Last Day in Perú

After a little more than three weeks, my time in Perú has officially come to an end. The day was an emotional roller coaster for me from beginning to end. It started when I woke up having had a dream about living in my second choice city on my rank list, making me realize that I think I may have made a mistake and location was much more important to me than I had previously thought. It's amazing what making something final can do to you since I've never had such an unclear initial impression of what I want before. It has definitely permeated through every part of my day and I have often felt myself of the verge of tears, which is not how I want to feel, but there is literally nothing I can do at this point other than wait. Unfortunately that does absolutely nothing to ease my stress and it only grew throughout the day.

Anyways, after waking up I packed all my stuff so we could check out of the hostel. There was really no breakfast left when I got there, so I had a peice of bread. Not super great, but I lived. After breakfast we stored our luggage and I downloaded a Chile guide book so I can figure out what to do once I'm there. Probably would have been better to have found the book in print since it's a little hard to flip through on the iPad, but it's what I've got now. When it was downloaded we headed out to walk around Cusco for the last time. 

We first headed to the bungy jumping office, because my camera wouldn't read the files on the memory card they gave us. They told me I could get them transferred to a computer, so I said I'd come back later. We next went to a little shop where the people were very nice and I had seen some jewelry I liked that was very well priced. I bought six necklace pendants, and bracelet, and a small bag/purse there all for about $23. Not so bad. After the jewelry store we went to see the Museum with the Inca artifact that were moved there from the Museo Larco in Lima, but the ticket was more than $20 and it wasn't that large. Because Caitlin was a student under 25 she was able to buy a ticket that included Saqsaywaman, Ollantaytambo, the museum, as well as nine other site for the same price as my entrance to Saqsaywaman, so she went and we decided to meet an hour later at the chocolate museum. 

While Caitlin saw the museum I went to look at the cheap alpaca sweaters. I tried on a bunch but non of them looked very good on me at all, and I tried on a bunch, so I didn't end up getting one. I was a little sad, but I didn't want to buy it just to have it. I got enough baskets in the jungle to fulfill that. After trying on a bunch of sweaters I walked back to the hostel and grabbed my flash drive for later and went to meet at the chocolate museum. We made our way to the cafe and I ordered a ham and cheese crepe, a mixed fruit juice, and a brownie. The food was good and the juice was super yummy. The brownie was just as good as in Lima, but was topped with chocolate instead of dulce de leche as it was last time, which I missed a bit. Lunch was when my emotions about rank lists really hit hard. It sucked, but once again nothing I could do, which made it worse. 

After lunch we walked around a bit and I got an alpaca blanket (definitely the cheapest ones they had, I probably could have gone down lower at a different place, but I was tired), and some silver earrings. Turns out that four stamps cost as much as silver earrings in Perú, who would have guess. We also sent a few postcards, which is why we knew about stamp prices. 

After sending the postcards we went back to the bungy place and I finally got my pictures transferred. We then got our bags and got ready for the airport, had our hostel call a cab, and got on our way. Getting to the airport in Cusco was simply and check in and security were a breeze with literally no lines at all. We had some time to kill so we shopped around a bit and I got a cute magnet with a llama and Waynapicchu and the word Cusco on it. We then read until our flight and continued to read through the whole one hour flight to Lima. 

Ready for our last flight with Star Peru

On arrival in Lima we got our bags and exited the claim area. We had to go outside to get to the Sky Airlines area, but couldn't find it. Turns out we were flying LAN, not Sky. Thank goodness I noticed and we didn't sit around waiting for a Sky desk to open! We went to the LAN line which was super long. We quickly learned that we were in the line for domestic flights and the international flight line was much shorter. We got in that line and it went quickly. I started checking in and Josue, the man at the counter, asked if I was traveling alone and had me bring up Cailtin to check in together. He checked us in and told us that he was giving us access to the VIP lounge and gave us a coupon to get in. We were pretty excited, but more on that to come. 

We went through security and both got in trouble for having full water bottles (we had previously gotten through many check points with them, but maybe they just don't care on the domestic flights), but otherwise everything was smooth. We then went through customs and turned in our departure cards we had been carrying since February 3rd when we arrived. Thank goodness we hadn't lost them! 

After security we looked in the shop a bit and I found a few things I wanted to buy, but I decided I'd get them on my way back to the states because I don't want to carry extra things. It's just a sauce for food and some books. We then decided to get some dinner, so we to a place that looked nice at the end of the terminal. I was trying to decide between a pasta dish and a causa with shrimp, and decided on the causa. Big mistake. The lobster layer was covered in a mayonnaise sauce, so I could only eat the avocado layer. I was pretty sad and that's the third major time the rank list emotions hit me. Apparently meals aren't good for me, but nor is sitting in the airport with my thoughts great either. Anyways, I had my most expensive meal of the entire trip and could barely eat half of it, so I was feeling a little down. The waiter was really nice though and I felt insanely guilty for wasting good food that he had recommended to me. He thought I had had the causa there before and thought I knew there was mayonnaise in it, but every causa I had seen didn't have any, so how was I supposed to know? I still feel bad. 

After dinner we went to try to get into the lounge and the first one they said was at capacity and directed us to the other one next door. The lady there was not very friendly and told us that the coupon was only good for Caitlin and basically said we wrote my name on it ourselves. We told her we hadn't and the LAN desk had given it to us that way, but she wouldn't let me in anyways. I told Caitlin she should go alone since she's never been in a lounge, but she didn't go. Instead we went to a random gate to read and write this blog since our gate number wasn't announced yet. We sat around for a little less than two hours, and then boarded the flight to Santiago. 

The flight was fine, though I couldn't sleep. I read some of the guidebook o bought and had a sandwich, crackers with spreadable cheese, and a slice of lemon merengue that they gave out. After eating I finally fell asleep for a little less than an hour until it was time to land. 

When we landed we got through immigration quite quickly, then waited for our bags. Two dogs came out on the baggage carrousel within the first five bags, which was different. One was a little Maltese who yipped a ton once she saw the people waiting at the claim. Our bags came with the second set of bags and we went through customs really easily before finding a taxi into the city. 

We had no money so the taxi driver stopped at door 5 at the airport where there was an ATM and I got some cash. We then got to our hostel just before 6AM. The hostel had two beads ready, but wanted us to pay and extra night, so we said fine and headed upstairs. I was so tired I just basically took off my pants and went to sleep. Only problem was I was so hot! I miss the chill of Cusco since hostels so rarely have A/C! Now I've just woken up from my nap and I'm ready to see Santiago

And don't worry, I'm doing better today. Still a bit bummed but I'll live.