And so it begins...Egypt/Austria/India trip 2006-2007

Friday - Saturday, December 29 - 30, 2006
Friday morning at 8:30 EST I left home to head for the airport for a trip that will last me the next 5 weeks. I consider it to be a bad sign when you are awoken at 6:00 am by United's instant update saying that your 9:30 am flight is already delayed until 11:15 am, but that is exactly what happened. Not exactly the most promising way to start out the trip. Fortunately I had given myself a long layover in Chicago and the flight did leave around 11:30, so I made it to ORD with plenty of time to catch the flight to FRA. Bharat got to the airport around the same time that I landed, so he met me at my gate and we walked over to the C terminal RCC. * We had about 15 minutes or so to hang out there before boarding our flight - UA 944.

Note to those of you who care (you know who you are): Bharat and I were in the C class mini-cabin in seats 9H and 9J. I have never sat in that mini cabin - I think as a group 'quiet' isn't really what we are going for. I know that some people on the boards love it for the quiet and others don't like because the pitch is a few inches less than that of the main biz cabin. I didn't mind it but I probably wouldn't sit there again. It was annoying to be back in biz minus and have the person in front of me recline back onto my feet.

The flight was uneventful and we landed in FRA on time. We stopped by the C-concourse 'arrivals lounge' (aka the RCC). Bizarely you now get an invite with your boarding pass for this - and it calls it an arrivals lounge which I think is being a bit loose with the term considering what other international airlines provide. Anyway, we both took a shower, knowing that we had a long day of travel remaining and then we moved over to the LH Senator Lounge in the B concourse.

Our original plan - and I use that term loosely because we hadn't planned much - called for us to fly to CAI and then go to the train station and take the night train to LXR. On the flight to FRA we started questioning that plan and decided we really aren't train people...and so in the lounge I pulled out my computer and we looked for flights from CAI-LXR. EgyptAir had flights but we couldn't book them on-line because they needed to be paper tickets. Still, we now had a new plan so we adjusted our hotel reservations and figured we would just buy the tickets when we got to Cairo airport.

By the time we were waiting to board LH 582 from FRA-CAI I was starting to die. I got on, settled into my seat, put up the footrest (love that airlines outside the US don't wake you up to put it down before takeoff) and fell asleep for the next 4 hours. Sadly I missed the meal service, which looked quite nice if the menu was any indication. But I awoke feeling much more human and ready to face one more flight...

After clearing customs and immigration in CAI Bharat and I made our way to the main terminal and found an EgyptAir office where we bought tickets to LXR for the 5:30 pm flight that day - about 2 hours from the time of purchase. We checked in and checked our luggage and by that time we only had an hour until we boarded. I again slept on the plane to LXR (many of you are used to the fact that I can not stay awake on planes, but Bharat was a bit amazed by how quickly and thoroughly I fall asleep upon getting into my seat on every airplane).

From LXR we hopped into a cab to the Sheraton Luxor Resort. I am under-impressed with the place, but I will say our balcony overlooks the Nile and the view is incredible. It was about 8pm and we were both starving, so we grabbed dinner at one of the restaurants at the hotel before showering and going to sleep.

Sunday December 31, 2006
The thing about traveling is that your body clock can get pretty messed up. While I fell asleep with no problem I was also wide awake at 4:00 am and could not get back to sleep. Bharat woke up around 6:00 and so we decided we may as well get up and start our day early since we had a lot of sight-seeing on our agenda.

After breakfast we grabbed a cab and headed to Karnak temple. Now, for those of you who have travelled with me you know that my idea of touring 'old shit' (using the words of our dear friend JD) is to go through it at a fairly quick pace - checking it out but not dragging it out. So imagine the terror I felt when Bharat started laying out an itinerary that sounded something like this:

9am -12pm Karnak temple
12pm - 3/4pm - Luxor temple
4pm -? Luxor museum

...3 hours in each of the temples? I figured I could just about do all three things on the list by noon... I decided to calmly nod and smile and see how the morning went. I figured that worst case I'd ditch him and go shopping.

