the llama sweater. 

Kristen’s side of the story:

It all started with a llama sweater. I had been looking at these sweaters when I first arrived in Cusco, but they were all so pretty I couldn’t choose just one. Since we originally thought our trek was 4 days, not 5, we thought I would have a full day to explore the city and hunt down the perfect llama sweater. If you read my blog about our trek, you’ll know we had a lot of wrong ideas about it, including its length.
We arrived back to Cusco at 1am Saturday morning. I woke up at 7, ate breakfast, edited some pictures, and packed my bags. Ryan had a fever so he was still in bed at 9, when I told him I was going to buy a llama sweater. Our flight was at 12, so I was going to have a taxi pick us up at 10:15 and take us to the small local airport.

Ryan’s side of the story:

At 9:00 I got up and showered and got ready to go. Before Kristen left, she was VERY adamant that we needed to be out of the hostel in the taxi by 10:15, so I made sure to pack and be ready by then. 10:15 rolled around and she still wasn’t back. I started to get a little worried because she had said we needed to be on the road to the airport by then. At 10:30 when she still wasn’t back, I realized she had been kidnapped and i went out to look for her.

Kristen:

So I stopped at a bunch of little local stores, but I had a bunch of problems with them. After many stores claimed to accept visas and then told me at checkout that they only accepted cash, I finally found the perfect sweater, but the credit card reader wasn’t working! It was 10 at this point, but I had a few minutes before I was going to be late for our 10:15 taxi. Well, I ended up being about 10 (ok maybe 15) minutes late, and got back at 10:30. I called a taxi and went to help Ryan move his bags downstairs.

He wasn’t there.

I frantically search the hostel for him, and only his bags were there. We call the taxi anyway, and continue to look for him around the hostel. He didn’t return until 10:50, and we hopped in the taxi and left.

Ryan:

When I got back to the hostel, kristen had already moved all my bags down to the lobby, so the taxi driver helped us throw everything into the car and we left. When we got to the airport, we unloaded everything, and my backpack with all my clothes, along with my favorite baylor football hat, were nowhere to be found. She stayed at the airport to check in the bags we did have, while I rode back to the hostel with the taxi driver. He didn’t speak english, and I don’t speak spanish. I showed the driver an american $20 and told him it was his if he went pronto. He understood and we proceeded to “fast and furious” our way to the hostel.

Kristen:

I made my way into the airport, teary eyed and stressed, and asked for directions to check in. The man noticed I was distraught, and led me to the business class check in. Between him, the security guard, and the Avianca representative, they assured me that everything would work out. 11:20 came and went. 11:30 did, too. Finally, at 11:46, Ryan arrived. We all ran through security, and ran to the gate where our plane was being held for us. We boarded at 11:52, and arrived to Lima *practically* on time.

All in all, everything worked out. Huge shoutout to Aviance Airlines for their sky-high customer service. Next time,  I’ll make sure to give myself more time to shop before our flight. 🙂