Merry Christmas Eve!

Dec 24^th

Despite the bad start with the plane being a bit delayed I really lucked out. When I boarded the plane there was a child in my seat. The flight attendant moved me up a few rows and I ended up having the whole row to myself, which was wonderful. I fell right asleep. The flight attendant woke me up to make sure my seat belt was fastened and to give me an eye mask and ear plugs which I thought was a nice touch. I quickly fell right back asleep, even ignoring the dinner that they were serving. I didn’t wake up until 6:30am when breakfast was served. I picked at it a little, but was still so tired that I pushed it aside and fell right back to sleep.

I arrived at JFK in NYC at 8am, we were about half an hour delayed but that was fine, because I had plenty of time to kill and would rather be sleeping on the plane than walking around aimlessly.

I got off and went through customs and re-checked my bags. Then realized that I was in the wrong terminal and would need to change. When I did this I had to go through security, which means I dragged the wine that I had bought duty-free though security. I was annoyed b/c I didn’t want to deal with this problem that I had checked on numerous times in Peru. I got the run around, people feeling sorry for me but there was nothing that they could do and so they pointed me to another person to talk too. After about an hour and a half I went back to the American Airlines check in and pleaded with the check-in agent. She was really nice and understanding and gave me a box and we wrapped the wine and both prayed that it wouldn’t break.

I went through security, grabbed a bagel at Au Bon Pain and waited what was supposed to be about an hour for my flight. My flight was delayed because the pilot didn’t show up. I was annoyed. I was so close to home, I had been traveling for three months, and was so exhausted I didn’t know what to do with myself. We waited another hour to get a replacement pilot and took the forty-minute flight from JFK to Boston.

I got off the plane and was so excited to be back in home. I was greeted with big welcome home sign from my mom and dad. As soon as my mom and I started hugging the tears started flowing and we made quite a sight at the airport. I was so happy to be back with them again!

We drove to my grandmother, Mumsie’s, house where I showered and got ready for Christmas Eve. I started feeling really light headed and upset to my stomach after I got out of the shower so I laid down for a few minutes. My mom came to check on me and told me to finish getting ready and as soon as I stood up I threw up. I felt horrible because I called my dad in to clean up the mess. I had been back home for less than an hour and already I was come up with little projects for him to do. Thank goodness I have such a great family! I enjoyed spending Christmas Eve at my cousin Colleens house with the whole family. It was great to be back with the one I love!

Bye for now.

Love,

Katie

Last Day Out of the Country for a While..

Dec 23^rd

I woke up at 5am in hopes that I could yet again get on an earlier flight. This time I was hoping to be with my Canadian friends so that we could all explore Lima together since we all had a fourteen-hour layover. I took a quick shower and packed my bag, which ended up being more difficult than I had imagined. I was exhausted after only getting an hour a half of sleep. I met the Canadians in the lobby of the hotel at 5:45am and by 6am we jumped in a taxi to the airport. I was able to switch flight, again at no charge! Although I wasn’t flying with the same airline our flights were arriving around the same time so I knew that I could find them. The flight was quick, only an hour. I was so tired that I slept the entire time. When I arrived in Cusco I grabbed my luggage and waited literally only two minutes for my Canadian friends. We all shared a huge storage locker and locked our bags so we could enjoy the day without lugging them around and worrying about them. We took a taxi to the beach area and walked around for two hours. I was surprised by the set up of the land and buildings. The beach seemed very nice (although it was too cold to actually enjoy) but there was a huge highway that ran alongside the beach. Then there were huge cliffs that divided the city. I think that they needed better community planning. We were all getting hungry so we went to a huge lunch buffet called Costa Verde. The place was absolutely stunning. It sat right over the water and was open air with huge glass screens so that the wind couldn’t get in. The food was a mix of all traditional Peruvian dishes and local seafood favorites. I loved everything but the shrimp and mango was my favorite! We even had a few drinks to celebrate having such a great trip. After lunch we walked along the water on the stone beach. We sat down and took in the scenery for about an hour, I even happened to lay down and fall asleep briefly on the rocks (shows how tired I really was!)

We decided that we had seen everything that Lima had to offer and that we should head back to the airport. We hit a lot of traffic and it took us nearly an hour to get to the airport. We got our luggage out of storage and checked in. We did some duty free shopping then had dinner at the airport food court. I settled on McDonalds because they really didn’t have any good options.

