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Published: March 4th 2014
These are not necessarily in the order listed in the title, but man yesterday and today’s travel ran the list of these. When I initially booked my tickets, using my miles, I didn’t realize that I was scheduled to fly home early Wed, not late Wed. All I saw was Wednesday and I assumed it was an overnight flight. As I went online the next morning to cancel the tickets and rebook, I was given a new option that flew out of the airport closest to my home, and put me in First Class and Business First on the way down to Lima. Heck yeah. Good! Of course the flight was full, but it was comfortable enough. We hadn’t even pushed back from the gate when I felt my nose assaulted and my hair starting to singe. Someone was passing gas, and it was wicked. Shortly after takeoff it happened again, and again, and again. Honestly, I was thinking about hitting the call button to see if I could get the oxygen mask deployed so I could breathe. I know airlines will do anything for a fee, so it may have worked, but I was afraid of starting a stampede of
passengers trying to avoid the noxious fumes and worried that we could run out of oxygen. Whether this falls under Bad or Ugly I am not sure, but since the word putrid rotting flesh wasn’t in the title I didn’t feel it went with the theme of today’s blog. And in case you are wondering, yes I did survive.
Since I chose to use miles, I booked the simplest route. I flew into Lima, and will fly out of Santiago. I hadn’t really done the research and had no idea that flights from Lima to La Paz are not frequent and even worse, are not convenient. Each flight left around 11 P.M., meaning I would have to stay in Lima all night and all day and even if I booked a hotel, I would have to check out by noon or so and spend the whole day without a place to crash. I already played that game on my final day in Lima last year, so I was not about to sign up for round two of it. What I finally ended up doing was booking a flight from Lima to Cuzco on LAN Airlines at 5 in the
Snow Covered Andes
I beat myself up last year for not having my camera in my pocket and missing these.morning. The Lima airport is quite nice, so it wasn’t a stretch to spend the night there. The kicker was that I then had a 10:25 flight on a different airline from Cuzco to La Paz. Now that was a layover I would never want to do again. That airline’s ticket counter wasn’t open for several hours, so I sat on my suitcase in the cold, dismal entry hall while trying to stay awake. I was cold, tired, more than a little cranky and probably the worst part-I was disheveled and looked just thrashed. Yeah, it was not some of the best 4 hours of my life, but once again, I survived. If traveling was a breeze with no grime, no pushing the comfort zone, no small dramas I am not sure it would be so amazing when things work out perfectly.
All in all the flights were good - nothing cancelled, nothing delayed. And let me tell you, flying into La Paz and seeing this city built up and down the big valleys, now that fell into the amazing side of Good. Even the ride from the airport to the hotel had some spectacular views. I am looking
forward to getting out there and seeing this country. Today was the last of Carnival, so virtually everything was closed. I did walk around the streets listening to the firecrackers, smelling the foods being grilled on the streets, looking at the impromptu vendor stalls set up along the street. I do need to get my Travel-game on though. I noticed that each vendor had the same bottles of water. I needed to pick some up for drinking as well as brushing my teeth, so I grabbed a couple bottles. It wasn’t until I was walking away that I stopped to read the bottle. Not water, no, this was some kind of clear alcohol and quite frankly not something I felt I should be chugging alone in the hotel. Oops! I wasn’t far from where I bought them, so I went back and using my best Spanish, I apologized and tried to explain that I really wanted water. I was able to return them, but it was a good wake up that I kind of need to pay attention a little more than I would at home.
Tomorrow is a half day walking tour of the City, so I am
Good, Bad, or Ugly?
Ah, who cares, I am on vacation! hoping to have some good pictures and stories to share.
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Janie
non-member comment
Why not brush with alcohol?
Why did you get water? Who knows what amazingly white teeth you might have had if you used what was in the bottles to brush your teeth??? :) Glad you made it safely and can't wait to hear more. Take care!!!