Day 1: Travel from California to Lima, Peru

Travel from California to Lima, Peru

Day 1
December 29, 2017 

I missed my alarm on the morning of my flight from LAX to Lima, Peru.  My phone was across the room, and with my headphones still plugged into it, only two tiny ants were awoken at 3:00 AM.  Fortunately, my ride to the Flyaway didn’t have this problem, too, and I left on time.  

A miracle happened at LAX.  First, I was mistakenly directed to a TSA security line with no one else in it.  Then, the TSA agents forgot to harass me about any of the contents of my bag.  I was in and out of security in five minutes.  I was confused: what was I going to do with all of this free time?  

Mexico City must have gotten word that my TSA experience went so well.  To transfer flights, they made me go through customs, exit the airport, and go through security again.  I would complement them on their airtight and redundant security network, but they have one fatal flaw with their security protocol: no one made me take my shoes off! 

Luck was on my side again for my flight to Lima.  I had a window seat on an empty aisle, which meant I slept well for most of the flight.  In Lima, I cleared customs quickly, sidestepped the barrage of taxi pigeons cooing for a fare, and linked up with my prearranged driver to a nearby hostel.  With such a late arrival, I wanted nothing more than a quick ride, a bed, and a shower.  

Outside of the airport, we were greeted by a traffic circle of death, the kind that has no rules and plays a drunken ballad of car horns in surround sound.  It was a couple miles to the hostel, and I caught a flavor of one busy road at night in Lima.  Traffic trudged along reluctantly.  A homeless man hung up some of his belongings on a tree sprouting from the concrete.  A young woman wearing high heels, black tights and a crop top stood on a corner by herself.  A mini bus had a rear wheel with a wobble.  A teenager stood on the outside of an open side door on a moving van.  A family of four jaywalked across gridlocked traffic.  Radial tires were on sale.  Coca Cola is apparently popular.

My first night in Lima was uneventful; I fell asleep promptly at the hostel shortly after my arrival.