My flight out of Cusco left at 7:30AM, so I dragged myself out of bed at 4:30 and was out by 5, just to be safe. I had hardcore travel anxiety about every single part of my journey. I worried that I wouldn’t be able to find a cab to the airport at that hour, then I worried that I would find a cab and get kidnapped or something. I worried that my flight out of Cusco would get cancelled and then I wouldn’t get to Lima in time for my flight to Miami and I would get stranded in Peru and miss my flight to India and everything would be ruined. Yes, I have a slight problem. Due to my worrying, I booked an early flight out of Cusco even though my flight to the States wasn’t scheduled to leave Lima until like 10:15PM. My first flight could have been delayed nearly 12 hours, and I still would have made it.
As you might expect, every part of my journey was totally fine. I walked out of my hostel, and there was a cab right there. I negotiated a good price to the airport, the driver didn’t kidnap me, and I got there with more than enough time to spare. Check in went fine, the flight was delayed by only like 20 minutes, and we got to Lima with no trouble. And then… I sat. And sat. And searched for strategic locations where I could sit without being in anyone’s way.
Thankfully, I had prepared some activities for myself (and by that I mean, I downloaded a bunch of books onto my Kindle and a bunch of Netflix shows onto my phone), and my hours of waiting at the airport flew by. I used up the rest of my Peruvian money on lunch and dinner and a chocolate muffin, and after a lot of seat-stalking, snagged a prime spot in one of the little airport cafes. Airports are like a second home to me now, which is good because I have plenty more airport camping out to do before the year is up.
Leaving Peru was strange. Unlike Ghana, I didn’t have the feeling of “I’m probably never coming back here.” That made the whole thing a lot easier. Also, I have barely any time to prepare for India which means less time to reflect and make myself sad. I have plenty of things to do to keep my mind busy before I go!
Anyway, it will be interesting to see what happens in the future. I’m all about South America now, so I’m sure I’ll at least be back in the neighborhood. I feel like I’m not completely finished with Peru though. At the very least, I have to go back to visit the Amazon!