Día 16

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Wake-up time at 5:30am today... yeeech! But the bus was coming to take us to the airport at 6am, right? Not exactly...

The tiny little van arrived at about 6:20, and there wasn´t a snowball´s chance in hell we were all going to fit on the van with the luggage. Soooo, we divided into two groups, I was in the first group. Headed to the airport and got there at about 6:45. (Our flight was scheduled to leave at 7:35) The second group was right behind us, or so we thought. Now it´s 7:00am, and they are closing the check-in counters. Group two still hadn´t arrived. And Natalie was in group two, with the bag of snacks! (aka my breakfast) 7:15, no sign of them. 7:30... 7:45.... boarding the plane, and no group two! The next flight out to Lima wasn´t until 5pm, and our connecting flight from Lima to Chiclayo was at 7:45pm. They would never make it! But we had no choice, and boarded the plane without them. (and without my food!)

I fell asleep towards the end of the flight, which was only about 2 1/2 hours, and was startled awake as the plane touched down on the runway in Lima. We had to tell Beatriz, our Lima guide, that we left half of the group in Iquitos! But no matter, we hopped on the bus and headed out.

Erin and I needed to go to a local clinic to see a doctor, so we left the group and headed to a clinic she had previously visited. The doctor couldn´t see me until later in the day, so I made an appt for 2:40 and decided to come back after lunch.

In the cab on the way to lunch, Erin´s cell phone rang. It was Charles, who was part of group two, and they were in Lima!! Turned out that they had arrived at the airport in Iquitos at 7:20am, but the airline would not allow them to check their bags or board the plane. In fact, no one would even speak to them until after our flight had taken off! Fortunately they were able to buy 7 seats on a different airline and fly to Lima, arriving only a couple of hours after us.

We were reunited as a group at Jose Antonio´s for lunch, where we had eaten once before. (The place that had the great Taku Taku! And today, they also had these fried yucca balls with cheese...mmmm mmmm good!)

Edmundo accompanied me back to the clinic for my doctor´s appointment, while the rest of the group returned to the US embassy for another lecture. (Can´t say I was too disappointed in missing that...)

It was a good thing Edmundo came with me, since the doctor mumbled, dropped syllables, and had a little bit of a speech impediment. I could barely understand a word he said! But he was able to diagnose my leg problem. Turns out it was not a fungus at all, but a bacterial infection, that most likely I picked up from the boots at the rainforest lodge. I probably had some open sores on that leg, from mosquito bites I had scratched, and that´s how the bacteria entered my system. A couple of prescriptions and some bloodwork, and I was good to go. The blood test just confirmed the infection- my white blood count was elevated, but nothing else too serious. They probably won´t have to amputate my leg, at least not yet 😊

Edmundo and I met the group back at the airport in the food court, where I had a McDonalds cheeseburger (yummy!!) and we got ready to board our flight to Chiclayo. Picked up an issue of Cosmopolitan in Spanish and a deck of cards with 53 different pictures of Perú. On the plane, Rich switched seats with Natalie so we could sit together (hey, a day apart and we had a lot of stories to share!)

We met our bus and Chiclayo tour guide at the airport. The people of Chiclayo must think we are celebrities- our bus is HUGE!!! Looks like a tour bus that Enrique Iglesias might travel in!

Our hotel, Las Musas, is AWESOME. And there is a casino attached to it! Perú has a ton of casinos. Everywhere we have been there are casinos all over. (Except of course the Amazon lodge...)

Nice big room with a great shower... liking Chiclayo already! Fell asleep watching Family Guy in Spanish....

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