DAY 12 -- LIMA TO WICHITA

I was seated on this flight from Lima to Miami next to a Peruvian—actually Japanese-Peruvian—woman in her late forties. Gina has lived in Japan for 15 years with her husband who is a pastor for an organization ministering to South Americans living in Japan. A pretty small niche, right? Well, I'm surprised when Gina tells me that there are approximately 350,000 Peruvians living in Japan.

Once, she said, more than 100 years ago, Japanese came to Peru for a better life. Now, Japan is a rich country and Peru is very poor. How can a country that was in ruins 60 years ago (Japan) be so prosperous now, and another country (Peru), that has not suffered any such devastating military defeat, be in such economic shambles? I don’t know, and neither does Gina.

We talk about family. We talk about where I’ve been in South America and in Peru. She asks how much I’ve spent on my trip of more than 10 days. She can hardly believe it when I estimate that I have spent a total of $700 USD for bus, boat, and air transportation; lodging and food; tours; and Internet and phone expenses. I believe that Gina says she spent around $3,000 USD in four weeks and never left Lima.

Now here’s an interesting bit of information, perhaps not all that useful unless you happen to find yourself in or around Tarapoto, Peru, but interesting nonetheless. Gina makes me promise—Promise!—that I will never, ever drink a beverage that is a specialty of the Tarapoto region. The drink is prepared from yucca. I ate yucca on the trip; it wasn’t great, but no harm done. Well, there’s a bit more to be said about the preparation of this brew. First, the starchy yucca plant is fed to young children. After an appropriate period of time, they are induced to vomit their stomach contents into a vessel. That, uh, material is the basis for the drink. It is, I assume, subject to a filtering and distillation process before finally serving to guests. Gina, my word is my bond…I won’t be drinking any of this brew. Never, ever.

Gina has been visiting her extended family in Peru. Now she’s returning to Tokyo and her family via Miami and New York. It’s 3 a.m. or so when we share photos taken in Peru. She’s very interested in pictures taken on my jungle excursion. Not long after those, though, she can fight sleep no longer.

The seat next to me opposite of Gina is empty, but still the minimal pitch (amount of space between one seat and the seat in front of it) affords me no comfortable personal configuration. At best I may have had a total of an hour’s sleep during the flight.

American Airlines flight 918 arrives in Miami right on time at 6 a.m. Clearing customs [where an agent good naturedly--and loudly--proclaims when he sees me: "Thank God, somebody older than me!"], reclaiming bags, checking-in for the flights to Atlanta and on to Wichita, and clearing security takes most of the time prior to the scheduled 8 a.m. departure time. Air Tran provides me boarding passes—with seat assignments for both flights!—at the ticket counter. This is the best indication a standby passenger can have that he will indeed be able to board his flights with a minimum of angst. Nothing is certain, but I should arrive in Wichita about 12:15 p.m., a little over 12 hours since leaving Lima. Heck, I’ve spent 12 hours in the Dallas airport just waiting for a flight I can get on.

I want a pastry and coffee before leaving MIA. I’ll have to charge them. For the record, I arrived back in the United States with $3 USD plus three Peruvian nuevo soles (worth less than $1 USD) in my pockets. A few dollars, a bag of dirty clothes, and experiences I wouldn’t trade for $10,000.