local band at Juliaca AirportWe dropped our dog off at my mom’s house and headed to the airport Tuesday night. The airline had instructed us to be there 3 hours before our 1:30 am flight, but we were excited, and early. Arriving at SFO at 9:30 we walked up to a non existent line at Taca Air and whipped thru the check in process. I am proud to say that our two checked bags weighed only 33 and 23 pounds! Next we were off to the security checkpoint, again, empty. So by 10 pm we were at our gate, hmmm, now what? We managed to kill the 3 1/2 hour wait by me reading, and in Grant’s case, talking to everyone who sat within a 30 foot radius of us. I did chat with a nice Aussie lady and her mom, she was a dog person who knew a bit about guide dogs in general and had been to the school I was at in Australia.
We finally boarded our plane and I had to agree with Grant’s assessment that the Airbus -A320 plane sucks. It was a full flight and we got stuck on the row before the emergency exit, which means you can’t lean your seat back. The worst part was the heat. I turned my little air vent on as high as it would go and it spit a bit of warm air on me. Uh oh, this could be bad, even though I had taken the requisite Dramamine and I had on the acupressure wristbands designed to prevent motion sickness, I was not feeling so good. Sure enough, after wallowing in misery for 3 of the 6 hours I was reaching for the air sick bag. The post sickness relief surge steadied my stomach until just as we landed in El Salvador when I had to use the bag again while we taxied to our gate, how humiliating! Once we got off the plane I immediately felt better. We only saw El Salvador from the air but it looked beautiful, lush green vegetation and sugar cane fields butting up against a beautiful relatively undeveloped shoreline. It was humid and warm.
After a short layover we boarded yet another Airbus - A320, and with some trepidation headed for our seats. Ahh, the emergency exit row! Extra legroom and seats that recline, along with cool air from the vent, we were in heaven. This 4 hour flight was opposite from the last thank goodness. I felt great, ate breakfast, read my book, had a cocktail, then slept, hooray!
We arrived in Lima around 2pm local time which is 2 hours ahead of California time. A nice guy from Adventure Travel picked us up and drove us to our hotel. Lima is like many other large South American cities, lots of cars driving fast with drivers liberally using their horns, pedestrians jaywalking, and a lack of obvious intersection controls combined with many multi lane roundabouts which always scare me not matter what country they're in. Thank goodness I didn’t have to drive!
Our hotel was in the “Miraflores” district with is south of the airport and city center near the coast. It was a nice hotel, small, but with excellent service and food. After dinner we didn’t have the energy to go out and explore so we went to bed early and slept for the next 12 hours!
We've used Adventure Life for several trips in the past and have always been very pleased with them. The staff is personable and professional at the same time. Erin put this trip together for us in just a few days, and it has everything we were looking for! I recommend them without hesitation.
benn
1 month ago
I served as the person responsible for planning a trip to Galapagos and Machu Picchu for a group of 14 people. Jane with Adventure Life was very helpful throughout the process. Making suggestions, offering insight, and in the end helped me overhaul an initial plan into something even better. Also, Jane makes all the plans including the flights within and between Peru and Ecuador. Thanks to her this is going to be a stress-free adventure. After making the final decision about the trip, Jane gathered the contact information for all the travelers and sent out the details to each traveler individually with links to pay deposits, upload passport info, and personal preferences. She also ensured a group email was sent out to the entire group welcoming us to the trip preparation process. Our trip is a year from now and we are excited to make this once in a life time trek. I am happy to have organized things through Adventure Life. However, two small issues came up that were a little off putting. First, Adventure Life adds $50 per person to the cost for each traveler as a donation to a Galapagos conservation fund. I think this should he offered as something that can be added at each traveler’s discretion. Instead, it is automatically added, and each person must ask to have it removed if they do not want it included. Second, although the trip deposit may be paid with a credit card without incurring an additional fee, the balance must be paid in another way to avoid a 3% credit card fee. Maybe this is standard with all travel agencies. In the end I would definitely go through Adventure Life for the next big trip.
Brenda Nielsen
1 month ago
I think it was very helpful that Franny and I spoke on the phone. I think she had a better idea of what we were looking for, and she planned a great itinerary for us!
Elizabeth
2 months ago
My representative Kevin was very responsive generally and in crafting our itinerary to our specific priorities.
Rocco Labella
3 months ago
Easy.
Great work on the follow up and details by Waru.