Jul
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A review of Thursday, June 24, 2010
The boat ride was bittersweet and refreshing. For once, I didn’t sweat in the Amazon.
We rode the boat for about 2 hours to Infierno, a town along the Tambopatha River meaning "Hell" in Spanish. We rode a bus through the town. We also met Infierno’s president and visited the community center.
We flew to Cuzco and stayed on the plane because we were on the same plane for Lima. The plane was nearly empty; I’d like to think the plane was reserved for us because we’re just that special.
Our layover for the Houston flight in the Lima airport felt surprisingly quick. Here we are taking a last group picture.
Today is our last day in Peru. It is also Inti Raymi, the Festival of the Sun. Dr. Kenney said he planned for us to leave on this day because flights are less expensive.
We woke up at 5:40 a.m., ate our last Peruvian breakfast and hiked to the boat dock. The boat ride was bittersweet and refreshing. For once, I didn’t sweat while in the Amazon.
We rode the boat for about 2 hours to Infierno, a town along the Tambopatha River meaning “Hell” in Spanish. We rode a bus through the town. We also met Infierno’s president and visited the community center and arts center where I bought a wooden Puerto Maldonado keychain and coin purse made of coconut shell by a native man.
Next, we rode a bus to the lodge office to get our luggage. We sorted through our luggage, and I changed into shorts and had Inca Kola in Peru one last time.
The bus took us to the Amazon airport where we watched the World Cup while waiting for our flight. Caroline and I bought meat empanadas and ice cream. The sign at the front of the concession stand displayed a MasterCard sign, so Caroline tried to pay with her MasterCard, but the cashier said they only accept cash. Why didn’t someone take the sign down?
Based on my experiences in retail, this would be considered false advertisement since Caroline and I went to the concession only because we saw the sign and thought they accept MasterCard. We tried to pay with dollars, but the cashier said she would only accept soles. Where was the sign for that?
Because neither of us had soles, we ran to the other end of the airport to borrow soles from other students. Jane had only a 50-sole bill, and she loaned it to us. The cashier didn’t want to take such a big bill, but I told her it was our only way to pay. She then took it and left to find change. After minutes later, we received our change back and ate our food.
We flew to Cuzco and stayed on the plane because we were on the same plane for Lima. The plane was nearly empty; I’d like to think the plane was reserved for us because we’re just that special. I had a great time on the plane visiting with Courtney and Lori and laughing at the show “Gags.”
Our layover for the Houston flight in the Lima airport felt surprisingly quick. We arrived at the Lima airport around 5:30 p.m., and our check-in line didn’t open until about 8:30 p.m. We didn’t want to bring the group’s luggage upstairs to the food court, so Carlee and I went to the food court to see what we should do. We found an empty table so I told Carlee to go back downstairs and send a few people up to eat, then we could rotate.
As I approached the table to “colonize” it, a Peruvian couple also had the same plan. We awkwardly stood face-to-face:
“Are you wanting this table?” the couple asked.
“Yes.” I replied.
“Will you need all six of these chairs?” the couple asked looking frustrated.
“Yes; there’s about 16 of us.” I replied looking frustrated back.
“That’s about how many we have, too…” the woman answered.
Awkward silence…
“I guess we will find somewhere else.” The woman said and walked away with her husband.
I felt as if I just won a battle. Until I saw a lady walk up to my newly-claimed land and took a chair from me. That’s when I decided to sit down and put my feet on two other chairs. I didn’t care that I looked funny in the middle of the food court with five chairs and three tables. I had to save this area for my traveling buddies
About 15 minutes, Carlee came back and told me the group couldn’t decide what they wanted to do, so no one wanted to come eat upstairs right now. I was forced to abandon the new colony after so much effort. At least I know I could colonize a food court area on my own, right?
Carlee and I went back downstairs, and we all hugged Dr. Kenney and his wife because they were staying in Lima and vacationing with family. I felt like a baby sea turtle challenged to take on the Peruvian seas with my sea turtle siblings.
We took turns going upstairs to eat. I had Chifa (Peruvian-Chinese food) for the last time. We walked around looking at shops, paid our airport fee of $31 and hung out before we all separated. Although most of us were ready to return to the United States, we knew we’d miss Peru.
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