Dalama Adventures Tale of two corporate types ditching their jobs and traveling the world for 14 months... check out all photos, blogs & interesting tid bits at http://www.dalama.net

pWe spent the bulk of our day in the airport today. Upon arrival, we are greeted with a long line of unhappy passengers and a five hour delay for our flight. The LAN Peru rep says that all flights into Lima have been delayed for weeks now, apparently an incoming plane had difficulty landing and took a chunk of the tarmac with it, closing off part of the available landing space. It would have been nice, when I reconfirmed our flights, to have been told of the change of departure time, but as we've learned on this trip, transportation delays of days are quite common, on all modes of transportation, and we've learned to just roll with the inconveniences... something a lot easier to do when we're not on a limited 2-week corporate vacation! We're mastering the skills of patience and restraint. I'm actually entertained by the business men in line in front of me, one from Argentina and one from Chile, who are weighing themselves on the baggage scale. In Spanish, they explain that they've had a successful trip, eaten well, and that they baggage scale verifies this point for them. I tell them there's no way I'd step on the scale, as we've been eating constantly and not working out for ten months. They, as others have been, are intrigued to meet Americans who have stepped off the corporate treadmill and are actually out seeing the way others live. They strongly advised me not to even think about reentry into the work world, until the end of the trip. Their motto is that time off is to enjoy the moment and not to stress about the future, as the future will be here faster than we realize. I completely understand, as we can't believe ten months have gone by. I thank them for their words of wisdom and tips for traveling in their countries, and part ways - they are off to the comfortable first class lounge for the next 7 hours, and Darrin and I off to our 7 hours of hard benches to await boarding.

We land smoothly in Lima and find our hostal driver from the "Flying Dog Hostel" awaiting our arrival outside immigration and customs. We are whisked off through the sea of touts to our van, and into the dark night through sketchy streets and desolate waterfront road. The thought sticks in our mind, "is this a real driver, or a fake one just holding a sign duplicated with our names and the hostal logo, ready to prey on the fresh foreign meat arriving at the airport?" Yes, we're overly paranoid, the mugging still freshly imbedded in our minds. But 30 minutes later we arrive the Mirflores District, the very well kept tourist area of Lima, and crash out in our room immediately.