Preparations: Five Weeks Out

My First Travel Post!

We are currently in our planning stages for the trip. We leave 5 weeks from last Friday! It`s coming up so quickly but yet not quick enough. The flights have been booked. Well Savannah`s get`s booked, I am flying stand by so it`s never confirmed… but I have submitted the request for tickets so it`s all rolling. We depart from Miami on Jan 10th and get into Lima, Peru late that night. Back into Miami on Feb 7th and then we just have to get home from there. What`s left? Who even knows! Neither of us has ever backpacked before! Thank goodness for amazing friends with all the knowledge anyone could hope to have access to.

So the next things to accomplish are book Machu Picchu, which I am doing this week! We decided on the 5 day trek… a little less hiking each day and more time to enjoy the experience we figure. Plus, it`s cheaper. 🙂 And double plus, I have never REALLY hiked… so here`s hoping I make it! Trying to cram in as much cardio to prepare before we head out! It`s now when I wish I had been “cramming in cardio to prepare” for years earlier instead of getting serious about it 5 weeks before a massive massive hike! Oh well… what can you do!

So book that, yup. Then we have to figure out our vaccinations…. Savannah thinks she has everything already from her Brazil trip 5 years ago…. I have some that haven`t “expired” since school, but have to get the Twinrix for sure and am trying to figure out if I need Yellow Fever. Everyone has a different answer for that one. And man vaccinations are pricey! Me being the pile of paranoia I am, I`ll probably spend the cash and get it–just to be safe. Gah!

I`m meeting up with John Thompson next weekend in Edmonton to get our backpacks sorted out. He has tonnes and is oh so generous to lend us some so we don`t have to buy our own. See what I mean by great friends? GREAT friends. Between his supplies and Erin`s tell all tales and vivid memory of her own trip which we are copying and shortening–we are set. Or so we hope! We have a detailed list of “Things to Bring”… about the amount of stuff I would bring for a long weekend in Eastern Canada… not so much for 4 weeks in a foreign country. But hey, this is backpacking! Totally different story. I mean, we are going to survive off only 2 pairs of socks for ONE MONTH. That is impressive… or gross, or something. Ha! Don`t worry Mom… the hostels have laundry (at least most of them do… I think…).

So anyways, I started this blog. For many reasons. Boredom being one. Keeping my parents sane is another big one. We won`t have any phones down there and I know they aren`t wild about that… so this way they have some method to track where I am, what I`m doing, how alive or close to alive I am. Yup, merry Christmas Mom & Dad! This is your gift! Haha…. Also, I think forcing myself to write in this will turn out to be mostly for me. After 28 days in 3 countries experiencing things I have never even imagined, things will probably get a little cloudy. And years from now, when I want to brag about my big trip to someone, it`ll be handy to be about to recount silly little details that I`ll write about in here. I don`t really know.

Oh! And I`m including some pictures of where we will be going… just to make you all uber jealous. 🙂