{ 14 décembre 2005 }
el país de llamas, de incas y de taxis baratos
weekend before last jimmy & i went to perú to visit ilario. ilario was down there working for telefónica; he had a 2-month internship through iaeste, an international organization that finds jobs abroad for students studying science, technology or engineering.
before we left for perú, i thought about what i wanted to do there, and i decided that i had 2 goals: to see and perhaps buy handmade crafts and to see llamas. it was up to jimmy & ilario to decide what else we did because i would happy as long as my 2 goals were met.
our flight from atlanta arrived in lima around midnight, which is the case for many international flights to perú. we wanted to catch the 5.45am flight to cusco, the capital of the inca empire. you see, many people opt for taking early morning flights because later in the day, the winds can become dangerous in areas like cusco, so later flights are many times delayed or cancelled. since we were catching such an early flight, jimmy & i decided to stay in the airport all night. there were at least a dozen other people who stayed all night as well. we all hung out by the food court on the 2nd floor, but had to move when the janitors started cleaning the floor. i felt safe the whole time because there are guards on the 1st floor that keep the riff-raff out of the airport. however, i still barely slept because the metal chairs in the food court are not all that conducive to sleeping.
jimmy keeping himself occupied during the peruvian all-nighter
somehow these girls managed to sleep
around 4am a special lan ticket counter [by the left luggage counter] opened up where we could buy cheaper tickets than at the regular lan counter. not sure why this was the case, but the catch was that we had to pay in cash, which was strange. soon after we bought our tickets ilario arrived, then we bought donuts because it’s funny to eat donuts at the lima airport after having pulled an all-nighter. i had a dulce de leche donut topped with coconut; it was quite tasty.
ilario enjoying a donut at 5.30am
as we were sitting at the gate eating our donuts, i noticed that practically everyone was staring at us. ilario [who is italian and was sometime mistaken for a peruvian] had warned us about that since jimmy and i are both blondes. the staring continued wherever in perú we went.
posted at 21.52