 I said by goodbyes to my Canadian friends and went to my gate. The plane was delayed about an hour and of course and I was surrounded by screaming children. I was so exhausted that all that I wanted to do was board the plan and fall fast asleep. At around midnight we finally boarded the plane, I am worried I might be in for a long night.

Bye for now. Almost home!

Love,

Katie

The Amazing RACE to Machu Picchu

Dec 22^nd

Cross that off my bucket list! It’s official, I can now say that I’ve seen four of the seven wonders of the world! Wahoo! The day started brutally early at 4am. By 4:30am we were off and hiking. Little did I realized when we started hiking that we would only be hiking for about 500 feet until we reached the gate which blocks the entrance to Machu Picchu. It was still pitch black as we started our less than five-minute hike to the gate. We sat at the entrance pleased that we would be among the first through the gate, and waited for nearly an hour. During this time it went from pitch black to light outside, although we were all exhausted. When the gates opened it became clear that this was going to be an interesting hike, we had 500 people behind us who were all racing to be the first to enter Machu Picchu. This part of the hike was supposed to take about three hours, but our group did it in under two. We literally sprinted the whole way. I fell behind the group a few times because the rocks were slippery and wet and I almost went tumbling down the mountain several times, which scared the life out of me. At points of the hike there were “monkey stairs” meaning that you actually needed to use both your hands and feet to crawl up because the steps were so narrow you shoe wouldn’t fit even half way on the step- it really seemed more like rock climbing to me. We made it to Machu Picchu at around 8am and took tons of the typical touristy pictures, which I loved. It was really nice, even though we almost killed ourselves to be there first, we got some great pictures without tons of tourists in the background. 

Mario went ahead and grabbed tickets for Wayna Picchu (“Young Mountain”) which is the mountain behind Machu Picchu. Several people in my group really wanted to hike this mountain to get beautiful pictures of Machu Picchu from above. I was exhausted, hungry and dehydrated but I didn’t want to be the only one who didn’t hike it so I decided to go with the flow. Plus I felt like I had come so far why stop now and regret it later? There are only ___ tickets to Wayna Picchu given out per day and Mario grabbed one for everyone on our hike. Our tickets allowed us to start hiking anytime after 10:30am so we still had some time to kill. Mario led us on a guided tour throughout Machu Picchu. I can’t even believe the Incas, they seem like genesis’s. At 10:30am we started off for our hike on what I later heard (not sure if its 100 factual, but I would believe it) is the most dangerous mountain in South America. That being said the hike seemed like an hour straight uphill. It was more rock climbing than normal hiking, much of the hike had ropes to hold on to. I was out of water before the reached the top and had lost the group. By the time I finally reached the top the group was getting ready to go down. I caught my breath and took some beautiful pictures.

 I usually am not afraid of heights (I mean I did jump out of a plane after all) but the hike down was terrifying. We still hadn’t eaten anything at this point and I wasn’t feeling well. My body was shaky and deprived of food and water. The group was all supposed to be meeting in town at 1pm for lunch and to gather to head back to Cusco so I felt rushed and pressed for time. I hiked and hiked and all of a sudden I started to feel like I was in a very unfamiliar place. I continued to walk a bit more and luckily found Sabio, one of the Canadians in our group who wasn’t part of the Canadian Army. Unsure what to do we decided to continue down the mountain a bit more, thinking that at least we were going the right direction and hopefully it would come out at the same place. At this point we hiked about fifteen minutes down to realize that we weren’t passing any tourists and that the path was getting more and more sketchy. We decided that we needed to head back up and find the path that we needed to be on. I didn’t know how I was going to make it. Thank god I had Sabio with me because I was at my breaking point. I felt so sick and was miserable. Luckily Sabio set the pace and we somehow make it together. We found the poorly marked path after we hiked for about half an hour. We knew that we were really late at this point. Our friends were waiting at the bottom for us, which was really sweet of them. I bought a bottle of water and felt much better even though I was holding back tears because I felt so horrible. I was relieved when we got to the restaurant called “Mother Earth” and met up with Mario and the rest of the group. We ordered food and relaxed. It was wonderful to be in a real restaurant and know that roughing it was over. We boarded the train for the hour and a half ride towards Cusco. Then we boarded a bus for another hour ride. By the time we made it back to the hotel in Cusco it was 6pm. It took a little while to reassign everyone rooms and get our bags out of storage. I was happy to have a hot shower and nice queen sized bed all to myself. I fully enjoyed getting clean and having Internet access. I called home and let the ones I love know that I survived the hike and I loved it. At 8pm our group met for a farewell dinner. We went to a nice restaurant that Mario recommended and all enjoyed feeling pampered. After we danced the night away at many of the local bars and clubs. Many of the places offered 1 free drink so we jumped around from place to place, checking out the scene and spending next to no money. I had a blast dancing the night away. It was a perfect ending to a fun trip with new friends.

