This will be a day to remember! We are in a pretty gritty area of Maldonado and were awaken this morning by crowing roosters. The renovation construction noise begins around 08:15. We had the fans and a/c on the entire night and they brought from much needed relief from the heat. Our breakfast time is 08:30. Rosa greets us and another lady helps bring up our meal. As indicated yesterday our bag of laundry was ready for us near the breakfast table and they did a great job. Charged us $5USD for the laundry which is a great deal. The room itself came to $40USD so $45USD in total and we paid with the American cash we brought.
Some of our breakfast meal. Pretty decent breakfast and was a good start to our morning. Lana not eating. Papaya juice in the glass container.
We are not being picked up by our 'free shuttle' which is a taxi until around 12 Noon. I have significant time to finish each of our previous days draft blogs while Lana falls back asleep. Even with the a/c and the fans going it is very hot in our room. I am NOT having a shower given what comes out of the shower head could be described as a sprinkle of water. Rosa has arranged for our taxi to the airport and we say our goodbyes to this family-run enterprise. Even their cute five year old daughter waves goodbye.
Unfortunately, this taxi does not have air conditioning unless you count leaving the windows open for a breeze. Wow, it is very hot here and once we enter the terminal there is a slight decrease in heat with some type of air conditioning. We have our boarding passes on my phone, but need to check our baggage and ask to be moved up in the plane as we are currently towards the rear of the plane. No problems here with the agent and we do get moved up to Row 8. Plus, she provides physical boarding passes. So far all good....
Not many pictures today given what unfolds but our original departure time was 13:25 and it is a short flight (311 kms) to Cusco so we were expecting to be enjoying Cusco in the mid afternoon. Well, that does not occur.
When we enter the waiting area we discover the room is packed and people are sitting on the floor. There doesn't appear to be empty seats. First thing is to buy some Gatorade to replenish our fluids and I get a cheese empanada all for 38 Sol. I do see two seats that have bags on them between two men. I am presuming they are like some people who don't care about others so simply put their bags on a seat beside them rather than on the floor. I approach the first guy to ask if the seat is occupied and he moves his bag off. The other guy is Spanish speaking and looks at me and then moves his bag so voila we have two seats. I think this is being assertive and maybe not too Canadian. In thinking back I would have moved the bags if they were unresponsive. Personally, I think it is rude behaviour when the room has people sitting on the floor or leaning on a wall.
We learn quickly that the air conditioning units in this room cannot deal with the size of the room nor the fact there is a lot of heat being generated by all our bodies (~100 people in the waiting area) so the heat is stifling. Lana not doing well with this heat. I do see that the three Canadians from the eco lodge; Joelle, Sarah and Dalton are sitting not too far from us so I walk over for a good chat. Part of travelling though is facing uncertainties with plane departures and a lot of down time waiting. Lana decides to finally buy two paletas (popsicles) to help deal with the heat. Each popsicle is 10 Sol so about 3.30CAD each but she loves their cold and taste.
ETA for Cusco is now 16:50 so we are going to be super late into Cusco. We have our car rental to get to after arrival. The guy next to me is a man spreader and loves to pick up his phone and talk loudly and that is when he is not watching something on his phone very loudly. At one point, he puts his left arm behind me on the back of my chair. Wow, talk about invasion of personal space, but that ends quickly when I look at him. At this point it is a long wait and Lana suffering in the heat and at her breaking point. We've noticed that here in Peru, cell phone etiquette is non-existent--loud two way speaker phone conversations anytime/anywhere, people watching videos with the speaker on, loud ring tones on phones--the noise pollution is overwhelming.
Joelle comes by and says Dalton has access to the air conditioned lounge and is allowed one guest. He knows of Lana being sick with heat stroke. How thoughtful and caring! Lana heads to the lounge and spends at least an hour enjoying the a/c and Dalton's company. This saved her from having a complete meltdown in more ways than one. Plus she learns that Dalton lives in Ottawa so they make a plan to meet up the next time she is there on business. She is SO thankful for his kindness and generosity and for Joelle coming to her rescue!She is touched beyond words! It is now 16:11 and nobody boarding or doing anything. I am keeping occupied by doing my Cross Sums puzzles and it pushes my brain to do some creative problem solving. As the hours drag on I keep our Airbnb host, Josefina, updated on our being late by using WhatsApp. It is now 16:15 and I hear a plane land on the runway.
As an interesting tidbit: IN PERU YOU CAN BRING YOUR LIQUIDS ON THE PLANE AS SECURITY IS OK WITH IT.
Lana finds out from the lounge that they are handing out dinner boxes so she asks Dalton to ask Joelle to make sure I get one. He brings me a dinner kit made up of roasted chicken and french fries + a drink. I learn later that the airline provided these due to the extreme delay with the flight. There were small snack bags handed out earlier (water, juice, crackers) but we assumed those were only for their status fliers. Much appreciated, but I was not hungry. The plane begins loading at 16:27, but we are in Zone 6 so one of the last passengers to load. We only have backpacks so no big deal as they go under the seat in front of us. Plane loaded and we sit and sit and sit on the tarmac. New ETA is 17:30 which is around five hours delay.
Seated in Row 8 with me at my customary window seat and Lana in the aisle seat as we have nobody sitting in the middle seat - great score. She aims the air vent towards her to ensure she cools off quickly on the plane. Uneventful flight and unfortunately not much to see outside the window given the cloud cover and smoke. Landed in Cusco at 18:02 and after landing we just stopped near the terminal and were stationery with no move to a gate. Have I mentioned anything previously about mañana time? 😏
We finally get to a gate and then we need to navigate to the baggage carousel. Our plane is super close to the carousel. What are the chances the luggage will come in a reasonable time? Nope.... Anyway, this has been delay after delay so no surprise. Our baggage does arrive so all good there. Now, we need to find the rental cars. There are zero signs within the terminal for rental cars and eventually we have to go back into the terminal to find Information. The girl does not speak much English, but we discover the rental cars are off-site and down the busy street. The airport arrivals is surrounded by the busy city.
