner in my life: My soon-to-be-20-year-old son. I'm pretty sure he will soon tell me that he wants to travel with his friends rather than me, but we still enjoy each other's company while traveling, especially abroad. Between 2011 and now, we've had amazing adventures together in Ireland, Turkey (Istanbul), Germany, and Brazil. Not to mention multiple trips to Russia and Central Asia where I come from. My son is a college student, I'm a college professor, so we both have good winter and summer breaks and before the pandemic we always traveled somewhere far away.

A trip to Peru was on my bucket list for a long time. I was saving for it and since we didn’t travel abroad for 2.5 years due to the pandemic, we decided this winter break would be as good a time as ever, if not better, because people are still apprehensive about extensive travel for leisure. I bought tickets Miami-Lima months ago, and it was an excellent deal at $780/person.

And then the omicron variant hit. We became stealthy about our trip to Peru: I told very few people about it because until the very last moment we were not sure we’d go, mostly due to the spread of the new Covid variant and possible travel restrictions.

I’ve also found an excellent travel agency, Peru for Less, that was ready to organize our Cusco and Machu Picchu leg of the trip. If you go to Peru for the first time, would like to visit Cusco/Sacred Valley/Machu Picchu area and don’t speak Spanish, it is better to have a travel agency arrange the trip as there are many hotels, trains, buses and car rides involved. Rylee McGovan of Peru for Less was extremely patient with me going back and forth about the entire adventure and confirmed the last details of our trip on a Friday before the Tuesday we were supposed to fly out, Dec.14 at midnight. The whole package to Cusco/Machu Picchu cost us $1,200/person and it included everything: flexible return LATAM flight Lima-Cusco, hotels with breakfast in Cusco and Sacred Valley, train, busses, all car transfers, and tour guides. Everything was taken care of, and we only had to pay for lunches, dinners, and tips.

On Monday, Dec.13, I made sure to file all final grades for my students and answer all work emails and we started our long drive to Miami where we were supposed to park my car for the duration of the trip. It’s good that now that my son drives we can go faster by taking turns and stopping only for gas and food.

We got to Miami at 7:30 pm, parked the car and as we were riding in a Lyft car to the airport, I got a message from Delta that our flight was delayed. Even a couple of hours delay would shift our plans for Cusco as were scheduled to arrive in Lima at 6 am and fly out to Cusco at 10 am. I opened the message and it said the flight was being delayed by a whole 12 hours!

Now, I have to say something about LATAM, Delta’s partner on our flight to Lima and carrier for our Lima-Cusco flight. It obviously stands for Latin American Airlines and flies all over Central and South America. It is reliable and reputable, with the lowest rate of delayed and cancelled flights compared to any other national Latin American competitor, of which there are many. The 12-hour delay (due to the plane’s mechanical failure, as we were told) was extremely unusual and the fact that it happened to our flight prompted my son to start his old song that his traveling had been cursed, in a way becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy progressing with each next step.

Because we had another flight next day, we decided to stand in a long line to re-book the flight to Cusco (we were told that we’d be put on 11:50 am flight to Lima automatically). While standing in line, we heard a lot of stories of people missing weddings, scheduled trekking tours, business meetings and holidays. We also booked a hotel near the airport for the night through Expedia. Among the delayed passengers, one particular gentleman stood out: he cut in line right before us and started yelling at the poor ticket agent in Portuguese that he was flying “business” and was supposed to meet his business partners in Sao Paolo where he was flying through Lima. It was quite interesting to see his interaction with the ticket agent who was extremely patient and composed with him. He spoke Portuguese, she spoke Spanish but they understood each other perfectly well. It took her 45 min, but she was able to put him on a direct Miami-Sao Paolo flight at 5 am. So he’d actually arrive there earlier than his original flight through Lima. He left the counter quite happy.

The ticket agent was not able to help us much. She just reassured us that our second flight would be re-booked as well next day as we were flying with the same airline. I messaged Rylee of Peru for Less to say we would not be arriving in the morning and would try to book the flight to Cusco the next day from our end. She was sympathetic and hopeful that we wouldn’t lose a lot of time. Originally, she planned a whole extra day in Cusco to adjust to the altitude and have flexibility just for emergencies like this.

The ticket agent also told us that LATAM would provide us with dinner, hotel, and bus for the night in Miami. While waiting for the LATAM supervisor we tried to cancel the hotel we just booked a couple of hours before. My son by mistake booked a non-refundable no-cancellation room, so we were set to waste $100. While waiting for the LATAM supervisor, we made friends and shared stories with more people. One young American couple was being delayed for the second time on their Lima flight and was also heading to Machu Picchu. Another couple, a friendly and bubbly American man in his early 50s named Peter and his Peruvian wife, a medical equipment salesperson, was quite chill. They rented a cottage for three weeks in the Amazon of Northern Peru and were not in a rush anywhere. Peter took everything that was going on with a certain amount of amusement and was just curious about how all this would work out.

