Landed in Lima

I have just arrived in Lima, Peru. It took me about 1 hour 15 min to rent a phone and take a taxi to the hostel where my friends stayed last night. It is not quite 7 a.m. so I have decided to let them sleep a bit. I did pay 14 soles for a room for half the day. I had not planned to do so, but I was not sure how I could just hang for an indefinate part of the day waiting for my friends. The way I see it, I got pretty cheap internet for as long as I want.

I had to take 3 planes to get here. Basically, all the flight from LA to Atlanta were full, so I needed to go to Cincinnati to get to Atlanta. It was then a 6+ hours red-evy into Peru. The layover in Cincinnati was scheduled for 34 min. I was convinced a checked bag would not make the short layover time, especially if anything went wrong. So I put my lotions, shampoos and larger liquids in Meghan´s bag for her to check, and I put all my things in two small backpacks to take on the plane. It was a good thing b/c my plane left LA 45 min. late. When we took off, we were scheduled to land 5 min. after my next flight was supposed to land. I was quite anxious about this and could not get comfortable for the 4 hour flight. Luckly, we had some strong tail winds and only landed 15 min. late. Additionally, I was in the 2nd to last row. But fortuneately, a huge group of student travelers were ending their trip their and about 75% of the plane waited for people with transfers to get off 1st. This gave me just enough time to run to the next plane. That one was completely empty and only an hour. To Lima, I had a window on the 2nd row of the exit rows. This meant lots of leg room AND my seat can recline (the first row in exit rows usually don´t go back). So, excellent seating combines with half a sleeping pill made for an excellent trip to South America and I am ready to conquer Peru!!!

Outside of the hostel, everything is desolate. Lima is along the ocean and I drove up and down cliffs that dropped down onto the beachs. It reminds me of the coast of California. I was surprised to see so many runners out so early in the morning. It is quite foggy this morning and damp. I am a bit chilly, and I am already nervous that I will freeze my little buns off on our impending trek to Machu Pichu. My goal is to aclimate to the temperatures and, this after noon in Cusco, the altitude as soon as possible.