Hello Peru!!

            I’ve been in Peru for less than 24 hours, and it’s already been quite an adventure! To recap the last day or so: after a very rainy drive to Houston yesterday morning, I made it to the Houston airport in plenty of time. Getting through security was a breeze, and at about four yesterday afternoon I boarded the six hour flight to Lima. The plane had seven seats per row (2-3-2), and I was originally supposed to be in the middle section. However, when I found my seat, the man next to me asked if I would switch with his son so they could sit together. Trade my middle seat for his son’s window seat? Sounded good to me! Even better, shortly after takeoff, the man sitting next to me asked to be moved to another seat since his screen wasn’t working, so I ended up getting two seats to myself. A combination of reading, watching The Martian, and taking pictures out the plane window made the six hours pass pretty painlessly. When we landed, the real fun began!

            Last summer, when I landed in Cape Town at night, it looked like a blanket with thousands of sparkling diamonds spread across it. There were LOTS of city lights! Lima wasn’t like that at all. Maybe it was partly due to the fact that it was cloudy, but my view out the window was pitch black until we were REALLY close to the ground.

            Finding my way through the Lima airport and getting through customs was pretty easy, despite the fact that all the signs were in Spanish. I waited at baggage claim longer than I’d ever had to wait at one before- it seemed like my bag was one of the last ones they took off the plane! It was close to midnight by the time I finally had all my bags and headed out of the airport to meet the taxi service I’d set up through the hostel. I was told that the driver would be waiting in the front of the airport with my name written on a sign. There were plenty of people holding signs with names on them, but I walked around for about twenty minutes and couldn’t find mine. By that point I was pretty exhausted and just wanted to get to a bed, so I found one of the many taxi drivers and, after making sure it was an “official” taxi, I showed him the address to my hostel, and we were off. Despite his limited English and my limited Spanish, we were able to work out where I was going, how much it would cost, and have some conversation for the half-hour taxi ride from the airport to my hostel. During that ride, I saw first-hand what I’d already been told plenty of times- drivers in Peru are CRAZY! Even at midnight, there were plenty of cars on the road, especially near the airport. Apparently staying within the lanes on the street was mostly just a suggestion, since there were at least three cars driving side by side on what looked like a two lane street. It seemed like drivers in Peru liked to use their horns a lot more than US drivers- it was almost like the drivers were trying to create a song with their horns! Finally, after a long day of travel, I made it to my hostel, paid my taxi, checked in, was shown my bed, and passed out.

            I woke up this morning feeling somewhat refreshed, though also in great need of free breakfast, a shower, and water that didn’t have dangerous amounts of mercury in it. Within an hour of waking up, I’d gotten all three of those things! I sat in the breakfast room of the hostel with three girls from Ireland that were traveling together, drinking coffee and talking about our previous and onward travels. When I mentioned where I was from, one of them asked me the inevitable question: “Why don’t you sound like you’re from Texas?” Not even 24 hours in this country, and I’m already getting that question!

            After breakfast I walked down a few blocks to a little convenience store that the Irish girls had told me about and bought a chocolate bar and bottle of water. It was only a few blocks, but walking around I noticed that, like I’d felt walking around in Africa last year, I felt remarkably safe. Sure, I stayed alert, but, being a 23-year-old American girl traveling alone in this unfamiliar place, I almost expected to feel unsafe, but I didn’t.

            After some much-needed rehydrating and an equally-much-needed shower, I was told that I needed to check out of my room by eleven, but was welcome to hang out in the main rooms of the hostel for the rest of the day. I’m currently sitting on a couch in the front room here at Backpacker’s Family Club hostel writing this. The man working at the front desk here also helped me set up another taxi to pick me up this evening and take me back to the airport to catch my flight to Bolivia.

            I’ll probably go out later and get lunch, but overall I’ve decided to take it easy today since yesterday was really busy, and I’m sure the next few days will be too. I also know that this won’t be my only time in Lima, so I don’t feel the need to see everything today.

            This has been one of the longest blog posts that I’ve written lately, so I’m going to end it here. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to update again as soon as I get to Bolivia, or if it will be a few days, so we’ll just have to wait and see. This post’s food for thought is one of my favorites, and really appropriate right now: “To awaken quite alone in a strange town is one of the pleasantest sensations in the world.”- Freya Stark.

