Still standing tall after my earlier victory over the wicked Peruvian stewardess, I trekked on to Arequipa for the final two days of my trip. I found my hostal without a problem and went to bed hoping to wake up late in the morning fully rested. Instead, I woke up at six because the people next door were talking too loudly, but I felt pretty well rested and I really needed a bath after going to the islands so I got up and got ready. The hostal included a pretty decent breakfast with its 5 dollar boarding fee and I went out on foot to explore the city. I didn't know what there was there so I just walked around with my little tourist map. It turns out that basically all there is in Arequipa are a bunch of churches- all of them Catholic. I am not sure how big the city is, but there had to have been a pretty small ratio of churches to people. So I got bored really quickly and I won't try to give any details on what I saw. Let me just cut to the chase. I logged on to the LAN airlines sight to do my online check in. I looked at my itinerary to get my booking code when I noticed that instead of leaving the next day, Monday the 30th of April, I had a return flight Monday the 28th of May. So I start to freak out and try to call the airlines to get it changed but none of the phones would call the number (weird 800 number system here) so I get all my stuff together and just head off to the airport. It was about ten o'clock and I assumed there would be flights at that relatively normal hour. I was wrong. The airport was completely closed. I didn't even know that airports close, but I guess if there aren't any flight coming in or going out, then there is no reason to stay open. So I ask if I could just stay the night there and wait until the morning to change my ticket. They say that is fine so I go into the dark airport with my bags and I sit down in the lobby, which is nearly completely dark. There are a couple of security guards there and some other people that I didn't realize were there until they left the airport for the day. Around 11 more of the lights go out and I am left with only one security guy. He is friendly- and not in a dangerous way. Me, being the nerd that I am, is more worried about losing all the studying time I scheduled in for the night for my History of Art Midterm on Wednesday. So I am sitting in the very dark lobby, cutting out little copies of artwork and taping them to my notes. That took about an hour and a half and I couldn't even see the words well enough to read them, so I decide to try to sleep instead of study. So I lay down and fall asleep pretty easily. I wake up around 2:30 am and at that point I am nervous about getting a flight, so I am unable to go back to bed. I also notice how cold the room is so I put on some gloves and the wool hat I bought and layer on another shirt and pair of socks. Then I buy some hot chocolate out of this wonderful little automated coffee dispenser. The hot chocolate as so good. I think it was the best I ever had. So I was bored and I as still waiting for the LAN workers to come in around 3:30. I pull out my camera and start taking a bunch of photos (probably the hihlight of my entire trip! I liked the islands but this was a lot of fun too!). The workers come around eventually and I am able to get on a flight that leaves at 5:50 that first goes to Cusco and then to Lima. That sounded fine to me. The cashier lady told me it would cost thirty dollars to change my flight. So the trip that was turning out to be pretty cheap altogether, ended up just costing me the normal amount. I bet that stewardess put some hex on me as I got off the plane to mess with my flight.
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