Dave and I arrived in Lima this morning, 30 minutes late but still an hour before our next flight, and ran to check in at the Lan counter for our flight to Cusco. As we were running we heard a boarding call for our flight over the airport PA, which seemed strange, until we learned that our flight had been moved up by 35 minutes and we hadn't been informed. We were denied check in as the flight was already in the boarding stage and, despite my pleas ("we don't have any luggage to check"), it was too late. Add to this the fact that the next flight to Cusco doesn't leave Lima until 5am tomorrow morning, and I felt a little like I was in an episode of the Amazing Race, rushing to other airline counters, desperate to find a flight leaving today, all to no avail.
Fortunately, everyone here in Peru has been very amenable to our situation. Our hotel in Lima, which wasn't expecting us until Tuesday night when we just showed up this afternoon without a call ahead, let us change our stay to tonight, and the hotel in Cusco was very sympathetic when I called them and they are allowing us to move around our reservation as well. And, the airline changed our ticket at no extra charge. We are confirmed on a 10am flight out of Lima tomorrow but we are going to show up at the airport at 4am to try to fly stand by on the 5am flight, in which case we might make our train to Machu Picchu tomorrow as planned. If we don't, then we'll have to move around our hotel in Aguas Calientes and delay our departure to Machu Picchu for a day, but we will not lose any time at the ruins, as we were able to change our return flight home to accomodate for the fact that we are spending one night in Lima at the start of our trip instead of at the end.
On the bright side, if our day at Machu Picchu gets moved, I have a much better chance of seeing the Superbowl as we'll be in Cusco where gringo bars abound. This is the only thought that got me through this morning, standing in numerous lines at Lima airport, wanting to curse someone, anyone, for the chain of events.
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