It's 2:00 A.M., and I'm finally on the plane, half an hour late. It's unbelievably boring. The flight attendant talks way too fast. First she announces in Spanish, then, without skipping a beat, begins to announce in rapid, bad English. No one could understand a single word she said. I have never heard the English language mangled so badly before in my life, and I hope never to hear such a sad sound again.
We're off the ground. I love the city lights. Now they're having a raffle for tickets to Central America. The ticket I have to fill out is in Spanish, and I can't understand most of it. Well, I don't want to go to Central America anyway. The in-flight movie is The Brady Bunch. I'm going to try to sleep to avoid seeing such a frightful thing.
Now it's 7:00 A.M.(Peru time) I'm still in the air. The landscape is indescribable, but I'll try to describe it anyway. Most of it looks like pictures of Antarctic ice, believe it or not. The clouds are low and unnaturally flat and two-dimensional, giving everything below an icy appearance. There are hundreds of tiny lakes everywhere, adding to the ice-plate effect. Highly interesting.
Watching the sun rise from a plane is rather interesting as well. Above you, it is pitch black with stars, slightly lower to the horizon, a vivid cerulean blue, touching the horizon, a bright orange, the sun itself, blood red, and below the horizon, pitch black once again.
I have no idea where I am. Obviously I am over Central America, since we still have a bit over an hour before we touch down in San Jose. I can't even see the ground, there is so much cloud cover. I hope we get there soon. Every single bit of me is cramped beyond all belief. I am smashed between a cold window and Kristina, who is drooling on my shoulder. And I didn't sleep a wink last night. I love to complain, it's my favorite pastime.
Now we're in Lima. Everyone in Lima assumes that I speak Spanish. This airport is an absolute nightmare. We have to wait for two more hours before our next flight, and I'm really hungry. All I really want is a nice fat hamburger and a bed that I can lie flat upon and sleep for a few hours.
It's now about 7:45 P.M. and I haven't had any sleep in about thirty-six hours. We're on the plane from Lima to Chiclayo now. The airport at Lima is nicer than the international section at LAX. The only problem is, everything is extraordinarily expensive. At the Dunkin' Donuts there, you have to pay $7.50 for 2 doughnuts and a small coffee. And that was their "deal of the day." I've been living off of airline food all day and I'm not too happy. They do have a marvelous drink here called Inca Kola, though, which I have grown quite fond of. It's a neon-yellow soda that looks absolutely repulsive to the eye, but tastes, curiously enough, like cotton candy. Even Aubree, who loathes soda, likes Inca Kola. It's the only kind of soda she will drink. I wonder if they sell it back in the States?
I have had the fortune of sitting next to someone I don't know and who speaks no English, so now I can watch a certain snob who is on my list put on their makeup without anyone else knowing. I detest that child.
They're watching another in-flight movie and everyone is laughing, including Miss Dunkin' Donuts next to me, who has three large bags of doughnuts, and had to buy an extra seat for herself because she can't open down her tray due to her enormous gorbelly. I pity her.
I am in serious need of a bath. I've been wearing Charlie, my baseball hat, all day, to hide my hat-hair(how ironic). I've also been wearing Happy, my big black sweatshirt(in sweltering heat), to hide my hideous stench. Once again, how ironic. I don't care what the Queen of Russia says, I get the shower first tonight. Well, actually, maybe not. I'll just say "sure," smile, and let Kati have it. Then I'll refuse to shower for the rest of the two and a half weeks and revel in Her Majesty's discomfort. I am an evil, wicked imp of the devil. I love it.
We're about to land in Chiclayo. Thank God. Wonder what Chiclayo looks like. It was an extremely short flight compared to the others.
We're at the hotel, and it's almost midnight. It's nicer than most Motel 6s that I've seen. We had an excellent. An interesting Peruvian potato dish called "papas a la huancaina," some good cream of asparagus soup, and some really good beef stir fry called "lomo saltado." It was all really good. And I got to the shower first!
That's all for now, I'll post more in a bit.