16,000 Feet on a Friday: Part 1 of 3: Prepping for Peru

The massive Lake Titicaca as seen from a Brazilian airlines window. Half and hour later and we're still flying over it.

Oct 22, 2004 - PERU BOUND, 6am

I got no sleep last night.

For some reason, the shorter the trip, the longer it seems to take me to pack. I packed for my 7-week self-supported Mexico trip in Dec 2003, in 3 hours flat. My 6-week book tour, September 2004, took about a day. Packing for this 2 week Peru trip seemed to take all day and all night, and so rushed was I, making more posters and flyers for an upcoming talk in San Francisco, I did not even have a chance to read the pre-trip equipment list until I was on the plane heading south.

Ling took me to the airport, arriving at the door fresh as a daisy, as her schedule is 7am-3pm. I started to fade on the way out.

At the airport the bike in its suitcase weighed in at 53 lbs, not a problem as I was going internationally where the limit is 70 lbs per bag. But 53 bothered me for future domestic travel, as I thought I'd pared it all down to the minimum - just the bike, trailer chassis and wheels, Vaude hi-tail seat post bag, Terry handlebar bag, fenders and some cold weather overgear and minimal tools - no GD folding rear rack or any panniers. I even switched out my 520 gram Shimano dual function pedals to my 250 gm WTB stealths. It made precious little difference.

I made a hasty cheese, avocado, tomato, spinach and mayo sandwich on frozen bread and it proved to be a godsend. Food is expensive when stuck in and around airports. And I do recall someone saying they left one of those airline-issue bread rolls on top of a fridge and 6 months later it was still soft and edible ... we're gonna be leaving pretty good looking corpses.

The flight went from Eugene to Denver then to LA - two long sides of a triangle. From there would be a 12-hour flight on Varig, Brazil's premier airline, to Sao Paulo - nowhere near Peru - then a 3-hour flight back across to Lima. That's what you get for a frequent flyer United flight - the bottom of the barrel. Total travel time would be close to 2 days.

Badge engineering for bicycles in Denver airport. I fully expected it to have tear gas canisters in the handlebar grips etc but no, it was a regular bike, probably a TREK or something.

"You're coming on ... Viagra Airlines?" said Lon, who would pick me up from the airport. "Hey, Viagra Airlines - we're always UP!"

In LA I bought an inflatable travel pillow because my head was still stiff and clicking from my fall a few weeks ago, and the chiropractor strongly urged me to make that purchase. He placed a lead ball in my hand and told me that due to the way I was standing and that I use a computer a lot, my head was a 10-lb bowling ball teetering too far forward on my skinny neck and would lead to problems later in life. 'Later' is getting 'sooner' I notice, so heeded his advice. What is it with those blow up travel pillows? They are simply not comfortable. It's like trying to sleep on a balloon.

At LA airport there was a good deal of soliciting going on: a Japanese student collecting money for Christian mission projects in poor countries. A man with a bucket collecting money for the homeless. An gentleman silently leaving a card and fancy engraved pen beside travelers waiting in lounges, the card asking for a donation for the deaf. All of them with official-looking ID cards and signage. I gave the Japanese mission worker $3 because he was actually informed and pointed me to the Varig terminal, a shop where I could buy an adaptor for my laptop, and the gate lounge. His spiel and clipboard of shots of poor people and the projects he was working for seemed real enough.

"I work here every day, I know the airport," he said.

That's one thing I like about Asians in general. They don't have a worldwide reputation for being Andy Warhol-esque individualists but they're on the ball. I remember being in a restaurant and mumbling that I wanted something that was low in fat and salt, and the Chinese waiter leaned over and pointed and said "you'll like that, that, that, that and than."

Observations on route to the aircraft: a nurse on her way to Thailand to replace lenses in cataract-ridden eyes. She says that many folks are opting to cure simple vision correction by having the lens replaced - it's a simple, relatively painless operation, but insurance still does not pay for it. A women reading Radiology News intently. A man reading the Da Vinci Code in hardback. I imagined the whole planeload with their noses buried in my book, The Handsomest Man in Cuba, the photographer on the cover sitting in every seat, staring over the rows. I stopped fantasizing and sat down.

In Denver airport, I met a policeman on a Smith & Wesson bicycle. Pure marketing. I think it is actually a rebadged TREK.

I wish I'd read that sheet inside the box with my tour-supplied gear bag. On the plane I started reading "bring 2 spare tires, 4 spare tubes, 4 spare spokes, spare brake shoes ..." I brought 1 spare tire, 2 spare tubes, 2 spare spokes and no spare brake shoes. And if we're going to be climbing 16,000 feet, I imagine our brakes are in for a fair amount of squeezing. Dang. My ATM card refused to give me money, so I am going to Peru with $80 cash.

Free wi-fi is no more - everywhere's a hotspot, and everywhere's asking for up to $10 an hour.

Lydia, a woman from Sao Paulo who sat next to me on the plane, was returning from a 20-day holiday in los Estados Unidos with her grandson, taking in America does best - Disneyland, Seaworld, Nottsberry Farm .... she was actually a Varig stewardess on vacation. So she got her flights for next to nothing, but said she spent a fortune. The Brazilian Real is about 40% of the US Dollar.

I say to people traveling light means don't take a book or walkman - when your nose is in a book, you aren't taking in the sights around you. When your ears are plugged up with headphones, you're not taking in the sounds. And when you're traveling with someone, you're not taking in a lot of the subtext of what is going on. One reason I did not read anything about the embargo before I visit Cuba was because I wanted to see if I could glean what was going on from the people themselves. The bottom line of any political system is how does it affect people in their daily lives.

The other thing is, opportunities to read something tend to materalize on the road. At LA airport I was bailed up by a plainclothes Hari Krisna who opened with a smile and 'great hat.' He quickly moved to offering me a hardback book of Krisna teachings. I told him I could not carry anything more and he whipped out a booklet on Yoga and meditation which I DID take as it slipped neatly into the sleeve of my backpack.

Don't ignore the airplane magazines. You're not omnipotent, there's probably at least one thing you'll find there that contributes to your life. For example, in the Varig magazine I got some kinda wisdom:

From article on Adib Jatene, Brazil's premier hard surgeons, quoting cardiologist Dante Pazzanese:

Hear, Hear.

Jetlagged and underslept with bad hair to boot, a haggard Galfromdownunder is revived by the first taste of the tropics - guanabana juice - a giant jug for less than a dollar.

Read more of this story at www.bikefriday.com/peru