Karnak temples were, as stated above, the first stop. Very impressive and even I enjoyed walking around. My terror slowly subsided as Bharat seemed to be keeping a decent pace touring - and by about 10am he said 'I think we're done'...in a little over an hour. Whew. So we moved on to Luxor temple, which was much smaller and really took us very little time to walk through. We strolled along the east bank of the Nile and enjoyed the view and the fabulous sunshine of the day. Since it was barely 11am at this point we decided to re-think our plan and head to the west bank.















We found a cab and hired the driver for the day - for the bargain price of about $24. He drove us to the west bank where our first stop was the Colosses of Menmon. Bharat had read the entire Lonely Planet Egypt book and so he gave me history lessons as we rode around :) I was sidetracked by the history lesson by the cargo of the vehicle that we were following...I mean, it isn't often that you follow a pickup truck that is driving around two camels in its bed :)

The second stop was the Valley of the Kings. We did bought the three tomb pass and headed for the tomb of Tuthmosis III. This tomb was apparently recommended in the Lonely Planet Egypt. My guide (aka Bharat) informed me that king did not want robber to find his tomb and so he was in the most secluded spot and it was built in such a way that it was hard to get to. I should have paid more attention to the details in that statement. The massive amount of steps that one had to climb to get up to the entrance was like a morning workout on the stairclimber. Just when I thought 'whew, made it' as we were winding around in a cave there appeared a massive staircase down. All I could think was 'I am going to have to climb back up this...'. I will say the tomb was worth it. It was really amazing inside. The paint is still so vivid on the walls, and the detail is incredible. Well worth the trip, although we were both wishing we had followed the advice of Lonely Planet and brought a bottle of water with us.


Note: you can't take cameras into the tombs with you, so the picture on the left is from the Egyptian tourism site but is a picture of the above mentioned tomb.

Our last stop on the west bank was the Temple of Hatshepsut. Very impressive scenary - in fact the temple itself is almost overshadowed by the setting.

By this time it was about 3pm and we were both pretty exhausted - not to mention that we hadn't eaten since breakfast (at 7:30am) - so we made our way back to the driver and said we were ready to go back to Luxor. We got dropped off in town and made our way to the first place that looked like we could get quick edible food - Murphy's Irish Pub. As Matt always says, you can find an Irish pub anywhere in the world....although I have to admit the fish and chips were not quite authentic - or in any way good - but the beer was ;)

Tonight is New Year's Eve. Bharat and I are not planning anything crazy - we have a lot to accomplish in the way of sightseeing this week - but are going to grab dinner and some drinks. First, however, I'm going to take a nap...

* Glossary for my non FT friends:
FT - flyertalk
RCC - Red Carpet Club
C class - buxiness class
LH - Lufthansa
ORD - Chicago O'hare
FRA - Frankfurt
CAI - Cairo
LXR - Luxor
HYD - Hyderabad, India
DEL - Delhi, India
BOM - Mumbai (Bombay) India

Machu Picchu

Wednesday, July 5, 2006


We woke up early Wednesday for breakfast prepared for another day of making cement to finish up the wash area that we started on Monday. Unfortunately we also woke up to no water in the entire building – any of the buildings at the Alburgue, actually. We soon found out there was no running water in the surrounding neighborhood. Hmmm….I had been planning to shower…. Anyway, one of the key ingredients to making cement is water so that put a damper on our plans. Instead Jacy, Alice and I ate breakfast and then began organizing all of the donations for Friday nights gift exchange.

Brian stopped in to check on us and told us we pretty much had some free time since there wasn’t much we could do and no one knew when the water was coming back on. So after we organized we decided to go into town and do some shopping.

