My friend, Judith, is letting me tag along with her to explore a little of South America. Machu Picchu is on her bucket list and when she told me last year she was going to Peru in 2016, I had to decline because I had another trip in the works (Paris, Vienna & Prague) with a couple of other friends. But due to a vacation freeze imposed by my employer this spring, I wasn't able to go when everyone else could go. So we decided to delay PVP, creating this opening to go to Peru.
As she did for India, Judith has done all the trip planning and just tells me where and when to show up. It works out great because I don't have the time or the interest in figuring all this out. Her interests (with the exception of horseback riding) are a lot like mine, so I expect to have a great time checking out this part of the world.
During the planning stage I suggested to Judith that we should tag on the Galapagos Islands since we were already in the region. I think she had wanted to do that all along but I had originally planned to only go for two weeks to fit in my other vacation destinations for 2016. I had already planned a week to visit my snow-birding friend in Mexico, so freeing up an extra week for Peru required a difficult decision to give up my week long stay at Tillicum (near Nanaimo) in Cabin #17 that my family has been renting for the 2nd week in July for the past 18 years. This is a view of what I gave up this year:
As she did for India, Judith has done all the trip planning and just tells me where and when to show up. It works out great because I don't have the time or the interest in figuring all this out. Her interests (with the exception of horseback riding) are a lot like mine, so I expect to have a great time checking out this part of the world.
During the planning stage I suggested to Judith that we should tag on the Galapagos Islands since we were already in the region. I think she had wanted to do that all along but I had originally planned to only go for two weeks to fit in my other vacation destinations for 2016. I had already planned a week to visit my snow-birding friend in Mexico, so freeing up an extra week for Peru required a difficult decision to give up my week long stay at Tillicum (near Nanaimo) in Cabin #17 that my family has been renting for the 2nd week in July for the past 18 years. This is a view of what I gave up this year:
I'm over that trauma now and have been madly preparing for Peru. Always good to get new:
- luggage (apparently the boat that we're booked on for the Galapagos won't let me take hard sided luggage),
- new clothes (I've been working hard at getting in better shape for this trip so I wouldn't have to carry so much non essential weight),
- sandles (decided to go with closed toe Merrells because I learned first hand traveling in India that there may be well defined things you don't want to step through but don't really have a choice.)
- GoPro (apparently we're zip lining somewhere...)
- passport (why do passport pictures make you look like you've done hard time?)
- a comfy backpack to carry some of my stuff for our daily excursions and hikes.
We leave Saturday, Sept 3rd, returning in 3 weeks. I'll be blogging our trip because Judith needs way more sleep than me and this will fill the time nicely.
And yes, horseback riding is on the itinerary.
