First Day in Peru

Khivan and I were scheduled to fly out of Vancouver BC to Peru early Friday morning. Why out of BC you ask? Because it was $400 cheaper per person. Why is it cheaper to south fly from a destination that is further north you ask? Let me know if you figure it out. Also, Khivan and I were on separate itineraries. Why you ask? Because originally my cousin Amit was supposed to go to Peru with me, but he had to cancel after we already bought tickets. By that time, to get Khivan’s itinerary to match mine, it would have cost $1700, instead of the roughly $1000 I paid. So separate itineraries it was, though we would eventually meet up in El Salvador and be together from there onward.

Fortunately, we have family in Surrey, so it’s pretty convenient for us to go to and stay overnight in BC for an early morning flight. Also, Khivan was way overdue for a visit, so that was a bonus, even though they didn’t count her sub-12 hour stay as a true visit.

Unfortunately, we got to Vancouver later than planned. That’s why we were there for less than 12 hours. We got late leaving the house, just doing final packing, eating lunch, running the dishwasher, setting out the garbage, etc. Then we stopped in Seattle to pick up the phone charger I left from my visit in May. That put us in extra traffic and took us away from I5. Fortunately, we could use the carpool lane when we were leaving Seattle, which probably saved us an hour or more.

Finally we made it to Vancouver at almost 9pm. We had a nice dinner of chawal and roti and paneer subji. I played a game of Fifa against Gurjyot, who finally beat me in a very close match (4-3 in overtime). We went to bed by 11pm, as we had to be up by 4:30am the next morning.

We got a little late leaving in the morning. Left around 5:20am when my flight was at 7am. Encountered a short line for checking my bag, and then a much longer, slower security line. Fortunately I made it in time, got to my gate by 6:40am, boarded the flight and had no issues. Flight was pretty good. Bumpy at times, but I had in-seat entertainment to distract me. Started watching Terminator, then they had to reboot the system because apparently they had some glitches. I finished my book on my e-reader and then got up to walk around a bit. A guy was standing near the bathroom and started chatting with me. 2 hours later, we were told to return to our seats to prepare for landing!

I had about 2 hours in Toronto. I was told to go through customs, though I couldn’t understand why. Neither could the customs agent when I finally made it through the line. Again, I had in-seat entertainment on that flight and enjoyed the ride as I finished Terminator, watch The Longest Ride, and a little bit of Big Bang. The empty seat next to me was a nice bonus too. We got fed twice – once a chicken lunch and a second time with a ham and cheese sandwich.

When I finally met Khiv in San Salvador, I found out she wasn’t so lucky. She didn’t have in-seat entertainment on either flight. She did get to watch part of Pitch Perfect 2 on a shared screen on her second flight. She apparently had someone steal her pillow and couldn’t go to the bathroom because her neighbor was very anxious about flying. However, she had a much shorter itinerary and apparently was very productive with wifi and cell coverage in LAX, so I didn’t feel too sorry for her.

My conclusion is that it takes forever to get to Peru. After a too-long layover in Lima (3 hours even though our next flight was 75 mins) where we had Dunkin Donuts for breakfast at 2am (busy airport, couldn’t tell it was 2am as all of the shops were open and there were a ton of people milling about) we finally made it to Arequipa. We got a taxi and went straight to our AirBnB. We found out from them how to get to the plaza where our free walking tour was at 12:15pm, and then took a 2 hour nap so we could have some energy to enjoy the tour.

I didn’t sleep that great, but it did energize me, while Khiv slept like a rock. We headed out the door and decided to walk the 25 mins to the plaza, so we could get an idea of our surroundings and see whatever there might be to see along the way. We found the plaza without getting lost, to my surprise, and then went to find a quick bite to eat. Our chicken pesto crepe order took a bit longer than we anticipated, so we had to high-tail it back to the plaza, and caught our guide just in time as he was leading the tour out of the plaza.

The tour took us to a few cathedrals, a place where they prepare and weave alpaca wool, and a few plazas. The most enjoyable parts of the tour were where we got to sample cheese covered potatoes, organic milk chocolate, and cocoa tea.

    

After this 2 hour tour, we were exhausted again, so we caught a cab back to the house, and took another nap. Cabs are super cheap here. We went on a 10 minute drive and it cost only 5 sol, which is about $1.50 USD. Also, they don’t run on meters, so they just tell you how much it’s going to be when they agree to drive you there. So if they hit a light or traffic or make a wrong turn, it doesn’t cost you anything extra! At that point, we decided why walk? It’s way more efficient to get a taxi!

After our nap, we headed out to see some more sights. We first went to a viewpoint we were told about on the tour, called Madera del Yacahuats, since the sun was already starting to set. We’ve gotten spoiled with the very long days in Portland and even more so in Iceland. We had to remember that we are in the very early part of Spring here, so the days are still quite short. We were a little disappointed at the viewpoint. The view was nice of the second tallest volcano, Mt. Misti, and of the city itself, but there wasn’t anything else at the viewpoint. Not much else to see or photograph or do. So after about 10 mins of walking around, we decided to catch another cab and go to the cathedral.

The cathedral was magnificent. Grand, elaborate, and huge, at least in terms of how high the ceilings went and how large the front door was. We then went to another cathedral that was just across the main plaza, Plaza de Armas, but Sat night mass was in progress, so we didn’t get to see much of it beyond what we could see from the entryway.

 
 

Then we went in search of dinner. We couldn’t find the first restaurant that Khiv suggested based on her guidebook. So we looked at options 2 and 3 before deciding. I was a little unsure at first because the restaurant was completely empty, which I generally take as a bad sign, esp on a Sat night. But we gave it a shot, and soon after, multiple other parties came in. I ordered from the pre-fix menu, getting soup, and the alpaca steak. Khivan ordered aji de gallina, which was shredded chicken, potatoes, and rice, buried under an interesting yellow sauce. Khiv really enjoyed her meal. I was first disappointed, not sure that I could stomach the alpaca. But once I combined each bite of alpaca with the spinach ravioli, it was quite good. We shared the chocolate cake that came with my meal before paying and heading out. The service was quite slow, but we took the time to read more about Arequipa, look up definitions of Spanish words, and so on.

We walked around the Plaza de Armas a bit before deciding we were too chilly and tired to enjoy much more. We hopped in a cab, went home, packed for the Colca Canyon trek planned for the next two days, and now I’m blogging just before going to bed. Good night!