The Dogs' Adventure Begins Part 2

I feel much better about writing Part 2 now that I'm sure the dogs have recovered from the horror of their journey to Peru. I wasn't always certain that they were even alive! 


The LAN Cargo flight was due to arrive at 11:30 pm on Saturday, April 16. Kiko and I left for the airport late (surprise!), and were still driving at 11:30. But Kiko was laughing at me because I was under the mistaken impression that we'd walk into the airport and pick up the dogs. Well, the LAN Cargo website said, "AT DESTINATION - To claim the pet, the person at destination must follow a standard procedure that can be initiated before the flight arrival." That didn't sound like things would take too long. The plane arrived at Jorge Chavez International Airport on schedule, but we had to wait for the cargo (our dogs) a few miles down the road at Lima Cargo City, where they would be transported. Kiko and I had originally planned for the dogs to fly with us on a nonstop flight but decided against that because the nonstop flight was really expensive. Keep that thought in mind. 


At 11:40 pm, we handed over our IDs to the security guard at the gate and obtained badges for Cargo City. It was an enormous warehouse with offices above and across from it. There were no signs indicating where we should go, so we asked someone who sent us to an office upstairs, where we were sent downstairs, where we were sent back upstairs to a window, where we were sent down the long hall, across the footbridge to ask the security guard at the desk where to go. Basically no one knew anything, and it was now about midnight. We were then sent around the front of the building past a long row of offices, finally into an office where another security guard asked for our IDs, which we said we had exchanged for the Cargo City IDs ("see the official badges hanging around our necks?") We were sent upstairs to another office, this time arriving at the LAN Cargo headquarters. We asked to initiate the process to claim our two dogs, but by this time were obviously skeptical of the website's definition of "standard procedure". 


We were correct in our skepticism, because we were told that we couldn't do anything until they received the paperwork that traveled with the dogs, which was still at the airport WITH THE DOGS. So we waited. We sat in an empty waiting room for an hour and a half. If I had known, I would have brought a book (as Kiko was busy on his cell phone). Finally, the paperwork arrived and we could do something. It just wasn't clear WHAT. Things get kind of foggy here. We had to get cash from the ATM downstairs to pay a fee but no one seemed to know where we had to go to pay it. We had to take various documents to different offices and windows and counters to get signatures and stamps and receipts. I was desperate to see the dogs, worried because we hadn't really had official confirmation that they were on site, so Kiko insisted that we be allowed to see them.


We took a break in our paperwork trail to wait at the warehouse entrance for a worker to locate, in the slowest possible manner, an extra hardhat for me to wear. Finally we were walked through the warehouse to the "special area where the dogs were being kept safely", only to find that their crates were in no special area at all! At least we got to witness that they were, indeed, alive, but we were not allowed to take them out of their crates, even for a moment. We stuck our fingers through the doors, and told Kianne and Maddie to hang in there, and left them crying as we walked back through the warehouse.


Our resolve was stronger than ever as we then drove to the airport to pay another fee. It took several different people giving us several different directions, and then a grumpy man telling Kiko he couldn't get through the gate to meet with the person he was supposed to pay. After searching out someone from an office that was closed, Kiko was finally able to bypass the grouchy gatekeeper to take care of the next step. I wasn't allowed to go with him, so I passed the time alternately watching some backpackers inspect their equipment and walking up and down the stairs and around the terminal, counting my steps for fun. 


On the way back to Lima Cargo, Kiko told me that he had to go turn in the newly acquired paperwork, pick up another document, visit the ATM a second time (because they only deal in CASH) and then we would be driving to the airport AGAIN to pay for something else! Of course I thought he was making this up. "You're kidding, right?" I asked him. Kiko wasn't kidding. I stayed in the car for this round and also when we went back to the airport. When he woke me up from a restless nap, the sun was coming up. Supposedly we had the final clearance in our hands as we made our way back to Lima Cargo, got our badges again, made our way up the stairs, down the hall, over the bridge, along the building, up the stairs and into the office for the final signature. But it wasn't the final signature, nor had we made the final payment. We were sent all the way back to the warehouse, where we were then told to go back upstairs to pay the warehouse company for keeping our dogs for us (while we ran around all night long trying to pay their ransom).


I don't know how many guys tried to get Kiko to make a little "extra donation" because we had the pink copy instead of the yellow one, or the signature was on the left side instead of the right, whatever little thing they could come up with to slow us down, but Kiko firmly held his ground and got through it all without making any additional payments. We were told that we were lucky that we handled all this in the middle of the night, because claiming cargo could take several days due to the extremely long daytime lines. And "cargo" is truly what the dogs were considered, which is why we had to pay import taxes and customs fees. While we thought we were saving money by not flying direct with the dogs and sending them via cargo, we probably ended up spending nearly as much, along with incalculable hassle. I am confident that my narrative has missed some steps along the way, but that has probably helped to ease the pain of that incredible fiasco.


It was now after 7 am on a sun-shiny, Lima morning. Finally, after nearly eight hours of following their "standard procedures" we handed the completed paperwork to the warehouse manager, who called for a worker to get the dogs. This guy was walking so slow, with no sense of purpose, that I finally lost it and yelled at him in bad, exasperated Spanish, "POR FAVOR! Mis perros estan en sus jaulas para 20 horas! (that's right, Kianne and Maddie had been in their crates for 20 hours straight). He just turned to me, flashed a stupid grin, and kept plodding along. 


As you know, there is a happy ending. We got the dogs! They were a bit groggy and wobbly, hungry and thirsty, needing to pee and wanting to be petted. Fortunately, one of the best things about dogs is that they don't hold things against you. The big dog at my feet and the little one next to me are proof of that.