Dec 1st: Saturday
I woke up to what I thought was noon, what would have been the perfect wake-up time. But it was actually 11. Dammit.
Nicole was already up and ready to go. Our plans for today were simple. Go to the black market (that place that had everything bootleg), buy a bunch of DVDs, come back, watch some movies, catch a cab to the airport, check in, get on the plane home, fall asleep. Well, that’s they way it worked out. For the most part.
First stop was the black market. I found a guy that hooked me up for about $35 USD, I got 42 movies. I also purchased a CD/DVD book that held 48 movies. We then walked around to kill some time and pick up a couple cheap “i gotta have this, cuz I can only get it here things.” And a pair of socks. The ones I had were way too dirty =). While Nicole was haggling with some lady on the price of some Pisco, I bent down to sneak a photo of this chicks foot. I saw this out of the corner of my eye and couldn’t let it pass by (oh, and she’s an american, so i didn’t feel bad).
On the way back to the hostel, traffic was intense. The lines on the road are mere suggestions. The traffic lights? They represent more or less what you should do. I think the only thing that keeps people from going completely nuts and speeding all over the place are the random speed bumps. They place them all over the place in the road without much warning. Again, the rule of, “which ever road has more lanes has the right of way” existed. The other thing that stuck out were all the street vendors and beggars. They would sell anything, seriously. Calculators, ice cream, toy trucks, towels, whatever. Once, this kid came up to our window and mumbled something over and over (i guess asking for money) until the cabbie took off.
When I got back to the hostel, I took out all the DVD covers from the cases, and moved all the movies in book holder thing that I bought. Then I found a rock and tore up the case pretty well to make it look beaten up and pretty used. Anything that’ll make it easier to get through customs. I figure, it’s probably not a big deal, but why take a chance.
Finished with my workings, we went to the grocery store to grab some lunch / dinner. While we were there, we grabbed some liquor, and a couple photos of the meats area. This was too good to pass up. They stored a lot of their meat in open-air. Not wrapped. Free for people like me to cough and sneeze all over. Gross. They also had shrink-wrapped Guinea Pigs. Mmmmm.
The hostel we were staying at had a liquor license, so they forbid us to bring back our own liquor. No problem. I bought a cheap bottle of "Peru Cola" for about 30 cents, poured it out, and put it in there. Dinner was a repeat of yesterday, but it was still tasty =). Nicole had some veggie-meat patties. Looked disgusting, but she said it was pretty good.
After chowing down, I hung around the hostel to watch some movies, and Nicole went out to the beach to watch the sunset.
At 8:30pm, our cab to take us to the airport arrived. We piled in our bags and said goodbye (we wound up getting a free ride due to incompetence at the hostel =). On the way to the airport, it clicked as to why I was feeling so sick (soar throat and general crappiness). It was the pollution from all the cars and buses. I felt as if I was sucking on the end of an exhaust pipe. I was not going to miss Lima.
We got to the airport and checked in with Spirit. We wound up having to check 2 of our bags at a cost of $10 each. I charged them to my credit card, as we didn’t have any cash. Also, there was only one type of ATM at the airport (probably some deal made between the bank and the airport), and Nicoles debt card didn’t work in it. Whatever, we were almost out of here and $20 isn’t going to kill me.
Upstairs, we get into the next line, the airport tax line. There was a $30 airport tax fee that you have to pay manually before you’re allowed to go to the boarding area. When we get up to the teller, I hand her the boarding passes to get the stamps and my credit card. Then comes the beginning of a complete freak out…”We only accept cash”. WHAT?! A major international airport that charges everyone a departure fee only takes cash?! WTF?! Well, I certainly don’t have any cash, and Nicole doesn’t either, so I ask her what the hell we’re supposed to do. She informs us that we can go back to the Spirit checkin counter and pay with a credit card there. Arg! Fine… whatever. I just wanted out of here.
Back at the spirit counter, I skip the line and go up to the lady that checked us in. We explain. She looks confused and tells us that they can’t do it. Awesome. I can feel my blood pressure rising. “So what do we do?” She tells us that we can hang out there and pay for peoples luggage with my card and have them give us the cash. Great idea! “but the flight is pretty much all checked in, and most people payed in advance.”…*POP* <- my cool. “Then what the hell are we supposed to do? Nobody does cash-back purchases (asked) and all the money exchange places only exchange cash (asked)?! What happens if we miss our flight? It leaves in an hour and we haven’t even gotten through customs, let alone security!” Well, if we miss the flight, we forfeit our tickets (but our bags will make it to florida fine). We would then have to purchase new tickets (but the flights are booked, and we’re broke…awesome). For the cash problem, she had no suggestions and left us with a final answer of a shoulder shrug. My favorite response for any question. Especially when it means I’m going to be trapped in a foreign country with no money.
I then got an idea. We raced up the stairs to the food court and jumped to the front of the line. We then explained our situation to everyone in line and offered to buy their meals on my credit card in exchange for cash. Many of the people agreed to help. We needed to raise $60 (120 Soles) in about 20 minutes or we were seriously screwed. With most peoples order being around 5-10 soles, I had a feeling we might actually not make it. I ran to the book stores / souvenir shops to try there (larger ticket items being bought), but of course, everyone was paying with a credit card. I ran back to the food court. We were up to $40! People wound up just giving us money. That’s about the point Nicole broke. She couldn’t ask anymore. She left and sat down. Crap… now I’m limited to just english speaking people and we have almost no time left to spare! I didn’t give up. I skipped everyone in line and approached a smiling elderly american gentleman and told him our problem. He laughed, said how bad he felt for us, and gave us a $20 bill. I almost cried. I thanked him profusely, grabbed Nicole, and we ran for the airport tax line. It was about 40 people deep. Screw this. I moved all the little line thingies and walked right to the front. A window opened and a cut a lady off throwing her a gaze that she understood and stopped dead in her tracks.
I handed the lady the boarding passes and the $60. “Do you have 2 Soles?”… “What?! I just begged for this money, my flight is boarding right now, and you’re questioning me about 60 cents?!” She put the stamps on the tickets and we proceeded to customs. Great, another line. We tried to skip this one, but they made it pretty clear that we had to wait in line. So we did. We got out stamps to leave the country and then went through security. Thankfully, it was quick and short. Running to our gate (at the very end of course), we made it. Just in time to have our bags searched again by hand for liquids. Our government is plain dumb. I’m not even going to go into this one right now.
We got on the plane, and was greeted by two black women with sass. Yes! Home! I went to take my seat, and it was reached with dread, but not too much shock. It was a regular coach seat. There was no way in hell i was going to sit in a regular seat for 7 hours. I told the stewardess about my problem, and she told me to move to the exit row, no problem. So I did. I was happy. Finally, I everything was okay and my blood pressure resumed a normal level. We were to arrive in Fort Lauderdale at 6:30am tomorrow, and I have no idea when my connecting flight to New York is. And I don’t care. I try to go to sleep… didn’t really happen.
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