stranded at the airport...

There have been times when I have flown standby that I have missed a flight and had to wait a few hours for the next one. There was even a time I was stranded in Atlanta on my way to Nashville, and my friend Aimee drove four hours to pick me up. I guess it's inevitable that I would eventually be stranded overnight. I just wasn't expecting it to be this time.

My flight was scheduled to depart from Lima at 1:20am. Knowing that a few hours at the airport would be devoted to the toilet, I arrived a bit (or rather, 4 hours) ahead of time. In Lima, standby works a bit differently and after waiting an hour on line, I was handed a piece of paper and told to come back an hour before the flight to check for available seats. The paper explained that flying standby out of Lima was tough due to weight limits on the airplane and that it is not uncommon to be stranded for weeks in Peru. Not too comforting since there was only one flight a day out of Lima.

After waiting three hours, the Delta employee stepped forward and called three names. None of which were my own. For some reason, I always have this faith inside of me that I am going to get onto the flight, so when my name wasn't mentioned, I had to make sure that I heard correctly. And I did.

I decided to spend the night at the airport, since taking a cab alone after midnight in Peru can be somewhat scary (there´s no way to disguise my blonde hair and backpack signaling that I´m a tourist). And honestly, I didn't know if I would be able to make it to a hostel without having to stop to use the bathroom on the way (at this point, my trips were fairly frequent).

Surprisingly there were a decent amount of backpackers lying out on the floor of the airport, so I rested my head on my backpack and gripping my bag tightly, I made myself at home. I learned that a backpack makes a comfy pillow and the airport floor never quite warms up to the temperature of a human body. I think I managed to sleep about three hours, before being woke up by crowds of people all around me. And now here I am, at the airport awaiting my next chance at getting on a flight at 1:20am. Wish me luck...