Back to Kentucky and Uploading Videos

All right, it will take me some time to type up blog entries from our entire journey, but I
will get there eventually. We just got back here yesterday so I haven't had time to do much.
I have managed, however, to upload the videos we shot (not many or very long).

I'm putting them all in the post for viewing convenience--enjoy!


Our guide, Rosemary, was talking for the
duration of this video . . . but you
can't hear a word because of the wind!
Actually, the wind stole Joe's hat right
as I ended this video. (Sorry I didn't
capture it.)


A look around one of the busier areas
of Machu Picchu. As much chatter as you
hear here, there were areas that were
much louder and others that were virtually
silent. M.P. is amazing!


Just from another, higher area.


Aguas Calientes is the town at the base
of Machu Picchu where 99% of visitors
stay to visit the citadel. We had fun
exploring A.C. in addition to M.P. We
made friends with the two little girls
at the end of this video. (And yes,
they are completely unsupervised like
the vast majority of Peruvian children
that we saw.)

PS: The wooshing noise is the Urubamba
River that runs through the middle of
A.C. That's how it's got its name,
"Hot Springs" in English.


The name says it all. (A room in a
museum at [I believe] Puka Pukara.)


A group of Uros Island Dwellers sings
a song (I believe in their native
Aymara language) thanking us for our visit.


This is on Taquile Island (a natural island,
as opposed to the man-made "floating" Uros
Islands, all of which are in Lake Titicaca).
The folks on Taquile are Quechua; the folks
on the Uros are Aymara. They're pretty
different. Anyway, we picked a great time
to visit Peru because we were there on so
many important days: Independence Day,
Armed Forces Day, and a few indigenous
religious festivals. So, I don't think
you could see this sort of stuff just
any day.

The Final Countdown

All right, today is Thursday and we're leaving on Monday. So close we can almost taste it. I've
been pretty quiet here lately because there's really not much to report. We've done most of our
packing at this point. Just a few things that need to be washed on Friday or Saturday to top
everything off.

I've been doing a lot of reading to be as prepared as possible; I don't want to get back to the
US and realize, "We walked right past this-important-place and missed it!" In the process I have
been reading a lot of articles/blogs/etc written by people who have gone on trips similar to
ours. It helps us to avoid pitfalls, etc. More on that in a bit.

First, I have to give a massive, massive, massive thank you to International Travel News.
I have read this magazine cover to cover for the past four years. My former boss introduced me
to it and would pass his copy on to me. One birthday he got me a subscription and I've kept
renewing it--and I generally hate magazines. This one is different, though. It is printed on
newsprint (to reduce the need for advertising) and is mainly written by the readers themselves--
ordinary folks who like traveling. Not writers who are put up in five-star hotels and complain
about the wine list being "pedestrian" or something ridiculous. They cover the nitty-gritty
about traveling. What's the best shoe for what type of excursion? What's the best way to take
money to another country? Which travel guides/books are the best? And TONS of recommendations
about dining, accommodations, and sites to see. I highly, highly recommend ITN to anyone who has
the travel bug. It will help guide your planning, give you honest tips and warnings, and give
you ideas you never would have had otherwise.

Anyway, it was in an article that a traveler had written that I realized I needed to re-confirm
our airline tickets. This couple took a trip to New Zealand, booked it through Orbitz, and flew
on the same airline for the American legs of the trip as we will be. Two days before departure
they decided to be 100% sure about their tickets being confirmed because of a small curiosity in
their online account. Turns out, they weren't in the airlines' systems at all as having booked
tickets even though they had e-mails that clearly stated they were good to go! They spent more
than four hours on hold on the phone sorting it out and more or less got where they needed to go
and when, but it was such a terrible mess. So, today I decided to re-confirm.

I called the US-based airline and had such a run around with the automated menu that I gave up
after four attempts. Then I went on to the South American-based airline and had no problem
reaching a human being in 10 seconds. The only snag there is that, for some bizarre reason, the
computer assigned us to seats that are not near each other on the flight from Miami to Lima,
though the fellow I talked to said I may be able to get the crew to persuade someone to switch on
the day of the flight. That would be nice because I don't want to be leaning against some
drooling stranger on the longest part of the trip. I want my drooling husband by me.

