Ryan and I slept pretty late, until almost 7, laid around and met the other 3 girls for breakfast around 8. Betina left her ipod in the jacket she gave me, so I ran up to get it and we said goodbye to Betina and Martine, as they were leaving for another GAP trip to Costa Rica. We used some internet, and I tried to look up tickets to Disneyland, and Ryan checked on washers and dryers at Best Buy. We didn't see Chenine so I hoped we'd run into her before we left to say goodbye. We left the hotel and braved the crazy Lima streets to walk to the corner gas station to buy some water, and hit up the Dunkin' Donuts. We bought a half dozen donuts for only 13.90 soles and they came in a Feliz Naviddad box! Back to the hotel and I ate a donut and Ryan ate 3, but there are 2 left. I asked at the front desk and they're going to have a taxi ready to take us to the airport at 11:30. I figure that will get us there in plenty of time for a 2:30 flight.
We watched more TV and during an episode of Grey's Anatomy we started packing up all our stuff. I decided to eat one more donut which meant Ryan finished the last one and my belly was full of donut. Ryan thought he lost his credit card and his cash for the departure tax, so he unpacked his bag to find it, but didn't, and that took until 11:30. Downstairs we went and the cab driver was waiting for us. It was only $20 for the ride, which I didn't think was bad. The driver was crazy, at one point he must've decided it was too slow to wait for a light to change (it must've been the only light on this street) so he drove into the opposite lanes of traffic and into the intersection ahead of all the other cars! We still made it to the airport just after 12:00, showed our passports to get inside, and waited in line at the COPA counter.
They are SLOW! I don't know what the 12 people behind the counter are for, but they certainly don't seem to have any sense of urgency. It took us about an hour to check in for our flight (there were probably only oh, 7 people ahead of us in line this whole time!) but we did manage to get seats next to each other on both flights. We could pay the departure tax at the ticket counter so all we had to do was get to the gate. We decided to stop at a Papa Johns for pizza before we got on board because I was hungry and not sure about what we'd be served. Again, SLOW. It probably took 40 minutes to get 2 personal pizzas and 2 sodas. But it was only the equivalent of $8. We stopped at an airport gift shop and I spent the rest of the soles I had, and we boarded our flight to Panama City ontime.
The flight was pretty uneventful. We got pretzels, and chicken with potatoes and rice and chocolate cake. There was a movie, Mama Mia, which I can say was awful. I watched the whole thing but Ryan declined. I think he might've slept some instead.
Our layover in Panama City was short, only an hour, so we walked around the airport a little, its much bigger and busier than Lima is, and then had to go through extra security to board the flight to LAX. They went through our bags, and made me take off my shoes, although I think they were mostly just checking for liquids since that's required in the US.
This flight was longer. About 7 hours. There were 2 movies this time, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2, and Fred Klaus. I watched the first and slept through the second. Both Ryan and I dozed and prayed for the flight to be over soon. It actually went pretty fast, we'd just been traveling so long we were ready to be home! The lights of Southern California came up, and we could see the moon reflected in the ocean out the plane window. We landed early, I got to use my phone!! and texted Shirlene so she knew we landed.
We made it through customs, baggage, and immigration with no problem and barely had to wait at all and Shirlene and the tC were there for us! We debated about sleeping at Shirlene's and getting up early to drive to San Diego, but we decided just to go for it and finish the drive the same night. We got the Fusion from Santa Monica, used Shirlene's bathroom, said Hi and Bye to here and were off down the 405.
Okay so we thought we were awake but I really wished Ryan still lived in Oceanside because I was fighting to stay awake. We got home about 2, and I crashed into bed, not unpacking a thing, while Ryan ate some nuts and then came to sleep as well. Finally, home!
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