Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Saturday, June 25th, 2011

What a day. This morning I woke up to a phone call from Flor, the director at Qantu, telling me that things in Puno have gotten worse and people have been killed. She and Elena, the secretary had talked and agreed that they would help pay for part of my flight from Cusco to La Paz. So this morning for three hours I ran myself around Cusco searching for flights and bus tickets and ATMs that didn’t have a line half a block long. (Thank you Banco de la Nacion for costing me another taxi ride.) So this was my morning:

1st: I went to Aero Sur to see if there was a flight open on Sunday. Nope. Booked full. There was the possibility (but only the possibility) of a flight opening up on Tuesday to La Paz but she wouldn’t know until tomorrow.

2nd: I went to LAN to see what their prices were. I should have known better. It was 585 bucks one way form Cusco to La Paz. Not happening.

3rd: I left and headed back to Aero Sur where I made my reservation for a flight back to Cusco from La Paz for $216.95.

4th: I made my way to the bus terminal (Thank you Jacob for lending me 5 soles since I only had large bills). I bought a ticket to Arquipa for tonight at 8pm. It will bring me to Arequipa in the morning and then I will hop on a bus to Tacna which is another 4 hours from Arequipa. From there I will take a combi across the border of Chile to Arica. I will most likely be spending the night in Arica before taking a bus on Tuesday morning direct from Arica to La Paz. It is going to be two days of travel to La Paz but I will make my flight on Wednesday to Buenos Aires.

5th: Went home to get my passport and violin because I had students after work at Pasta Mama.

6th: Went to Banco de la Nacion to withdrawl money from Marco’s account (because he rocks and is lending me money for the return flight) but the line was half a block long. Instead of being smart and just walking to the other cajero down the street near the post office, I thought it would be better to go to the one near my old house. Another taxi and a little wait in line later, I withdrew the money I needed and headed back to Aero Sur to buy my return flight.

7th: I walked to Pasta Mama to work the afternoon.

8th: I gave one student a lesson and proceeded to call the rest of my Monday students to let them know that there wouldn’t be any classes on Monday and to see if any of them could recuperate classes tomorrow. Fortunately, 2 of them can. I am going to have a bunch of classes to recuperate when I get back but it’s doable and while it will be hectic, I HAVE to get to Buenos Aires, no matter how broke it makes me! I will survive and I know it will be worth it.

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