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Morgan Goes to Peru: Part One

Hi friends! In case you’re wondering who the HECK I am, you can see my intro post here. And after you read that, you’ll understand why my first actual post on here is about my recent trip to Peru! I have lots of good info to share so we’re gonna break this up into a few different parts because I don’t wanna keep ya here forever. I know you’ve got things to do. Today’s post – all about getting to Peru and having to deal with rare travel anxiety.

Why Peru? Well, my travel partner-in-crime (Chandler) and I really wanted to go to Thailand. Yeah, I know, not even in South America, but plane tickets weren’t dropping below $1,000 and we were getting antsy. Amidst all this searching, Chandler found roundtrip plane tickets to Peru for $400. You can’t beat that friends, and being the spontaneous people we are, we booked them then and there and figured we’d end up at Machu Picchu somehow. (Pssst: we did make it to Machu Picchu)

Our flight left out of Dallas and unless I’m road-tripping with at least one other person, driving 4 hours sounds miserable. So I ended up trying out VonLane, a luxury bus that goes between the major cities of Texas and also has WiFi, and HOLY SMOKES it was the best decision I ever made (+ I was able to get several hours of freelance work done, which felt so good before leaving on a big trip.)

I’m going to preface this by saying I am NOT an anxious flyer. I take on any delays and change of plans like a champ and could seriously spend all day in an airport. But when we booked our flights, we booked with AeroMexico and the only time I have had a really bad experience with plane delays and not getting put on a new flight without having to pay is with them. So needless to say, I was definitely a little anxious. Our flight left Dallas on time and we were on schedule until we got to Mexico City (where our layover was) and we just kept circling in the air for 45 minutes. They finally came on the loud speaker and told us that there was a lot of traffic + bad weather and we needed to get more fuel so we were going to fly to Acapulco. ACAPULCO. And because of this little detour, we missed our connecting flight to Lima (where we then had another connecting flight to Cusco).

Cue: ANXIETY. The best way for me to handle travel anxiety (especially 36,000 feet up on the air) is:

  1. BREATHE. Take a few deep-belly breaths. Slow down my breathing.
  2. Trust the experts. Seriously, the pilots have gone through a lot of schooling and practice to do what they do.
  3. Always have a playlist that will calm me down. Nothing is worse than the chatter of everyone around you, especially when they are anxious too. Sometimes you just have to plug in your headphones and drown out all the noise.

When we finally made it to Mexico City and went through customs, we were directed towards a kiosk for people who had missed their connection. I was waiting for them to tell me that we would have to pay some ridiculous fee to not only get us to our destination but to keep our return flight tickets, but to my surprise they had two tickets waiting for us. They were for the next flight out in the morning (aka we got to have a sleepover in the airport) and the best part – they were first class tickets! Hellooooo six hour flight with reclining seats and a three course meal. AND we made it to Lima in time to get our connecting flight to Cusco, where we rested up for a 4:30am wake up call to begin our four day Incan trek to Machu Picchu… stay tuned for part two ;)

 

Have you been to South America before? If so, where? If not, where would you go first? I first went to South America for a study abroad trip in 2015, which is actually where I met Chan. And thank goodness I did because we’ve been to 14 cities in 7 countries together and she is THE best travel partner. #sothankful

13 comments

  1. OMG, I can’t wait to read about Macchu Picchu! It’s definitely on my List. 
    And although I’m generally not an anxious flyer, delays and big changes like that STRESS. ME. OUT. You guys got pretty luck with it, considering!

  2. Gotta check out Chile!! Patagonia + desert trips are on my list.

  3. I can’t wait to read more about your trip! What a crazy day but one that sounded as though it worked out for the best!

  4. Been waiting for a Peru post from you! Can’t wait to hear more soon (: I studied abroad in Ecuador and just confirmed that I’ll be going back for the month of January–so excited!!

  5. Wow- you totally lucked out with your travels! I wish every delay I had ended as well as yours! Looking forward to hearing about the rest of your trip!

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