2008 - Washington DC
2010 - Cuba
2011 - DR, Bermuda, & Cruise
2012 - DR & Costa Rica
2013 - Cruise, CR, & USA
2014 - SE Asia
The Year Off 2015 - 2016
- Preamble
- Thailand & Malaysia
- Italy
- Germany, Belgium, & Lux
- Czech, Poland, & Germany
- Austria, Slovakia, & Hungary
- Slovenia, Croatia, Austria & Germany
- England & Scotland
- Turkey
- Colombia
- Peru: Lima & Amazon
- Peru: Cusco & Inca Trail
- Peru: Cusco to Lima
- Mexico, Guatemala, & Belize
- New Zealand
- Australia & Thailand
2017 - The Balkans
2017 - Hungary, Romania, & Switzerland
2018 - New York
2018 - Amsterdam, Poland, & The Baltics
2019 - Costa Rica
2019 - France
2020 - Thailand
2023 - Mexico
2023 - Iceland & Cruise
2024 - Philippines
2025 - Japan
2025 - Iceland
Short Trips
Lists
Links
| November 1, 2015 - Sunday | Lima | Peru |
Did laundry, and then in the evening joined another group tour, also with G
Adventures. This is the Inca Trail hike to Machu Picchu. This is the one I
had been looking forward to all year. At dinner I tried alpaca meat.
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| November 2, 2015 - Monday | Cusco | Peru |
We flew to Cusco and had a short guided tour of the town. At the hotel we
got our backpacks ready for the hike and left the excess luggage in the
hotel storage. My pack weighted about 18 pounds without water. Not too bad.
This other girl on the trip had her pack weight at about 30 pounds. She
actually had to have her boyfriend carry it on part of the hike.
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| November 3, 2015 - Tuesday | Ollantaytambo | Peru |
Short tour of the Incan ruins in Cusco, and then we got on a bus that took
us to various places in the Sacred Valley. The countryside has lots of
farming built into the hills. We stopped at a small market and I got to feed
the alpacas. We stopped at Pisac to see the Incan stuff there. We also
stopped at Ollantaytambo which had more Incan stuff, including the stepped
terraces where they farmed. We spent the night in the town. The place we
stayed at had a game where you try to throw coins into the mouth of a metal
frog. Very difficult. 
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| November 4, 2015 - Wednesday | Inca Trail | Peru |
Day one of the Inca trail hike. Near the staging point I bought a hat with a
wide brim off a lady selling them. I was glad I did, it came in handy both
on this hike and future travels. Anyways, we set off on the trail. A herd of
goats was spotted shortly afterwards, and later on in the distance we could
see more Incan ruins. The porters carrying our tents, food, and supplies had
run ahead and had everything setup for us when we arrived. Those guys were
amazing. Some of them did it barefoot, others in nothing more than thin
sandals. The food was excellent.
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| November 5, 2015 - Thursday | Inca Trail | Peru |
Day two of the Inca trail hike. We made it to the highest point of the hike,
Dead Woman’s Pass, at 4,215 meters above sea level (13,828 ft). I had no
problems with the altitude, and the rest of the group seemed okay. I will
admit on some of the steep uphill sections I did have to pause to catch my
breath. We descended to our campsite. It was a bit rainy and damp. On the
way I slightly twisted my ankle. One of the girls on the trip is a
physiotherapist, so she wrapped up my ankle. Actually, on this trip we had
two physiotherapists, two doctors, and a veterinarian.
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| November 6, 2015 - Friday | Inca Trail | Peru |
Day three of the Inca trail hike. This was the longest section, but it also
had the best views. We saw more Incan ruins, and got to explore one of them,
Sayaqmarca. Continuing on, we saw even more ruins before getting to the camp
site. My ankle hurt in the morning, but after lunch it was fine.
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| November 7, 2015 - Saturday | Machu Picchu! | Peru |
Day four of the Inca trail hike. Actually not much of a hike today. We had
to get up at 3am so the porters could put away the tents and cleanup the
camp site. They are only allowed to take the train back at a certain time,
so they needed everyone out of there early to make it. So we stood around
waiting for the sun to rise, but I didn’t mind. It was exciting to finally
get to Machu Picchu. We got to the Sun Gate and could see it off in the
distance. Continuing on we finally arrived. We took the standard pictures of
ourselves and the group and then walked around and explored the ruins. Very
cool place. 
 I have to admit I felt a little resentment to the other tourists at Machu Picchu that just took the train/bus up to it. I felt like they didn’t earn it. A couple years later when I talked to someone who also did the hike they said they felt the same way. In hindsight its kind of silly, but that is how I felt at the time. After we were done we took the bus down to the town, Aguas Callentes. We had lunch and the group ordered a guinea pig. It was deep fried and did not taste good to me. We then took the train back to Cusco, where a nice hot shower awaited.  |
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| November 8, 2015 - Sunday | Cusco | Peru |
| The tour ends this morning. I transferred from the hotel to a hostel (private room). The lady checking me I spoke no English (or pretended not to), but using my Spanish I had no problems. Was proud of that. I then met back up with some of the people from the tour and we hung out near the main square and then had dinner and drinks with them. The drinks were at an Irish bar. We come all this way for Heineken. Oh well. They were leaving Cusco and I was staying for a while. | ||