Leaving Cusco, heading home
Blu, Lindsey, and I awoke pretty early, so we went to grab some breakfast… I need to mention again my love for cheap, good, and filling Peruvian food. For only s/11, we got a huge brekkie. Toast, fruit, eggs, pancakes, meat, juice, coffee… and I think there was more I can’t remember. I was stuffed. 
The weather was beautiful, so we did some walking around, stopping at a few more mercados… just general looking around, browsing, and chillin. Cusco is much nicer in the sun, compared to before the trek when it was wet and a bit dreary. The city still is a bit dirty in spots, though. There’s so many wild dogs running around that get into the trash and leave a mess when they’re done. Don’t they know to clean up after themselves? Sheesh…. And as we walked, we’d hit various areas that just reeked of urine. Don’t know if it was animal or human, but we’d assume both, as we blatantly saw a guy pissing on a pole one night… right out on the street. He looked pretty drunk, but apparently discretion isn’t a main concern….
After a bit, we headed back to wake up Joe. He wanted to grab a few things before our flight out of Cusco at 15.15. Back to the mercados to use up any more soles we didn’t want to change back. When we’d had our fill of consumerism, we went back to grab our gear and square off the bill and catch a cab to the airport…. and this would begin our day of hellish travel…
“¿Cuánto al aeropuerto, para cuatro personas y equipaje?”
“Veinte soles”
Ha! 20? Yeah right. We only paid 5 to get here, and the most we paid for a cab all week was about 7.
“Diez”
“Bien. Vayamos.”
But he sure got us there quick. Holy Hell. Across town, ducking traffic everywhere, avoiding the kids performing in intersections begging for money, and we were there in about 7 minutes. I guess it was worth the s/10.
We had to pay our airport tax to get out, same as what we paid to get from Lima to Cusco, about $4 for domestic flights. I don’t know why they don’t just include that in the ticket price. It’s just a big hassle. No problems on this flight, though we did find out why it took only an hour to get from Lima to Cusco, but 3 to get back… we had to make a stop in Arequipa. No plane change for us, just unload and reload some other passengers, but slowing things down nonetheless. It was on the Arequipa to Lima leg, though, that I awoke with a shooting pain in my ear. Fuck, it hurt. I didn’t have any problems whatsoever on the way here, but all of a sudden it hurt like hell. I just had to grin and bear it til we lowered our elevation and it popped. It finally did, but I couldn’t hear shit out of my left ear, and the right wasn’t up to par, either. Now for another 6 hour wait in the Lima airport. Grabbed some overpriced food and saw the Boston guys that we’d seen on the way in, were at Loki, and were on the trail with a different group the same time as us. My ear was constantly popping and I still couldn’t hear very well, though. It was pretty disorienting.
When it was time, we checked in and were told to make sure we paid our airport tax before boarding… dammit. Again? And this time $30 USD for international! Holy Hell! Seriously, why couldn’t they include that in ticket prices? Luckily, I had just enough in soles that I covered mine, and was able to use it up… but everyone else had to use the ATM just to get out of the country. We were all tired and getting crabby, and still had a lot of travelling to do… and this was not making things any better. Seriously, we spent nearly as much in airport taxes as we did the rest of the time in Cusco! But whatever, we were finally on our way to Houston, where we had to change planes to get back to the D.
And this is where things really go to shit. We only had an hour layover… We hauled ass getting off the plane, getting our bags, which were some of the last off the plane, got through customs as fast as we could, and security… but we had to go through about 3 different security checks, which were severely understaffed. We got to the gate just as the plane was pulling away. Fucking A. As soon as we got to the counter, they said, “Oh, you’re from Lima? Go over to customer service, they’ll straighten things out.” Dammit. There were about 9 of us that missed the flight.
So then Customer Service tells us that every flight for the day is booked… and not only that, but oversold. So we get our standby flights, but it’s not looking good. We wait til the next flight, but when they announce they need to pull 5 people off because it was oversold… in addition to the 9 on standby… we went back to customer service to see what our other options were. Now it’s really not looking good… all the flights the next day are booked, too. Jesus Fucking Christ! So we explore our other options… are there any non-direct flights that will at least get us home sometime today? We were supposed to be back by 11am… and I had 2 rehearsals to play… The first one at 2, I’d already suspected I might not make, just due to not being up to it… but I was planning on being able to make the one at 7…. Now that’s looking doubtful. It’s now 10am Sunday, and it’s not looking like we’re getting home til Tuesday. The customer service guy did his best, and apparently every flight to Detroit from anywhere is booked. Why the Hell do all these people want to go to Detroit? Seriously… The best he had was one going to Grand Rapids, about 160 miles away on the west side of Michigan that left at 20.00, or one going to Columbus, 180 miles south of Detroit, that left at 16.00. Well, my brother lives in Columbus.. but of course, he’s in Detroit right now! So, we called Blu’s Grandpa. Turns out he just got a new car, and would come pick us up! Yay Grandpa! Now we just have to wait 6 more hours, in addition to the 3 we’ve already been here… in George Bush International Airport, Houston Texas. Eck. Fuckin Texas.
But we finally get to Columbus at 20.30, Grandpa picks us up, and then the 3 and a half hour drive to Detroit. By the time it was all said and done, we got home at 1am…. only 14 hours later than expected. And I still can’t hear shit.
Tags: Cusco, Detroit, Houston, Lima, Peru, South America, Texas, Travel
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