A delay and continuing lessons on travel and life

Marc here. It´s been quite a 24 hours, full of frustration, even as our family does, indeed, understand the challenges of travel. We begin last night, when we needed to change hotels in Cusco due to a booking error from months ago. As it turned out, the new hotel was just terrible...30 degrees outside with no heat in old rooms with windows that brought in the chill. A location far up the hill that lots of hiking at 12,000 feet just to get back and forth. A 6 am departure this morning only to learn that there would be no breakfast for us because we didn´t request it 24 hours in advance (we only arrived 15 hours in advance!). Neither toilet flushed properly, it took 20 minutes to prep our "free drink" and the list goes on. We couldn´t wait to get out and get to the warmth of Costa Rica. With plenty of time to wait in the long lines of Cusco airport, we experienced a truly surrealistic moment when the agent told us, in plain and simple terms, that we would be denied boarding the flight from lima to costa rica because we had not carried a yellow immunization card that showed we had shots against yellow fever. Of course, we got the cards 4 years ago for our trip to Africa but nowhere in anything were we told that we needed to bring it... Strategy sessions begin with Marci and me. We decide we got a bad agent and when we get to Lima (with a 70 minute layover on a flight thats already 30 minutes late), we were somehow going to retrieve our suitcases, hurry to the ticket counter, get the boarding passes from an agent that doesn´t care, and make the flight. We land, make it to baggage claim, and our angel appeared, an airline agent with a walkie talkie working to get us processed through the system. HE would claim our bags. HE would issue the same claim number for the new flight and he advised us to move quickly to the VIP line at line 1 upstairs. Off we went, quietly celebrating. The new (nice) ticket agent is typing away as fast as he can, telling us how to move through customs quickly, to make our flight. Boarding passes are printing as she and the other agent say ¨"of course you have your yellow cards." Stop the printer. That ended it right there. We were told, in no uncertain terms, that we were not getting on that plane, that if we did, they would hold us in the international arrivals space until deporting us back to Peru. Ouch. With that, a Peruvian man appeared, asking if we were the Dollingers. The Cusco agent from our travel company (Yeah for Monogram Tours) in Cusco called him. He drove to the airport to help. And, yes, his name really is Angel. We learned that we needed a photocopy of our yellow card. we would bring this to the hospital clinic, and they would issue a new card for us to fly. And here´s how it went: -we called (at $2 a minute), the 3 people who have keys to our house. None were available for an immediate trek to get our documents from the house. The one that was (thanks Debbie Stadtner) didn´t have a key. We left somewhat frantic messages for Baruch Cohen, Ellen Levin, and Blanca, who cleans the house. -we went to Lacsa airlines to get on tomorrow´s flight. She said that since she didn´t issue the ticket, we´d had to go to Copa airlines. -we dashed to Copa airlines, waited in line, where they told us that Lacsa needs to change it. We disagreed. They sent us back to Lacsa anyway. -At Lacsa, they said we needed to call the travel agent who booked the ticket to sort it out. -We called travelocity ($2 minute, including hold time) only to be told that we had to go back to copa. -Back at copa, she called over a few lines to Lacsa (thank you!), only to learn that tomorrow is sold out and Sunday would require we pay a massive change fee. We told them it wasn´t our fault and we were denied boarding. She said its our responsibility to know the documents we needed and we would have to pay. -I called the Costa Rica tour company to tell them we would NOT be landing today and to get their help. they said they couldn´t help since it was our fault. I asked them if they knew about this rule. they said they never heard of the rule. I countered that if you didn´t know the rule, and this is your specialty (latindestinations.com, dare I say), then how should we? -we decide costa rica isn´t happening and we´ll go to florida, get on a last minute cruise, visit orlando, whatever. I call now to the copa telephone center (since, remarkably, the airport is not allowed to issue nor even price tickets). we learn that we would have to pay 4 one-way last minute tix, and then fight with the airlines and travel companies (or our travel insurance company) even as they all claim no responsibility since we were the ones without the documents. -we decide we´re going to costa rica to save money! -a new round of calls (I´ll spare you the details!) and we get a flight on lacsa in two days, no extra fees, and we´ll miss our time in the region with turtles. (can´t complain too much after the galapagos!). -meanwhile, the girls continue to sit patiently with our luggage in the international checkin area of the Lima airport. They were (and are) amazing! -next, we locate an office at the airport that books hotels (feeling a bit like snowden in the moscow airport!), then negotiate a taxi, then out of the airport. -.....five hours later!!! -loving the patience of the girls. -with adrenalin running, we just kept pushing in each of these directions, only occasionally expressing frustration with a travel professional for refusing to help, to show any sort of flexibility. (I think my line was "Hey, I´m stranded here with my family in the Peru airport so I´ve got my own challenges to deal with"). -and, then....the traffic...bumper to bumper...late friday afternoon of what we later learned was peruvian independence day weekend. -at one point, cones in the road closed off two lanes of the road, squeezing traffic to just 2 lanes. Frustration on top of frustration. -ALERT. NO READING THIS OUT LOUD TO YOUNG CHILDREN, PAMELA. I glanced out the window to see the cause of the traffic snarl...the motion-less body of a man who had apparently fallen from a pedestrian bridge overhead. I used my best spanish to ask the driver what he thought...he said ¨"bad" and I believe that he was dead. Fortunately, the girls were either sleeping or just dazed in the back seat and never looked to the left to see what was outside their window. -well, how about that for a little life perspective and lesson. As I mourned the loss of this man whom I had, of course, never met, and thought of his mom (he looked like he was in his 30s or 40s), I thought as well about the parents of Ethan, a boy struck by lightning at GUCI camp who is struggling to recover, then, of course, to Annais´death at Tawonga....in just a few seconds, all those hours of frustration, of $2 minute phone calls, of lost vacation days, took incredible focus. It was humbling and maturing in an instant. I certainly didn´t FEEL any better about it all at that point but I certainly KNEW I needed to take a few deep breathes and reposition myself. -when we arrived at the hotel, our room phone rang. it was that Monogram co. agent who went to the airport to help us. he gave us his cel phone, his office cell phone, and made sure we knew where and how to get our yellow form. and with this call from Angel, the tide turned. -the hotel offered to drop 20 percent from the room if we paid in cash :) -the little market next door turned out to be a mega supermarket. marci is very happy. -the atm across the street is from the only bank in latin america that doesn´t charge a fee to b of a customers. -the hotel offered a four course dinner for $12...because we missed three consecutive meals since cusco! -the clinic to get the document is just 4 blocks from the hotel. -angel will drive us to the airport sunday, even though its peru´s independence day. -ellen levin found our documents at the house, even though they weren´t in any of the places i thought they were, then she photographed them, then she went to kinkos to copy them, and just minutes ago, emailed them to us. thank you!!! You are a life saver! (And another angel watching over us.) we did tell the girls that while today was quite stressful, it would, some day, be a great story of our adventures. what a day it´s been and we hope yet another greater reflection on priorities, what they are and should be, and how it is these moments that are our greatest tests to keep things in proper perspective. (something marci does naturally, for me...a little more work.) we will update when we get the new yellow immunization cards. until then, time to sleep. Marc