Doing the Right Thing is Never Wrong
Standing at the Peruvian Airlines information counter at Lima airport, I couldn’t quite believe how I had come to find myself in this predicament. I’d checked in for my flight on time, a full two hours before the scheduled departure to Ecuador, and I’d certainly made it to the departure lounge on time. I’d given my full attention to all the announcements and updates about how my flight was delayed; how it would be leaving at eight o’clock, then nine o’clock and finally ten-thirty – only to somehow, and to this day I still cannot fathom how, miss it. So now I had to get my ticket re-issued for Saturday’s flight and spend another night in Lima. People who know Lima will appreciate that the situation contained very few positives. However, I was not alone in my misery because a Mexican girl, also bound for Ecuador, had contrived to make the same mistake, and she too was faced with an extended stay in the Peruvian capital.
We shared a taxi back into the city and found a couple of rooms in a cheap hotel. My new friend – an archaeology student – then recommended a trip to the National Museum, so we spent the afternoon inspecting, as far as I remember, a seemingly infinite collection of badly-lit Inca pottery. When the museum closed, we walked along the cliff-top path overlooking a rather murky Pacific Ocean, and enjoyed a seafood feast in the fading evening light. Dining with a native Spanish speaker conveniently removed the usual barriers posed by monolingual menus and opened up a range of culinary possibilities I had never previously experienced. In fact, the evening was delightful until the point at which my companion – and I must admit I can no longer recall her name – realized that her passport was missing.
We immediately called the Mexican Embassy, who advised that a police report would be required before they could issue a replacement. The worst news, however, was that nothing at all could be done until Monday, and it would then take a further two days to issue a new travel document. My friend would have to re-arrange her flight, and spend another six days in Peru. And her immediate problem was that she only had $20 and no means of finding any more until she reached her friends in Ecuador.
Doing the Right Thing is Never Wrong
Standing at the Peruvian Airlines information counter at Lima airport, I couldn’t quite believe how I had come to find myself in this predicament. I’d checked in for my flight on time, a full two hours before the scheduled departure to Ecuador, and I’d certainly made it to the departure lounge on time. I’d given my full attention to all the announcements and updates about how my flight was delayed; how it would be leaving at eight o’clock, then nine o’clock and finally ten-thirty – only to somehow, and to this day I still cannot fathom how, miss it. So now I had to get my ticket re-issued for Saturday’s flight and spend another night in Lima. People who know Lima will appreciate that the situation contained very few positives. However, I was not alone in my misery because a Mexican girl, also bound for Ecuador, had contrived to make the same mistake, and she too was faced with an extended stay in the Peruvian capital.
We shared a taxi back into the city and found a couple of rooms in a cheap hotel. My new friend – an archaeology student – then recommended a trip to the National Museum, so we spent the afternoon inspecting, as far as I remember, a seemingly infinite collection of badly-lit Inca pottery. When the museum closed, we walked along the cliff-top path overlooking a rather murky Pacific Ocean, and enjoyed a seafood feast in the fading evening light. Dining with a native Spanish speaker conveniently removed the usual barriers posed by monolingual menus and opened up a range of culinary possibilities I had never previously experienced. In fact, the evening was delightful until the point at which my companion – and I must admit I can no longer recall her name – realized that her passport was missing.
We immediately called the Mexican Embassy, who advised that a police report would be required before they could issue a replacement. The worst news, however, was that nothing at all could be done until Monday, and it would then take a further two days to issue a new travel document. My friend would have to re-arrange her flight, and spend another six days in Peru. And her immediate problem was that she only had $20 and no means of finding any more until she reached her friends in Ecuador.
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