Bye for now.

Love,

Katie

The Worst is Over.

Dec 21^st

Woke up at 5:30am and left at 6:30am. We had an hour and a half hike straight uphill. Then we finally got to even ground! Today was much easier in terms of steepness; most of the hike was slight up and down, but nothing drastic like the days before. We stopped at several Inca sights where I continued to be blown away by how advanced these people are. They planned everything out so neatly. I feel like this could have been a civilization that we studied in my “community planning and development” classes. Today it rained or misted almost the whole time we were hiking. It was interesting to see some of the slights, then all of a sudden not be able to see 10 feet in front of you because you were literally sitting in a cloud. We stopped for brunch around 10:30am and had a pancake with dulce de leche. I loved it, despite many of the people in my group not liking it. We continue to hike for other 2-3 hours most of which was downhill. I was able to keep up with the group, which was nice. Mario even commented that I impressed him. We arrived at the camping site around 2pm and had a late lunch. My stomach was very upset so I picked a little at lunch but gave my food to the Canadian guys to eat. After lunch I enjoyed my first shower in 3 days! For those of you who know me well, know that on any given day in the states I may take 3 showers, so you can imagine what it was like for me to go 3 days without showering. The campsite has a pay shower for $5soles (about $3USD) it was the best investment that I could have made. After I was clean I took a nap for just over an hour. I haven’t been sleeping almost at all at night so the daily naps are what save me. I woke up at 4:30pm just in time for afternoon tea. Afterwards we all decided that we were still thirty and that we should go to the local restaurant at the campsite and grab some beers. We sat outside and enjoyed the view of the beautiful mountains that quickly disappeared in the clouds. We went back to the campsite just in time for dinner at 7pm and enjoyed chicken with rice and veggies. I still had a little bit of a stomach ach so I didn’t eat too much. Afterwards we collected a pool of tips for our 22 porters since we will part tomorrow morning. We also donated items that will be useful to them since many of them don’t have appropriate gear. I felt bad that I didn’t have more to give, but I gave one of my t-shirts (may be helpful for them, as well as help to promote myself). We said our goodbyes to our porters and shook their hands; many of them kissed us and seemed very thankful. I hope that our tips were enough for them, they work so hard for us! After we said our good byes we decided that we should enjoy each other company a little bit more and have a final beer together. We all talked and the time passed quickly. At 10pm we headed back to the campsite and called it a night. I went to bed at 10:30pm. We are getting up at 3:30am to be the first ones to Machu Picchu. I have been having a blast this entire time (minus the pain I am in from hiking), but will look forward to sleeping in a real bed with my own private bathroom. I am counting the minutes till I get to Ogunquit. I can’t believe that in just 3 days I will be back in New England celebrating Christmas with my family and friends. I have been having so much fun traveling but will be excited to see everyone when I am home.

Bye for now.

Love,

Katie

Stair Master 10 Billion.

Dec 20^th

I survived! But… Today was definitely one of the hardest workouts I’ve ever had. The morning started at 5am when we all got up and got ready for the day and packed our bags. We had breakfast at 5:45am and were on the trail at 6:30am. We had a five hour hike, mostly up hill, and I was dreading every moment of it. I had slept horrible the night before. I really have only slept in a tent twice in my life and both times I had outdoorsy friends with me to push me through is. Last night I was alone in the wild, luckily I was surrounded by the Canadian Forces so I felt a little more secure. I heard all sorts of things in the night, I woke up every time someone went to the bathroom, or when animals moved around and even when it started to downpour. I was tried and as soon as we had walked for 5 minutes I was already out of breath and questioning how I’d make it through the day. Somehow I managed. We stopped about every hour for a little bit to get the group caught up with one another. The first hour and a half was uphill and seemed awful, but I had no idea what was in store for me after the break. We rested for 20 minutes and had snacks then were on our way. The next hour and a half we crossed “Dead Women’s Pass” which is 1200 stairs up. Let me clarify the stairs, they are not nice cement stairs that are evenly placed and easy to walk on, they are rocks that are all different sizes and levels, some of them are a foot and a half high. Let me tell you, I will be coming home with buns of steal, my butt is killing me! One of the Canadian Force guys, Jeff, was really nice and hiked with me the whole way. We chatted about life and it made the hike much more fun. I was pleased to make it to the top and catch up with the group. We got some great pictures and enjoyed the view, even though the clouds did roll in. We waited at the top for about 20 minutes, it was very windy, cloudy and cold.

