Postcards From Amy: November 2013

I have a relative who, when she was 25, quit her job and planned a six month trip around the world. I recently ask her of all the places she has traveled, which was her favorite. I really liked her response and thought she had some great advice and wanted to share it with you.

"Hmmm... my favorite place? So many people have asked that and I have to say I don't have one particular place. Each place is SUPER unique and offers up such a variety of things. I LOVED India because of how different it is. Same holds true for Vietnam. I think while you're young you should try out the exotic places. As we get older, we tend to want more from our travels and are less patient with the third world country annoyances. So save Europe and higher end travels for later in life. If that makes sense? But, every place I've been to I've LOVED for what it was."

This was our last photo in Cuzco before starting our long trek home.

Cuzco to Lima to Dallas to Salt Lake City

Lima Magic Water Circuit
We had a 5 hour layover in Lima and so we decided to take a taxi to these Lima Fountains. We didn't plan to spend any real time in Lima because we had read many warnings that Lima wasn't safe right now for American tourists but we thought we would at least take advantage of some extra time at the airport. We had wanted to take a bus city tour of Lima but our flight got into Lima too late for it so we just picked the one main thing we wanted to see. (We had heard from several people along the way that they had loved the Hop On Hop Off bus tours they had done in Lima.)

We had kind of a funny experience with our cab driver from the airport to the fountains and back. We found a taxi driver who was willing to drive us to the water park, wait for us and then bring us back to the airport. As we were driving to the water park he and Krista were chatting in Spanish and all of a sudden their conversation started to get heated; turns out he was trying to change the price of what we had agreed on. Luckily we got it all straightened out, though he kept trying to add to the drive by saying he would take us to more places if we gave him more money and we kept telling him no, we want to pay you what we agreed on and we want to only go to the water park.

As we arrived at the water park he pulled in to pay for his parking and for our entrance tickets. He only paid for two entrance tickets and the parking. We all (we went to the park with some other girls we met on the plane who had the same layover) protested and said that he should have paid for all of us but he waved us off and said that nobody actually checks for you to have tickets; turns out he was right but that’s beside the point. When we got out of the car, Krista told him she didn’t like what he just did.

Taxi driver, “What do you mean?”

Krista, “I don’t like that you didn’t pay for all of us, that wasn’t honest, I was taught by my parents to always be honest.”
TD, "This means a lot to you."
K, "Yes."

Our taxi driver was shocked and later when he dropped us off at the airport he told Krista that he has never met someone with such integrity and he truly felt bad for his action. He told her that moment really made him think about his life the remainder of the night.

When we got back to the airport our flight had been delayed 5 hours. Whaaaaaat?! Here's to sleeping in the freezing airport. Later, as we were boarding our flight one of the attendant said to me, “Did you make sure to re-check your bags?” I looked at her completely confused and thinking to myself, “did I hear her right?” She repeated the question and I finally said, “Well no, because I was flying within the country.” She immediately looked at my like I was an idiot and said I was supposed to have rechecked my bags. Still confused at what I am hearing, keep in mind sleep deprived as well, I looked over to Krista as she was checking in with another attendant and I said, “Did you know we were supposed to recheck our bags?” She had the same reaction I did. Turns out that in Lima, you have to always recheck your bags. The attendants were not kind or sympathetic in any way. They just said that there was nothing we could do, we should have asked someone (ask someone?! We didn’t even know there was something to ask about) and that we would just have to file a claim for our bags when we got to our final destination. Well this made for a mixture of emotions; anxiety, sadness, anger, confusion, etc. Long story short... we got our bags back a week after we had been home. Hooray!

When we got to Dallas we had missed our connecting flight because of the delay in Lima. Krista's response: "I've never wanted to live in Dallas until today." We hadn't showered in 4 days and the last two nights had been very unrestful sleeps. We were ready to be home. We were rebooked for the last flight of the day to Salt Lake. Luckily we went to the gate of an earlier flight home with our airline and got on the standby list. We made it on to the flight! We were the last two on and we basically buckled our seats as the plane was taking off. We were so happy we cheered and high-fived each other.

This picture is of us on that flight.

Odds and Ends
Staying at Hostels: For this trip we stayed in Hostals the entire time (except for the Ninos Hotel). This was my first time staying in hostals and I wasn't sure what to expect. I've heard of some people loving them and some people hating them. It's obviously not the Ritz BUT it had the bare essentials of what was needed: a warm bed, toilet, sink and shower. Yes I had to provide my own towel, sometimes toilet paper, and soap but that was ok. We only had two hostals that we shared with other people, other than that we had private rooms (something I didn't realize you could do). I would stay in them again. For a 3 week trip, it was a great money saver.

Not something you would see in the U.S.

Some of the things I missed from home but also made me grateful for the simple things I have: Drinking water. Being able to brush my teeth with tap water. Not having to worry if people will accept your cash if it had a small rip in it or a crease. Heated Buildings. Not having to worry about having exact change to pay for things. Being able to flush toilet paper down the toilet. WARM SHOWERS!

If you are thinking about visiting Peru... DO IT! I feel very lucky to have been able to go on this trip. I had a lot of fun and saw a lot of incredible things but I also was reminded by all of the many things I have in my life and how blessed that I am.

Doors
I know it is a girly thing to do but while we were Peru I tried to take pictures of cool doors I saw. I thought it was neat to see these doors with such character. Sometimes these doors were attached to a well kept building while others were very run down.