REPATRIATION
So after all the guessing work during the last weeks in Peru, the only reasonable option was to hop on one of the repatriation flights, meaning that the South America trip was to be paused for now. Of course I will continue as soon as it will possible again, and I’ll use the time at home to prepare a couple of things the second leg of this trip – but we’ll come to this in the next chapter.
The whole repatriation process was a little adventurous. After knowing city would be our pick-up point, we (still Barbara and me, as she decided to take the same flight as me as the Spanish repatriation was a little hard to find online, to say the least) had to organise our transfer to Piura (about 300km) by ourselves. A guy from the neighbourhood finally agreed to give us a lift there in exchange for a few Soles. In fact, the prick asked for a ridiculous price and I think a taxi wouldn’t have been much more expensive, but we were short on options so we paid the price (Karma will pay him back, the fat f*cker).
View from Miraflores onto the Pacific Ocean
Another thing that had to be organised was a pass, permitting us to acutally move in the country. However, what we got from the embassy wasn’t really a pass, it was a letter from the German embassy to some Peruvian official stating that a pass has been requested for us. We were actually leaving without an official paper from some Peruvian authority, stating that we were acutally ALLOWED to move from our location to the pick-up point. This had us in a couple of discussions, but we eventually made it through to our destination.
From there, a bus (a very, very comfortable bus I have to say, hats off to that!) organised through the embassy took us the 1.000km down to Lima, where we waited for further instructions on our flight back to Germany. Still being under quarantine and minding the curfew, we spent 3 nights there and at least could explore a bit of Miraflores, one of the nicest districts of the city. Loads of modern, apartment buildings, department stores and cafés (we could pick one up to go) were located in this area, but it was funny to see how a normally busy district was so empty and hardly anybody about. Officially, of course, you were only allowed to go outside to do your shopping – but nobody said you couldn’t take the long way to the shop! Apart form that, the time from the registration for the repatriation programme until the moment we went to the airport was a tense one: news were sent last minute, and we were constantly checking our phones, waiting for updates. All in all, it is quite a bit nerve-wrecking, but I’m sure the guys working in the embassy were quite busy these days too!
On the friday we were finally transferred to another pick-up point inside Lima, from where busses took all of the people that were flying out to the airport. As the normal airport was closed, the whole thing went down on an air force base. The procedure was organised through German military personnel in Lima, that was obvious to see: we were seated in rows, luggage in front of us. People from the immigration authorities, followed by airline crew members and Peruvian Army personnel with a dog sniffing the luggage were doing all the registration and paperwork, before the busses finally took us to our plane – a Lufthansa Boeing 747-400 Jumbo Jet, what a giant!
The plane was packed, there were no seats left – and of course everybody was wearing the face masks, this was (and I think still is) mandatory in Peru in public. Teh flight itself went pretty normal, only the disembarquement process was organised step-by-step – so firt rows 1-10, and so on....eventually this went faster than what you normally have on commercial flights, when every uneducated prick is jumping out of their seats immediately, blocking the aisle waiting or trying to squeeze past others.
(If you, the person that is reading this text now, are one of these people and you feel offended by what I just said: I F*CKING MEANT IT!)
View from our hotel rooftop over Miraflores
Leaving the airplane in Germany after 12 hours, I walked into a surprise: hardly anybody here – not even the federal police doing the immigration – was wearing them! Like not at all! I know this has changed now, at least in public spaces, but that was something that let doubt about all the COVID-story arise for a while, hey! Barbara, who I offered to stay with us for a bit if she wanted, wasn’t allowed to enter the country as she didn’t have residency nor was a German citizen. She had to wait at the airport for the next flight to Madrid to await the end of the lockdown there. Funny how the European idea and solidarity crumbles under a virus, hey! Just saying...
Anyway, so here I am, back where I just left almost exactly 4 months ago – with the difference that I now was under a 2 week quarantine at home (after registering with the ministry of health, nobody of checked on me – no calls, no email, no nothing). However, I was already full of new ideas that I went on to tackle or prepare to tackle in the following days and weeks – but more to that in the next blog posting!
Oh, and before you ask: the repatriation isn’t free, you have to sign a paper so they can reclaim the money back from you – I just haven’t received the letter yet, so we’ll see how much this party was in the end!