Inca Trail Marathon Adventure... Day Zero

We left home at 3:15 a.m., but figured the airport would be deserted. Not so! Apparently there are a lot of United flights that depart before 6:00 a.m. Who knew? But the lines moved relatively quickly and even with the lack of staff at security we managed to arrive at our gate just before boarding started. Guess one really does need to arrive 2.5 hours before your flight!

Arrived tired and sweaty in Lima after a long day of traveling. A few highlights:

- we had passes for the United Club in Houston, so we spent most of the time there, snacking on cheese and crackers and nursing whiskey and Cokes.

- while in line to board the flight for Lima, Wil and I played "spot our fellow travelers" (and were right in most cases!).

- the 767 we were on had individual screens loaded with a wide range of movies, tv, and movies -- we managed to watch three movies. (Muppets Most Wanted, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, and The Grand Budapest Hotel, for what it's worth.)

Wil and I had decided that we would go to the hotel bar and have an overpriced Pisco Sour for our first evening. So imagine our delight when we checked in and were handed vouchers for a free Pisco Sour in the bar! So we went upstairs to drop off our stuff, freshened up ever so slightly, and then went back down.

our first ever Pisco sours!

We perched on a table on our own, but then saw some other folks who we suspected were also on the trip, including Mark and Laurie (whom I had spotted at immigration and approached in the elevator... apparently I am now a stalker!), Debra and Belinda, Carol, and a couple of others, so we joined them. Photos from the night also reveal that Annie and Andy were there at the bar, too. Funny to look back at the earliest photos -- like our picture from the waiting room for the Alaska Marathon Cruise!

We ordered a second round -- the first round had gone down quite easily, you see -- and these ones were both bigger and stronger. A mistake? Maybe. But we did sleep very, very well.

view from our room -- it's the airport parking lots