We’re going to Peru, South America!

Peru or Bust

This is the year of Rob’s 40^th birthday. For Christmas, I got him a book on South America with the intent that his 40^th birthday present would be a trip of his choosing to the sixth continent on his travel destination list. He’s been to North America (obviously), Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia, with only South America and Antarctica left. I’ve traveled to Europe and I’ll get to South America on this trip but I have a lot of catching up to do.

The other half of Rob’s present was planning a trip. Honestly, he loves that stuff – thank goodness – and he chose Peru so he could visit both Machu Picchu and the Amazon rainforest.

He’s come up with a pretty neat itinerary for our trip the first two weeks in June.

Itinerary:

June 2: Drive from Austin to Houston

Juni loves her ‘vacation home’ and Ted and Helen love having her (for the most part: I think they’d appreciate it more if she slept in past 6:45 a.m. but she’s pretty demanding that Ted take her on a walk every morning). We’ll do the three-hour drive from Austin to Houston sometime on Saturday so we can visit before our Sunday flight.

June 3: Fly from Houston to Lima, Peru, South America

Our flight is at 3:50 p.m. and Rob’s family will take us to the airport in the afternoon where we’ll catch a six-and-half-hour flight to Lima.There is no time zone change between Texas and Peru so we’ll get into Lima at 10:19 p.m. We have to get up pretty early the next day for the next leg of the trip so we’ll just stay at the nearest hotel.

June 4-7: Refugio Amazonas, Tambopato Region, Peru

Bright and early on Monday, June 4, we fly from Lima via Cuzco to Puerto Maldonado. We get in at 7:30 a.m. and we’ll be met at the airport by Rainforest Expeditions staff. We’re going to stay three nights at Refugio Amazonas, a 32-bedroom lodge on the Tambopato River operated by Rainforest Expeditions, which is “a Peruvian ecotourism company that strives to help people experience the wild rainforests of Tambopata in a sustainable manner.”

The lodge is a three-and-a-half-hour boat ride upriver from Puerto Maldonado – they’re in radio contact with civilization, so no worries. We’ll get to kayak on the Tambopata River; walk through the rainforest with a guide; see parrots, parakeets and monkeys; and stay in private-but-not-soundproof rooms “separated from one another by light cane fencing, with drapes instead of doors.” It should be quite an experience.

June 7-10: Cuzco, Peru

Another early morning on Thursday, June 7, to take the return three-and-a-half-hour boat ride downriver to Puerto Maldonado, where we’ll catch a short flight to Cuzco. We stay in Cuzco for two and a half days to acclimate to the altitude in preparation for our hike to Machu Picchu.

Cuzco (sometimes spelled Cusco) is at 11,200 ft and is the historic capital of the Inca Empire. We’ll do some sightseeing – but no drinking: alcohol exacerbates altitude sickness so we plan to avoid it. Apparently, it takes a month to truly acclimate to the altitude but we’ll have only two and a half days. Wish us luck!

On Saturday evening, June 9, we have a pre-trek talk with the tour company.

June 10-13: Machu Picchu

We’re taking the four days/three nights 26-mile Inca Trail to Machu Picchu hiking tour with the Llama Path tour company. I had no idea how the Machu Picchu trips work but I learned that not only do you have to use a Peruvian-licensed tour company but you also must get a permit to be on the Inca Trail. The Peruvian government issues a maximum of 500 trek permits per day for the Inca Trail and they sell out months in advance. Rob booked our trip in mid-February, sending our preferred date and a backup date for departure to the company, and then watched the permits continue to disappear on the website while he waited to hear whether we got permits or not. We did, but they sold out four months in advance. Oh, and the 500-permit limit includes all the porters and guides for the tours so only about 200 tourists are on the trail per day.

I’ll write more about the Machu Picchu portion of our trip in another post.

June 13-14: Cuzco

After sunrise at Machu Picchu on Wednesday morning, June 13, we’ll take the train back to Cuzco. We’ll relax for the rest of Wednesday and sightsee on Thursday.

June 15: Cuzco to Lima to Houston

On Friday morning, June 15, we head to the Cuzco airport to fly back to Lima. We have a full day to see some of Lima before we catch the red-eye at 11:45 p.m., arriving in Houston awfully early on Saturday, June 16. Luckily, Rob’s family is awesome and they’ll pick us up that early so we can back to their house, pet Juni and sleep.

June 16: Houston to Austin

At some point on Saturday – although it may be Sunday if we’re exhausted – we’ll head back to Austin and reality.

And that's the trip to Peru.