I should mention here that the original plan was that the three of us were going to Macchu Pichu on Wednesday night. Well, actually we were supposed to leave Wednesday by bus for Ollantaytambo and check it out before catching a train up to Aguas Calientes. From there we would catch the train Thursday morning to Macchu Pichu. Globe Aware/Brian were supposed to organize this, but Brian had come to us on Monday evening and said that there was no availability on those days. So the plan had changed to a Thursday/Friday trip. Now we were planning to leave Thursday morning for Ollantaytambo, catch the train to Aguas Calientes in the afternoon and spend the day/evening there, and then go to Maccu Picchu on Friday. The problem was that Brian was an incredibly unorganized coordinator and none of us were feeling particularly confident in his ability to plan this. We kept asking – over and over again – and he kept assuring us that we were going. We asked to get some sort of documentation – we had already forked over $160 for the trip – but for some reason we were unable to get anything on paper…

Before we left for Cusco central we stopped by to again ask Brian about the trip. He again assured us that we were going. Still not feeling comfortable we asked him to call his contact who was handling the bookings and have him come by that evening.

Trust your gut instinct. We all should have done that and just booked the trip ourselves – it would have saved so much headache. But, in our defense, the whole trip to Macchu Pichu is even in the Globe Aware information and so we trusted that they organized this with every group and so we had no reason to believe – at least initially – that there would be any problem.

We went into town shopping and when we got back there was running water again. Brian was engrossed in the World Cup on tv, so about an hour later we finally got to work. We made cement and finished the area where the wash basins would go. Since Jacy and I had cleaned up Monday we were free a little early and went down to the internet café.

On our way up from the internet café we passed Brian. Neither of us saw him until we were practically walking on top of him as he was stooped down in the alley talking to a man. Neither of them looked happy…. I had seen the travel contact on Monday when he came to get the money, and I was immediately convinced that it was him. And then Jacy and I were convinced that something was wrong. We were, unfortunately, correct.

Brian came up and told us that we were not going to Macchu Pichu because there was a train strike the next two days (Thursday and Friday) and there was nothing they could do. Sigh. Sure, like any of the three of us are going to accept that. The worst part is that we knew all day something was going to happen, and we had already planned to go into town and see a travel agent if it did. Thus we immediately bundled up in layers (it was amazing how cold it got when the sun went down) and after a few minute chat with Brian and the travel contact we left to go into town.

What ensued is a very long story of multiple travel agents, multiple stories, confirmation that there was no train strike, and finally us booking our own trip through a rather sketchy travel agent. The problem is that they all seemed sketchy, and at this point we didn’t have much choice.

The plan became: head back to the Albergue and get our bags and then stay in a hostel in town so that we could meet up at 6:30 am to catch a bus to Ollantaytambo with 27 other people. From there we would catch a train to Aguas Calientes and spend the day (Thursday) there. Friday morning we would take the bus up to Macchu Pichu and return all the way back to Cusco that evening.

We went back and quickly packed bags (while Brian tried to explain blah blah blah…but at least he did give us our money back) and then we went to our hostel in Cusco. Hostel Plaza de Armas was like a palace to us at this point. We had a large triple with a sitting area in the middle and … a TV!! Most importantly it had a clean bathroom that had hot water. LOL! It is amazing what you get used to and what luxury can look like after that.

Exhausted but hungry we went a few doors down in the plaza to a pub and had a few drinks and dinner. We needed to be up early to grab breakfast and be at the travel agent at 6:30 the next morning.

Thursday, July 6, 2006

After a good night sleep we woke up and took hot showers Thursday and grabbed a quick breakfast in the restaurant. At about 6:25am we walked downstairs, checked out, and went outside to walk the block to the travel agent.

No one said anything, but I think we were all thinking ‘hmm, I don’t see 27 people hanging out in front of this place….’. Right. No 27 people. Just one Spanish speaking woman with copies of our passports who grabbed a cab and was urgently pushing us into it. Sigh. This was getting old. Okay, what we got from her broken English and the cabbies broken translation was that we had to go to the train station to get our tickets. Remember that we were supposed to be taking a bus the first part of the way and then catching a train an hour and a half away…. Anyway, we got to the train station and were told that the return train for Friday evening was sold out. They could get us on the 1:20 pm train Friday, but we’d have to do Macchu Pichu today. We would get there around 11:30 and have until 5:30 at the ruins. Well, that is more than enough time for me to see ruins, considering the guidebook said you could do a pretty good tour in 4 hours. In my world that would normally mean I’d need less than two, but since it was taking so much effort to get there I figured I should be happy with the extra hours.

