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I've never been to South America before, so when a last minute opportunity arose to join some friends for a trip in Peru I jumped at the chance. Not being able to trek the Inca Trail because of permit issues (basically being too late), my goal was to meet the group at Machu Picchu on the morning they finished the hike. I left home at 4AM to catch an early morning flight via American Airlines to Miami, followed by a 4 hour stop over for the next flight. I've been to MIA before, but never transited - never again! Upon arrival you have no idea where to go! The departure boards only show the flights for that terminal, and there is nothing to suggest which terminal to go to for which airline. I started to walk in the general direction of the majority of the terminals - I had arrived at terminal A. After a 25 minute walk to terminal F, I was pleased to discover that this was actually the terminal I needed. The airport is old, in desperate need of upgrading (which they seem to be doing pretty slowly) and needs a better was to transit the terminals apart for a 25 minute walk. No moving walkways, no buses, no train - sucks. While waiting at the gate my flight to Lima was due to depart from, the previous aircraft that was still on stand went u/s and so our gate was changed - I remember thinking that it was lucky I wasn't on that AA aircraft. Time finally came to board out aircraft - after everyone sat down and buckled up, the pilot announced that we would be delaying because of a brake issue - crap! 2 Hours later, we were finally ready to depart. I arrived at Lima at 23:30 (due at 21:30) snagged a taxi and rode down to Angie and Steve's apartment in the suburb of Miraflores. Now that was a crap day of traveling - next time I'll try to transit via Houston - or basically anywhere but Miami! |