Day Nine: Sacsayhuaman . . . and Stranded

So, there's this ruin outside of Cusco, called "Sacsayhuaman" or, as most tourists call it, "Sexy Woman." It is pretty amazing. It's an enormous fortress, built who-knows-how, with massive stones all fitting together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. Although very different from MP, it is every bit as awe-inspiring. We took two taxis from the hotel up to the ruin, and wandered around amid glorious wildflowers, marveling at the construction and enjoying the view over Cusco. Then we headed back to town, and I took advantage of a few minutes to check out a couple more hotels for my return trip. We went to a little street near our hotel for adobo (stewed pork) and chicharrones (deep fried pork), before returning to the lobby to wait for Celia.

She picked us up on time, and took us to the airport, where we stood for a disturbingly long time trying to get checked in for our flight. At first we were told that our flight had been cancelled, and that we would have to come back the next day. To this I replied, "and is the airline going to pay for our hotel?" and we were quickly told that they would get us on another flight. However, it took a disturbingly long time for them to issue Alec's boarding pass, since he was a lap-held baby with a ticket - for some reason, the airline's computer system was completely unable to deal with this, and the agent had no clue how to compensate for the computer's shortcoming. Finally, we got our boarding passes, paid our airport tax, and went through security. Then we sat. And sat. And sat. Until finally there was an announcement that all LAN flights were cancelled, and would all travelers collect their luggage and then return to check-in to exchange their boarding passes and receive hotel vouchers. Of course, near-mayhem ensued. I was especially annoyed by the volatile combination of macho American and Brazilian tourists shoving at each other and trying to be first in line.

Sensibly, however, I called Celia and got her to come to the airport and help us out. Literally hours later, we had our bags, our boarding passes, and our hotel vouchers. Off we went to yet another hotel, where we ate a really awful supper and slept in freezing cold rooms. We had yet to receive any sort of compelling explanation for why the flights had all been cancelled, other than "bad weather in Lima", which didn't account for why other airlines continued to fly.