The lady and man that we met there bought us tickets and rushed us out to a cab. Now, we had been wondering how this was going to work, considering it was 6:45 and the train left San Pedro station at 6:15. They push us in a cab and hand us tickets that say 6:15….sigh sigh sigh. We try asking, but they kept saying ‘no problem, no problem, go, go!’. So we went.

On our way the cab driver pulled out the train schedule and explained that the next train station was a 20 minute drive away, but that it takes the train 50 minutes to get there. The train gets to Poroy station at 7:05 and leaves at 7:10. We could catch the train there and be on our way. Oh dear. To say that Jacy, Alice and I were nervous on that 18 minute cab ride is an understatement. We had nothing to go on but blind faith. I mean, they had bought our tickets, so it wasn’t like they were just keeping the money. And we did have return train tickets too. At one point someone mentioned that we hadn’t got the hotel voucher for the place we paid for in Aguas Calientes, but at that point it didn’t seem too important. If we actually got there we could deal with that later.

Amazingly we pulled into the Poroy train station at 7:03. We grabbed our stuff and went inside, and about a minute later the train pulled in. We walked on, sat down, and stared at each other in disbelief and relief that we were actually on a train. I have never experienced anything quite so bizarre and nerve racking. But we were on a train. And we were going to Macchu Pichu. And that was all that mattered now.

We all chatted and dozed on the 4 hour train ride to Aguas Calientes. Our tour coordinator met us (and the 27 other people that somehow also ended up there but we have no idea how) and gave us bus tickets up to Macchu Pichu. We hopped on the bus and rode the 25 minutes up the windy roads to the ruins.

Macchu Pichu. At least it really was magnificent enough to be worth all of the trouble.


In the late afternoon we took the bus back down to Aguas Calientes and went to check in to the hostel that we had booked. Of course they did not have a reservation for us, but they could put us in a room. We had our receipt from the travel agent and the hostel said they would contact them but that we would have to pay in the morning if the travel agent did not. Fine. Whatever. That is when you cancel your credit card charge. But again it did come together and they later let us know that they had talked to the travel agent and they were paying.

Jacy, Alice and I walked around Aguas Calientes and grabbed dinner. They both got a massage, but I wandered a bit more and then sat in an internet café for a while. Finally exhausted we all went to bed pretty early. It was a fabulous, but long, day.

Getting my hands dirty

Tuesday, July 4, 2006

Somehow it is already Tuesday afternoon. I am somewhere far out in the countryside of Peru, about 2 hours from Cusco by van. We are at the home of one of the children that goes to school at the Albergue helping to build an oven in their home. It is early afternoon and we are all taking a lunch/relax break so I thought I’d lie here in the sun and write a bit more about the trip and about yesterday.

On a slightly funny note, I don’t have any paper with me to write on. I dug around in my back pack and found some sheets of paper that actually ended up being a receipt from the Oriental hotel restaurant in Bangkok dated July 2, 2005. Apparently the group of us spent 14936.13 Thai Baht for dinner and James put it on his credit card. The Amex number and expiration date are both clearly printed on the bottom of the third page of the receipt – he’s lucky I’m a nice person or I could have some shopping fun with this ;)

Anyway, yesterday (Monday) was our first real work day. We woke up at about 7:00am and had breakfast of tea and bread. We then went outside to begin building a wash area for the hostel. The children currently do all of their wash in tubs that they must carry to the side of the Albergue and fill with water – one tub to wash and one to rinse. The wash area that we are building is complete with drainage and will in some small way make their everyday life a little easier.

