Marian Johns' Journal of the Desert Explorers trip to
Peru in 2002
Images by John Page unless otherwise noted
Day 1, Wednesday, September 4
LAX to Lima See Map
Sept. 4, Wednesday - The big day has finally arrived. Up at the ungodly hour of 2:45 a.m. Neal, the stubborn old fart, refuses to go, claiming he isn’t up to such an ambitious trip. So my cousin, Charlayne Horton, is going and will share hotel rooms with me. She took Amtrak from Merced to Bakersfield and then the Amtrak bus from Bakersfield to L.A. Strange it doesn’t go all the way to L.A. Lorene Crawford came over to our house last evening and stayed in one of our spare bedrooms. She is also going to Peru, so Neal took us in her 4Runner to the airport, dropped us off, and then drove her car home. He will also pick us up when we return home.
We were supposed to be at LAX two hours before the flight, but we managed to get there an hour early because traffic was so light at that time of day. Check in didn’t take as long as expected, so we had time to twiddle our thumbs. Assembled there at LAX were Chuck and Kathy Mitchell, John and Joann Kosharek, John Page, Lorene, Charlayne, Reda Anderson, and myself.
Our flight on American Airlines went to Lima via Miami. There in Miami, with an hour layover, we were joined by Lorene’s daughter, Mary Crawford, and her husband, John Hunt; they flew down from Jacksonville, Florida. Mary, with the rank of Commander, just recently retired from the Navy.
Both flights were uneventful – thankfully. Arrived in Lima about 10:00 p.m. – about half an hour late, but the Hostal Residencial Victor, where we are staying sent two vans to meet us. That was a relief – not having to call or arrange for enough cabs to get us all to the hotel. One of the hotel vans had to return to the airport again a little later to pick up Washington State resident, Paul Ferry, who came in on a flight from Vancouver, B.C. Customs at the Lima airport was not a problem.
So now, we are twelve travelers total. Instead of relying on a commercial tour, we have planned our own trip, created our own itinerary, and reserved hotels on our own. We have also reserved three 4x4 double-cab rental pickup trucks which we intend to drive all over Peru to see archaeological sites, museums, cities, towns, villages and the extraordinary scenery.
As the so-called leader of this venture I bought five guide books and then scoured them for information about not-to-be-missed sights, car rentals, road conditions, mileages, travel time, hotels, health issues, preventing altitude sickness, money, security, etc., etc. Using this information, I worked up an itinerary that lengthened into a three week proposition. Still, three weeks didn’t allow enough time to see much of northern Peru. So, four of us (Paul, John Page, Reda and I) have opted for an additional week. Even though I am the trip leader, we will be relying heavily on Kathy Mitchell because she speaks fluent Spanish. She took on the arduous task of phoning all of the hotels to make reservations. And she also made the reservations for the three trucks after calling and comparing four rental companies. Now that we are actually here in Peru, she will be our chief communicator. Thanks to the men of this group, emergency tools, a first aid kit, and GMRS radios for inter-vehicle communication were brought from home.