Being one who always gets in the wrong queue, trust me to go and choose to be the adventurous traveller at the wrong time in Cuzco in November 1987, just when everyone else decided to fly, and go on standby for a plane to Lima.
There had been a spate of train robberies, even on the Pullmans where carriages could be locked up to ensure robbers couldn’t get in — yet, somehow they did.
On top of that, I had also gone and set up a domino effect by building up onward flights practically back-to-back: Lima to London — arriving about 8pm, stay the night, then London to Zurich on the first plane the next day. This meant that I could not afford to miss the mid-day flight out of Lima. I also had to fly in from Cuzco the day before and stay the night in Lima, as there were no flights from Cuzco to get me into Lima before mid-day.
When I got to the Cuzco airport, the queues for the (only) two airlines were at least 50 deep, with two flights per airline to Lima. Gulp.
David the Canadian and I decided to take a queue each, and call each other over when we got to the counter.
Airline A’s flight 1 filled up, then Airline B’s flight 1. Double gulp. Two down, two to go. Then that’s it for the day. Eek.
I thought I’d talk to the blonde gringa in front of me to make me feel better — you know, "fellow sufferers in the same boat" kind of thing. She turned out to be an off-duty KLM stewardess, and would therefore get preferential treatment as airline staff. Oh dear. I could see myself scrambling for another flight to London, and another one to Zurich. And she had her husband with her, which meant one more seat taken. Groan.
I’d put my name down for Airline B’s waiting list for flight 2, and saw that I was number 129. Fat chance of getting on.
As I stood in Airline A’s queue, about 20 behind, telling myself I just wasn’t cut out for the last-minute standby style of travelling, my quiet panic was interrupted by a voice, in Spanish, “Señorita, is this your bag?”
I found myself looking down at the face from which had emanated that question — it belonged to a boy of about 8. I nodded mutely, not twigging what it was about.
The boy spoke again, in Spanish: “Give me your passport and air ticket.” I handed them over.
Picking up my soft bag, he marched past the other 20 people in the queue, and went straight up to the counter, where the clerk was checking in a gringo passenger whose luggage was already on the weighing scales.
The boy slapped my documents onto the counter and said to the clerk, in Spanish, “¡Hola, Juan. This is my señorita friend’s passport, plane ticket, and here is her luggage.”
Juan pushed aside the items he was in the middle of processing, dealt with my case, returned my passport, plane ticket and boarding pass to the boy, then went back to the previous passenger (who, surprisingly, did not protest, probably because he wasn’t quite sure what was happening).
When the boy came back to me, I was still standing in the queue, stunned by what my eyes were witnessing.
He said, in Spanish, handing over each document as he called them out, “Señorita, here is your passport, here is your plane ticket, here is your boarding pass. Now follow me, quick! The plane’s leaving soon!”
I traipsed after him in a daze through the crowds in the main hall.
At the departure lounge gate, he greeted the burly guard with cheery familiarity, “¡Hola, Pedro. This is my señorita friend. She’s catching the flight to Lima that’s leaving very soon.”
Pedro let me through with only a cursory glance at my boarding pass — any friend of the boy’s was good enough, it seemed.
The boy pointed out the plane on the tarmac, saying, “That’s your plane. Quick go!”
Then, he solemnly shook my hand, said, “Adios, señorita,” and turned to leave. He wasn’t even expecting to be paid!
I recovered in time from my dazed state and pulled out all the Peruvian notes and coins I had in my trouser pocket, calling out, “Chico!” and put the lot into his little hand.
He looked taken aback. I closed his fingers around the money and gave him a bear hug, blinking back the grateful tears.
I got on the plane shortly before it took off for Lima.
To this day, I have no idea why the boy singled me out. I was standing there minding my own business — even if panicking inwardly.
The only explanation I can think of is that I was the only one in the queue who looked local, as the rest were all gringos and gringas. He probably adopted me as I looked like a Peruana.
I’d been mistaken for one everywhere I went in Peru and would get — without asking for — lower quotes for things like camping equipment than those for gringos fluent in Spanish.
The boy was my heaven-sent guardian angel.
(Peru, Nov 1987)
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