Well, I´m alive for the time being, and in another country to boot. Tomorrow Andrew and I fly from Guayaquil (Southern Equador) out to the Galapagos. The highlights of the trip so far:
Day 1:
1. On the way to the airport in DC, Andrew notices that the itinerary has us flying into LaGuardia but then flying to Peru out of JFK. Minor Panic ensues.
2. The ticket counter in DC tells us that we don´t have electronic tickets and that they´re going to charge us an extra hundred dollars for a lost ticket application. I ask to speak to the manager, who then tells us that we have to buy whole new tickets at the current rate (twice as much as the lost tickets). Major Panic ensues. The ticket counter man talks to sales and works out so that we only have to pay for the 100 dollars. We gleefully do so. Afterward Andrew posits that the manager just did a standard ploy of scaring us so badly that we were happy to get screwed over only by 100 dollars (I´ll be having a nice chat with the airlines when I get back).
3. We drink a pint of beer by the gate.
4. We drink (I guzzle) a beer on the plane (gratis...the first thing to go our way on the trip).
5. Getting off the plane in NY I panic when I can´t find my passport. Andrew is already down an escalator when I stop to search myself. He begins to come up steps when I find it and yell out, ¨Stay Down!!!!¨, which, it turns out, is NOT the thing to yell in an airport in NY. The woman next to me turns bleach white and gasps. I realize what I just did and apologize and then hot-foot it out of the airport.
6. We pay some guy $45 to get us from LaGuardia to JFK lickety split.
7. We drink two beers in the lobby of JFK, then go through security, where we, along with all the other caucasians on the flight are rigorously searched. By the gate, we drink another beer.
8. Lan Chile turns out to be the best airline that we think we´ve ever flown on. We were no doubt influenced by the pretty stewardesses and the fact that we were on the emergency exit aisle (more leg room).
9. Touch down in Chile. I discover that my duct tape, hatchet, and pocket knife were stolen (Semper paratis). My K-Bar was not stolen.
10. The drive through Lima to the hostel was amusing and terrifying. Lima reminded me of Iraq (well, that and the other third world countries I´ve been to) in that there was trash everywhere and all the cars from the 70s are flying all over the roads, which didn´t really have lanes. I had a seatbelt. Andrew didn´t. I asked the taxi driver when the sun comes out. He told me that it doesn´t come out during the winter in Lima. I´d forgotten that it was winter there since it was 66 degrees. The locals are bundled up.
11. After getting the room square and setting out to explore the city, we are immediately accosted by urchins who polish our boots. We laugh at the fact that we´re being swindled. The polishers try to extort money from us, which we´re happy to comply with since the exchange rate there is ridiculously in favor of the dollar. Eventually I tell them ¨No!!!¨and they skidaddle, thrilled that they bilked $5 from us.
12. Mostly drinking for the remainder of the night plus a cheap meal.
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