I have completed the first leg of my four-part journey home! Yesterday was a wonderful last day in Cusco. Laura, Brenna, and I did some MORE shopping (I know...as if such a thing could possibly be necessary!), and I got all of the final items I "needed," mostly gifts. I was very tempted to buy myself three particular items, namely a GORGEOUS yellow scarf that I saw in an artisan market, a new handbag, and a highly beaded hat (modeled below for your viewing pleasure!). Luckily (I think?), I resisted all said purchases and focused only on gifts.
After a brief dinner and internet break, Laura, Bren, and I reconvened in the plaza for a rather awesome noche. Every day, tourists walking through Cusco are greeted by a veritable chorus of women asking, "Masaje, senorita? Pedicure? Manicure? Waxing?" It had gotten to the point where it was just too difficult to keep saying no to treatments that would cost at least three times what these women were asking us to pay...so I convinced Laura and Brennan to say "yes." And so we found ourselves in a little massage room over top of one of the restaurants on Cusco's Plaza de Armas, preparing for a little beauty treatment. The whole experience was most enjoyable because the women who worked at the salon were super nice and funny, and though the three of us were separated by curtains, we decided not to pull them past our faces so that we could look at each other and chat and giggle throughout the whole experience. We emerged super pleased with our beauty bargain! After a sad goodbye with Brennan and the rest of the interns, whom we visited briefly at a bar off the plaza, Laura and I headed back to our apartamento for our final night as roommates!
Laura and I didn't have a teary goodbye, mainly because we know that we'll be seeing each other fairly soon when I go to the JMU Study Abroad fair in two months or so. It will definitely be weird, though, when I go to sleep the next few nights without hearing "Buenas noches, Sarita!" from my dear and lovely roommate! I'm glad to know that she and I will remain friends for mucho tiempo!
This morning, I woke up at the early hour of 5:30 AM and took a taxi to the airport, where I boarded my Peruvian Airlines plane to Peru with no fuss or frustration of any sort. I sat next to a handsome gent whom I briefly thought about attempting to seduce until I decided that sleep was more important. :-) Upon arrival in Lima, I took in a nice, gigantic breath of sea level air! I'm pretty sure that I could run two--maybe three--marathons right now with this new presence of oxygen. I'm also already feeling a pretty serious urge to bake something and watch it rise without any complications! What bliss!
Aware of the 15+ hours ahead of me in the Lima airport, I decided to investigate whether there might be a way for me to get myself onto an earlier flight somehow, and ultimately to manage an earlier arrival into Newark. This proved a rather complicated effort, and resulted in my being led to the Copa Airlines office, where I sat for a while while three intelligent airline representatives attempted to figure out whether my request might be possible. After much time spent in deliberation, they determined that it would be feasible for me to get on a flight leaving Lima at 1:58 PM (instead of my previously arranged 3:04 AM departure the following morning). Unfortunately, they waited until the end to tell me that this change would cost me a whopping $229. Luckily for me, I was able to whip out my Copa Airlines $300 voucher, earned after having been bumped on my way here, and they told me that I could use the voucher to pay for the change. I was pretty excited about all this, and I began to proceed with my bags down to the check-in to board my new flight. As I was walking toward the elevator, however, I Was stopped by one of the other Copa representatives, who told me that his colleague needed to speak to me again. I returned to the office, where she regretfully informed me that the flight had just sold its final seat. No more space for Sarah.
Since I hadn't exactly expected to have great success in my flight change attempts, I haven't been too super bummed by this news. I have come up with a number of lovely ways in which to occupy my time in Lima, which include responding to e-mails, blogging to all of you(!), looking up great recipes to try, reading, doing a bit of ProWorld work, and, once ProWorld intern Natalie arrives here for her layover, getting myself a nice little Peruvian massage with her using my remaining soles! Can't really complain about that!
Before commencing any of the above listed activities, though, I should mention that I went to an overpriced cafe called 4D and bought myself one of the best ice cream experiences of my life to date. I think it may actually have been a gelato experience, but whatever it was, it was BLISS. Worth visiting the Lima airport just to eat the gelato. I got myself a medium cup of the stuff, which allowed me to choose three flavors, so I had some sort of chocolate hazelnut awesomeness thing, some cookies and cream, and a reeeally delicious coconut. I am now quite satiated and quite pleased about it! It was my first truly high quality frozen dessert experience in Peru, and I shan't soon forget it!
I am now off to station myself at another cafe so that I don't become a mooch in any particular location. I don't know what exactly will be the future, if any, of this blog now that my Peru experience has come to its near end, but I have realized that I very much enjoy blogging for "sport," and I'm contemplating the start of some sort of themed blog relevant to food and love and quotes and music and all the things that I adore most. I shall do my best to deliver something of quality when the time comes for this blog to be born.
If you've been reading this chronicle from the very beginning, thank you so much for your continuous loyalty and prayers and encouragement and interest! I am so very blessed to have so many dear friends who care about me enough to read through my rambles and provide me with the support that has meant so much over the last few months!
What an experience it has been! And yes, Machu Picchu. It has been OH so nice to meet you. :-)
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