Ground Control to Major Tom

            Today is my last full day in the US for almost four months. This is the first time in my life that I can say that. My backpack is completely packed up, I’ve said goodbye to my friends and most of my family, I’ve printed out the information about the hostel I’ve booked, and soon I’ll be printing out my boarding pass for the flight from Houston to Lima that I’ll be on in 24 hours. The excitement about this trip has been building for months, and now it’s right about at its peak. At the beginning of May, I wrote a countdown of the days until this trip would start on the calendar that hangs beside my bed. Looking over at that calendar now, it’s almost surreal to see the number 1 on today’s date. Knowing that I’ve gotten everything taken care of certainly helps keep the pre-departure nerves at bay. I’ve gotten my yellow fever vaccine, I’ve got my Bolivia visa application, I’ve exchanged US dollars for some Peruvian and Chilean money (since I’ll be spending time in those countries as well), I’ve let my debit/credit card companies know that I’ll be using the cards abroad… I think I’m getting pretty good at this whole travel preparation thing.

            Once I get to the Bolivia Wildlife Sanctuary on Wednesday, I won’t have a wifi connection. As I may have mentioned in a previous blog post, there’s a town about twenty minutes away from the sanctuary that volunteers can take taxis to and use the internet cafes. I won’t be doing that every day, of course, but my goal is to be able to post updates at least once a week. I’ll also try to post another update before I get to the sanctuary, but tomorrow will be a day full of travel, and the next day I want to have some time to go out and explore the area of Lima around my hostel, so no promises on that one.

            I guess this will be one of the shorter blog posts as of late, since there’s really not a lot of news to give. I just wanted to give one more update from home. This post’s food for thought:       “There is no moment of delight in any pilgrimage like the beginning of it.”- Charles Dudley Warner

Packing, Prejudices, and Pre-Departure Nerves

            Well, in four days I’ll be spending the night in a hostel in Lima, and in six I’ll be at the Bolivia Wildlife Sanctuary! Yesterday was my last day working at Target until September, and it was a day full of mixed emotions. I felt a lot of happiness and excitement, combined with just a little bit of sadness as I was hugging my coworkers at the end of my shift. Some of my coworkers at that job have come to also be among my best friends, and I know I’ll miss them this summer. But, after feeling like I’ve practically lived at that store over the past few weeks, I’m happy to now be able to focus all of my time on preparing for this next adventure.

            I’ve spent the last month or so getting all the supplies I’ll need for this trip, and, with the exception of a few last minute items, I think I’ve succeeded. Sitting on my bed right now writing this blog post, I’m surrounded by clothes, travel-size cosmetics, travel adaptors, my microtowel, compression packing bags, luggage tags, and other items that I will soon be packing into my Osprey Kyte 46, the backpack that I got a few weeks ago at Whole Earth and have absolutely fallen in love with. I just can’t get over how comfortable it fits and how well it packs up.

            One thing I’ve noticed more and more as my departure date draws closer is the same thing that I noticed last year as I was preparing for my trip to Africa. The main responses I’ve been getting from people when I tell them about my trip are things like: “you’re so brave, being a young woman traveling alone in these foreign countries”, “be careful, it’s very dangerous”, “I’ve heard this and that about the risks of traveling in those places”, “come back in one piece”, and so on. My experience last summer in the beautiful country of South Africa taught me many things, one of which was to take prejudices and horror stories with a grain of salt. I was told time and time again about how dangerous South Africa was, especially for young women traveling solo, and I never once remember feeling unsafe. I explored all over South Africa, from Johannesburg to the gorgeous city of Cape Town to Pretoria, and more. Sometimes I was with other volunteers, sometimes I was by myself, and I never remember feeling like I was in danger. There were times when I almost expected to feel uneasy, like when I was walking around Cape Town by myself, but I was surprised to feel completely comfortable even then. Travel, especially international travel, teaches lessons that I don’t think can really be learned any other way, and one of which is to tear down your prejudices.

