I’m sitting in the Toronto airport in disbelief. In the last 72 hours, I put everything I own into cardboard moving boxes, shipped a handful of clothing to Los Angeles, sold all of my furniture, and loaded a 14 foot uHaul filled with all of those boxes (plus a few suitcases) and drove it from Boston to a storage facility in Middletown, Connecticut. I can now confirm that my life fits neatly into a 5 x 10 foot storage room — a very surreal feeling. I painted my gorgeous turquoise and hot pink walls back to a sad, dull, white, donated a slew of stuff to Goodwill and Pine Street Inn, and said goodbye to some of my best friends and the city I’ve learned to call home over the past 6 years. It’s so surreal that just a few months ago I was dreaming of quitting my job and traveling the world, and now the day I’ve been anticipating is finally here.
I spent my quick hour and a half flight up north to Canada (and yes, it is backwards that I had to fly north to then just fly straight back down south, but these flights were $500 cheaper than the other option, so I’m just as happy this way!) reading my Peru guidebook. I can’t wait to spend 11 days on my own, exploring the country. I’m especially excited to spend some time in Cusco — I’ve heard nothing but fabulous things, and I can’t wait to get there.
Thanks to my online media classes at Northeastern, I remembered how to create a personalized Google map project, so last week, I made a fun one for my trip with all the destinations I’ll be visiting. Not too shabby for 5 weeks! My itinerary isn’t completely solidified yet, but my basic plans are as follows:
May 20/21 – Fly down to Santiago from Boston
May 21 – 24 – Greeted at the airport by Alison & Ignacio! Then spending time in Santiago exploring/relaxing.
May 24 – In the evening, fly out to Buenos Aires with Alison
May 24 – June 9 – Spend 8-9 days in Buenos Aires, with two sidetrips – one to Uruguay to see Montevideo and Colonia, and one to Iguazu Falls to hike and explore.
June 10 – First thing in the morning, fly back to Santiago, spend the day relaxing/doing laundry and possibly meeting a family friend.
June 11 – At 8 AM, fly up to Cuzco, Peru via Lima. Spend the rest of the day adjusting to the altitude and exploring.
June 12 – Spend the day in Cusco. Possibly take a half day tour of the four Inca ruins sites surrounding the city. Get to the tour offices for my trek pre-departure briefing.
June 13 – June 16 – For four days, I’ll be hiking, rafting, biking and ziplining my way from Cusco to Machu Picchu. This trip is going to be a huge personal challenge in terms of all the physical activity, but I absolutely cannot wait. I won’t be too out of my comfort zone since we’ll be staying in hostels every night, which I’m definitely thankful for! I booked the trek with a well known tour group, Green Toad Bus Tours, you should click that link and check out my trip — it looks phenomenal!
June 16 – 17 – I’ll spend the rest of the day I arrive back from my trek plus the 17th
June 18 – Through the same tour company, I’ll be taking an 8 hour bus ride (don’t worry, we stop four times for lunch and visits to ruins and tour sites on the way down!) to Puno, on Lake Titicaca. The ride is part of a bus hop plan, which takes you from Cusco down to La Paz in Bolivia, with stops in Puno and Copacabana.
June 19 – Spend the day in Puno, with a half day trip out to the Uros Islands, a floating island in the middle of the lake. Then I’ll hop on a 3 hour bus ride to Copacabana and cross the border into Bolivia!
June 20 – 21 – I’ll have a day and a half to spend in Copacabana, probably checking out more floating islands on Lake Titicaca and doing more exploring. Then on the evening of the 21, I take another short bus ride down to La Paz.
June 22 – June 24 — Three days of exploring La Paz that I absolutely cannot wait for. On my to do list is more research on this leg of the trip since my guide books don’t include Bolivia, but I got some great advice from a friend who was there and I’m very excited that I’ll have the chance to be in a fifth country!
June 25 – I will spend the morning in Santiago, then head to the airport to get on my Air Canada flight to Los Angeles!
HAVE FUN!!! 🙂 🙂 Miss you already!
Make sure to buy some snacks from my friend Giovana at the train station in Cusco:
http://www.kiva.org/lend/307792
And make sure to bring home a nice Latino man.
Enjoy!
It depends where you live. If you live near a cllgeoe, you might be able to sign up for a language partner , where you teach someone English and they teach you Spanish (all for free). You can call up a cllgeoe and see if they offer such a program. They are usually always looking for native English speakers. Plus, it might be fun to meet someone from Peru and get some pointers for your trip. Or you could post such a need at a cllgeoe or library. I did this myself with Japanese, and it worked out well. We met once a week, and she was really good about making me speak Japanese for half of the time. Of course, it depends who you get set up with. Since you don’t know any Spanish (at least that’s what is sounds like), I’d recommend getting a book (even out of the library) and going through that with the person. Language is definitely something learned in a relationship. That’s why it’s important to find someone to practice with. However, if that’s impossible, you can go to your library and see if they have language tapes/CD’s you can listen to. Pimaseleur (sp?) has a good reputation. Make sure to speak back out loud, not just listen. Good luck!