My first job was to load rocks from a rock pile into a wheel barrel and haul them to the wash area. Jacy, Brian and I completed our 4 loads pretty quickly and then went to help arrange them in the dug out area that we would later cement. With help from our contractor we figured out how to arrange the drainage pipe and what area needed to be dug out to lay it in. We all took turns digging and shoveling out the dirt. When the area was just about ready it was time to make the cement. Nothing about that process was fun. First, Jacy, Alice and I had fill 12 wheel barrels full of 2 different kinds of dirt and rocks and then make trips hauling it to the wash area. Cement was added to the pile and then we all had to take turns shoveling the huge pile of dirt from one area to the next in order to get it all mixed up. Finally we had to add water and, using a pick and shovels, manage to mix it into the correct consistency for cement. We all took a lot of ‘catch your breath’ breaks and I could feel muscles aching that I didn’t even know I had.

Once the cement was a heavy, wet consistency we could start shoveling it onto our wash area over the rocks we had placed earlier. I swear it said in the Globe Aware information that we would not be doing manual labor like digging ditches…hmmm…

As we filled in the area 2 people in the group began smoothing it out with wooden boards. I will say the area we got done looks great – too bad we only had enough cement for about half the area! Guess we know what we’ll be doing on Wednesday morning…

At about 4pm we started to clean up as the sun goes down about 5pm and it gets pretty cold pretty quickly at that point. Jacy and I took cleanup duty while the others went to plan for the hour with the children that we were having from 5-6pm. Unfortunately that hour with the kids ended up not being particularly organized and really only ended up being about 30 minutes of a game to practice their English. At least I got to practice my Spanish at the same time!

After the game we all went inside to take quick showers. All of us were pretty ready to head into Cusco central for a nice evening and a few cocktails. Jacy, Alice and Tami wanted to shop before dinner. Brian, Brian and I went into a nice little British pub for a beer instead! Dinner was at a little Peruvian restaurant on Plaza de Armas called Pattiti. I went with the local specialty of guinea pig. It was okay – there wasn’t really much meat on it although they were kind enough to serve me the whole body, head and all.

We went through numerous bottles of wine and everyone was feeling pretty happy when we finally exited the restaurant. An excellent time to go grocery shopping, right? The market across the street turned into a field day for all of us as we loaded up on snacks and bottles of wine and Pisco. I went to look for Mate de Coco and found Lipton Yellow Label tea instead! 3 boxes – 150 tea bags – made it into my cart. It is pretty funny to look at the piles of snacks and groceries that we all bought.

Knowing that we were leaving at 8am the next morning forced us to finally head back to the Albergue for some sleep. While it was a very long day it was such a good one. I’m not particularly a fan of getting dirty and doing outside labor, but there is such a sense of accomplishment with that kind of work. I even kind of enjoyed the aches and pains that I was feeling because it felt rather therapeutic to have worked my body so hard, and for such a good cause. It is also so nice to have the group that we have this week on the program. Everyone is getting along so well, and we all really had a nice evening together.

Today (Tuesday) has been an interesting and odd day so far. Tami and Brian got up at 6:30 to go to the airport because their luggage was supposed to finally be coming in. Unfortunately it did not make it. Jacy, Alice and I got up around 7:30 and went down for breakfast. We are fast learning that ‘we are leaving at 8’ means ‘you should probably be ready by 8:15 or 8:30 and we may leave by then’. We climbed into the van to head to the country around 8:30 and settled in for what turned out to be a miserable 2 hour drive. The roads were one lane and unpaved the whole way. The dust and dirt that the van stirred up infiltrated the vehicle and made it hard to breath. My ipod wheel was gritty to turn and I kept having to wipe off the layer of dirt that settled on it. I know that none of us are looking forward to the ride back.

We got here to the middle of nowhere in the hills of Peru around 10:30am. The itinerary for the day is to build an oven for the family of Luis, one of the children at the school. The first thing we had to do was carry some big mud bricks down the hill. I’m apparently a wimp because I made it about ¾ of the way and then had to hand my brick over to Brian to take the rest of the way. I felt better about myself when I saw Jacy and Alice coming down the hill carrying one between them, but that quickly went away when I saw little Luis carrying two by himself.