This is where Cusco is located in Peru.
Very dark and noisy with the usual honking horns. Lana uses her Google Maps and it is about a two to three block long blocks walk. There is no Dollar Rent a Car. Oops, Google Maps indicates it is on the other side of this main city street. We somehow find an opportunity to cross and no office. There is a Sixty Car rental open and a nice young woman is willing to help us. In Cusco, Dollar is also Hertz. She phones their person and they are not open now and have no cars anyway. Hmmm, so much for our reservation. Lana is reminded of the Seinfeld episode about renting a car and his statement about "taking" the reservation is fine, but they don't know how to actually "hold" the reservation!! So true!!
We ask if she has a car for rental and she has no cars available. There is a Wellas/Ace Rental Car across the street that appears to be open. The Sixty lady phones someone there and they have a car and will open for us. Back across the dark and busy street without getting hit. We discover this office front door is in fact locked although the light is on inside. A young guy comes out from another door and has no idea what we are talking about. He phones Edgar (older fellow who the nice lady from Sixty called) and he shows up to unlock the door and discuss a car rental.
They have one car available and it is an economy car with a manual transmission. We will take it. The rental rate is $45USD per day with all in. Hmmmm, our deal with Dollar was $43 total for two days. Pretty easy to figure out we have no power here. I have no problem trying to negotiate and we do get the vehicle for two days for $80USD so save some monies. There is no where else to go. Plus, it was expensive to get a taxi to our Airbnb apartment so we save those monies. Takes some time to do all the paperwork, provide my Passport and Drivers License so he can take copies and sign all the documentation.
We head outside to check out the car and ensure we document any dents, blemishes or flaws before driving away. He confirms how to find reverse gear and shows us where the registration is and other important documents. We realize we will now be part of the chaos of driving in Peru. I am up to the challenge as these people drive like I do although they seem more aggressive. There are no dividing lines in the road and cars can be found creating three lanes from two. You do need to be aggressive on the roads here. Lana is our navigator using Google Maps and a pin drop GPS that our Airbnb host provided.
As an aside Josefina has very limited English skills. She provided an address that did not work with Google Maps and I needed to push her on a proper address that was recognized. Eventually she provided a pin drop and an address that Google Maps recognized. We do follow the GPS pin drop, but that does not take us to the address and fortunately we have pictures of what her street looks like and where we are at looks nothing like it. Someone Lana manages to find the correct pin drop and we need to back track a mile or so--but we're not far. We use the other address "Edificio Dennis II" and that takes us to a corner that looks familiar to the pictures.
The process was there was supposed to be a concierge in the main floor who would provide the lockbox and combo for us to access the keys and be shown the garage parking spot for our rental car. Seems pretty straightforward to us. I use WhatsApp to communicate and things go from bad to worse....My communication with WhatsApp confirming our arrival at the apartment in our vehicle begins at 19:51 and about 20:30 she physically shows up in a car with her husband. In between many WhatsApp texts there are phone calls (when she answers). All her replies are basically towards us being in the apartment despite the fact I indicate there is NO concierge. Phone calls do not help as she has minimal if no grasp of English. Lana is in the car thinking we got scammed!!!
Obviously she does not live in the building. At least she finally shows up and to make this worse she can't get in the building as she has no keys! We figure she prompts one of the residents via buzzing to let her in and she finds the lockbox with the keys. She finally opens the garage doors and shows us a spot to park. We get our luggage and in the elevator to get to apartment 601. There are two apartment 601s but you use a key to get the elevator to take you to the one on the right. Private elevator entrance. That was not in any of her directions.
The three bedroom apartment is beautiful and well appointed. Phew....
We try to use our Google Translator with her but that does not work if you use the audio as she simply doesn't understand. Typing in English and then her reading it in Spanish seems to be better? Simple questions don't seem to work. She starts telling us about a number punching at entrance to building and when we go back down it does not exist. I try to figure out how having no concierge tonight could possibly give us access? Nope, no real answer. What was she thinking? I have an idea that we better double check with her downstairs everything we need to know about getting in and out of the apartment and the parking garage before she leaves. Yikes!
Once we get back downstairs I point out there is a car behind my car that can't get out tomorrow given I am blocking them. She asks me to move my car to another spot. Driving in and out is super steep. She then cannot figure out which button to push to activate the opening and closing of the appropriate garage door. WTF? I watch her press the same buttons with the same results? Eventually she pushes the third button and it is the proper garage door. Plus, we learn you need to push this button to gain access and to leave the garage. I cannot feel empathy here as she should never rent to an English speaker and she needs to be dramatically more knowledgeable and organized for future guests. Lana is trying not to laugh because as she is pressing all the buttons, she can see all of the garage doors opening and closing.
At this point, neither of us had dinner and we are tired and in my case I am trying to become less stressed. Lana's system is still not settled and she hasn't eaten anything solid for 3 days now. But she did have a couple of small bites of a ham and cheese sandwich when she was in the lounge so that's good sign. Josefina leaves and we make it back to the apartment and she confirms the wifi information and some other small details. We are on our own and hoping there is nothing she has missed to tell us. There are dogs down below barking incessantly. Lana trying to fall asleep as I make some notes for our blog.
This has been the very worst check-in of all time and just the topping to a very long and complicated day. I guess that is one of the liabilities to organizing your own itinerary versus relying on a tour to ensure all details are in place and everything is predictable. At some point in the future we will both laugh about this day.....but it's gonna take a while!
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