Quick facts: Capital city of Peru; GPS: -12.046374, -77.042793; GMT-5; Altitude: 456′
I woke up and had all morning to hang out before my flight today. I ate breakfast down in the lobby and then went back to my room. I didn’t really consider going anywhere because I felt more like taking it easy than trying to squeeze something in. Besides I spent some time here before and didn’t feel the need to go see anything. Maybe if I make it down here again I will have time really go and do it right. So I decided to just hang out in the room until l needed to leave.
A little after noon I checked out and caught a ride to the airport via the shuttle. I checked my bag and headed to the gate. After I got through security I had some time to kill, so I decided to grab a beer. I found a Heineken branded restaurant and got a beer there. When I was done with that I headed to the gate and waited for the plane to board.
We left on time and again I watched a couple movies on the flight. Luckily the selection of flicks has been decent. I have not been very interested in the movies that have been coming out in the last few years but there were a few I wanted to see (Bohemian Rhapsody in particular) and I was able to watch them on these flights. A couple (mainly Spider-Man) were ones I took a chance on and they were ok. Two things I took away from all that: I realized I didn’t know how many songs of Queen I like, and I’m glad they didn’t remake Spiderman once again but threw in a parallel universe twist.
We touched down in Lima just before 18:00 and I went through immigration and got my bag. I figured I had about 4 hours to either hang out at the airport or try to get back down to Miraflores for one last dinner in Lima. I decided to risk it and got a car down to Saqra. I told the driver I needed to get down to Miraflores and get back as quickly as possible, he seemed to understand and looked like he was doing his best to hurry. That was until he told me he needed to get gas. I should’ve said no or gotten out I guess because it took us 20 minutes to fill up. The ride took almost 1.5 hours to get to the restaurant.
At this point I was pushing it but I came this far so I just went with it. I got a table and ordered a Steak au molle peppers, right away since I already knew what I wanted (I pulled up the menu online in the car on the way to save time). The food came out pretty quick and it was amazing. I ordered the rice pudding again to finish it off. I’ve only been here twice now but both times have been awesome. It was better the second time even so they didn’t disappoint! Before the bill came I got a car so there wouldn’t be any time wasted. I paid the bill and met the driver waiting for me outside.
Again, I told this driver that I really needed to get to the airport and he did a better job than the first guy. It still took almost an hour to get back to the airport but that’s just Lima, it’s crazy traffic all the time. I grabbed my stuff and went to the ticket counter.
Even though it was only 10 minutes after 22:00 I couldn’t find the Spirit Air window. I asked around and no one seemed to know anything about them. I found an open office near where the airlines offices were and the lady tried to help but even though she called the gate where the plane was boarding all she could suggest was to try to get to the gate since they didn’t offer any advice. I didn’t even try because I had my bag and they weren’t going to let me through without dumping stuff. I found the Spirit office but it was behind locked doors. I don’t think there was anyone there any way since this cheap airline doesn’t seem to pay anyone longer than they have to given they didn’t have any obvious presence in a time of need. So I made the decision to get a room and figure it out tomorrow.
Luckily there is a hotel right there on the airport grounds so I didn’t have to go far. I booked a room online and walked over to check in. After I got my room I went back down to the lobby and got my free drink while I looked online to see what my options were as far as getting home. The flights out on Spirit were all at the same time, late at night, and I read on their site that if you miss a flight they’ll try to get you on the next one but there was no guarantee. Given what just happened I wasn’t too excited about putting my fate in their hands so I wound up getting a flight out earlier the next day. After that was set, I went back to my room and went to bed as it was already sort of late.