Land of the Incas – Travel Days

Land of the Incas

Travel Days – 26/27/28 Sept 2011

My flight from St. John’s to Toronto left on time and I got to sit in the emergency exit aisle. Woah! Nice legroom. Who needs to spend thousands on first class? I got all the legroom I could use for nothing. (At least today it was nothing, but I could request them ahead of time for a fee which I think is $75). Not a bad deal if you’re 6 foot plus. (I’m not). The only drawback was that my video screen didn’t work quite right. I could hear the music but no words.

I spent the night in Toronto and caught the hotel shuttle to Pearson at 6:30. Going through US customs was pretty straight forward. Took about 45 minutes in all. If you don’t want to go through the Super Duper Star Trek Transporter Xray machine, be careful which line-up you choose at security. The agent pointed me to the right and over I went, taking the shortest line, like you would, only to realize it was the line-up to the Super Duper Star Trek Transporter Xray Machine.

I wonder if they can see tumors on those things. Think they’d tell you? Hmmmm

Then I walked and walked only to realize I had missed the sign for my gate and ended up at sealed glass doors. I could see where I wanted to be on the other side. On my way alllll the way back, I walked by the American Express Lounge.

Zonk! My travel agent had given me a pass last year that was due to expire by Halloween. Woohoo!! Free breakfast. Not nearly as many selections as the Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge, but I want to save the two passes I have left for a possible New Zealand trip in February.

The flight left on time for Miami and I watched Transformers: Dark of the Moon which took up most of the 3 hours.

Yup. That’s three hours I’ll never get back.

We arrive in beautiful blue skies in Miami.

Now remember, I’m dressed for Newfoundland 12 degree weather when I left. Just a tad too much for the Miami heat. The ramp was like an oven.

Well, it could be if it wanted to be. I have no doubt eggs would fry and brownies would bake in that ramp. Then you hit the terminal and suddenly I’m home again. The AC was cranked.

Miami airport is impressive. Impressively long too.

It’s shaped like a U and Air Canada is at the top of one side while American Airlines is at the top of the other. But I had four hours to kill. And there were a lot of shops between the two points.

Now, I was under the impression there was an NFL Shop there. It was listed on the airport’s website and I walked about a kilometer farther than I needed to before a clerk looked at me strange when I asked about the shop.

When I told him I wanted to buy a Patriots t-shirt I thought he was going to give me the heave-ho.

Last game was 38-24, wasn’t it? And it wasn’t that close.

When I saw a Shula’s Restaurant, I regretted not bringing a Patriot’s t-shirt with me. Then again, they’d spit in my steak and potatoes if I went in with that shirt on.

I finally found my gate. I had to take the sky train to get to it. I think the sky train would have taken me from one top of the U to the other. But then I would have missed all those wonderful shops. I got one t-shirt and three fridge magnets. I tried to find a t-shirt that said “I went to Miami and all I saw was the inside of the airport” but there was none to be had.

While Miami Airporthas an abundance of shops, there’s one thing it lacks almost absolutely.

Plugs.

Lots of places to plug in and charge a phone but not enough power is provided to power a laptop. They also charge for internet. So, after getting my laptop down to 70% power, I went to have a slice of pizza. Sat down and looked down.

A plug!

Probably the only plug in the entire complex accessible to passengers.

It took me a loooong time to eat that slice of pizza.

The flight was late boarding. Turned out that one of the ground crew forgot to turn on the air conditioner. Think about it. If we can fry eggs in the ramp, imagine what we can do with an aircraft sitting in the same heat all afternoon.

The eggs would burn.

They decided to delay boarding until the heat had gone down to 90 degrees F.

Remember. I’m dressed for Newfoundland here.

Am I glad I bought a Coke before I got on board. But as I sat there, I wondered…if the ground crew “forgot” to plug in the AC, was there anything else they “forgot?” Like a screw here or door latch there.

As we took off, everyone around me made a sign of the cross. Yeah. That instills confidence for my first flight on a US airline. Or maybe they know something about a screw here or a door latch there that I don’t.