Once we had carried down the bricks we realized that in fact the entire home was made of those mud bricks. It was explained to us that the clay, water and straw mixture will last about 20 years and that most of the homes in the poorer areas of Peru are made this way. The mud mixture is used to make everything from walls to, well, the oven that we were building. So our next task was to make some of the clay mixture. Tami and Brian volunteered to mix the mud in the traditional way – with their bare feet. Alice went about taking pictures. Jacy and I sat on the hill watching and cheering them on while soaking up some sun…

We made up for it a little later when all of the wood had to be cut to create the structure that would hold the clay. As we were taking turns sawing away with a little hand saw I couldn’t help but think how nice it would be to have one of my dad’s power tools at that moment. I guess it is all in what you know, and this life is so foreign to someone who is used to having so much.

It was just crazy to be a part of building this oven. The kitchen that we were building it in was a one room building that housed the stove and cooking supplies on one side and guinea pigs on the other. I won’t lie, it grossed me out a bit to see these little rodents running around the kitchen. But the family raises them to sell because they make ‘a lot’ of money from them as they are a delicacy. Having eaten one last night I have to disagree that they are such a fabulous food, but that is beside the point.

The oven base and chimney was made from cutting down trees setting them up to resemble a chimney. Small branches were then cut and tied on to intermittent nails. I asked why they didn’t just nail in each piece the way I would have expected, and it was because nails are too expensive to use that many of. The twine is cheaper and can be used to secure the branches using a third or a fourth of the number of nails. Once this base was created and the chimney structure was in place it was time to throw the mud. We all grabbed handfuls of the mud/straw mixture and threw it at the structure so that it would stick. When there was enough mud on there it was smoothed out and any gaps were filled in. The only thing about this stove that was not made completely from the natural resources in the immediate area was the clay cooking base that we had brought with us. This was bought using our volunteer money and that, along with our time, allowed this family to have a stove/chimney in their kitchen rather than essentially cooking over a bonfire right in the house. They showed us the ceiling and walls to point out the black soot from having an open fire in the home, and it was explained that this was so appreciated because the smoke would actually go up and out of the kitchen now.

As we were packing up to go there were hugs all around. In my everyday life I work long hours in an office and I stress about things like fonts on power point presentations. Here, in just a few hours, I was a part of a team that changed a family’s day to day existence for the better. My fingernails are covered in mud (and I don’t want to think about what was in that mud, considering the number of animals running around and the fact that there is nowhere to sit on the ground that is safe from some sort of animal crap), my clothes are probably ruined between the cement and mud etc, my face is supremely sunburned, and yet all I can think is that it was such a good day. I came here hoping to gain some fresh perspective on a life that has at times gotten away from me. It has only been a few days, but I already know that this is one of the best things I’ve ever done for myself and that I will never forget this trip.

The trip back as been as bad as we all feared, but thankfully we are almost there. My ipod battery died about 30 minutes ago, which gave me some time to finish up this little report on the day. I have a feeling we are all going to be eating dinner and heading to bed pretty early. After all, we need to be refreshed and ready to mix more cement tomorrow...

Cultural Immersion

Sunday, July 02, 2006

Amazingly 2 days have already gone by in Cusco. I got in yesterday at 7am and was promptly met by the Globe Aware coordinator. Within a few minutes 2 other members of our group Tami and Brian also arrived. We waited about 15 more minutes for Jacy to arrive and then headed to the car for the short drive to the Albergue aka the childrens hostel. Our coordinator Brian gave us a tour of the facilities and then we decided we all needed a nap.

3 hours later Tami, Jacy and I finally woke up. I was pretty surprised to have slept so long. We got changed and headed downstairs. Everyone wanted to check in with people back home plus just explore the area so we headed down the street to the internet café. Brian and I sat in the sun and watched the locals perform an intricate dance that was apparently a religious celebration of some saint. Lunch was being served at 2pm, so once everyone was done in the internet café we walked back to the Albergue. Apparently that high altitude air gave us all an appetite as everyone ate a significant amount of the chicken and rice that Carlotta prepared for us.

