A Nice Steady Closet

Getting out of Lima was not as simple the second time around. We had a taxi pick us up around 9a.m. to take us to the airport. Our flight to Arequipa was supposed to leave around 11:20. We planned to have enough time to check our bags, eat breakfast at the airport, and get through security. All was going very well. We checked our carry-ons so we wouldn’t have to lug them around, not to mention that they we VERY over weight for carry-on luggage. We took our time at the food court (did you know Papa John’s serves breakfast?we opted for McD.), paid our airport tax of $6.25 a person (tickets are invalid w/o the paid tax sticker), got down to the gates, checked the board only to find written next to our flight CANCELADO. Even you non Spanish speakers can figure that one out, CANCELED. The flight had been canceled while we went through security.
So back to the ticket counter we go. The line at the LAN counter was huge! So being resourceful Christian put the Latin culture to work to help us out. He got the attention of a LAN worker and pointed out our predicament : canceled flight + last in line + 5 kids=remove blockade and put family with kids at the head of the groups line. People down here don’t like to see kids cry or make them wait. We were thankful to not have too long of a wait. However, it almost didn’t matter because the next flight to Arequipa was at 3:50p.m. we now had 5 hours to wait in the Lima airport.
We found the nicest spot we could near a fountain, under a skylight and set up camp. We ordered the most expensive cookies (not realizing what we were ordering) just to sit in this café. The price was worth it since we spent a good 2.5 hours sitting there playing cards and trying to figure out how to call the school in Arequipa to tell them our change in plans. With that dome we made our way back to security to head to our gate. We bypassed the tax booth since we had already paid several hours earlier, well – since our tax stickers had already been scanned once they weren’t valid anymore. I was about ready to scream. The lady at the counter said it would be fine but now we were being told to go back down to the ticket counter to get it fixed. The kids and I planted ourselves on the floor along the glass wall in front of the security entrance. Christian returned in about 10 minutes with new stickers and we were on our way – through security again and to our gate. At this point all went well. We got on the plane – got to Arequipa just fine, and so did our luggage. People from our school meet us and brought us to our house where we meet the owner and signed our lease, we went shopping for some necessities, moved around a lot of beds, and got to bed very late.
The next morning we left the house at 9:45a.m. to go to ABC (that is the language school)to talk with some people there and see where it is. It is about a 15 minute walk from our house. We then proceeded to walk all over Arequipa. It is a beautiful city – we walked 4.5 hours that day. At almost 8,000 feet up the air is thinner and the sun stronger. We were all exhausted and sun burnt by the time we got home. Our boxes also arrived in Arequipa without a problem. It was nice to unpack our things and make this place home – even if it is only till August. As Gavin put it when we put his laundry away, “It is nice to have a nice steady closet.”