To Peru or Not to Peru...

So Monday, January 9th we dash to the aiport in San Jose to catch our 10:30 flight to Lima, Peru so we can check out MACHU PICHU!! YEAH!! Sooooo, excited. Lima's seafood fare was titilating our tastebuds, the image of mountainous Peru was flashing in our minds, even the cool, crisp air of the Inca's mountaintop civilization filled our nostrils. Unfortunately, that's all we'll get. Only a dream... here's what happened:
Rewind 2 month prior to departure on our trip. We've purchased all our tickets and are working on the visas. We look at Peru. Oh, Vernon - US citizen, no problem, no visa required.  Muthoni, Kenya citizen, need a visa, but no problem you can get it when you arrive... or so we thought.

So back to Jan 9th. We get to the San Jose Airport, say our thank yous to Dre for his great hospitality and driving us all over. We get into the too-long-to-make-our-flight check-in line. Get to the attendant who sends us over to the other side of the terminal because we hadn't payed our exit tax (that's right folks, if you want to leave Costa Rica, there's an exit tax, $26/person).  So we get back in line. Something about processing international travelers just takes forever.  We finally get to the desk hand over our papers and bags (still dreaming about Machu Pichu).  She, Cindy, looks at everything. Vernon, you're good to go.  Then she looks at Muthoni's info and makes that face that spells "something's wrong here".  Muthoni knew instantly... "she's looking for my Peru Visa" she wispers in my ear with her almost none existent voice (Mu caught a bad cold and lost her voice completely).  Cindy finally says "Where is your visa for Peru?"  We telll her about what we saw online, how we can get it at the airport. Cindy's right eyebrow goes up... "Um, no you need the visa to fly."  WHAT!? No, No, Nooooooo, Machu.... "Cindy, can you check again? Please?" ... Pichu... Cindy checks, walking back to the office behind the baggage belt somewhere.  Comes back. No, sorry you need theVisa.  We'd been praying in her absence.  "So sorry.  Vernon, you can go though."  (To you husbands out there, don't even think about leaving your wife behind on an international flight, no bueno.) So I say, "No, if she can't go, I'm not going.  We decide, okay, lets see if we can get the Visa from the Peruvian consulate in San Jose?  Um, how will we get in touch with Dre to come get us (we have no phone, and no internet connectivity on this side of security in the terminal).  Cindy runs to get us the phone number for the consulate and, using her own cell phone calls the consulate for us Gringo's who don't know spanish and talks with them. Muthoni and I hope against all hope as we wait.  "Sorry, you can only get the Visa in your country of residence, you can't get it here in Costa Rica."  (gut wrenching news to have to hear, we have this itinerary that we've planned, these places we've dreamed about, and certainly a significant investment)  We're left wondering what to do. We have tickets to go to Peru, but cannot use them. "Mu, I think we should just skip ahead to Brazil, the week we were supposed to spend in Peru we can spend in Sao Paulo, 7 days of unplanned, spontaneous, adventurous, fun."  "Okay".  So we changed our tickets, go through security, and sit another 3 hours for our flight. 

You know, all that was something we feel like God was working in us.  Even in our plans for visiting Machu Pichu we tried and tried to get train tickets to Machu Pichu (the only way to get there) but the site kept crashing. We'd sent them e-mails and what not and no response for weeks, so we just figured we'd get them when we arrive.  I don't know about you guys, but I'm gonna keep my eyes on the news because I really feel like God prevented us and protected us from something.  Like when the Apostle Paul tried to enter a province the Spirit prevented him from doing so (look it up, it's in Acts 16). So, we're pressing on.

All isn't lost though, we still had to connect in Lima (South America's major airport hub). So Our flight left San Jose at 3:45pm and we arrived in Lima around 8:30pm. Checked out the shops in the airport and Mu loved their little figurines. The airport in Lima is definitely nice. Anyhow, we caught our flight for Sao Paulo, Brazil at 10:30pm...  What a day January 9th was. Stay Tuned for Brazil.... :)