The plan for the late afternoon/early evening was to go to the baptism of the child of a friend of Carlottas. I think that we all expected that we would go to the baptism and that was that, but it ended up being a whole evening worth of activities. It was one of the most amazing evenings that I have ever experienced anywhere in the world. We went back to the home of the childs parents where we spent that next 3 hours being inundated with alcohol and food. We were welcomed as part of the family and were pulled up into the dancing and also participated in the traditional hair-cutting ceremony. It was truly so funny to watch the hosts circulating with bottles of beer and a glass. They would come to you and pour you a glass of beer and then say secca which literally translated means dry but actually meant chug. The festivities did get more and more lively the more times the husband and wife circulated with the alcohol! The food was served to each of us on an overflowing plate and included a huge piece of pork, corn tamales, and potatoes.

I think all of us were a bit amazed and overwhelmed by the experience. It is a rare opportunity to visit a country and get to step inside the lives and homes of the people who live there in the way that we did.

Around 9:30 or so we decided it was time to head into Cusco center and try out the local scene. We wandered around Plaza de Arms before settling on a bar. I tried my first and second Pisco Sours drinkand I think I liked them way too much! I am definitely going to have to pick up a bottle and make some on our family vacation this summer. Anyway, we had a few drinks and hung out chatting and some of the group even hit the dance floor. We finally decided we should probably head home around midnight, considering that not only was it our first night but also that we had an early morning and busy day planned for Sunday.

I must say that Day 1 was so far beyond my expectations that I wouldnt even know how to express it.

Day 2 Sunday (today) started with Brian waking us up around 7:15am. We all rolled out of bed and got changed and then had a continental breakfast of bread, jam and yogurt. The van that would take us around for the day arrived at 8:30 and we were off.

Our first stop was the Alpaca farm Awana Khancha. Although Im definitely not usually an animal person I have to admit that it was pretty cool. We all walked through and fed the Alpacas and took some pictures and then spent some time shopping for products made from Alpaca wool. I found a beautiful fushia Alpaca and silk scarf which I bought for myself as my first souvenir. We only spent about an hour in total at the Alpaca farm before heading off to Pisac.

Pisac is a town in the Sacred Valley that has a large open market on Sunday. Apparently we are a group of shoppers as the 6 of us managed to spend 3.5 hours at the market. I didnt buy too much an Alpaca wool blanket for myself and one for my parents, a cute little hat and scarf for Jordan, and a hat for myself to keep warm this week. It was a beautiful sunny day I had a fun time bargaining and trying out my Spanish.

After leaving Pisac we drove for a while and then stopped at a grassy spot along the river to have a picnic lunch. We discussed the plans for the week, specifically the work we would be doing on Monday and the hour of game time with the children in the late afternoon. Everyone was pretty lazy by this point and it was nice to relax in the sun. I probably should have applied some sunscreen, as evidenced by my now red nosebut that is another story.

Our last stop of the day was the salt mines. I have never seen such a unique thing. The whole side of a mountain is nothing but salt mines that they shovel and filter. We got to walk along and see it up close. It was hard to not think of it as snow when you looked at the whole mountain covered in white.

It was getting late in the day when we left the salt mines. We headed back to the Albergue for dinner a delicious pasta and vegetable dish this time - and then all generally crashed. We hung out in the bedroom for an hour or so just chatting and getting organized. Everyone has crawled into bed now Alice is just about asleep, Jacy is watching a movie, and Tami is writing in her journal. I am feeling quite tired myself and since I am finished writing I am going to head to bed as well.

Spending the night in LIM airport

Saturday, July 01, 2006

The flight to Lima finally departed Miami at about 10pm last night. Business class was completely empty of the 30 or so seats there were only 4 filled. Coach looked to be pretty full. One would think that with only 4 passengers and 3 flight attendants service would have been pretty good, but I have to say that was not the case. I ate the tuna appetizer with a glass of wine, but a bite of the pasta was about all I could do. I really wasnt that hungry but there is something about getting on an international plane in business that makes me not want to go to sleep immediately. I read through a magazine and had a glass of port for dessert. At that point I decided I should probably get some sleep so I turned out the light and took a nap.

