Heading North

We knew this would be a long day. One thing that makes days of flying long is, sometimes, you have to retrieve all your luggage. You can't check it all the way through. Other things are so many stations of the airport cross, where you pay and show ID, and pay, and show ID. And nothing is ever next to anything else. They get your itinerary in advance and re-arrange the airport so this can never happen.

First flight: Cusco to Lima. We hiked all through all the stations and when we got to the gate, we had to go outside and climb up the steps to the plane with our carry-ons. That did it. Joyce finally cried, and that was about my lowest point, too. So we sat there and cried together. I think it honestly helped, because somehow it never got that bad again.

Then along came a smelly little man. I have so sense of smell, but Joyce does, and he was on the aisle and turned toward us constantly trying to see out the window. His first flight ever, I think. So we rearranged ourselves and he sat at the window with me in the middle. So what? It's just an hour.

At Lima we had a LOT of time so we spent our last Peruvian Soles on some keychains and just waitied anxiously, wanting so bad to get on a plane and go home. You know it's bad when we want to get on a plane. This happened right on time, as usual, and we flew to San Jose, same as when we flew down.

And this is where we had a small adventure. It seems, perhaps, for some reason (they tell you nothing) there was some sort of security problem in San Jose. They had the whole airport blocked off into sections and a cop of some sort every few feet. We had to empty all our luggage onto tables while they picked through it. They were very nice, really, and we had to laugh at how they reacted to some of our stuff and then they would laugh, too. The had an incredible pile of contraband on the floor and Joyce whispered she thought she would lose all her medications and liquids, and she had even forgotten to check her toenail scissors. So we waited anxiously (again. A lot of anxiety on this leg) to see if she'd be hauled off or something, but they took nothing from her. Meanwhile, the guy going through my bags confiscated four rechargeable AA batteries from my underarm bag, which was not a big problem, because I hadn't been able to recharge them and they were probably dead. So I said, sure, take them, and we went from there to a body search, (they had a very attractive young officer for us) and onto the plane, which was being held because of the security delay.

So as soon as all the passengers had transferred, we took off for Miami, and again, got a meal and arrived on time. We had reservations for the airport hotel, because we knew damn good and well we'd be going nowhere fast after such a long day and a late arrival.

There was a tremendously long check-in line, a surly porter and a crazy person in the lobby, but we blew all that off and just had a drink and went to bed. The end. Almost.

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