10/16/13 - 10/20/17: Urubamba, Peru
Recovery from the Salkantay trek was slow. Progress was stunted by an unfortunate incident where, on a rare excursion outside just two days after returning to Cusco, I tripped on the sidewalk and fell full force onto my knees. Yes, my aching, creaking knees hammered on stone like two bent nails. The pain was excruciating and I found myself on the ground screaming “Why, God? Why??!!” OK, that last part didn’t happen, but it could’ve happened if I didn’t have self respect.
10/10/13: Machu Picchu, Peru
I was broken when we reached Aguas Calientes. My knees revolted as I limped my way up the long stretch of road that led to our hostel, Kernos. I’m not exaggerating when I say I was taking a step every second; that’s how slow I was moving. That may sound fast in theory, but try it out. Stand up, look at a clock, and take a step for every second that ticks by and see if you don’t feel like a zombie would beat you in a foot race.
10/06/13 - 10/09/13: Salkantay Trek to Machu Picchu, Peru
“I feel really awful,” Katie confessed to me just before we started hiking. It was our second day on the Salkantay trek to Machu Picchu and Katie was suffering from Montezuma’s Revenge, or should I say Pachacutec’s Revenge? (We were in Peru, after all.) That was the bad news. The even worse news was that we were at 12,795 feet and about to climb to over 15,000 feet. What was it they tell you when counteracting altitude sickness? Oh yeah, stay hydrated. Uh-oh…
09/11/13 - 09/12/13; 09/17/13 - 09/18/13: Quito, Ecuador
We were nervous about going to Quito. It was our first destination on our RTW trip and we’d read horror story after horror story about how we were going to get conned or robbed. One traveler even wrote: “In Quito it is PROBABLE that you WILL be robbed within your first three days.” (Capitalizations supplied by the author). Add in a few tales of false taxis that deliver you to armed muggers, and the warning bells start going off in your head.
9/23/13 - 9/27/13: Galapagos Islands, Ecuador
When you’re suffering from a cold and you wake up at 2:30 in the morning to catch a 3:00am van ride for two hours, only to spend another two hours waiting at an airport before spending several hours flying, landing, and flying again, then add another hour moving like cattle onto a bus so that you can ride a dinghy across rough seas and end up on a small cruise ship that’s slowly rocking back and forth on an incessant ocean… Well, you don’t feel great. That was how our Galapagos journey began.
09/19/13 - 09/23/13: The Secret Garden: Cotopaxi, Ecuador
You may not know it, but the highest mountain in the world is in Ecuador. Well, it depends on how you look at it…The Earth isn’t a perfect sphere. It’s slightly oblong, widening ever so slightly along the equator, meaning the equatorial line sits closest to the sun. Mount Chimborazo is Ecuador’s highest mountain, but Cotopaxi is a close second.
09/15/13: Sacha Lodge, Ecuadorian Amazon Rainforest
The previous day was unbeatable, as far as I was concerned. What could top dozens of tropical birds, chatting with tamarin monkeys, and discovering hairy tarantulas? Our experiences seemed impossible to improve upon, and our first activity of the day supported my theory.
09/14/13: Sacha Lodge, Ecuadorian Amazon Rainforest
We awoke at 5:00 AM for breakfast at 5:30. Upon waking, Katie and I put on our standard jungle armor: rubber boots, long pants, long sleeve shirts, a hat, and copious amounts of sunblock and bug repellent. Precaution is a healthy person’s best friend!
09/13/13: Sacha Lodge, Ecuadorian Amazon Rainforest
The Amazon is one of those mythical places you see in pictures, or replicated in films, but never think you’ll actually visit. Knowing that our first stop would be in a country where we didn’t speak the language, we decided to do a tourist-friendly trip to the Amazon in order to ease our transition. It worked like a charm.
09/12/13: Quito, Ecuador
Packing for a year-long trip isn’t a big decision, it’s a hundred little ones; a marathon process of elimination that starts when you choose to travel and ends when you step on the plane. Katie and I have been working our way toward minimal living for a full year now and we’re still struggling with what’s made the cut! Is it too much? Too little? Just right? Only time will tell.