 When it was clear that the others were still pretty far behind Mario gave us clear directions and sent our part of the group on the last hour and journey to the campsite. Luckily, this part of the trip was all downhill, which is much prefer.

 Jeff and I hiked along with six of the others in the group (even the two who hiked part of Everest!). Parts of the hike down were challenging because the rocks were all wet and very slippery. I almost fell a couple of times. Almost everyone in our group has hiking shoes which help to prevent twisted ankles. I didn’t have any, so I tried to carefully place my feet. I luckily did rent two poles which have been great for this hike, it has really helped me keep my balance, given me an arm workout, and prevented me for falling flat on my face a couple of times. We got to the campsite at 12pm (30 minutes earlier than Mario said it would take us). We waited for a few more people to arrive and had lunch. Lunch consisted of veggie pasta and was quite tasty, although I would have liked to have a little more protein. After lunch I changed into dryer clothes and took a nap for an hour and a half, which was wonderful. We had afternoon tea and biscuits at 4:30pm and followed it with an intense game of spoons where the looser had to do funny things like pushups in front of everyone and yell “ I’m a big loser” at the top of their lungs. I luckily saved myself the humiliation and never lost! We had dinner at 6:30pm which consisted of pork and rice. I really don’t like pork so I ate about half and gave the rest to one of the Canadians, Mike. Mike gave me his dessert in return, I think that was a pretty good trade J. We have an early day tomorrow, we’re getting up at 4:45am to start hiking before the sunrises to I turned myself into bed nice and early at 8pm.

Bye for now.

Love,

Katie

Let the Hiking Begin!

Dec 19^th

I woke up this morning at 6:45am to shower and get myself packed for the day. At 7:30am we all met downstairs and have breakfast together. It wasn’t my ideal breakfast, especially because I knew that I would need a lot of protein to get me through the long day of hiking. Breakfast consisted of a single flat pancake, mango juice, and a piece of bread with jam. Luckily I had brought peanut butter so I got at least a little protein. At 8:30am we loaded back on the bus with all of our duffel bags and we were off. We drove for about an hour and got to the starting point of the Inca Trail (kilometer 82). We had to show our paperwork and passport (we even got cool stamps- my passport is quickly filling up) and we were off, starting our hike at 10am. The first hour of the hike was great. I lead the way (believe it or not!), it was all flat and very easy. I was very excited to be keeping a good pace. The four hours following were completely horrible. We started to go up tons and tons of stairs. I quickly felt out of shape.

