No perfect trip

Who says doing a RTW trip is a bed of roses? We're sitting at Starbucks at Lima International Airport and the watch is showing 1.50AM and we still have some 2 hours to kill before we can drop our baggage off. Flight is at 6.45AM and that means we're gonna be sleepless tonight. We'll be bidding for the kindness of our B&B host tomorrow if we could check in earlier (usual check-in is @ 3PM).

To add salt to injury, we found one of my bags broken as it came onto the baggage claim revolving platform. We asked TACA if they could help since the damage happened during their handling, and were caught by surprise when the person said that the airline is not responsible for such damages, unless it involves items INSIDE the bag.

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Blue eyes asked if that means they could damage any bag on the outside, and the guy just shrugged it off. He said we could read the terms & conditions on our ticket, which stated clearly the provisions on baggages. But it doesn't make sense to us; if the airline is not responsible for any mishandling of baggages, does that mean they have a right to be reckless without being accountable? If so, then I, the passenger, would have to constantly bear the cost of buying new luggage bags, on top of rising fuel prices and airport taxes. Blahh ... the lay men never win, do they?

Honestly I doubt the repair on the bag handle is going to cost very much and it would have been goodwill on their part "to be seen to be doing something about it." Telling the customer to read the terms & conditions after the mishap is like saying, "serves you right for not reading them in the first place!"

I must add that that I had distinctively asked at the check-in counter at Guatemala airport if the bags were going directly to Cuzco or do we need to pick them up at Lima, and the lady replied Cuzco. Fortunately, we had good sense and started to questioned the logic, since we had to go through customs at Lima. Hold and behold, when we checked the baggage claim area, we found our bags on the revolving platform! Imagine if we had believed her and walked passed the baggage without checking? We would have to fly back to Lima when we couldn't find our bags @ Cuzco in the morning! And I bet the airline would say apologetically that it is not responsible when its staff does not provide accurate information.

Read the terms & conditions.

I miss Guatemala already. It feels a lot simpler; and people seems nicer. Here, I feel like being milked like a cow the minute I touched down. Tips are not included in the bill and the waiter actually asked me for it! (how thick-skinned is that?!) Given the late hours, I was too exhausted to argue not to so I put in a $5 tip, which I realised later to be a tad too much, sigh ...

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I wish my Peruvian impression hasn't started on such bleak note, but oh well, let's just get Machu Picchu & Lake Titicaca out of the list and I can get on with my life. I can't imagine myself coming back again for any other reason. At least not now at 2.20AM (that's how long it took to write this post from beginning to here).