Day 1: An endurance challenge

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Woke up at 5am (with about an hour of sleep because I was so pumped up), and got to the airport a little before 8. At the security checkpoint (Reagan) I was stopped, taken into a small room, where a man put on plastic gloves and told me he was going to search me. Naturally I wasn't exactly thrilled, but it was just a hard pat down. Then they brought out this probe looking thing and I got REALLY scared! Thankfully it was just to search for black powder residue. My flight was then delayed until 11. When I got to Newark I actually made it through security without incident, but boarding the plane was a different story. First, I was stopped by a woman working for the TSA and questioned for about 5 minuets, not bad. Then I was somehow stopped AGAIN right afters and question for almost a half an hour! The 8 hour flight to Peru was absolutely BRUTAL! There wasn't an empty seat, it was hot, stuffy, and just miserable. The hot stuffy air was giving me the worst headache. I know long planes rides don't bother some people, and I can deal, but when you are crammed next to someone who doesn't even speak your language for 8 hours, fighting over the armrest and getting drilled in the elbows by the cart coming down the isle, it gets old really quick. 8 hours seems more like 16. When four other members of the group and I finally exited the plane it was a mad rush to get out of the airport in one piece, with our bags, together, and try to find our hotel. Once we got their, I quickly realised the traffic in Washington DC (which is now the worse in the country) was NOTHING compared to Peru. We arrived at the hotel and as a person who doesn't travel a whole lot, in a 3rd world country, I was ALREADY home sick.

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