Wanderlust

 Our wake-up call was 4:30am. We were greeted with our usual hot coca tea. The tea helped settle our stomachs and cure any altitude sickness we might have. There was more snoring and it stunk but it is what it is.  We stayed at the equivalent of a person's front yard. They had all sorts of farm animals just roaming around the yard making noise (we woke up to a rooster, no joke). There were pigs, cats, dogs, ducks, chickens. etc. There was a decent actual flush toilet which was nice! I'm sure the tour companies pay each household for allowing them to stay there.  We had breakfast at around 5:15am. It was FANTASTIC. Pancakes, a granola-like thing, hot chocolate, and more. We were so spoiled! We left the campsite at around 6am for the day. The hike started by climbing up through the jungle. It was nice to walk by the water. We saw a bunch of plants and birds like hummingbirds. Sergio was always observant and would point things out to us to make sure we were looking.  Ov...

Today was the big day!  I woke up around 3am and only got about 2-3 hours of sleep max. Lacey woke up at 3:20. Early wake up call! Sergio picked us up in the van at 4am in our hotel lobby. We left our big backpack bags for when we came back.  We each brought a duffel bag supplied by Salkantay Trekking for clothes and toiletries, and our smaller backpacks for our day-to-day items. The van was very, very nice and luxurious. Plenty of room. The van stopped a few times on the drive to Ollantaytambo. We picked up the media team members (Ricardo and Romar). We also picked up a bunch of supplies and stuff at a warehouse along with a few of the porters.  We arrived at our final destination town of Ollantaytambo at around 8am. Sergio had to buy our train tickets back from Machu Picchu and take care of some other business so we went to a cafe and got a big empanada for breakfast along with coca tea. A lot of the porters live in Ollantaytambo as well so we picked some more people up...

Our ATV tour was supposed to leave from the main square around 7am so we got there early to try to find where we needed to go. We kept following people around to find the group that we were partnered with. We talked with a couple guys from France while waiting which was cool. All the groups left for tours except us and we kept walking up and down the main tour group alley. Eventually, they found a group for us.  As we found out once we were in the van, we were the only English speakers. All the other people looked like Peruvian tourists around the same age as us. There were a bunch of couples and then a group of women. The tour guide would give a whole speech in Spanish and then give us the Cliff Notes version in English. It was funny. The van was very squished though. There were 13 people plus the guide and driver. Lacey got a little motion sick. The van ride out to the ATVs was uneventful except for our pit spot. We stopped in a small town for some breakfast/coffee. The stand was...

 Our alarm woke us up bright and early at 3:15am. We packed up and ventured down to the lobby to try and snag a little breakfast of some kind but the workers whisked us off to the shuttle van. Being this was so early, this shuttle ride was much faster and much easier.  The check-in process was smooth and easy. Security was a snap (they had like 5 lanes open at 4am). While waiting for our flight we had two annoying people near us. One person kept watching Tik Toks super loud. The other person was watching a movie at max volume on his phone. Ugh!  The flight was only about 50 mins long. Easy. The flight was maybe 40% full? Maybe even less? Very sad that this is the busiest time of year normally and everything is so slow.  Military day in the square Landing in Cusco was really cool with all the mountains surrounding the town. We grabbed the first taxi we met and agreed on a price before leaving. He was nice and tried to tell us stuff but our Spanish is so bad that it wa...

To fly to Peru, you need to take either a PCR COVID test 3 days before your departure or an antigen test 24 hours before your departure. Obviously, either of these tests has to come back negative to be able to fly. You also need to fill out a health affidavit form.  We were super stressed out about the covid tests all week before the flights. I actually couldn't sleep last Wednesday night because I kept thinking about getting a positive test. So I got a test on Thursday to ease my mind (which of course was negative). Then got my actual test on Friday for the flight. It was all stress for nothing but it was definitely part of the experience leading up to our trip.  When we bought our Peru tickets, we got a steal of a deal with American Airlines back in May or June. The tickets were great because both there and back we stopped in Dallas. Plus the take-off times were nice and normal for the most part. Thennnnn American decided to lay off a bunch of people and cancel a bunch of fl...

 We leave very very early tomorrow morning for Peru!! (YIKES). My mom is driving us to the airport. It's been a whirlwind summer of house improvements (still not done), friend's weddings, and just generally being busy. But here are the cliff notes of our trip. Short Itinerary: August 28 - Fly to Lima, sleep in Lima August 29 - Fly to Cusco early, explore Cusco, stay at a hostel in Cusco August 30 - Explore Sacred Valley, stay at a hostel in Cusco August 31 - Inca Trail Hike September 1 - Inca Trail Hike September 2 - Inca Trail Hike September 3 - Finish hike to Machu Picchu, stay at a hostel in Cusco September 4 - More Cusco, fly to Lima late, sleep in Lima September 5 - Explore Lima, sleep in Lima September 6 - Fly home Flights: August 28 - American Airlines - Leave MSP at 5:09am, land in Miami at 9:45am, Leave Miami at 12:23pm, land in Lima at 4:55pm August 29 - Viva Air - Leave Lima 5:55am, land in Cusco at 7:17am September 4 - Viva Air - Leave Cusco at 8:00pm, land in Lima ...

Our flight to Ireland was around 12pm so we had to start getting ready to head out pretty early (you know how airports and air travel goes). We got up and had our last pastry of the trip, so sad... The rain held off thankfully and we made our way to Victoria Station using the Tube. At the train station, we bought our train tickets and then rode the 45 min long train ride down to Gatwick Airport. Very uneventful getting through security and flying to Ireland. It was a short flight of only 1 hour. We landed at Dublin Airport. While using the bathroom, I saw a sign for a 10 euros 24-hour transit card. That was way cheaper than the 12 euro airport bus plus other buses so, after talking to a friendly worker, we bought our transit cards. We rode the bus through Dublin to our hotel. Our hotel is on the Northside of Dublin (still only a 10-minute walk to the River Liffey and the middle of the city). The hotel was fine! Nothing crazy to note about it either good or bad. Lacey started to...