The flight takes five hours. The biggest disappointment with the flight is that it doesn’t have in-seat video screens. That surprised me when I researched it, but of course, I had some movies on my Smart phone. I watched Hanna and The Eagle.

Five hours well spent.

We also got fed. (Which, incidentally, made me appreciate Air Canada that much more). We filled in baggage and customs forms on the flight. Pretty straight forward. I just used the hotel’s name and address for my address in Peru. There is no tourist tax on entry.

After passing through passport control, I picked up my luggage which took a long time to appear. I was getting dizzy watching the conveyor go by, and I have to admit, I’m still amazed to see it show up every time I take a tour.

Only 27 lbs this time. Lots of room to bring home an alpaca or two.

White with tan spots.

Sweater that is.

I went through the baggage police where I had to press a button. Red means that 27 lbs gets emptied onto a table. Green means go. Thankfully, being 10:30 at night, it was green. I passed the rental car area first where there were a bunch of guys offering a taxi. The transfers don’t wait there. They are out with the rest of the people but in an area divided off to the left. So much easier to corral us so that we don’t wander off.

I had pulled out my transfer voucher which had Trafalgar written in red on top and held it up as I came through the door, so my transfer saw me right away. Luggage tags wouldn’t have helped until I passed her by. Maybe TT should give us a bright red baseball cap with TT on it.

One with wings. Or cup holders and straws. And root beer.

The transfer was holding a TT/Brendan sign and brought me over to meet a couple from Michigan who were on the same flight. She took us out to a mini-van and we loaded up for the 45 minutes drive. Traffic was reasonable at that hour. Our transfer told us there would be 34 of us on the tour. Nice size.

We got to the hotel and she checked us in and reminded us not to lose the piece of paper that immigration left inside our passport.

Got any glue? I ask.

She gave us a map and circled some things we could see on our own for our free day. The hotel is very nice with a touch of rustic. The room has one king size bed, wide screen TV, bar fridge, robes, safe, kettle, hairdryer, shampoo and accessories. Wifi is free but my laptop didn’t pick it up, so I asked about a wired connection and there was one in the phone itself. Plugged in and no problem. My phone can’t find the free wifi signal.

After checking my email, it was almost midnight (2:30 am) my time, so I hit the sack.

In keeping with my internal clock, I was up at 7 am (9:30 at home). I couldn’t sleep any more if I tried. I was still stuffed for everything I ate yesterday, so I skipped breakfast and spent a few hours trying to sort out a crashing Firefox then I rearranged my luggage from Flight Mode to Tour Mode.

Then I left for a walk. It was overcast and chilly outside, but comfortable. Lima is categorized as a desert city that gets very little rainfall. Granted, if I’m here, it will rain. I went to the south of Greece where our tour guide was telling us about the 5 mm or thereabouts of rain that it gets annually. When she finished, she turned around and the windshield wipers on the bus were on.

Then I go to Jordan. Real desert. Yes. It rained.

So, Lima, get out your umbrellas!!

I started by walking towards the ocean. The south Pacific. Dipping my foot in it would have required walking down the cliff and my knees said “not in this lifetime.”

So, I settled with checking out the Larcomar Mall. The mall is built into the cliff side. From the street, it just looks like a promenade, but when you get to the overlook and look down, it’s a modern open air mall about 3 stories high. There’s all kinds of local and American type shops there like Radio Shack and Burger King.

I had lunch and walked back to the hotel without buying anything else. It’s about a 20 minute walk along a busy street. I’d rate the traffic as a 3 out of 5. They like to honk a lot and cut in an out like crazy but generally they respect the lines painted on the pavement and best of all, they stop at the red lights. Crossing at crosswalks is safe to do.

After checking my email again, I moved on to the handicraft area the transfer had pointed out. At first the street looks like an industrial area but all the shops are off the street and remind me a little of the Grand Bazaar with the endless alleys of shops. Lots of sweaters and scarfs and jewelry.