I have since learned that the Canadians who all know each other are part of the Canadian Army, and they are all in good shape. I wasn’t last, but stayed towards the back of the group for the remainder of the day. I huffed and puffed my way along, hating how awful I was feeling. We have already seen some really cool ruins and Mario has given us a lot of good information. At around 1pm we stopped for lunch. I was shocked to learn the porters carry literally everything besides water. Our group consists of two guides, 16 tourists and 22 porters. The porters basically run the whole time. When we arrived at the lunch stop they had set up a make shift kitchen and were busy cooking for us. One guy was responsible for carrying the propane tanks which they use to cook, another carries all of the pots and pans, another carries the tables and chairs, another carries all of the utensils and plates/cups/bowls, etc., its unbelievable! Lunch consisted of asparagus soup, veggies, and chicken, I was so hungry that everything tasted great! We hiked for about another hour and a half after lunch. During which time the porters cleaned up the lunch area and sprinted past us with all of the belongings so that they could set up our tents and sleeping bags before we got to the camp site. We arrived at the sight at 4pm. I was exhausted and happy that we were done for the day. The worst part for me is that today is supposed to be the “easy” day and tomorrow is supposed to be the most difficult! I am in trouble! I really don’t know how I’m going to make it through the day. Everyone seems to be a little scared about tomorrow, but I am especially scared since I was towards the back of the group. Let’s hope that tomorrow I am well rested and ready to go. Tomorrow is 9 kilometers straight uphill. We pass “Dead Women’s Pass” which is supposed to be awful. I hate going uphill, I am fine with the distance as long as it is straight. I carried my computer as well as a lot of electronics that I was afraid to leave in the hotel. Tomorrow I am definitely going to put more in my pack for the porter to carry. I feel kind of bad doing that, but I literally might die if I don’t. We officially met all of the porters when we got the campsite. We have 2 cooks, 6 guys carrying our backpacks and sleeping bags, was well as 4 people carrying the tents, and 10 people carrying all of the food that we will eat. Each porter is only allowed to carry 25 kilo, a law set in place by the Peruvian Government. There are several checkpoints and sometimes some of the bags need to be rearranged. I was shocked that the guys were a range of ages from 21-48 years old. Most of them had children and families back home. Almost all of them only wore sandals- which blows my mind. Our cook recently won a race the same distance and parts of the Inca trail that we could be hiking over four days. He completed the race in 3 hours and 45mins. That’s pretty astonishing because we hike at least 5 hours a day for 3 days straight and about 3 hours on day 4. We had tea and popcorn at 5pm and played cards for about an hour. At 7pm we all had dinner which was trout, rice, and veggies. I wasn’t a huge fan of the meal, but I knew I needed to eat something. We were all tired and have a long hard day ahead of us so we went to bed at 9pm.

Bye for now. Pray that I make it through tomorrow!

Love,

Katie

Gotta Get Out Those Hiking Shoes!

Dec 18^th

Although I wouldn’t consider it “sleeping in” waking up at 7:15am felt great after getting up everyday in the five o-clock hour in the Amazon. I finished packing and got ready for my hike. I was still a little bit nervous to not know anyone and I was especially nervous that my bag was going to be overweight even though I tried my hardest to only pack the essentials. I headed downstairs at 7:45am and weighted my bag in the lobby with a scale that was provided for us. I quickly realized that I was right and my bag was too heavy so I tried to shift things around, the worst part was that I still had not put my sleeping bag in my duffel bag, which will add at least another kilo. I did the best that I could and crossed my fingers then put my regular backpack in storage.

Breakfast was included with our room, but I didn’t have much time to eat since I had spent so long trying to reconfigure my bag situation. I grab some yogurt and granola and sat with the Canadians.  They seem really nice, they all definitely know each other so they already have a bond, but they were all very welcoming to me.

Soon after I had a few quick bites it was time to leave. We all carried our duffels to the van and formed an assembly line passing our bags to Mario who would then throw the bags to the top of the van where the driver would secure them down. As Mario received my bag he made a grunting noise and said “that ones definitely overweight.” I hoped it wouldn’t be more of an issue and jumped in the van and we were off.

            

First stop was at a spot known as “sexy momma” were we saw Peruvian culture and saw the work of the Incas even though huge amount of the stone work was destroyed by the Spaniards. There was also have a statue of Christ, I think they call it ‘Blanco Christo,” that looks very much like Christ the redeemer.

Next stop was at a small Peruvian village where the women make many wearable things. We saw the process of getting the wool, dying it, spinning it into yarn, and making clothing out of it. The women in this particular village are the wives to the porters who will be carrying our bags. We saw many of the towns’ children. I feel bad that their lives are hanging around while their moms sew and sell things to tourists and that all they really have to look forward to is growing up to do the same thing. Our guide, Mario, explained to us how important the tourism dollars are to these people and pointed out the improvements that have been made to many of the local house, from cheap material to bricks with real roofs. We all laughed because a couple of the houses even had satellite TV- so we all concluded that we must be getting ripped off. I still had no cash and had done my shopping the day before so I looked around and took some pictures.

From there we headed to lunch. We went to a Peruvian buffet with all organic food. I tired many typical dished, but wasn’t a huge fan. We have learned a lot about the food here, for example Peru has 3,000 different kinds of potatoes. The Incas also were very smart with growing crops and did all sorts of things to make different kinds of crops grow at different levels of land. I’m quickly starting to realize how smart and civilized these people were even thought they lived thousands of years ago. I was lucky enough to be able to charged the whole bill on my credit card and took the cash solving my ATM dilemma. I was so relieved!

