We got up at 5 this morning and got the same taxi van/driver (all through the hostel) at 5:45. I feel that the taxi drivers in South America are so nice. They talk to you and want to get to know you.
We got dropped of at the Taca terminal, even though the Cusco airport is so small it's just one terminal for all the airlines.
We said thanks to our taxi driver and went to check in. It was a mess getting all 6 girls to collect their passports, tickets to Lima and to Buenos Aires, reciprocity fee for Argentina and visas. Mindee couldn't find the receipt for her reciprocity fee and the woman said she couldn't look it up which was false because I had mine looked up in Uruguay. But she finally find it in the bottom of her back pack.
Then we went through security. Christina, Sheridan and I went straight through but when Mindee walked by, a man that walked at the airport called her over and demanded her 3x4 inch customs paper she received over a week ago...
So she dug around in her bag and finally found it but he wasn't letting her pass because it had a small rip in it. The guy was apparently being a huge ass and making a big deal out if nothing and made Mindee cry. That's when Sam stepped in and started yelling at him in Spanish saying it's the same information and he was being a dickhead.
We saw them talking aggressively to each other and him slamming papers down on his desk of his worthless job.
He wrote "immigrations" on Mindee's ticket, told her in Lima she had to leave through security to pay for another paper then come back through security to make her flight...
I left my customs paper in my checked luggage so I really, really, really hope I don't get stopped cause I got lucky this time he didn't call me over. But poor Mindee is hot and tall with blonde hair and blue eyes and got called out... I say that's racial profiling.
So we got on our flight to Lima and I sat next to Christina. We pulled away from the gate then waited and waited. Finally they told us there was a technical problem with the plane so we had to go back to the gate.
Ok, no big deal. We have a two hour layover in Lima and we're flying the same airline. As long as this won't take two hours we'll be fine.
So they said everything was good and we pulled away from the gate again... And waited. Then they said there was still a problem and we might have to deboard (is that a word? Not sure).
So there was tons of confusion especially since our group was scattered all over the plane. A lot of people on the plane had only a layover in Lima and had their final destination somewhere else so before we could deboard, they had to cluster all the people that were going to the same city and put them in different flights.
All the information we were getting from "what passengers heard" and nothing from the captain so we really didn't know what was really going on.
Luckily, the guy sitting next to me through all this was Peruvian and I got to practice my Spanish. I'm definitely getting a lot better with my conversational Spanish. I have to make a point to find a language partner and read Spanish books when I go back to the states to keep it up.
Sam and Sheridan talked to the flight workers and waved for us to get off the flight.
So we got out of our seats and got in line to deboard. Mindee, Carla and Sam already got off because they were at the front of the plane but they wouldn't let the rest of us get off the plane.
There was a group of young girls with a primary school that were traveling around Peru. While waiting, I was talking to them in Spanish and they were so cute. They were asking my name, why I was in Peru and where I was from. One of them asked if Philadelphia was near Utah... Um, no.
Finally we got off the plane and they gave everyone a blank ticket with our names hand written on it.
We walked back into the terminal and Sam, Mindee and Carla were no where to be found. They probably got put on another flight.
About an hour later they had us line up on the same plane... wasn't too crazy about the idea of getting on a previously malfunctioning plane but whatever, we needed to get to Lima then Buenos Aires.
We got to BA but obviously missed our flight. So we we went to the check-in place to get the next available flight to Buenos Aires. Luckily on the way to check in we saw Sam, Mindee and Carla-- what luck!! However, the next flight wasn't until 10om... that was a good 8 or 9 hours away. So we complained a bit and the guy felt bad so he gave us VIP ACCESS AND FREE LUNCH! I usually don't complain but it was so worth it that time. The guy said our checked bags would still be going straight to BA.
So we found Carla and Mindee and told them we got VIP access. They said they'd go get Sam and get the same.
So Sheridan, Christina and I hung out in the VIP area and it was awesome. Free wifi, drinks, snacks, and sandwiches! About an hour later I got a call from Mindee over Viber. Apparently Sam was in baggage claim because when she checked back in, they told her she needed to get her suitcase from baggage claim then recheck it but Mindee and Carla didn't check any bags. The people were super rude to her in baggage claim and kept ignoring her when she asked when her bags were coming. She had to wait by the carousels for 2 hours before her bag finally came through because the workers kept saying her bag was on the next landing plane. But before she saw her bag she saw Sheridan and my bags so she grabbed them.
After she had all three bags, she had no way of contacting us so she was going to leave the bags in baggage claim with the workers so she could find us and we could get them. She didn't know we were already past security in VIP rooms.
But the workers wouldn't let her leave the bags unattended! She waited for us for another hour or so and finally said those weren't her bags and she just left (understandably).
Meanwhile, I was calling the Taca people in baggage claim with the VIP phone telling them to search for a poor girl in baggage claim with three suitcases. I was literally sick to my stomach knowing that Sam had been waiting with our bags for so long because they wouldn't let her leave.
We called back a few times but no sign of Sam. So I went back to customs to see if I could see her. Luckily, right when I got there I saw her turning the corner heading toward customs visibly upset.
