The Peruvian Adventure, Part 5: The Wedding

At 9AM, after having to trust —as in Cuzco with my cab driver — that someone would be there to pick me up at the time they said they would, the wedding shuttle bus from Lima to Paracas arrived. I was on the bus with three couples attending the wedding and two random strangers who hopped on the bus after negotiating with the bus driver (therein lies the the essence of my trip to Peru).

After a busride of about 3 hours with one rest stop in the desert, we arrived a little after noon at the paradisiacal resort in Paracas, where the wedding would take place a few hours from now. I checked in to get a key to my room, where Amanda, my roommate, had already settled in.

When I was still contemplating attending this wedding, I was conscious about the costs and asked the bride and groom whether there was someone they knew who might be down to split a room at the wedding. The bride introduced me to her college friend, Amanda, and she and I began talking over Facebook messenger a few months before the wedding in hopes of connecting prior to Peru. Despite working only 10 minutes away from one another, we didn’t end up meeting in person in Boston before the trip, but our personality types and the circumstances that would unfold in the next 72 hours would make us fast friends. My first impressions were that she was a proactive communicator, and a kind, candid, no-BS human who would be my lifeline at this wedding. This was an accurate take that would be proven out repeatedly in the coming days.

Before Amanda came back to the room, I repacked my suitcase again to find my dress and shoes for the wedding and rolled around on the very plush bed. I relished in my Wi-fi and blasted my favorite songs on Spotify as I got ready, hoping that this person I hadn’t met yet would be cool with potentially walking in on me dancing around in my underwear to the wondrousness that is the Bruno Mars Finesse Remix with Cardi B. When she finally arrived and I told her about this, she said walking in on me probably would have made her like me even more.

This wedding came with some interesting “baggage” for me, I’ll note, and about which I debriefed Amanda before we headed to the ceremony.

1. The most obvious fact: I knew the bride and groom on account of an old relationship.
2. The less obvious fact: I had been involved — briefly, and about three to four years ago — with one of the groomsmen about four years ago, and he was bringing girlfriend to the wedding. We’re good friends now, but seeing him happy and settled reminded me unpleasantly of my current romantic situation.
3. The least obvious fact: a guy who had asked me out about three years ago after a dinner via Facebook Messenger (whom I didn’t realize had reached out to me on that platform and whom I’d ignored because I was getting serious with a different relationship at the time) was attending this wedding. At first, I thought it would be awkward for both of us. In the end, I think it was only awkward for me: after a night of chatting and dancing and apologizing for not responding to him years ago, I found him extremely charming and wanted to correct the error of my ways and ask him out. In the end, I decided to hold off because I didn’t know how much of my interest was Pisco-influenced and whether he was involved with someone back in Boston. That said, if you’re the man in question, are reading this, and aren’t already seeing someone seriously, want to go for drinks?
4. Practically a secret: there was a couple attending the wedding that I had definitely insulted while drunk at karaoke with the bride and groom back in 2014. I don’t think they realized who I was, remembered what happened, or cared. They were busy with their kids.

By 3:45, Amanda and I were ready to head to the Pergola where the wedding was supposed to begin at 4PM, sharp. Around 5:20PM, the ceremony started. I was grateful to get one of the seats, since there weren’t enough chairs for all the wedding attendees. In the hang time in between, we talked to some of the other guests and took some cute pictures:

After the ceremony concluded without too much further delay, we tried to locate the reception area, and asking for some help from a few hotel staff, eventually found the beachside reception “tent.”

The highlights of the reception were:

1. The amazingly skilled bartender with the tiniest ponytail, who made me at least 3 Mint Tom Collins’ and many mini Passion Fruit Pisco Sours over the next few hours.
2. The disappearing wedding cake — I definitely saw the bride and groom cut it at the beginning of the reception but never saw the cake again after that
3. Not starving at the reception — there was a meal for me of gluten-free pasta and chicken. With all the partying, I really needed these.
4. With the DJ’s laptop failing, the very-drunk wedding guests singing the entirety of “I Want It That Way” by the Backstreet Boys as the final song of the night, completely a cappella.
5. Jumping fully-clothed into the pool with the bride (in her wedding dress!), bridesmaids, and Amanda after midnight.

Soon enough, the party was over, and, lacking the energy to go to the afterparty, Amanda and I turned in for the night around 1AM. Both of us having traveled over a week in rain and jungle before arriving at the wedding, we were ready to start heading home tomorrow.

Peru, however, wasn’t ready to let us go, and Boston wasn’t ready to have us back…read more in Part 6: Escape from Peru