Our next stop was to get our energy. We stopped at a local bar and all tried two types of corn beer, one plain and one with strawberry. I thought the plain one was horrible, but the strawberry one was quite tasty. Mario showed us the typical way to drink here in Peru, spill a little on the ground to start off to give thanks to mother earth, blow on the beer to gift thanks to the spirits, and lastly cheers to everyone. We also played a typical drinking game that was unlike anything I’d ever seen before, but loved the game. Basically you get gold coins (a little bigger than quarters) and throw it at this draw-looking table that had different holes. In the center there is a frog with an open mouth. Each hole has a different point value and the frogs’ mouth is the highest point. You stand back about 7 feet and throw the 12 gold coins towards the table, when your finished you open the draw and count up the points depending on which hole you got the coins into. The scores are recorded and tallied at the end. I was really bad at the game, but had a lot of fun playing. I need to find one of those games for home!

Once we had lots of energy we were ready for our first real ‘hike.” Which was 200 steps up to the Sun God Shine.  This was the first time we got to see the work of the Incas up close. I was impressed to see two “men” carved into the side of a mountain. This blows New Hampshire’s “Old Man in the Mountain” out of the water. The mans faces are located so that the sun shines perfectly on them in the morning and also so that the southern cross constellation is ideally located next to it. The hike wasn’t too bad, lots of steps which I hate, but Mario seemed to think that we all did well and that we’d make it up Machu Picchu. The next few days will be the true test.

After we returned to the bus for a two-minute bus ride to our hotel. We settled into our rooms. I am luck and again got a double room all to myself so I spread out and tried to decide what I should do to make my backpack lighter. I also took a quick shower.  We had the rest of the afternoon to do what we wanted and the group really wanted to bond so we decided to decided to grab a few bottles of alcohol and sit in the open courtyard and get to know each other. I was really glad to get to know everyone better. The group seems great; I really enjoyed hearing about peoples’ lives and travel stories. We grabbed some dinner at a local restaurant that was nothing special and shared each other company. I think this is going to be a really fun trip, even if the hiking does kill me.

I went to bed at 11am, knowing I would need to rest up and have my energy for the long day of hiking ahead of us!

Bye for now.

Love,

Katie

Getting Ready for the Looong Trek.

Byee Amazon!

Dec 17^th

It was painful to wake up this morning at 5am. I was nervous about meeting the people that I was going to be hiking with. I hardly slept all night, instead I tossed and turned wondering, “would I be the only solo traveler,?” “Would the hike kill me?- I really haven’t trained for this hike at all,” “Do I have everything I need?” I went to the dining room at 5:30am, the family was late and Hugo, seemed annoyed. The family and I both agreed that we were leaving way earlier than necessary though so I didn’t mind waiting. We left at 6am for the airport. The boat ride back to the busses was significantly shorter than on the way to the lodge, it only took us an hour and twenty minutes. We took the one hour bus ride to the airport in Puerto Maldonado and I slept almost the whole way.

We were dropped off at the airport at 8:45am. I was excited when we arrived to see that the airport wasn’t too busy. Hugo asked one of the airline employees if it was possible for me to jump on the earlier flight and they said it might be possible but that the flight was pretty full and I’d have to wait. I told Hugo I’d take the risk and at least try to get on the flight, so we said our goodbyes and he and the Gap Adventures bus drove away. Just as he drove away tons of people came in and waited in line. I followed suit and when I got to the counter I explained how I was nervous about getting altitude sickness and how I was going to be hiking the Inca trail and needed extra time to prepare myself. To my luck the airline employee understood and got me a seat on the plane (for no additional charge!). I went through security and met up with the family. Even though it was only 9am we were had all been up for hours and it was almost 100 degrees in the tiny airport with no air conditioning, so we all decided that ice cream was exactly what we needed. We only had a wait about half an hour before we could board the plane. I really lucked out because the airline changed my fight for free and they upgraded me to priority seating with extra legroom. I sat next to an interesting couple in their late sixties who had just gotten married and were enjoying being old, in love and adventurous together! It gave me hope!

   

The flight was only about thirty minutes and I met the family as we got off the plane. We gathered our luggage and said out goodbyes. I looked for a Gap Adventures agent to get a free ride to the hotel, but couldn’t find one. I finally gave up looking and grabbed a taxi for $10. I got to the hotel in Cuzco at around 11am.

