Saturday Feb. 7

The day started off with sunshine and was just gorgeous looking out at the mountains. There was more snow on the mountain peaks. Fr.Alex and Steve were going to one of the mountain villages for mass and birthday celebration for the children. They had 5 boxes of toys. I would have loved to go but was afraid I would miss our flight. John, Sally and I spent the morning packing, finishing up our evaluations and summaries for Bob. We helped Veronica by washing our bed sheets and towels. It was the perfect day for drying. The clothes on the line were dry within an hour. We had wanted to meet Veronica's children so she had them come to the house. She has 2 daughters and 1 son. It was nice to meet them. We gave them a few candies and other items that we had.

Bob came around 11am. We took a cab into city central. We walked around for awhile and then went to a out door cafe because we all wanted pizza. It was just so relaxing. There was an Andean street group playing music and they were in costume. They were really good. We bought CDs. Karen joined us which was nice. Her friends could not leave for the beach until 3pm. Sally and John bought a few more gift items to bring back home for family. It was truly a wonderful day. Bob has been such a great tour guide.

Fr. Alex was back in time to take us to the airport at 4:15pm and Bob came with. We said our good byes to Steve and Veronica. It was starting to get a little misty. We checked in and were all set to go. As we were waiting the fog started to come in. We knew we were in trouble when we heard the plane come roaring in and simply kept on roaring on by. They do not have the ability to land by instruments in Arequipa and need to land by site. There was no way. Soon the person at the counter said something in Spanish and all the people got up and ran out of the waiting area. We asked the person and she explained in English that the next 2 flights were being canceled and we had to go back out to the check in desk and reschedule our flight. When we got out there it was a huge mob. They gave us a number to call. It was just kind of crazy because we could not get the pay phone to work.

Thank God John had a cell phone and had Bob and Fr. Alex numbers. Fr. Alex was doing 7pm mass. Bob came to the airport because there was no way we were getting out with the fog. We were able to book a flight out for 0555am Sunday. Finally Father came and took us back to the guest house. We were so tired by this time that Sally and I got the giggles and could not stop. Father added to them when he call Steve and said he was delivering 3 Gringos to the house.