Peru Day 1 – On lost wedding rings and violations of customs rules!

Monday – May 19

Whoo boy what a trip it has been so far.

So the flight was ok – I slept most of the time until Tim spilled his water glass (on my lap).

So late into the flight I’m getting ready to get off the plane and I can’t find my wedding ring.  I had it after I ate, I had it after the bathroom, but when my hands swell I put it on my pinky and I think it fell off while I was sleeping.  When we landed we looked everywhere for it and the flight attendant was actually rude to me for not telling her earlier that I had lost something – which I would have if I had known I had lost it.

Getting though the passport area was fine but it took forever to get out luggage and the whole time I am looking for a Delta agent to tell them about my ring to at least alert the lost and found.  When the luggage arrived we went to clear customs and were randomly selected for ‘searches’.

While they did not x-ray my bag (which is something I try to avoid because of the film) it turns out I was required to declare the extra cameras as a tourist is only allowed to carry 1 still and 1 video camera and I have something like 4 and way too many accessories for his comfort.

He let me off with a warning.

I didn’t see them tearing apart Tim’s bag but at least one toiletry item didn’t make it back and we have to head to a store this morning.

So…

So we head out of the airport and its 1am, the Delta offices are closed, the Delta counter is closed and nobody wants to help me.

Finally I find the locked Delta office and bang on the door until someone comes out and laughingly hands me my wedding ring! Yeah!

Back home I found the name of a nice hostel in Lima and we asked a cab driver to take us there.  It was going to cost 45S.  An S is like 2.7S per Dollar so we are rounding to 3.  He told us that the hostel would be full but handed us a bunch of brochures and took us up the pacific coast highway to the Miraflores area.  We visited several full hostels and pricey hotels till we found a decent one for $45 US which included a free continental breakfast and Internet!! Woo hoo.

We will stay here another night so we can leave our bags and visit some museums even though most of them are closed cause… its Monday and all museums are close on Monday.  Still we have enough to do and the hotel has HBO. There is a huge church the San Fransisco with catacombs and a library and a ruins to explore around the corner.

Tim got eggs and I got ham.  His eggs look good my ham was well – lunchmeat, but very tasty.

So heading up to get loaded up with camera and have a slow get our bearings kinda day.

For those keeping track when we landed in Lima we were at 75 feet – here in Miraflores at the El Ejecutivo its 175 feet.

I should be able to write again tonight or in the AM as we are staying here so until then….

[Re-posted from my University Blog & Edited 07/01/2011]