Apparently the ticket the check in person gave her didn't work at immigrations so she had to go back and cut the line to get another boarding pass that worked. Then through security she was so distracted that she forgot to take off her belt and necklace and empty her water bottle so they stopped her and gave her a hard time. By this time she started crying out of stress and three different workers had to take her aside to calm her down. By this point, she was by herself for almost 4 hours through all this stress that was Taca's fault to begin with.
If they told Sheridan and I we had to get our bags we would have... even though it was Taca's fault that the bags didn't go straight to BA. There was no reason we would have had to go get our bags then recheck them.
So after calming Sam down a bit in the VIP lounge and getting free lunch and drinks, we headed to the Taca costumer service to tell them how much they suck and how incompetent their workers are. We also checked to make sure Sheridan and my bag was ready to go to Buenos Aires because we never actually saw them.
What came out of Sam's rant about how much Taca sucks, was $200 gift vouchers for Taca flights... great... Avianca and Taca are Peruvian airlines... probably won't be able to use those. But whatever, we got VIP treatment and got drunk off of free drinks.
Actually, the VIP treatment was freaking awesome. We all relaxed and had a great time eating their food and using their massage chairs, wifi and computers. It would have sucked to wait all that time with the "normal people" :)
We were having so much fun that we were actually kind of upset when we had to leave to catch our flight.
We got into BA around 6 (couldn't sleep a wink on the flight) and I didn't get home until 7:30am... I had a 9am Spanish class... are you fucking kidding me?
But alas, I am a great student and took a half hour nap, got up and headed to class. I was actually a zombie for the entire day but I had class until 7:30pm... worst day ever.
However, my Peruvian vacation was awesome and I wouldn't replace it for the world.
About an hour later they had us line up on the same plane... wasn't too crazy about the idea of getting on a previously malfunctioning plane but whatever, we needed to get to Lima then Buenos Aires.
We got to BA but obviously missed our flight. So we we went to the check-in place to get the next available flight to Buenos Aires. Luckily on the way to check in we saw Sam, Mindee and Carla-- what luck!! However, the next flight wasn't until 10om... that was a good 8 or 9 hours away. So we complained a bit and the guy felt bad so he gave us VIP ACCESS AND FREE LUNCH! I usually don't complain but it was so worth it that time. The guy said our checked bags would still be going straight to BA.
So we found Carla and Mindee and told them we got VIP access. They said they'd go get Sam and get the same.
So Sheridan, Christina and I hung out in the VIP area and it was awesome. Free wifi, drinks, snacks, and sandwiches! About an hour later I got a call from Mindee over Viber. Apparently Sam was in baggage claim because when she checked back in, they told her she needed to get her suitcase from baggage claim then recheck it but Mindee and Carla didn't check any bags. The people were super rude to her in baggage claim and kept ignoring her when she asked when her bags were coming. She had to wait by the carousels for 2 hours before her bag finally came through because the workers kept saying her bag was on the next landing plane. But before she saw her bag she saw Sheridan and my bags so she grabbed them.
After she had all three bags, she had no way of contacting us so she was going to leave the bags in baggage claim with the workers so she could find us and we could get them. She didn't know we were already past security in VIP rooms.
But the workers wouldn't let her leave the bags unattended! She waited for us for another hour or so and finally said those weren't her bags and she just left (understandably).
Meanwhile, I was calling the Taca people in baggage claim with the VIP phone telling them to search for a poor girl in baggage claim with three suitcases. I was literally sick to my stomach knowing that Sam had been waiting with our bags for so long because they wouldn't let her leave.
We called back a few times but no sign of Sam. So I went back to customs to see if I could see her. Luckily, right when I got there I saw her turning the corner heading toward customs visibly upset.
Apparently the ticket the check in person gave her didn't work at immigrations so she had to go back and cut the line to get another boarding pass that worked. Then through security she was so distracted that she forgot to take off her belt and necklace and empty her water bottle so they stopped her and gave her a hard time. By this time she started crying out of stress and three different workers had to take her aside to calm her down. By this point, she was by herself for almost 4 hours through all this stress that was Taca's fault to begin with.
If they told Sheridan and I we had to get our bags we would have... even though it was Taca's fault that the bags didn't go straight to BA. There was no reason we would have had to go get our bags then recheck them.
So after calming Sam down a bit in the VIP lounge and getting free lunch and drinks, we headed to the Taca costumer service to tell them how much they suck and how incompetent their workers are. We also checked to make sure Sheridan and my bag was ready to go to Buenos Aires because we never actually saw them.
What came out of Sam's rant about how much Taca sucks, was $200 gift vouchers for Taca flights... great... Avianca and Taca are Peruvian airlines... probably won't be able to use those. But whatever, we got VIP treatment and got drunk off of free drinks.
Actually, the VIP treatment was freaking awesome. We all relaxed and had a great time eating their food and using their massage chairs, wifi and computers. It would have sucked to wait all that time with the "normal people" :)
We were having so much fun that we were actually kind of upset when we had to leave to catch our flight.
We got into BA around 6 (couldn't sleep a wink on the flight) and I didn't get home until 7:30am... I had a 9am Spanish class... are you fucking kidding me?
But alas, I am a great student and took a half hour nap, got up and headed to class. I was actually a zombie for the entire day but I had class until 7:30pm... worst day ever.
However, my Peruvian vacation was awesome and I wouldn't replace it for the world.
No comments:
Post a Comment