Ok, I swear I'm destined to fall into a plane toilet! Every single time I use the washroom on any plane I'm on, there just so happens to be turbulence!! :)The rest of my flight experience was just amazing. Most of the people in my surrounding area were middle class business men, but I decided to be upfront and introduced myself to my aisle partner. It ended up being a great decision. He was very pleasant and had been to Lima a handful of times. He offered to walk me around the district of Miraflores tomorrow.
The flight came to an end pretty quickly. Touching down was pretty surreal. I'm here! On Peruvian soil! I was greeted by a lovely fresh, floral scent as I disembarked the plane. As I walked through the hallways leading to customs, I was overloaded with written and verbal Spanish and I just ate it all up. Tom, my aisle partner, offered to stay with me and make sure my pre-arranged car came to pick me up. Apparently flagging down a taxi here is risky business! My bags were delayed and all I could think of was a story of a friend of a friend who ended up in a Peruvian jail for drugs she didn't smuggle. But before I could panic, my bag arrived and I was off!
As you leave the airport security area after getting your backs, each person has to push a button. If a green light appears, you're good to go and can leave. If a red light appears, you get pulled back for extra screening. Oh boy... my heart can't handle this LOL! As I walked up to the button, I repeated my mantra "Please turn green, please turn green!" Luckily for me, the lady motioned for me to leave without pushing the button! Score!
Entering the receiving area of the airport was pretty insane. It was just a sea of faces, people holding up name signs and eagerly awaiting their companions. The sheer number of people was slightly overwhelming, so I was pretty relieved to see a sign board with my name prominently displayed in red. It was amusing, and also slightly disturbing, to see that the driver had printed out my Facebook display picture in order to identify me. Renato, the driver, was a wealth of information as he drove me to my hotel in Miraflores, one of the trendy, touristy districts of Lima. He proceeded to spe
w out more info than my two-hours-of-sleep brain could digest: be careful of traffic- cars don't stop for pedestrians because they're bigger and stronger; the grass has to be watered 2-4 times per day because it never rains in Lima; Lima was built on a desert; taxi drivers often drive people off into a deserted area and rob them. Ummm... thanks Renato! I feel much safer now considering the fact that I'm IN A TAXI!!! Thankfully, Renato got me to the hotel in one piece with all of my belongings in tow. After contacting my panicked family (my mom was getting ready to hop on the next flight to Peru when she didn't hear from me!) I settled in for my first sleep in South America!
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