9-5 (Friday)

Anna picked me up at 11:30 and took me to the airport. We got there a litte before noon. The line to check in was fairly long but it only took 30 minutes from the time I got out of the car to get checked in, go through security and make it to the trams. I was surprised at how fasst it was.

We had a smooth flight to Miami but we didn't even get a glass of water to drink. They said the flight was too short. If it had been Thai Air they would have served a whole meal! I was next to two people who were overflowing their seats!

After we landed I walked about four gates down and found Barbara waiting for me. She was wearing her beautiful gold scarb that she got in Egypt. She said our departure gate had been changed. Before we walked to the new gate she filled me in on the drama that was unfolding in front of us. It seems that some woman who had been visiting her mother in Haiti was on her way to LA with her young daughter when another woman came up to her in the Miami airport and asked if she would take two young girls to gate D43 to meet someone. The woman did it but there was no one to meet the children. By the time I got there the feds had been there and there were police all over the place trying to find out who these kids were. They made the woman from Haiti and her daughter wait while they tried to figure it out. Of course she missed her plane to LA. They gave her a ticket for the next plane out. It looked like a guy from HRS showed up and I thought I heard him say he was going to declare the girls abandoned. The oldest girl looked to be around 8 and the youngest 5-6. They didn't seem upset. They weren't crying.

When we got on the plane to Lima it must have been over 100 degrees inside. The crew kept aplogizing and saying they couldn't start the engines until the tower said we could back up. I looked back at Barbara (2 seats behind me) and she was asleep with her fleece on! Once we got going everyone was freezing to death.

They charged $6 for wine or beer. I had cranberry juice (for free) with my TV dinner. As usual the roll felt like they had just taken it out of the freezer.

Lima is one hour behind Florida since we are on daylight saveings time. When we go off d.l.s.t. we will be on the same time.

We landed in Lima at 9:30 and had an easy time going through customs. We changed some money at the airport. We hired a "green" taxi to take us to our hotel, the Casa de Baraybar in the Miraflores area. The driver said he knew where it was but we could tell he didn't. It wasn't long before he was on the honker calling the office for directions. It was a long way ($16) but he got us there. It didn't look a thing like a hotel, there wasn't even a visibal sign out front. Even the driver seemed unsure (again.) He got out and walked up to the building to check the address. You had to ring a bell for them to buzz you into the building. When we got in the place was lovely, nice and new looking. The girl at the desk didn't speak a word of English so she called someone else on the phone. That person said there was a "really nice" American staying at the hotel who could help us. We no sooner hug up the phone than in walks Kimberly, the anthropologist from Austin, TX. She's digging around in Peru for several months at a time. She gave us tips on where to eat, what to see etc. She also told the girl we wanted extra blankets when we found out the rooms weren't heated! The girl brought our extrea blankets - two thin bedspreads! Thank goodness there were a couple of wool blanket in the room.

I took a vey hot shower and was able to get into bed by 1:30 (my time.)