Dramatic Elevator Rescue

Today we embarked on a short trip to Northern Peru, traveling with Alberto and Maite Soriano.  It started off on an exciting note — we were stuck in an elevator!

We loaded up our small packs and camera bag and got in the elevator at 6AM to go down to meet Alberto and Maite.  The elevator started down… then suddenly stopped?  I tried to force the door open.  It would only open about six inches, and I could see the floor near the top of the elevator. We were stuck between floors at 6:00AM — hours before anyone would show up for work and find us.  Fortunately, we both had our phones. Evelyn first called Maite to explain we were stuck and might be “a little late.”  She then called Edisson (our security guard) at home and told him we were stuck.  Edisson doesn’t speak a word of English and I wasn’t sure she had really gotten the idea through, but 20 minutes later the elevator started up again.  Edisson had come in based on our call, saw the elevator was stuck, and performed some magic reset in the elevator control room.

We were off and on our way!  For awhile…

After driving a few hours, we came close to the Peruvian border.  Since auto gas is subsidized in Ecuador ($1.48 / gallon!) and not in Peru, we stopped to top off the tank.  When we tried to get going again after getting gas, the battery was stone dead and wouldn’t start.  Evelyn, Maite and I got out and had to push the car for two blocks before Alberto finally got it jump-started.  We drove to the nearest town, revving the engine at every stop sign, and bought a new battery.

And we were off again!  For awhile…

When we reached the Peru border, there were huge long lines at immigration, reaching out the door.  With the wonders of government inefficiency, we found we had to go into four lines.  First line gave us an exit stamp from Ecuador.  Move over 4 feet and to the back of another line.  That got us a stamp, but the officer said we had to go another line because we had an American passport.  This line #3 got us a stamp in our passport, and sent us to line #4.  That final line got us an entry visa into Peru. (Really? They can’t do this all in a single line??)

Oh yeah, their computers were down, so the officers were on the phone to Lima. They read off the passport number to someone in Lima that looked up the data, then spoke some magic numbers back to the immigration person, who would then stamp your paper and pass you through to the next line.  That is why it took even longer than normal and the lines were so long.  (Three days later when we were going the other way, the computers were still down and it was still being done via phone…)

About this time I was wondering if the gods were trying to keep me out of Peru?  We stopped for lunch at “El Brujo” though, and all doubt went away.  That was the best seafood I had eaten since leaving San Francisco.

As we approached Zorrito, we checked several possible beach hotels.  The place was completely vacant — quite literally we were the only people in all five places we tried.  We ended up with a fairly nice hotel, swam a little, had dinner and some great pisco sours (first time I have had that drink — good stuff!).

And through all the trials and tribulations, Alberto just kept laughing and having a great time.  Nothing ever gets him down.  There is a lesson to be learned there…

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