Peruvacation Day 1: Travel

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Day 1 was mostly spent traveling - from Barranquilla to Bogota in the late morning (1.5 hour flight), followed by a several hour layover, and then a 3 hour flight from Bogota to Lima. After a mostly boring day, I got on the 2nd plane of the day, and discovered my seat was somehow in first class.

I have no idea how that happened - my first suspicion was that the check-in lady had bumped me up because I was a clueless gringo and she felt bad. But that story falls flat because I wasn't actually that clueless, since I've been living in South America for 5 months now, and my Spanish is actually kind of decent, but also, and more importantly, because when I booked my ticket I reserved the specific seat, so the seat I ended up in was the same one on the itinerary I had printed off ahead of time. But my ticket (and itinerary) said economy class, so I don't think I was paying for first class.

Anyway, it happened somehow. And it was great.

The seats were big and comfy.

There was some sort of buffer seat between me and the other guy in our row of 3. And there was, contrary to what the itinerary said (and probably contrary to what the lowly peasants got), dinner. And dinner was amazing. Here's what it looked like:

I wrote the exact description from the in-flight menu in my journal, but as you all know I lost it, but here's what I can remember: Lomo Saltado, a Peruvian dish of strips of marinated beef mixed with sauteed onions and peppers (which I would eventually decide is one of the best Peruvian dishes), accompanied by rice and potatoes, a truly delicious salad (from what I remember the deliciousness came from the dressing and those little cubes of cheese), fresh (well, okay, not fresh) fruit for dessert, a dinner roll, a personal oil bottle AND vinegar bottle for the salad, and a little chocolate at the end. Oh, and you might have noticed the FIVE pieces of cutlery. And finally, if you squint, you can see the glass of wine in the shadows on the right. This was on LAN, a Chilean airline, so of course the meal came with wine, and there was a choice of three, each one matched to one of the three meal options. These matches were made, according to the in-flight menu, but LAN's Master Sommelier, who was also referred to, I've just remembered, as "The Only Master Sommelier in South America". I don't know what it means to be a Master Sommelier, and how there can possibly be only one in all of South America, but it sounds impressive. (And the wine was delicious too, so I guess he nose what he's doing!!!!)

The other great thing about the flight was the music selection. There were around 10 radio stations, and the playlist for each one was printed in the in-flight magazine. Nothing particularly special there. But one radio station really stood out. "Radio Horizonte Chile" featured about 30 songs, and approximately half were from Indy Pitchfork-type bands. I wrote down the whole list in my journal, but again... okay, I'll shut up about the journal. Anyway, from what I remember, there was Vampire Weekend, Animal Collective, two Camera Obscura songs, Arcade Fire, and even Junior Boys, a fairly obscure Canadian band who I saw in Ottawa last summer at a show with about 200 people. In their HOME PROVINCE. What they were doing on a Chilean radio station, I have no idea. But it was great.

Arrival in Lima

Well, thanks for reading about day 1. I will really, truly, try to keep the trip journal updated on a daily basis from here on out, and if you want to read previous days' entries, you can always check down here at the bottom.

Previously:

The Preface