Oh... Peru.

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Woke up at 3:30am to catch 6:30am flight. Left for BMI(Bloomington airport, takes about an hour, parking is free) about 4:00am with Google direction printout. Near Bloomington, I saw the highway exit that the Google direction pointed. Although I have never been to the airport, I drove by the town a few times, and knew the exit is still far from the airport. Expecting there would be an airport sign, I ignored and kept going. After 20 more minutes of driving(5:10am), I crossed and got out of the town completely but didn’t see any signs. I stopped a car at a convenient store and asked a clerk “ Where is an airport? ”(5:20am, started to get nervous). He said “ Blah Blah Blah and you will see the airport sign.” I followed his direction and saw the airport sign, but but but it was not BMI! The sign read “ Central Regional airport” (5:40am) and I realized that I asked him “an airport” not “BMI airport”.!! It was still dark and most of business was still closed. I drove around to find an open store, didn’t see any and started to worry “ What if I really miss the flight” (already 5:50am, Didnt know where I was). I caught sight of one car pulling over to a(?) parking lot nearby and drove to it. I arrived, jumped off a car and run to a driver( I was almost as swift as a cop who got out of a car to catch a fugitive! “ Central Regional airport isn’t BMI, is it? How far am I from BMI ?”. The guy said “ Yes, Yes, it’s the same. You are on the right track! ” Wow. Thank you, Thank you.!! Finally arrived at the airport around 6:00am and got on a plane 6:15am. Rest assured.(To Chicago)

8:30am, got on a plane (from Chicago) to Miami.

5:05pm at Miami airport. have waited 4 hours to catch a flight to Lima. I hear mostly Spanish already and realize that my Spanish is much worse than I expected. Before, I took one year Spanish course and when I traveled Mexico 6 years ago, I was able to catch familiar words in conversation and sort of understood the context. I thought or even hoped that although it got rusty, my spanish should be still ok to get by. But apparently it is not!!! A lady sitting next to me says “ I have lived in Lima for 30 years and central Lima(that’s where I am staying for tonight) is very dangerous” and she went through motions of stabbing someone in the air a few times. Spooky. The hostel where I am going to stay said that they would arrange a taxi for me at my arrival time(Taking a taxi at night in Peru is not safe, especially Lima). Finally arrived at Lima, and walked out of a gate. A guy named Hoan greeted me with my name on board(He recognized me first, How? I was the only Asian in the flight!) He drove me to a hostel. A Lima through a car window was worse than I expected. A number of run-down buildings with paint peeling off, Trash bags are everywhere and many dogs are walking around trash looking for food.

11:30pm Arrived at a hostel. Grumpy lady at a front desk grouched looking at me and Hoan in Spanish. Didn’t know what she was saying and too tired to care. Thirsty but only had a quarter filled bottle of water left. Better use it for brushing teeth than drinking. Crashed on the bed right away. Tired and thirsty. A long day.

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