Hello Cuzco!

 I checked in and called the Gap representative to inform her that I had arrived and found out that our group would be meeting later that evening. I checked into my room and was pleasantly surprised to learn that I would have a single. The room was nice, a bit dated, but I was pleased!  I spread out in the nice queen sized bed and enjoyed being in a hotel with electricity. I showered and went online for the first time in nearly a week. I skyped home and let my parents know that I was alive. At this point it was almost 1pm and I was starving. I dropped off laundry at the front desk to be washed and returned to me later in the evening and had lunch at the hotel restaurant. I knew that I would need some essentials for the trip so I set off to shop. I also realized that I had little cash on me and was waiting for my parents to transfer money into my checking account so I could withdraw money. I set off in hopes to find a store where I could buy everything that I needed (a headlamp, a water bottle, warm clothes, a hat, a day backpack, a pancho etc.) After walking around for almost two hours I realized that credit card machines in Cuzco practically doesn’t exist. I bought the essentials with the little cash I had. I felt stuck. I hate having money issues. I have money, but not having access to it is one of the most frustrating feelings in the world. I went back to the hotel and attempted to sort through my belongings to figure out what I should bring on my hike. We each have porters to carry our bags and we can only take 6 kilos worth of belongings- only about 12 pounds, which really isn’t much at all.

At 6:30pm I went downstairs and met everyone that I would be hiking with over the next 5 days. Everyone seems friendly. A majority of the group seems to be Canadian and they seem to know each other. There are sixteen of us in total. I was surprised that there was only one other American in the group. We had a briefing on what to expect and went over all of the information that we needed to know. I had to rent a sleeping bag, air mattress, and hiking poles, all of which needed to be paid for. I used up the tiny bit of cash that I had left and prayed that the money had been successfully transferred into my account. As my luck would have it, it the money didn’t go through. The other American, Chan, had been friendly to me at the briefing so we decided to go out and walk around the town together and grab some food. Not even thinking I assumed that the restaurant would take credit card but as my luck would have it, they didn’t. Luckily, Chan was a good friend and bought dinner for me. Stressed about my money situation we went back to the hotel to finish packing. I spend most of the evening on the phone catching up with friends and family. Then headed to bed at 1am just in time to get a few hours sleep.

Bye for now.

Love,

Katie. 

In the Deep Dark Jungle

Dec 16^th

I woke up again this morning at 5:45am and went to the dining room for breakfast at 6am. The family arrived at 6:10am, still late but getting a little earlier! We had a buffet breakfast of toast, fruit, bacon, and ham. After breakfast Hugo brought us to the gear hut and lent us all rubber boots to wear since the area we would be visiting today was very muddy. After we were all geared up we left for our hike. We took a twenty-minute boat ride and then went on a two and a half hour hike. We saw a snake eating a frog which was very national geographic, especially because this particular type of snake only eats once every two weeks. We also saw a snake skeleton, insects, and lots of big cat footprints in the mud.

 It was very muddy. We were all slipping around, I was so glad I didn’t fall over, even though I came close several times. We got to a lake where we went on a boat ride and saw more Macaw (it was really impressive how lucky we were, usually people don’t see them as frequently as we did) and crocodiles.

After our boat ride we went to a campsite where we eat our picnic lunches. My feet were very sore at this point and sweaty from the rubber boots in the extreme heat. Hugo had recommended that we wear long socks, but I didn’t have any with me, blisters were definitely forming. The hike back to the boat took us an hour and forty-five minutes, we were all tired and hot at this point; we were relieved to finally get back to the lodge. I still didn’t have my key at this point and Hugo informed me that there wasn’t a spare anywhere at the lodge, so after dinner they would have to break open the wardrobe with an axe.  I felt horrible, but I needed my passport, laptop, phone and everything else to get back to the states. I went back to the room and searched a bit more for the key with no luck. I took a quick dip in the river again with the family, but I was nervous to stay in too long since my legs were cut up and filled with blisters from the rubber boots. I cold feel fish biting at my ankles which scared me a little. I prayed that I wouldn’t get any crazy infections, but the water felt very refreshing. Afterwards I went back to the room and showered and took a much-needed nap. Dinner was at 7pm and consisted of leek soup, steak, rice, and banana pudding. I have really been impressed with the food here. Hugo also told me the good news that my key had been found earlier that afternoon. I was so relieved that they didn’t have to break my wardrobe and to finally get my stuff back! At dinner we discussed plans for the morning. Since it takes three hours to get back to Puerto Maldonado we have to wake up super early. Breakfast in the morning will be at 5:30am and we would be leaving at 6am sharp. He warned us not to be late, I wondered if the family would be on time. I was a little annoyed that my flight wasn’t until 12:40pm and the family had an earlier flight and I would be waiting around the airport. I decided that I should try to hop on their flight and get into Cuzco a littler earlier and give myself more time to adjust to the altitude. I am starting to get really worried about the altitude. Last year I went to Denver (the mile-high city) and was wicked sick, Cuzco is almost two miles above sea level and altitude sickness is very common. I went back to my room and packed my bags and went to bed early at 9:30pm.