While standing in line, I called the hotel we booked and asked if it would be possible to cancel the booking. The clerk there was quite rude to me, trying to explain the no-cancellation policy. I asked her if we could at least request the shuttle from the airport and she said the shuttles were running only till 9 pm. It was 9:10 pm when I called. We stood in line for the LATAM supervisor for about 45 min more without any movement and because we were so tired from our long drive to Miami we decided to take a Lyft ride to the hotel we booked. When we arrived at the hotel, the clerk there must have recognized my voice on the phone because she was quite impatient and rude with me. She gave us a room on the fourth floor that reeked of smoke the moment we walked in there. I called the lobby and told the clerk I am allergic to tobacco and couldn't stay in that room. She told us to come back and even before I said anything gave me another room key in such a manner as if I owed her something. The key pocket didn't have a room number on it and when I asked for it, the clerk rolled her eyes at me. I slid her the card and said, "Could you please write it down here." Seeing that the number was not there, the clerk said, "Oh, it's just down the hall," like I was supposed to read her mind. I was too tired to argue. We just went straight to bed.

The next morning, we were at the airport by 7 am, as the LATAM agent had advised us. Peter and his Peruvian wife were already there, in front of us, but the line was still short. Peter told us that they had left the Sharaton hotel LATAM put everyone up in earlier, to beat the crowd, and that the rest of the people would arrive by three buses later. They all joined us at the line about 30 minutes later. By 8 am, the line to the LATAM counters ribboned around the waiting area at least 5 times. While standing in line, we quite accidentally discovered that we needed to file an official self-reported form with the Peruvian Ministry of Health stating that we had no COVID, were not recently exposed or sick and didn't take a vaccine 14 days before the travel. My son found a company that filed those forms for us while we were standing in line, within 30 minutes at $60/person.

At 8 am, the LATAM check-in counters finally opened. By the time we got to one, the LATAM agents checked our vaccination cards and health statements twice. It took the ticket agent about 45 minutes to re-book our flight from Lima to Cusco. When we finally got through the security check and waited to board, I messaged Rylee to tell her our new arrival time in Cusco - 7 pm. She immediately called me and said she was concerned we only had 1.5 hours between the flights in Lima, especially because we would have to take our luggage when we arrive and transfer it to the Cusco flight. I said the LATAM agent assured us it should be enough time. "Just keep me updated," Rylee said. I promised I would.

The flight to Lima was a little over 5 hours and quite pleasant, except for the fact that LATAM made us wear double masks for the duration of the flight. I watched a couple of movies, enjoying my new Sony noise-cancelling headphones I bought about two months before our trip.

When we arrived in Lima, it took us about 30 minutes to clear the immigration. Everyone was very friendly, and the immigration officers took a chance to practice their English asking us all sorts of questions about our trip, in a pleasant manner. We rushed to the baggage area with still about one hour before the next flight. Our luggage was not showing up for over 45 minutes and while waiting there, we met a couple of American medical students from Florida State University who were heading to Cusco as a part of their service trip, to work at a local medical clinic there. We decided to stick together. By the time we located our luggage (which was standing in a lost-and-found counter area and no one had told us about it), we missed our 5:30 pm flight. There was still another flight to Cusco at 7 pm that we didn't make either because we needed to go back to the check-in counter and drop our luggage. So we stood in line at the counter again to re-book our flight for next morning.

Another sympathetic LATAM agent re-booked our flight for 9:40 am and gave us vouchers for a hotel in the Miraflores district, a return taxi ride, and meals at the hotel. We didn't expect the hotel to be in Miraflores, which is the most affluent and beautiful district in Lima, so we were quite happy. However, it also was about 45 min ride from the airport, and could be longer in Lima's busy traffic. In any case, we were looking forward to spending the night not at the airport but in the city, that was a nice perk even though it meant that we lost all our time cushion in Cusco. I messaged Rylee and Cusco PFL operators again with the flight details and we headed to the hotel.

When we got to the taxi and exchanged our voucher for the service to Miraflores, I thought I lost my iPhone. I had a new backpack and was pretty sure that I put it there before talking to the taxi operators but I went through all pockets in the backpack, of which there were too many, and couldn't find it. So I used our taxi's trunk to unload some stuff from the backpack and found the phone that was tucked in between my travel book and our passports. We finally boarded the taxi and headed to the hotel. It would be only on our next flight that I'd discover my new noise cancelling phones were no longer in my backpack. A lesson for life: Don't take new untested backpacks with too many pockets on a trip of your lifetime. Take something you are familiar with and would work for you.

When we finally got to the hotel and were provided with a basic but tasty dinner of chicken with rice and sweet tea, we decided to take a long walk around Miraflores to walk off the stress of the day. Our goal was to get to the beach and we walked around it in circles but never figured out the way to get to the bridge over the highway. But we got a pretty good idea of the affluent Miraflores neighborhood, with its numerous restaurants, small and big parks, and interesting and colorful architecture. We were finally ready for and excited about our Peruvean adventure.