Flights and Arrival

The ride up to Toronto to the Pearson Int’l airport was uneventful. I do have to say the Toronto Airport is incredibly advanced! I got through Canadian TSA no problem, although the girl in front of me (going to Lima too!) got stopped for a bunch of questionable items. There’s hundreds of outlets at the gates to be able to charge devices and also tablets that are free to use for anyone. Also, the Tim Horton’s coffee was extremely cheap at the airport. I exchanged some money for the Peruvian Sol at the airport so I have some when I get to Peru. After we first boarded the plane, they de-planed us and delayed us for two hours while they waited for a part to fly in from Montreal. They gave us $15 to eat food in the airport which led me to another iced capp, six cookies and a sandwich. However, I spent my wait reading through some of my old North American Windpower Magazines I’ve been meaning to read! Someone fell asleep before it was announced we had to de-plane and woke up thinking he was already in Peru when everyone was unloading.

We arrived at the Lima airport at 3:30am! I met a really nice lady sitting next to me who helped me navigate through the Lima airport. She was a godsend for me because my Spanish is pretty rough. Luckily most of the flight attendants spoke English and Spanish. But this lady translated directions for my connection flight to me from the one worker in the airport. She’s originally from Peru, but is now a citizen of Canada for the last 20 years. It was nice having someone share their knowledge of Peru with me on an anxious flight.

Arriving in Lima was warmer than expected! I was definitely overdressed after escaping the tundra in Toronto. I made it to my connection to Trujillo and that too was delayed, but they didn’t give us a reason. I think it was due to the fact that the original flight wasn’t unloaded yet. I slept the whole way from Lima to Trujillo, a measly 50 minutes of airtime, but a much needed nap after about 4 hours of interrupted sleep from Toronto to Lima. I arrived in Trujillo at about 9am and we were unloaded onto the tarmac to go claim our luggage. I met Nick, one of the volunteer coordinators, outside the airport and got a quick tour of Trujillo on the way to the Volunteer house, where I write to you from now.

This place is so awesome and I can’t want to meet the rest of the volunteers and get started! There's 11 other volunteers and most of them are female! This is going to be an incredible experience!!