Wednesday May 12 and Thursday May 13, 2010
We are on our way. Left Spokane at 6AM and Seattle at 8 AM. Quick walk through the airport in Houston to grab the next and longest flight to Lima. I nearly finished The Girl Who Played with Fire and was lucky enough to have an empty seat next to me all the way into Lima. Lima airport has been expanded and upgraded again – but we were lucky and found a place to park our many suitcases and to lay our tired bodies down even though not many people slept and those who did were awake within an hour or two. The bing bong announcing flight arrivals and departures and the Attencion Pasejeros! Preceding each announcement certainly did not provide an environment for restful sleep. We were up at 3:45 AM to go and check our bags for the flight to Iquitos. Then one of the students discovered that the bag she had taken off the baggage belt was NOT hers. Continental’s desk is only open when they have flights and they only have two both of which arrive about 1030 PM so no one was available. The office in the airport opens at 9AM and our flight to Iquitos was scheduled to depart at 6AM. Finally after talking to many people all of whom concluded that the bag was Continental’s problem so they couldn’t help. We talked to a security guard who consulted the Vice Presidente of the airport (the night supervisor). This lovely gentleman suggested we put the bag in left luggage and then call Continental the next night to go and fetch it. So we did and we got rid of the wrong bag but we did not find our student’s bag. Luckily she had followed suggestions and put all her crucial things like meds and contacts etc in her carryon. We found her some clothes and we are still waiting for Continental to find her bag! Just another good story for our blog!
We were booked on a new airline – Air Peruano. The airline might be new but the plane was not – it was a rather elderly 737 with godawful seats and an amusing flight crew whose instructions could not be understood because of the terrible public address system that crackled and popped throughout the mostly Spanish announcements. We did come to understand that we should unbuckle our seat belts and wait until the crew showed us how to buckle them! And that we must not talk when the announcements we couldn’t understand were being made. After an interesting flight most of which I slept through we arrived in Iquitos. The weather was quite cool (about 70) so all the locals were wearing coats but of course it was muggy as always. The airport in Iquitos has seen some significant upgrades especially in the baggage area so it now looks like a “real airport”.
We were taken to the People of Peru compound where we were given water, fed breakfast, photographed, and sent to bed. I passed out and when I was awakened by someone softly saying Buenas Tardes I felt like I was returning from some faraway place. We were fed once again and loaded onto the bus to go to Poppy’s house. Usually we go to Belen market but there was a transportations strike today so we were cautioned to wait until tomorrow when it should be over. We came back to the compound and ate dinner – you can see a theme here: We will not starve! Then the faculty met with Paul (the director) about the schedule for the visit and we all went to our computers. I tried valiantly to post my blog but not such luck so tomorrow you will get two. Buenas noches. Duerme bien~!