Thirty-Six Hours in Lima

We arrived around midnight Peruvian time. Down a staircase onto the tarmac, into a waiting bus, and over to the terminal we went. Alec marked the occasion by instantly developing some kind of terrible red speckly rash all over his face - heat rash? Humidity rash? Pollution rash? Something along those lines. Between that, the rattly breathing, and the runny nose, it's amazing anyone thought he was cute at all (but they did!).

We got through immigration without a hitch, and were very grateful for having been fasttracked along with all the other families with small children. Of course, when we got to the baggage carousel, we were met by a LAN agent who told us that 7 of our 10 pieces of luggage were still in LA because they had missed the connection. This was actually a blessing in disguise - it meant considerably less baggage to cart to the hotel for 2 nights, and it meant that the LAN agents would put all of those bags through customs, so we didn't have to worry about them. Miraculously, one of the 3 bags that had made it was the one in which I had packed changes of clothes for the family. We had to wait a long time in the airport for papers regarding the delayed luggage to be filled, and then it was off to the hotel. We checked in at a little after 2:00 AM, Lima time, and crashed hard. This was very easy to do, in our suite with king and double beds, beautifully appointed crib, air conditioning, and a family-sized jacuzzi tub.

Thursday morning, Aaron had to go bright and early to Interpol to be registered as a foreign worker, but we didn't. So, the kids and I slept in until Aaron got back at around 9:30. What ensued was ten hours of nothing much - brunch, hanging out watching Bob the Builder, Dora the Explorer, and every other mainstream preschooler show you can imagine in Spanish, room service lunch . . . Aaron eventually took Joffre out to explore the neighbourhood, while Alec slept and I lay on the floor watching bad American programming for two hours. Hey! I was sick, remember?

At 5:30, Aaron's friend Felix who lives in Lima came by the hotel. We had coffee in the hotel bar, and then packed the two sleeping children into Felix's Land Cruiser. He took us to a beautiful restaurant with a patio overlooking the ocean, and the children miraculously slept - yes, both of them - through the entire meal. Then it was back to the hotel for baths and bed.

Friday morning we got up, eager not to make the same mistake we did in Vancouver, two hours before our ride to the airport was due to arrive. We packed up, and it's a good thing we were more on the ball, since our ride was a half-hour early and we were still trying to rouse Joffre. Lima is three hours later than Vancouver, so suddenly we were expecting the kids to be up and functioning at what felt like 4 or 5 in the morning.

We got to the airport reasonably early for our flight, which was good because we had a lot of hoop-jumping to do, what with being reunited with our delayed baggage, paying for excess baggage (not a simple matter of handing over the cash, evidently), and navigating the maze of security and airport tax queues that stood between us and our gate. Also, we were being shadowed by the security company agent who had driven with us to the airport, which was simultaneously reassuring and disconcerting. Not surprisingly, our flight was delayed and we thus got to have a sandwich and a coffee before bidding Lima farewell.