Good Night and Good Luck....

I'm home! And alive!! Thanks everyone who read this blog, commented, emailed, kept my spirits up, and understood that grammar is not really my thing. Special thanks to Steve, Sridhar, Sarita, Sev, and Sarah for hosting/hanging out with me, and another even more special thanks to LauraK for not being afraid to share my tent or touch my arm when I said: "Touch my arm! It's gross! Should it be like this?"

American Airlines--my thanks is delayed due to a gate change. One day you might get it when I get my luggage.

Anyway--words cannot express this trip, but I will do my best and turn to the greats--

Now I've....had the time of my life....and I've never felt this way beforeeeeee....this I swear, it's the truth!! And I owe it all to youuuuuuuuuu!"

Photos and Stories: Peru

After setting off, all alive and aglow....















And surviving both Dead Woman's Pass and the surrounding mountains.....



















We arrived shortly after sunrise expecting to see the beautiful and amazing Machu Picchu---but instead saw mostly fog...
















But we waited it out, and out of the fog emerged....











Yes, the ever-present lama!! Whohoo!! (One comment: "Do you think that this is heaven? But with Lamas?") Anyway, after the fog (finally!) moved, we saw it---one of the most incredible places in the world!!











































The pictures don't really do the city justice, but it was unbelievable. As I said before, the Incas were nothing if not hardcore, and also in seriously good shape--they seemed to have a complete love affair with steep stairs. The lack of cathedrals means that the Spanish never found the 'lost city' - but sadly, the Incas only built it to have to leave shortly after they heard of the Spanish arrival. Regardless, I think it should be one of the 7 wonders of the new world--it's incredible! And before I forget, the lovely LauraK deserves a HUGE shout out for planning the entire trip, being awesome, and managing to completely gracefully walk the trail without ever breaking a sweat:

































THANK YOU LAURA!!!!!

And, small shout out to my feet, for not giving up the ghost (Me: "How do they look?" LauraK "Umm, you look like you have been shackled.") I will spare everyone the pic I took for posterity!

And lest I forget, there IS a Save Tall Dave pic from Peru. And it was NOT AT ALL doctored. At all. Thanks Mom!!


So if you have a chance--go trek the Inca Trail! Just don't take American Airlines to get there!!

The Inca Trail

I made it! The Inca Trail was crazy--after 4 days, I got the sense the the Incas were nothing if not hardcore. It was both great and terrible, as the day to day breakdown will show:

Day 1: 5:45 am Departure from Cusco. "Easy" hike for most of the day through some beautiful Inca ruins in the Sacred Valley. Gain 700 meters by the end of the day, mostly in the last hour and a half of the hike. The porters or "chaskies" (Inca term for messenger) do a great job and produce amazing food for us at lunch and a beautiful camp at the end of the day. Day 1 Evening: Feel sick. No dinner.

Day 2: 5:15 wake up. Get ready for the hardest day of the trek, which includes over 5.5 hours of steep uphill hiking, gaining over 1000 meters of altitude in one morning, and climbing through something ominously called "Dead Woman's Pass." All of the hiking today is either straight up or straight down, and it is a very long day. Day 2 Mid-Morning: See dead woman's pass from far far away. Feel like Dead Woman. Day 2 Later Morning: Last one up Dead Woman's Pass! Collapse at top while LauraK takes "entertaining" photos. Altitude Sickness begins. Day 2 Evening: Guides treat my blisters with "home remedy." Severe Altitude Sickness, no sleep.

Day 3: 6:30 wake up. Coldest camping spot, with temps below freezing. Feel 175 years old, look at least 150. Blister home remedy makes things worse, get told I now have "chasky" feet. This is not a compliment. Sick, so no breakfast. Easier trek today, just 6 hours, most of which is steep STEEP downhill and into a jungle, but the beginning is uphill, and I notice that we are ABOVE the clouds. Not doing so good. Lead guide sends me and the 2nd guide on a shortcut to make camp faster. He fails to mention that while shorter, it is HARDER. Begin to feel feverish during shortcut. Make camp after everyone else, raging fever begins. Day 3 evening: Apparently I passed out.

Day 4: 4 am wake up. 2.5 hour trek to Machu Picchu!!! Feel better after fever breaks. Manage to eat! Yay! Trek in complete darkness, group is told to "walk not too slow, and not too fast." I soldier on to keep up, do not want to get lost in the dark. Misty. Wait....is that....wait....yes! Machu Picchu!! YES!! And it is BEAUTIFUL!! Wow!! Fog (eventually) clears and we take our tour in the sun. While group hares off to do "optional" additional mountain hike, I lay down and try not to die. Day hikers walk past and say "ooh, look at her sleeping...she must be on an all-day hike!" I try not to sarcastically scream "4 DAYS my friend, 4 DAYS!!" But it was worth it. Too bad it will now take us approx 7 hours to get back to Cusco....