I got four fridge magnets. Hard as heck to find a magnet that says “Lima.” Everything is Nazca Lines.

After wandering through the shops, I decided to walk through Kennedy Park on my way back. They are two parks not much bigger than a city block each with gnarly old trees, manicured lawns and flowers everywhere.

Beautifully maintained and absolutely no one is walking on the grass.

Except the cats!!

Yes! Dozens of cats sleeping in the trees and among the flowers. Or they were gathering around a woman who was feeding them all.

Yeah. There was an hour spent there no problem. Thankfully, I had a brand new superzoom camera. Greece has its rock police. I think Peru has grass police.

Well, it is a desert city after all.

I picked up a couple of chicken wraps at KFC. There was also McDonalds, Pizza Hut and Burger King in the area and it’s closer to the hotel than Larcomar.

After a shower and some internet stuff, I was off to the lobby to meet the couple from Michigan to go to the Magic Water Circuit. The park is the largest fountain complex in the world with 13 individual fountains and has a laser show at 7:15.

The transfer had told us it would be about $3 for the taxi ride there. Not knowing how far away, we thought, perfect. So, we go out and the concierge shows us to a taxi who informs us that it would be $18.

Well, people pay $50 or more for the same experience in Disneyland or at Six flags. Yup. Watching Lima traffic is not nearly as heart throbbingly fun as it is being a part of it.

Even more fun when you can’t get your seat belt done up.

The drive was about 20 minutes and the driver refused a tip. We scrambled out.

It was 4 Soles to get into the park (just over a dollar). (It’s pronounced So-lez…not Souls. Yes, I got some strange looks from the bank teller at home when I went in looking for five hundred souls.)

The place is amazing. To think I was impressed by the fountain show in front of the Bellagio. This blows that away with one of the fountains larger than the Bellagio in virtually continuous show.

The fountains include a tunnel that you can walk under. I have a video of the walk here.

There is one where kids love to play as the water comes in circles at different heights and rogue squirts can get them even when they think they’re standing somewhere safe.

In 15 degree temps, those kids must be frozen. I have a short video of this here.

We walked through the park experimenting with out cameras for night shots. I showed the Michigan couple how to use the night selection on their nice Lumix Point and Shoot and he said I was worth the price of admission.

Well, he did pay for my admission.

Guess I earned it.

I highly recommend this park and recommend that one come early when it’s still light out. We arrived close to 6:30 so it was just getting dark. Coming an hour earlier would not have been wasted time.

After we walked the circuit, we went back to the main fountain to watch the laser show. It lasted 20 minutes and was very impressive. A notch up from the Symphony of Lights in Hong Kong.

I have a short video of this display as well that can be found here.

We were all pleased with the decision to go there.

As we walked out, we had walked ahead of a very large group and we joked that they shouldn’t follow us since we don’t know which of the paths to take. I laughed and told the couple about the time my mother and I were the first off a plane in the middle of the night and we walked until we came to a dead end. We turned around and there was the rest of the passengers following us.

Well, you guessed it. We had made a wrong left turn in the park, realized it wasn’t the exit, saw the exit in the distance and turned around. When we looked back, the crowd was doing a U-turn after having followed us there.

The trip back was in a taxi hailed off the street. Only 18 Soles for the trip back….about $6. Though I felt like we needed to sell our Souls to get back in one piece. One taxi ride is enough to get the adrenaline going. Two can give you heart disease. Especially if you’re sitting in the front seat.

Yup. Our driver had some “braking” incidents. Even hit his mirror. He just straightened it and kept going. I thought my tourmate in the front seat was shell shocked when he stepped out. He had that thousand mile stare. Apparently, we missed a lot from the back seat.

Fine with me. LOL

Tomorrow, the tour starts. Since so many get in late tonight, they have nothing planned for the morning. The welcome drink is at 11:30 in the morning.

More than enough time to get back to Kennedy Park and have another cat photo shoot.

 

 

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