Okay, so, I decided to try the US-based airline again. But, this time, I looked for a different
phone number to reach them. I found one and dialed. The automated system was different this
time--weird. I continued and after quite a bit more wrangling I finally got to the
reconfirmation bit (all automated). It said we are definitely confirmed. The flight from
Cincinnati to Charlotte and Charlotte to Cincinnati has assigned seats but it seems from
Charlotte to Miami and Miami to Charlotte assigns seats at boarding. Southwest called this open
seating when we went to Chicago recently. That is, assuming it's the same drill on this airline.
Hope it is, otherwise . . . uhh? Anyway, I'm hoping no disasters happen as hard as I have worked
to confirm/reconfirm/rereconfirm/etc.

Well, that's it for now. I just had to gush about my favorite magazine and mention the struggle
it took with the ticket reconfirmation. More to come. :)

Things We've Bought

Perú, which is only weeks away! Cue: panic.

Anyway, we've made a few purchases lately and we thought we'd share them with you.






First is this Eyewitness guide book to Perú. We've been thumbing through it
and marking all the places we're visiting for information. We will see how
good it is! I had an Eyewitness guide book for Denmark when I was there three
years ago and it was very handy, indeed. I just wish they weighed a bit less.

Universal World Wide Travel Charger Adapter Plug, White

In my travels in the past I have always borrowed a the adapters/chargers of

other people. I figured it was time to buy one and this one should do the

trick. I won't know how well it works until we're actually there [nervous],

but I think it should be fine. We should only need it for our battery charger

which accepts voltage between 100-240v. We just need the adapter because an

American plug cannot be shoved in a Peruvian plug. Or at least not without

causing serious damage.

Finally, we bought water purification tablets. We generally plan to avoid water
while we're there. I think it's a good idea to drink as much mate de coca as
possible. Should be safe and it will help us acclimate to the insane differences
in altitude that we'll be encountering. Anyway, we have to brush our teeth with
something. And I have read in medical journals that Perú has
unusually high amounts of Helicobacter pylori in the water supply.
So, apart from the normal worries of water in a developing country there is an
increased chance of getting H. pylori! No thanks. So, we're staying safe rather
than sorry. I read up and people said these are pretty handy (and they don't
expire!) so I bought some.




Well, that's all for now. I really need to get on the ball about suitcases, which I hope to soon.
Take it easy!

All Quiet on the Louisville Front

I don't have much to report in our preparations for Perú. We need to get on the ball about getting
luggage that is the right size for airline carry on. No taller than 21 inches and the carry on I planned to
use is 24! C'est la vie. I think I am going to twist Joe's arm a little to take my backpack in addition to
his carry on. His backpack is small and the zipper tends to break. Mine is light purple and is likely to
make him a bit ill at the thought of carrying it. But he doesn't actually have to carry it, just for the
purposes of checking in and getting on the plane. I'll have my shoulder bag then in addition to my
carry on.

Usually when I go on a trip I just take the usual shampoo, etc, that I use at home. And if traveling by
air, I figure I'll use whatever I find at my destination. But since every ounce and inch is of the essence
when going to South America for 11 days, we went out and bought little travel sized toiletries for the
trip. Not a very exciting development, but I must say it broke my thrifty heart to buy them. They are
completely uneconomical!

Also, I have an additional SD card for our camera. So, we now have a 1GB and a 4GB. That's about 1700
photos we can take. Hopefully we won't need more than that. I bought a travel photo album that holds
200 photos (with space beside each one for a description). We do need to get new rechargeable
batteries. The ones we're using now are losing their strength. This will be our third purchase of
rechargeable batteries. I really think they're worth it. We still need to purchase an electric adapter.
My birthday is in a couple of weeks and I am promised one of those by a family member. They're pretty
cheap, so I hope that comes through!

