Peru 3: On the Go

Peru Day 1: Traveling I had spent the night before packing, watching Julie and Julia and playing Words with Friends. That is my travel ritual... stay up all night so that I can pass out on the plane.  As the plane started to hum with sounds of circulating air and people settling into their seats, I sunk into my slightly comfortable window seat.  Young man, strangely energetic at eight in the morning, sat next to me, eagerly chatting up the woman in the aisle seat.  As I closed my eyes, anxious to get my 25 hours of traveling started, I caught a glimpse of clusters clouds formed in the sky.  It was breathtaking....

I snapped the pictures shown above and tried to pass out. Unfortunately the young man next to me caught on to my interest in photography and the beautiful landscapes we would be flying over. He proceeded to chat off my ear about flying while I tried politely to yawn and tilt my head towards my pillow, punctuating how tired I was. Finally he diverted his attention to the other woman who was sitting in the aisle. At that time we were in still flying over the Bay Area, so to my surprise, I was rudely awaken by this young man to see the Rocky Mountains, which according to him I'd "regret if I never saw them from the air" (even though I've seen from the air). I patronized him, shooting the picture below, then quickly mumble some incoherent words and fell back in deep sleep.

Much to my surprise, the young man woke me again. Mind you, I was exhausted since I hadn't slept before, so even though only a half hour must have passed between each of these incidences, I had most definitely hit REM each time. This time he woke me up for breakfast, which, even though I was grateful for, I experienced in an unconscious half-awake/half-asleep state. Again, I snapped some pictures of the landscapes below. I was lucky this time, as breakfast perfectly coincided with the Grand Canyon.

I love to travel, but sometimes being on a plane for so long gets exhausting. The young man I sat next to was kind, but I would have loved to have slept uninterrupted.