Peru 2019 : Airports and arrival

From the Arequipa airport you get a great view of Chachani,
the highest of the volcanic mountains that surround the city of Arequipa in southern Peru.

Monday, Dec. 31, 2018

We have arrived!

I don't want to see another airport anytime soon, that's for certain.

Our flight from Montreal to our first stop in Cancún, Mexico, lacked leg room but was smooth and on time. We had an 11-hour stopover there and hoped we would be able to make a quick trip to the beach for a first taste of winter sun, but pouring rain and no way to store our luggage put a damper – so to speak – on that plan. So after clearing Mexican immigration and customs and finding the shuttle to Terminal 2 we spent countless hours at the airport's Guacamole Grill nodding off, nibbling and killing time, then eventually checked in, passed security and spent four more hours nodding off, nibbling and killing yet more time.

We finally did leave Cancún and made it to Lima on a cramped, uneventful late-night flight again with approximately zero leg room during which Mia and I luckily managed to sleep. Shane and Wolf, however, were in the emergency exit row with seats that did not recline, and seats in front of them that did, so in addition to the zero leg room they had zero face room. They did not sleep. In Lima we waited more than six long, tension-filled hours for our flight to Arequipa. Once we finally made it to the departure lounge, at least Wolf and Shane could stretch out and get some sleep before boarding our final flight, an hour late but mercifully short, to Arequipa.

Wolf's three brothers live in Arequipa, where Wolf also grew up. With a population of about a million, Peru's second-largest city sits in a valley at 2,335 metres above sea level surrounded by huge volcanoes, of which you catch an awesome view as soon as you step off the plane. This being my 6th trip to Peru and 5th to Arequipa, the sights and sensations are instantly familiar and comforting. We arrived with a definite feeling we were coming back to something – even the kids, who were only 7 and 12 during our last visit six years ago. Of course it feels like coming home to Wolf, but Mia and Shane (now 13 and 18) both remarked that even the overpowering smell of car exhaust is strangely welcoming.

Wolf's brother Jorge (aka Coqui), with whom we are staying, met us at the airport and we all piled into two separate seatbeltless taxis (15 Soles each, for a total of about $12 CAD for both taxis) to his place in the neighbourhood of Cayma. It was an emotional reunion between brothers, who hadn't seen each other since their mother's funeral six years ago. 

Coqui and his wife, Sandra, whom we are meeting for the first time, just moved house over the last two days! They were supposed to be extending their lease at their previous house, but that fell through last-minute so they had to scramble to find a new home and get moved in between Christmas and now! And they did well. It's a great house: three storeys with three bedrooms, a bunch of bathrooms, two balconies and a tiny backyard space. It's typically Peruvian in that outside and inside integrate, with a skylight in the staircase and an extra room and bathroom accessible only from the third-floor back balcony. Probably these would have been maid's quarters once.

I'm making it all sound very extravagant, but in fact it's not. It's a middle-class house, nice but nothing fancy, furnished with Abuela's old furniture, in a middle-class neighbourhood.

All of this, of course, is gated and walled in behind barriers topped with broken glass and electric fencing, to keep potential thieves out. Because many people are nowhere near middle class, muggings, pickpockets and break-ins are a common occurence.

Now it is New Year's Eve and midnight will be here in a couple of hours. I have just awoken from a nap, but the kids are still asleep.

Outside, the fireworks have begun!

Our Arequipa home and front garden. Arequipa is dry and cactus-friendly.

Next: Arequipa welcomes our stomachs