I was awoken by the flight attendant a few minutes before 2:00. Immigration was a breeze, especially since I was the first person in my line. Luggage was another story. I swear my bag was the last one of the plane. I finally claimed it at about 2:45. Not that I was in any rush I had cancelled my reservation at the Sheraton when I realized how late we were going to be getting in because of the delay. I had read that a lot of people spend the night in the airport to catch the early flights to CUZ, so I figured I would join them. Since my flight is at 6:00 I really didnt even have that much time to kill.

I cleared customs, although I did get my first ever red light and had to go through secondary screening. It turned out to be a painless process of putting your bags on a belt and picking them up on the other side. I then made my way through the airport to find a cash machine, which I quickly located. I headed upstairs to the food court and shopping area. Amazingly everything was open and going strong. Too bad I wasn't hungry - I love Papa John's! I had no problem wasting an hour perusing the shops. I even made my first purchase Nivea deodorant. I dont understand why they dont sell that in the US, but as I am running out I was so happy to see the display of it in the sundries store.

At around 4:30 I went back downstairs to check in for my flight. Baggage checked and boarding pass in hand I went up to pay the departure tax and go through security.

I am now sitting in the boarding area waiting for my Taca flight to Cusco. We should be boarding in about 20 minutes. I think this is my first ever night spent in an airport. Not that it was really a whole night, but still. It has been a long travel day. The flights have by far been the shortest parts. I guess I cant complain too much since it is a pretty last minute business class ticket and thus free to me. And to be honest I enjoyed most of the day in Miami catching up on my life, and even kinda enjoyed the few hours exploring Lima airport. It is definitely a unique airport in that there are so many people hanging out in the middle of the night. Sitting in the food court it felt like the middle of the day. I am feeling a bit tired now. A nap on the next (short) flight will no doubt feel good. I know there isnt much planned in the way of activity today which is definitely good planning on the part of the program.

Well, here we go on to Cusco.

Peru - the Volunteer Vacation begins

Friday, June 30, 2006

Today begins my adventure known as a volunteer vacation. Im looking forward to the week. I find that Im not nervous but also not excited in the way that I sometimes am for trips. I think there is just so much unknown to me about this. But Im so glad Im doing it this feels like the best decision Ive made in a long time.

I got up this morning at 5:00 to get ready and head to STL airport. I am on an award ticket STL-MIA-LIM-CUZ. STL-MIA was on AA metal. It was a 757 and although I was in 3F I traded with someone so that a couple could sit together and ended up in 4F. I read some of my book on Cusco and the Incan Trail when I first got on the plane, but pretty quickly felt sleepy and took a little nap. I woke up for breakfast and had some really bad pancakes before falling back to sleep for a bit.

Got to Miami at about 11:00 and my flight to LIM wasnt scheduled until 6:45pm. I went into the Admirals Club prepared to fork over the $50 for a day pass, but the nice lady at the counter let me in on my LAN Business Class ticket. I settled in for the next 6 hours and finally got caught up on all of the personal stuff that I hadnt been able to get to due to the craziness that is work. When I finally wandered out I headed from the D terminal down to A a good 25 minute walk, especially at my leisurely pace. Unfortunately the departure board in terminal A was now showing my flight to Lima delayed until 9:20. Whats a girl to do but shop? After perusing duty free and finding a book at the newsstand I went into the Tequileria for dinner. That is where I am sitting as I type this. Ive been perched at the bar for about 2 hours now. I had some horrible black bean soup followed by really nasty quesadillas. At least the margaritas are good. I should start boarding within about 45 minutes, and hopefully I will sleep well on the plane. I was originally planning to go to the Sheraton tonight, but with the delay I dont actually get to LIM until 2am. By the time I clear customs/immigration it will be at least 2:30, and I need to board my flight to CUZ at 5:30not really enough time to go to a hotel and back. So it looks like Ill be camped out in the Lima airport for a few hours. It is a good thing our schedule for Saturday is very light, because I have a feeling I am going to be pretty tired.