Day Ten: Home For A Rest

We got up the next morning and decided since we had the extra morning, to do a bit more touring. It proved unfeasible to visit Tipon, known for its Incan waterworks, so we visited the Cusco textile museum and an archeological museum, instead. Then we had lunch at the vegetarian place, and headed once more to the airport.

Maddeningly, we had a whole new raft of problems with our boarding passes, and very nearly missed our plane - connecting in Lima, due to all the upheaval - as they tried to get all of us seated together, and went through the same nonsense with Alec's boarding pass. Then, when we got to the security check, we realized that one of our party had been issued two boarding passes, and another had no pass at all, so Celia had to race back to the check-in desk to clear up the problem. Of course, in all the upheaval, I managed to leave all four of our passports - our only ID - in a piece of checked luggage, which also held the potential for disaster. When we got to Lima, we realized that we would have to leave the secure area and then go back through security to go to Arequipa. Concerned that we would need our ID, we waited in the secure area by the baggage carousel while the others went to check. It was lucky we did wait, because all of our luggage got offloaded in Lima by mistake, instead of checked through to Arequipa, and had we not happened to be right there and noticed the luggage coming by, we would all have arrived in Arequipa with nothing. So, we extracted our passports, rechecked the bags, and headed off to our next departure gate. We had a whole new bureaucratic nightmare trying to get through security as a connecting flight, without having to pay the Lima airport tax, a nightmare that doubtless confronted every single passenger from our Cusco flight, as they confronted the security agent and his goldfish-like memory.

Finally, however, we got on the last flight to Arequipa. Due to the unexpected extra day, our laundry situation was dire, and Alec arrived in Arequipa wearing nothing but a diaper, socks, and his brother's sweatshirt. We made it home, spent and sleepy, and ready for a good long rest. Or, you know, in the case of half of us, a long flight back to Canada three days later!