Day 1; Thursday April 1, 2010

Our Trip to Peru started at 9 a.m. from our residence in Yorktown, VA. We were driving to and departing from Dulles / Regan Airport in Washington DC. The drive was approximately 2 ½ hours and pretty uneventful except for a car that lost its tire and was rolling down Interstate 95, thankfully no one was hurt. This was our first trip to Dulles Airport and was not an easy navigation to get to the parking garage. Our GPS system malfunctioned and advised us to get off I-95 two exits early just to have us make "the next legal U-turn” and get right back on I-95. It also had us driving in Iceland. I was thinking ahead so I printed off the directions from Map Quest; sweet move on my part. The economy lot (long-term parking) was full so we had to park in the daily garage; I knew this would end up costing big $. Once we got inside the terminal I went to Brookstone to purchase two additional TSA locks for our suitcase; cost for the locks was $20. I didn’t know this, but if you use TSA locks on your luggage you don’t have to unlock your bags before checking them for screening because the TSA agents have a special key to unlock any TSA locks; don’t know if that’s good or bad, but who cares, I checked it in anyway. The check-in was smooth at the American Airline counter. I was told by the ticket agent that our baggage was checked in all the way to Cusco, Peru, so I hope they get there! The flight from Dulles to Miami was about 2 ½ hours with no problems. The layover in Miami was long. We arrived at 7:30 p.m. and our departure was at 11:55 p.m. Dinner in the airport was at Fuddruckers. Our flight was delayed 1 hour until 1 a.m. The real reason for the delay was Lima doesn't change their clocks for daylight savings time, so in actuality we arrived in Lima at our scheduled time and LAN Airline stayed on schedule. Several other groups of Americans were also waiting at the gate to board this flight to Lima.