First, as we were going through immigration and having our passports stamped, I was called to the booth when it was my turn. For no apparent reason, when I went to set my passport on the counter, I also reached to move the stamp out of the way, though it was not really necessarily in the way. It might have been a move of delirium, as it was 5 am and I had had very little sleep due to the staying up and watching of Shrek 3 on the plane. Not a wise move on so many levels. The next unwise move was reaching for that stamp, because as quick as I had gotten into this country, I thought I was about to get thrown out. The clerk snatched the stamp out of my reach with one swift, abrupt manuever, and gave me a glare I have ne'er experienced. I raised my hands in submission and declared, "Lo siento amigo". Luckily no harm was done.
Next, we were walking from baggage claim to the customs check, we walked up to the this sort of doorway facade, and there was a button we had to push before we could walk through. I pushed the button and a light turned green, so I proceeded through the door, quite confused as to what the point of the whole thing was. It seemed perfectly reasonable that we could just walk through this arch, there wasn't much to the situation. It puzzled me for some time. As it turned out, it was a random screening facilitator. If the light turned red, you had to be pulled aside for extra screening. This is a good system, except of course in the case where you want to profile someone...
Lastly, and by far the best, was when we deboarded the plane in Cusco to be met by a barrage of taxi drivers all trying to take us to the Plaza de Armas. We agreed to go with a guy and his driver for 15 soles (roughly $5), and go with a guy and his driver is exactly what we did. We loaded up into a random car that in no way resembled a taxi, our large backpacks in the trunk. These cars were not big by the way. I jump up front with the driver, and Justin and Derrel into the back seat...the very small back seat. Then, suddenly, the other guy who was with the driver, arbitrarily crams into the back, pushing Justin, the biggest of all of us, into the middle of this tiny back seat. We drove the whole way into town with the guy talking non stop about going to stay at this other place he was promoting instead of the hostal we had already booked. We staved him off and got to our hostal, which ended up being the best move of the trip. We quickly came to find out that a cab ride from the airport should have only been about 5 soles, so we found out we were had, and proceeded to haggle every cabbie for the rest of the trip.
After, for some of us more than others, a long spell of traveling, we were ready to take it easy and call our first night in Cusco an early one.
Around 8 pm or so, Justin, Adrienne, and I found ourselves relaxing around one of the plastic lawn tables in the courtyard vestibule in the middle of the hostal, playing some version of a newly learned drinking game called beer hockey. You can already see where this is going; check in next post to find out what happened.
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