It had kind of distressed me some that we planned to take this trip when we did. But we could not
predict certain things that have now developed. So, I am trying to make the best of it. At the very least,
I know I will be fulfilling a lifelong dream of going to Perú!

Planning: Part 1

This is certainly the largest trip for which I myself have been performing the planning. Well, even
that is not a totally fair statement as we are using a travel agency (that is based in Perú) for much
of the planning. Joe is helping me make decisions, but I am certainly doing the majority of the hard
work in planning the trip.

The travel agency we are using is called PeruTourism/Peru4Me/Viajes Pentagrama. They go by different
names depending (I think) on the nationality being served. Being American, I know them as
PeruTourism. Here is the website: http://www.perutourism.com/ I am nervous about
trusting a third party to act as middle-man. Though, I would probably be much more nervous if I were
doing all of the work making reservations, buying tickets, etc.--especially considering I could not
take care of some things until I am there in Perú. So far, they have been pleasant to work with and
not too overpriced. (If you know me, then you know I'm a real Fred Mertz. So I think everything is
overpriced.) I am sure to be reporting more about how well things turned out in regard to PeruTourism.

I did book our airline tickets to and from Perú myself. PeruTourism will book our travel within Perú.
I used Orbitz.com to book our tickets. I was planning on flying out
of Louisville, probably to Miami (through a connecting city), onward to Lima. That changed, however.
Because we are flying in July in August, prices are rather high--tourism season at its peak. I decided
to spend the time (and considerable effort) searching every feasible route to Perú for what was cheapest.
I even made a chart recording price variations for the best day of the week on which to purchase tickets
for that route. After several weeks of this pain (and it was that), I finally found something that
seemed as low-priced as I was likely to find before our departure date.

SO! We are flying out of Cincinnati airport (which is actually in Northern Kentucky). Joe is from
there, so his family are going to drive us to the airport and we will leave our car at their home.
See: I said I was cheap. I won't even pay for leaving my car at the airport. From there, we fly to
Charlotte via US Airways. In Charlotte, we fly again on US Airways to Miami. There, we switch to LAN
Airlines to fly to Lima. The return trip is exactly the same except, obviously, in reverse order.

Oddly, it was cheaper to buy the tickets from Orbitz.com rather than directly from the airlines' websites.
Usually, at least, the airline's website lists the same airfare for the same (and sometimes lower)
price than the travel aggregation websites. It turned out, though, that I saved a couple of hundred
dollars by using Orbitz.com. By flying out of Cincinnati rather than Louisville or any other nearby
port, we saved somewhere along the lines of $400.

Oh, and in case you're curious, I did indeed query the airlines' websites that do not submit to travel
aggregation websites (such as Southwest, etc.). This is one of the various reasons it was such a pain
to find the cheapest airfare.

In any event, I will be reporting more on the planning process as we progress toward July. ¡Viva el
Perú glorioso!

Change is in the Air

So, this blog was formerly titled "Cornell Bodell" to chronicle the time I spent in Ithaca, New York
last summer studying Chinese at Cornell University. As a quick review of those blog posts below will
show, that blog did not go so well mostly because of a lack of time for maintenance.

Now, though, I have rechristened the blog as "Bodell & Feist in Perú." I married my best friend this
past December with the plan to delay our honeymoon until this summer. I have always wanted to go to
Perú and am grateful to Joe for being so agreeable to my Wanderlust. So, we are currently planning
to depart for the land of the Incas on July 26th and spend about two weeks there. We will start in
Lima and wind our way through Cuzco, the Sacred Valley, Machu Picchu, Pisac, Puno, Lake Titicaca and
the floating Uros islands, Juliaca, and back to Lima.

We are so excited and a little nervous. I am trying to brush up on my Spanish--though, considering
I was trained in castellano and spent time in Castilla-La Mancha, Castilla y León, Aragón, y Cataluña,
I am not sure all of that will necessarily get me through the Quechua and Aymara influenced linguistic
mix of Perú.

Anyway, we are going to use this blog to document our preparation for and experience in Perú.
Stay tuned!