Well, adios, Sudamerica. I’m back in Montreal. Eighteen hours later than planned, massively sleep-deprived, and with a giant pile of laundry waiting for me. But it’s good to be home.
Take three
After missing my original Aeromexico flights, and my rescheduled LATAM and American Airlines flights this morning, I was determined to make it on my third try. My flight to Toronto with Air Canada (Rouge, ugh) had a scheduled departure of 3am.
I caught a taxi from the hotel to the airport at around 10:30, arriving back at the airport just after 11, well in advance of the 3-hour recommended time frame for the flight. And it was a good thing, too; my experience with Air Crapida started off as expected, with only a single check-in agent to serve hundreds of passengers. The online check-in wasn’t working, and the line was miles long. Luckily I was near the front of it, but it still took me over an hour to check in.
Then, immigration took another hour or so to pass, since there was an airport-wide system outage that resulted in the electronic immigration forms not being available. Everyone had to hand-fill forms, and the line stalled and didn’t move until several airlines threw their weight around and pressured the immigration officials to start stamping people through more quickly.
Lima’s airport is particularly busy overnight. Most international flights arrive late at night, and many domestic connections aren’t until the next morning. So the terminal is always busy. The good news is, stuff is always open here. I browsed in the shops a bit, tasting more chocolate but avoiding the urge to spend money on overpriced souvenirs. Finally, I made it to the gate with about 45 minutes to spare. I decided that, after the day I’d had, I deserved a beer. I bought a bottle of craft cerveza at airport-markup prices and enjoyed every last sip.
Rouging like a ninja
The flight to Toronto boarded on time. I pulled one more ninja move out of my bag of tricks, and got myself a comfy exit row seat with loads of legroom, thus thwarting being Rouged and ensuring myself a fairly pleasant flight.
I curled up with a pillow and blanket and managed another three hours or so of sleep. Then I loaded up the Rouge app on my tiny phone and watched Gone Girl, which is a long enough movie that it killed some more time on the flight. Before I knew it, we were nearly there. Since it was long-haul international, they even fed us a sandwich at take-off, and a yummy waffle breakfast before landing. Not bad.
Back on Canadian soil
We landed in Toronto a few minutes early, though of course we sat at the gate for twenty minutes while a maintenance crew fixed the bridge. But after that, I sped through customs (thanks, Nexus), grabbed my priority-tagged bag, and made it through security in two minutes flat. After the exercise in patience that is South America, it was nice to be back in a land where things are efficient again.
I made my way to the gate. The first thing I did was to use a toilet where I could flush the toilet paper. The second thing was to take a drink of tap water from the fountain. And the third was to order a Timmy’s coffee. It’s all about the simple pleasures, I tell ya. (I can’t wait to eat green salad again. Or fresh fruit other than bananas. Or sushi. Mmmm, sushi. Anyone want to go for sushi this week?)
Soon enough, I was on a packed flight to Montreal full of Victoria Day long weekend returnees, stuck in a middle seat between two people who were on their way to Greece. It didn’t matter; it was a short enough flight, and I was finally home.
So that’s that
My second visit to South America was really something. I successfully saw lots of llamas and alpacas, tasted a bunch of craft beer and chocolate, and visited two of the most uniquely memorable sights in the world. I survived the effects of altitude, freezing cold nights, ancient minibuses, crazy taxi drivers, and airline shena****ns, and kept smiling throughout.
My Spanish improved a little bit with practice, though my French probably got more of a workout thanks to the massive number of French tourists everywhere. I saw amazing colonial cities, stunning natural landscapes, and a zillion handicraft markets selling alpaca wool. I listened to unknown quantities of pan flute music. And for a few weeks, I got to feel, if not tall, then at least average-height. Which was really kinda fun for me.
To sum up, this has been an incredible trip. And I’m sad that it’s come to an end. But South America still has lots more to explore, so there are surely more trips to the region ahead for me.
So, gracias a todos for reading and following along with me. Since Travelpod is shutting down, I’ll be working on migrating these blogs elsewhere in the coming days. Stay tuned for the links. (And, as mentioned before, if you’re a WordPress guru and keen to help, please let me know, ’cause I will need it!)
Where’s next? I honestly don’t know yet, but it will likely be sometime in 2018, so stay tuned. In the meantime, it’s time to settle back into Montreal life. Which, hey, with the longer days, warmer weather and festival season kicking off, is not a bad thing at all.