Departure a Peru

After months of planning, our big trip to southern Peru was ready to go!

Mark and Cindy arrived on a luxurious van taxi (a bit dirty) to pick up Delphine and Alberto. Drove to the airport and checked into our American Airlines flight. Excellent service !! No food, no peanuts, all food places closed at the terminal. But at least the flights were smooth and we only arrived 1 hour and 45 minutes late into Lima's Jorge Chavez Airport. Customs were a breeze -- thanks, Lima, for letting us in! Mike and Lynn went to the airport driven by a close friend, checked into their American Airlines/LAN direct flight and only arrived one hour late. Alberto's niece Sandrita came to greet us and pickup one suitcase. After running around trying to find Mike and Lynn, we smacked our heads and realized that it was obvious -- Lynn was in the concourse shopping area, excitided looking at all the souviners, while Mike took some snapshots. This turned out to be a harbinger of the trip.

Lima would have to wait. We saw some of the city through the terminal windows while we dined on delicious coffee, eggs, tamales and Peruvian donuts, but headed right for the next spot in the itinerary -- a LAN flight to Arequipa. Complements to the city; all luggage arrived on time and we started our journey withouth a hitch.