Sunday, August 29, 2010

29 days, 12 hours, 50 minutes to go...

Written By: Kiley

Often times it's easy to forget how much planning goes into these trips! Maria and I have spent from 10:30 a.m.- 4:00 p.m. simply trying to make two hostel reservations in South America. The World Wide Web has not made it to South America as successfully (or unsuccessfully, as we are often way too dependent on it) as it has in the United States.

First, I should update you, the reader, on the plan! Maria and I will be traveling from Sept. 28th - Nov. 22nd/Feb. 2nd (I will be returning to the U.S. before Maria in order to prepare for my Peace Corps assignment in Sub-Saharan Africa)! We will be arriving in Quito, Ecuador at 11:00 p.m. on the 28th of September (Don't worry mothers, we will have a place to stay lined up before we leave). From there Maria will enjoy "tour guide Kiley" as I take her to some enjoyable adventure spots along our way to the Sierra. We will see volcanoes, sit in hot springs, take a mountainside train ride (on top of the train)... but most of all, we will just take in the beautiful country of Ecuador. For those of you that don't know, I studied abroad last year in Ecuador for seven months. The landscape and the people are SO amazingly enjoyable!

After we arrive in the Sierra we will spend three weeks in Cuenca, where I studied last year. Maria will take a class at the university that I went to, and I will spend my days with local friends. My friend Tania is having a baby so she will for sure be needing an extra hand. After Ecuador we will travel through Peru for about five days in order to make our way to Bolivia and Lake Titicaca. We will spend time there traveling to the salt deserts and trekking on the islands of el Sol (sun) and La Luna (moon). We'll be sure to go into more detail about the different things we will be seeing, but I won't go through all of that now.

We'll spend our last days together on the trip in Bolivia and then I will fly back to the states on the 22nd of November from Lima, Peru. Maria will stay in Bolivia until Feb. 2nd to do some local farming (The Woofing Project). So, that's the trip that you are going to be reading about in a nutshell. A very, very small nutshell. It will be more entertaining this way. :)

To Do's for this week: Send in Bolivian Visa Application

1. Pay the US$135 fee,
2. Present a passport with an expiration date of not less than six months
3. Evidence of a hotel reservation or a letter of invitation
(Made today)
4. Proof of economic solvency (credit card, cash or a current bank statement)
5. An International Vaccination Certificate for yellow fever