            A lot of people have also asked me if I’m getting nervous as the trip gets nearer, but, like last year, all I feel is excitement. I’ve never really been a worrier- some people say it seems like my brain just lacks whatever part of it triggers nervousness. Whether I’m preparing for a job interview, getting ready to give a speech to a group of people, or about to embark on a long, international solo adventure, I’ve always felt excitement, but no nervousness. My theory: what’s going to happen is going to happen whether you’re nervous or not, so what’s the point of worrying?

            With that being said, I think this blog post is long enough, so I’ll end it here. I’ll definitely try to make at least one more before I fly out on Monday. This post’s food for thought: “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.”- Mark Twain 

My South American Itinerary!

            In exactly eleven days, I’ll be on a plane down to my third continent, my third summer away from home, and my next adventure abroad. I’ve gotten my yellow fever vaccine, I’ve gotten the backpack I’ll be taking (which I’m in love with!), and I feel just about ready to hit the road again. A year ago today I was exploring the beautiful city of Cape Town, South Africa with my fellow White Shark Projects volunteers. Two years ago today I was hiking in my temporary home of Grand Teton National Park, taking in all that wonderful place had to offer. As someone with a serious case of the travel bug, my feet are getting very itchy after being home for this long! Since I had some extra time today, and I have pretty much all of the details for the first part of my trip planned out, I thought I’d make a blog post outlining my itinerary for the next few days, weeks, and months.

            Monday, May 30th: I’ll be flying out of Houston at 4:30 pm, arriving in Lima, Peru at about 11 that night (there’s actually no time difference between Houston and Lima). I’ll then meet up with the airport transfer that I’ve set up, and be taken to Backpacker’s Family Club, the hostel where I’ll be spending my first night in South America. I have almost a full 24-hour layover in Lima, so I booked that hostel for the night.

            Tuesday, May 31st: I’ll have most of the day to explore Miraflores, the area of Lima that I’ll be staying in. There’s quite a bit to do around that area, and I won’t waste any time getting acclimated to life in South America! Later I’ll return to the airport, where I’ll board a flight at 10:30 pm, heading to La Paz, Bolivia. The flight arrives in La Paz at 1:30 am (there is a one hour time difference between Lima and La Paz).

            Wednesday, June 1st: I’ve heard that there’s a hotel inside the La Paz airport that you can pay for by the hour, so I might take advantage of that to get some sleep after arriving at 1:30 am. Later that morning (I was told about six or seven), employees from the Bolivia Wildlife Sanctuary will pick me up from the airport and take me back to the sanctuary, which I’ve heard is about a two to three hour drive from La Paz. I’ll have the rest of that day to unpack and settle in to the sanctuary, which will be my home for the next ten weeks.

            June 2nd-August 10th: This will be my time working at the Bolivia Wildlife Sanctuary! This sanctuary houses several species of South American monkeys, birds, turtles, South American cats, and spectacled bears (which I’m SUPER excited about!!!). Most of the animals have been rescued from illegal animal trafficking, which is a pretty big issue in South America. Most of the rescued animals cannot be released (due to a variety of reasons), so work at the sanctuary can be a very hands-on experience.

            August 10th: This will be my last day at the sanctuary. After saying my goodbyes and packing my bags, I’ll be driven back to La Paz, where I’ve booked a night at Loki La Paz, another hostel. I stayed in a couple of different hostels while in South Africa, and had great experiences in both of them. Hostels probably aren’t for everyone, but I absolutely love them!

            August 11th: I’ve booked a flight out of La Paz, leaving at 10:45 that morning, down to Santiago, Chile, where my backpacking phase of the adventure will begin! I’m due to arrive in Santiago at 1:45 pm (11:45 am San Antonio time).

            That’s everything I have officially reserved so far. I plan to spend a few days exploring the beautiful city of Santiago, before moving north through Chile, backpacking my way up into Peru and, eventually, Ecuador. I expect the backpacking to take somewhere between a month and a month and a half, so I should be back in San Antonio sometime in September.

            This post’s food for thought is a quote that I’ve used before, but it’s becoming one of my favorite quotes ever, so I just have to reuse it. On the topic of taking risks, living adventurously, and challenging yourself (three things that I absolutely love to do): “Go to the edge of the cliff and jump off. Build your wings on the way down.”- T.K. Thorne.