June 2, TRANSITION DAY

Jeff was awake by 0400 and woke me up in his stirring about. I was able to go back to sleep until 0445. He awakened me; we readied; and finished loading, packing up. We vacated our place by 0525. Jeff E-hailed us a MUV taxi. The driver was slated to be there at 0530, but didn’t arrive until 0538!! He was very slow! It was supposed to be a comfort ride, but na-na. He had to put one of our bags in the front seat and the other he cramped in the hatchback with all of his stuff. Then at the first light he sat scrolling through his phone even though the light was green. He needed his coffee!! We arrived at the airport. As we were unloading, he was trying to say something. Jeff said he was trying to get payment, which is built into the app through a credit card. Strange! Anyway, we got our bags checked in and through immigration.

We arrived in the lounge, VIP Black; showed our Priority Passes; and were awarded access in. We both had the itty-bitty, four different empanadas – chicken, carne, ham& cheese, and a quiche. I tried a bag of Cheetos – not the same. Then we shared some dessert bits – a small chocolate chip cookie, a little tart/pie, a quarter sized thing?, and we each had a fudge brownie. I had coffee and Jeff hot chocolate.

At 0730, we went out to board. Our gate – as well as three other gates – were within 100 feet of the lounge. Gates five and six were a bit farther. In other words…it’s a small airport. We boarded by 0745; backed up at 0800; and liftoff at 0811. The food service was a bland ham and cheese sandwich, a granola-type bar, and a decent moist corn bread-type cake. At 1141 (0941 Lima time), we touched down.

     WELCOME TO PERU!!!

We went to collect our bags and had them by 1020. Through immigration and went to a new bag check-in. We saw there were two earlier flights, so tried to get on one of them…but no luck. 1045 back through security. Our flight doesn’t have a gate yet, so we found a place to park ourselves. We had our sandwiches that we had made. By 1130 we had a gate and parked over there. We each took turns walking about. On the plane by 1325; backed up at 1340- ten minutes early; and lifted off at 1353. Food service was a sweet or savory snack. We both chose savory. It was Ritz crackers with cheese… should have used that cheese on the Cheetos earlier. The plane flew over the Andes mountains. As we neared Arequipa we could see the volcanoes that surrounded the city. We touched down at 1503; and were off the plane, collected our bags, and in an official taxi by 1520.

WELCOME TO AREQUIPA, PERU!!!!!

We arrived at our new place by 1545; our host’s sister showed the place – including the rooftop; and we unloaded. We checked out what we needed right away, and went out. First was to the DHL shipping place for me to send out my passport – I need a new one, even though it is only 5 yrs old (because I have filled it up). That accomplished we went to the main square…Oh Yeah!! Just as we remembered! We went to a grocery store right on the square, acquired our list of goods. We walked back to our place to settle in. Whew!!!😃