Peru - Day 0 - A Familiar Departure, an Unfamiliar Destination

“Peru”

2/12/15, “A Familiar Departure, an Unfamiliar Destination”

It seems that the more ambitious my trip, the more stressful the departure day is.  By my standards, this three-day trip to visit the sanctuary of Machu Picchu is not particularly ambitious.  I only intend to spend one night in the sanctuary lodge, and I have enough time in my schedule to spend a full day in Lima.  My flight tonight is at 10:45 PM.  This should not have been a stressful departure, yet, it was.  I just want to get on that airplane and fall asleep as we make our way south.  Then, tomorrow, I can take my connecting flight, the bus or taxi to the train station, then the train to Machu Picchu.

I’ll be having dinner in the sanctuary lodge in less than 24 hours.  Again, nothing particularly ambitious by my standards.  The 10:45 PM flight allowed plenty of buffer between the end of the work day and my flight, especially with the early office closing time of 3:30 PM before the holiday.  Why then was this so stressful?  I would be tempted to blame the difficulty of making the transfer to Machu Picchu, clearly the most daunting part of the trip, or the bruised bone in my foot that will make walking difficult, but it would be dishonest to do so.

The truth is, the stress is almost entirely caused by personal issues that are beyond the scope of this Travelogue.  If this were not a departure day, the personal issues would have been easily resolved by the morning.  As it is, they may not even be resolved until late Tuesday night.  At the end of 2014, I went to South America for the first time, under very different, though no less stressful circumstances.  I was in a relationship that I knew would end within a week or two of my return back to the States.  I lost my cell phone not long after arriving in Buenos Aires.

The interesting part was, I met the person who person helped me plan this trip during that trip.  I did not think this was doable as a three-day weekend.  I made it work, and I am glad I was able to incorporate the full day in Lima.  I made many friends during that trip, but she is the only one with whom I have stayed in touch.

I woke up early today, and I did a little bit of work from bed until I needed to leave to get to the office at my usual start time.  I had a very productive day at work, and I did get my traditional pre-departure lunch at Hop Won, for the first time in 2016, I believe.  I also ran a few errands, including a much-needed haircut and bear shearing.  I finished up at work, and then I printed out my documents for the trip.  I headed to the cigar store, where I had another one of my unbanded Graycliff cigars.  Then came decision time.

Working backwards, my flight was at 10:45 PM, which meant I wanted to be at the airport at 8:00 PM, which meant I needed to be on the 6:30 PM bus from midtown, which meant I needed to be packed, showered, and dressed and leave my apartment by 6 PM, which meant I needed to be at my apartment by 5 PM to take care of everything.  It was closer to 5:30 PM by the time I got to my apartment, and I was just too stressed to take the bus.  I lit up a Padron Anniverario, and I walked back to the cigar store at 6:30 PM, which would have been fine to take the bus if I were so inclined.  They closed at 7 PM, and I waited for a taxi.

There was a family waiting before me, but they were going to Chinatown, and the driver was going off-duty, heading back to Queens, which meant he was more than willing to take me to Kennedy.  He asked if he could stop at the deli to get a drink, offering to buy me something, as well.  I asked for a Diet Coke.  I had hoped that my stress would have been relieved by the time I got to the airport, no such luck.  It’s still not.  In fact, it’s worse.  I just want to be on that plane and fall asleep right at 11:11 PM.  It was 8 PM when we got to the airport, and I know that I have been to Terminal 8 before, but it had been a while.

That was where I got Keira Knightley’s autograph.  Our arms brushed against each other, her bare, bony elbow, and my plump, unsleeved forearm (or maybe the other way around, my elbow and her forearm).  I almost died.  Tonight, I just wanted to be dead, well, that’s an exaggeration, but I wanted to be unconscious as soon as possible.  I hoped that everything would resolve itself by the time I got to Machu Picchu, or that I, at least, wouldn’t care.  There was a huge line to check-in, but, travelling alone, they whisked me off to the empty VIP check-in.  The long line for security was quick moving, but the TSA agent halfway through was asking weird questions of everyone.  I’m not sure if it was his way of being jovial, or if it was heightened security.  He asked me if I packed my bag, if I was sure, and how sure I was.  Yes, yes, and very.  He then asked me to tell him what color my bag was without looking at it.  Black.

I headed towards my gate, not a short walk, even longer with my injured foot, and I went to a restaurant called SoHo Bistro.  I wanted to be out of there in 20 minutes.  The service was bad and slow and disordered.  It took about 40 minutes, which ate into the time I had allocated for this entry.  I ordered the lobster mac and cheese with, I thought, onion rings instead of fries for a nominal substitution charge.  After what seemed an eternity, they brought it with fries, and I asked him to bring the check.  I then remembered the onion rings, and tried to call him back, but he was gone.  When he came back, halfway through my meal, very carefully phrasing, I asked, “Didn’t I order onion rings?”  He said that he didn’t see that on the order form but that he could bring me onion rings.  I was done with the meal by the time he brought the rings.  I was so disgusted with the service that I was prepared to leave no tip.  However, the onion rings made a difference.  I figured I’d give him 10% plus the price of the upcharge for the onion rings if he waived it.  He didn’t waive it.  He charged me for a side of onion rings.  That came out of his tip, so I would up leaving slightly under 10%.

I then headed to the gate, where I proceeded to write this entry, which I will now close.  One source of my stress was relieved by the time I finished writing, even though an agent came up to me to take away my carry-on, saying it needed to be checked, though the other source(s) will have to remain until Tuesday, though I can forget about them until then.  Anyway, definitely need to close now so that I can publish it before we board.