Bye for now.

Love,

Katie

Crocodile Hunting ...

Dec 15^th

I’m not sure if it was my malaria medicine or my thoughts of what I saw on the hike but I had horrible bug nightmares all night long. It was also approximately 95 degrees so I was constantly dripping with sweat and miserable. All in all it was a bad night of sleep for me. Hugo told us that he had a guest last week who couldn’t take the heat and insisted on being moved to a room with air-conditioning. Since the lodge doest have electricity changing rooms wasn’t an option so the man forfeited his whole trip and demanded to go back to the airport. I wasn’t quite at that level but I can understand what the guy went through. Hugo woke me up at 5:45am since my phone was locked in the wardrobe drawer and I could get to it. I met Hugo at the dining hall at 6am the time we were supposed to meet but the family was a bit slower moving and didn’t arrive until 6:15am. We had ham, bacon, eggs, toast and fruit for breakfast all of which was really good. We left the lodge at 7am and took a twenty-minute boat ride to a trail where we went on a one-hour hike. We saw all sorts of neat things like butterflies, birds, and tons of ants. We also saw so many neat trees like the pregnant palm and also some of the biggest trees I've ever seen in my life!

 We finally reached another dock where there were canoes parked. We jumped on a canoe and paddled around a while.

We saw more birds, huge “strangler” trees (which were really neat because we could stand inside of them)and more Macaws.

 It took us another hour to hike back to the boat and then another 20-minute boat ride to get back to the lodge. It was only 11am at this point, so we had some free time. I showered and napped. I set my alarm for 12:45pm so I would be on time for lunch at 1pm. Somehow I managed to sleep through the alarm and woke up at 1:11pm. I frantically got dressed and walked quickly to the dining room. The family was also running late, and I ended up beating them, so I didn’t feel so bad about oversleeping. For lunch we had chicken, tomatoes, fries, and papaya. After lunch we had more free time. I continued to look for my key, which was still missing and rested a bit more. From 4- 5:30pm I went to the river with the family. The river is runoff from the Amazon and the water is the same dark brown color. I was nervous about going in the water especially because I couldn’t see into it, but Hugo promised us that it was safe. I enjoyed relaxing in the cool water. The heat here is killer. The three boys in the family had a great time playing; I wasn’t as brave and only went up to my waist. Afterwards I showered and we met at 6:30pm for our evening activity, crocodile hunting! I guess hunting is the wrong word to use since we didn’t actually kill the crocodiles, more so just spotted them. At 6:30pm the Amazon is DARK. Without the help of lanterns and flight lights its nearly impossible to see anything. We all loaded onto the boat and turned off all of our lights and Hugo used a huge spot light to scan the banks of the river. Hugo claims that when the light shins on a crocodile the eyes shine red and its easy to spot and get close, however I have good eyes and I was looking hard and somehow never managed to spot any of the crocodiles until we were up close. Hugo even was able to catch a baby crocodile and bring it onto the boat for us each to hold. This was definitely the highlight of the trip for me! I loved every second of it!

It was really cool being on the Amazon at night because there was heat lightening that would illuminate the sky. It was beautiful. At one point we turned off the boat and all of the lights and just listened. Its clear most of the millions of living things that live in the jungle of the Amazon are nocturnal. I was so impressed at the sounds as we sat in complete darkness. We had a buffet style dinner with steak, soup, and lots of veggies. I was exhausted after getting up so early and having a full day of activities so I went to bed early at 9:30pm!

Bye for now.

Love,

Katie