Anyway--I've been pretty sick the whole trip, and am only just feeling better today. Laura and I have huge hopes that my appetite will be back and we can have a nice dinner. Regardless, I've learned a lot and am glad I did it. I'll do a high and low points post soon!!

American Airlines: Journey into the Heart of Darkness

1. Friends do not let friends fly American Airlines

I arrived at the airport at 10.30 am thinking that all would be easy. I breeze past the calm and quiet Delta check-in and start looking around for American. Which I discover is hidden behind throngs of angry people. Hordes and masses even. I find LauraK and our descent into despair, AA style, begins.

Highlights:
1. No system for dealing with masses of departing people is in place. Someone said weather caused problems, but no other airlines had lines. The check in people were allowing people to miss their flights
2. A small riot broke out when they called our flight foward (but only a few rows of people). Checkin guy made a mistake when he loudly told angry people from earlier flights thta had they gotten into the airport on time, they would have made their flight
3. Security was called in after aforementioned commment. Tempers flare and things get ugly
4. In high lurker mode, I heard the call to bring people on the 12.10 departure forward. I race back to LauraK, and she sends me into the melee to tr yand break into line ahead of people who have already missed flights and are getting yelled at by AA personnel for wanting to fly. Crazy. WE do not want to be come them.
5. I open up the line barriers, slip in, and try and blend--my years of flying standby pay off!
6. 30 people follow me
7. One of them is LauraK and the guy behind her, who has decided we are a good bet
8. THe crowd starts yelling about people cutting in line
9. We keep a low profile and pray to get checked in. We are international, so cannot do the kiosk
10. Successful checkin! One happy family wiht guy behind us
11. Plane delayed!
12. Plane delayed? Again?
13. Miami...sigh. I hate that airport
14. Gate change
15. Plane delayed because all planes are currently delayed for no apparent reason. Plane delay announcements are the only ones we hear.
16. Plane delayed
17. ANOTHER gate change¿
18. Plane delayed
19. Boarding!
20. Ummm, why are we not moving?
21. BEcause our plane is DELAYED.
22. Arrive in Lima, 5.5 hours late, and definitely bitter

Shockingly, our luggage made it. WE however, only had a few hours before departure to Cusco. I am in Cusco!! 5th continent, acheived!!

2 days here to acclimate, and then we hit the trail. Laura and I are nothing if not hardcore.**

**Definitions of ´hardcore´ may vary
***Shout out to Mike Obalde and Jason Maga for great camping tips and also providing knives (Mike) and a compass (Mike) and the advice to drink lots of water (Jason). If it all goes wrong, I am looking at you two!!

Intermission continued....

Me at the end of the world

Bristol/Clevedon Beach
Queen Mary's Rose Garden

Sarah and I at 3 City Garden Row, Islington. Our old address. It was much sketchier than we remembered!!

Intermission.....

India: Which fruits have you never seen before?

India: Sarita and I feeling the silk do-rag

India: Geetika and I after a hard day of pictionary

London: Severine and I in London when she dropped me off
London: Sarah and I--tea at the Savoy!!! I'm still full 3 days later....

Home now after a looong flight that included an unscheduled stop in Philadelphia (thank you weather over Dulles coupled with low fuel) but eventually I made it home and slept for 10 hours straight. Now, a week to regroup before I head out again. I do seem to have a yen to play children's games...just NOT pictionary. Any takers?

The UK: Our Best Friend

....No matter what Canada says. So, the morning after landing from Bangalore my friend Severine took me rock climbing in Bristol! Only in the UK will you find a rock gym that used to be a church. Despite my poor form, protestations of jet-lag and malaria, and time wasted trash-talking, I did make it up the wall a bunch of times, and even managed to do a wall race. My time was the slowest, but I feel good about finding the ceiling nonetheless. Sev showed me a GREAT time in Bristol--we had a huge amount of fun. Special thanks to her for a great cup of tea, driving me back to London, and just generally being awesome!!

Now I'm in London with one Sarah Plotkin Paul, and we are revisiting our old haunts from back in the day--when we were but two young girls bartending our way around the city for a summer! Somehow we've managed to have high tea every day that we've been here (most recently at the Savoy), see "Dirty Dancing: The Musical!" and just generally enjoy London. We found our old apartment and the sketchy pub above which we lived, and it has been WONDERFUL.

I leave London today for home--where I'm hoping that my parents will be at the airport. I'll be in VA for just under a week, and then off to Peru!

3 continents down, 2 to go!