Wanderlust Photography - The Blog

Day 10: Guayaquil to Cusco

January 16, 2012 Leave a Comment

Sunday, January 8: This morning we woke up at 5:15 a little flustered and unorganized, as both Mom and I are, to catch a 6am shuttle from the hotel to the airport for our 7:55am flight.  We rushed off the elevator, still tucking computer cords and sweatshirt sleeves into our backpacks, only to find five other people on the bus, but no driver. He finally showed up around 6:15 just as we all began worrying about making our flights on time, and he hopped in the driver's seat saying "un gran dia, un gran dia!!" revving the engine a few times without success. He then jumped out of the driver's seat and ran back inside to get keys to a second shuttle. We then transferred all of our luggage to the second shuttle and surprisingly made it to the airport within ten minutes. Of course there's an 8kg weight limit on carry-ons, and my camera equipment weighs 13kg, so I had to transfer a camera and my telephoto lens to Mom's bag so we could get through (luckily, this is the last flight I have until I go home in May). We boarded after a morning cappuccino and flew a beautiful hour and a half over the Andes from Guayaquil to Lima. In Lima we claimed our bags after border control and had to weave our way through zillions of Peruvians and tourists to end up at the back of what we thought was the line for our flight to Cusco. Just to be sure, I wandered through another 400 people, their luggage carts, children, grandparents and pets until I found another line for a few more LAN check-in counters. I walked until I found a semi-attractive LAN assistant and asked him in my pathetic Spanish where the line for the Cusco flight was. He asked for my boarding pass, which I had left with Mom, so I went back and retrieved it, flashed a big ole smile at him and he let us into the priority lane, skipping another 50 people people and ending up third in line. That time I hid my carryon so they wouldn't weigh it, and after passing through a food court of Subway, KFC, McDonald's and Manos … [Read More...]