Peru Plans in Peril

So it turns out the day after I book my trip, there is a huge mudslide that takes out the railroad leading up to Machu Picchu.

Over 2,000 tourists were stranded in the ruins and at least five people were killed.

It took multiple days for helicopters to reach tourists and helped the old and young first. This meant that many middle age tourists had to sleep on the ground since many hotels jacked up their prices. So uncool.

What this means for me? Hopefully, my rail tickets and expensive hotel don't go to waste. I have until 15 days before I leave to get a refund on the hotel so it's just a waiting game now.

I'll keep you posted!

Last Stop Rio

The final leg of my South America trip is to Rio de Janiero, Brazil.

Not known for tourist safety, I'm a little nervous about going. I've done some research and determined that when staying in Rio avoid staying at the hotels on Copacabana Beach because that's the main area that tourists get mugged. So I narrowed my search down to Ipanema and Leblon beaches.

My friend stayed at the Sheraton just south of Leblon and loved it but Expedia says you need to take a shuttle to get to the beaches. My one requirement is to be able to walk right to the beach and plop down and not worry about getting knifed.

This limited me to about five hotels all of which had TripAdvisor ratings around 50-70% and Expedia price tags around $170-220. Not a lot of great options and essentially a blind test because not a single one stood out. I ended up going with the Mar Ipanema Hotel which is about a couple blocks from Ipanema beach, is said to be safe, and had the highest TripAdvisor rating of the five.


It feels good to be have all my flights and hotels booked. Now, I can start researching the activities in each place like wine tours, horseback rides, etc.

Argentina Itinerary

Next stop on the trip : Argentina

I've already booked a flight to Buenos Aires, but it is pretty European so I want to head to wine country as soon as possible - Mendoza.

From my preliminary research, flights from BA to Mendoza are pretty frequent and often regardless of the day so I'm less worried about getting to Mendoza as I am about finding a good place to stay. Normally, I would really research the area to find the best location but since you spend most of your time on wine tours it doesn't really matter where your hotel is as long as the wine tour will pick you up from there.

Using a combination of TripAdvisor and Expedia Hotels, I narrowed it down to a few choice options. Casa Glebinias eventually won me over with its perfect scores on TripAdvisor and the fact that it is run by an old, extremely cute looking couple. I was even able to call them and had Alberto (the husband) answer the phone. He was very sweet and extremely helpful in terms of offering a car to come get us at the airport.


My Google research did mention that it was better to avoid the weekends in Mendoza because some wineries are closed, especially on Sundays. Thus, rather than book-ending Mendoza with BA like I'd originally planned I changed the itinerary:

LAX to Lima
Lima to Cusco
Cuzco
Cuzco (Machu Picchu)
Cuzco
Cuzco to Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Mendoza
Mendoza
Mendoza
Rio
Rio
Rio
Rio
Rio to LAX

This also means that I'll be in BA for Friday and Saturday night ensuring a couple great nights of partying.

I booked Casa and also booked my flight from Mendoza to Rio with a layover in BA. One thing to be careful of is that the BA domestic airport (AEP) and international airport (EZE) are not the same. Since we are flying domestic to BA and then international to Brazil we have to switch airports which involves taking a shuttle. On a good day it takes the shuttle about 30 minutes to get from one to the other so be careful.

Now, all that is left for Argentina is booking a hotel for Buenos Aires and the wine tours for Mendoza. For wine tours, I'm currently looking at a group called Ampora who do small tours of 2-8 people for about $135/person. There are two different wine regions you can tour. I'll be back with more information on this later.

Unlike Mendoza, it does matter where you stay in BA so I had to do some major research. I started on WikiTravel checking out the different neighborhoods. Essentially there are four main areas that are then broken up even more:

1. San Telmo: The original wealthy neighborhood of BA that was vacated when yellow fever broke out. Thus, it still retains old world architecture and wonder. It is south of downtown.
   
2. Microcentro: This is the main downtown area where a lot of the tourist attractions are but it is noisy, dirty, etc.
   
3. Recoleta: North of downtown, this is the new wealthy neighborhood and where customers of the Four Seasons stay. Too expensive for me.
   
4. Palermo: North of Recoleta, this area is a little bit more up-and-coming, trendy and youthful. Sounds like me!

Once you start looking into Palermo though you find even more districts which hilariously are named after famous areas of U.S. cities like Palermo Hollywood and Palermo Soho. Palermo Soho is known for its laidback style and beautiful parks but also its crazy nightlife.


Thus, I looked for a place here and found multiple great options all at a cheaper price than I anticipated going in. I finally landed on Mine Hotel Boutique because of the Expedia pictures and the, yet again, flawless reviews on TripAdvisor.


All that's left now is to figure out Rio de Janiero.

International Flights and Peru Booking

Today, I'm going to tackle the international flights and the Peru portion of the trip.

For international flights I'm looking at the following:

LAX to Lima to Cuszo - March 27-28
Rio to LAX - April 11

Turns out that Expedia had pretty decent prices when compared to the South American airlines. Also, I've learned a secret trick to share with you. If you know that you are traveling internationally and has to pass through a major city (Lima) to get to your true destination (Cuzco) then it is best to use the multiple destination option on Expedia's flight search rather than doing two separate one way flights.

For example:Select the multiple destination option

1. First Destination: LAX to Lima (3.27)
2. Second Destination: Lima to Cuzco (3.28)

Doing it this way I knocked off a couple hundred bucks and ensured that the second flight will wait for me if the first gets delayed. SWEET.

Rio to LAX was standard. What's awesome is that because of the time change and the close proximity of South America, I can fly home in one day! So different from losing two days flying to Africa.

So I've got my international flights. While looking for international flights I suggest also checking flights on the approximate days you will be traveling around South America. This just ensures that you don't spend all your time researching hotels only to find out it is too expensive for you to fly there.

On to Peru...

I arrive in Cuzco at 7am on Sunday, March 28th. I plan on checking in to the hotel and just relaxing in Cuzco for the day to adjust to the change in altitude. Maybe we will catch a few sights.

Since Machu Picchu is more important to me than seeing Cuzco I decided to start there. First I think it is important to give you a lay of the land. Essentially you have Machu Picchu at the top with Aguas Calientes right below it (closest hotels). The mountain is only accessible via a 4 hour train or 4 day hike. As you descend by train, you hit Ollantaytambo after a 1.5 hour train ride, then Poroy after about 3.5 hours, and then Cuzco is the last stop at about 4 hours.


Since you have to take a train it is important to check the availability of the hotel and the train before you book either because it sucks to pay for a hotel you can't get to or take a train up only to sleep on the ground outside. Also since it is 8 hours round-trip to the mountain I wanted to stay 2 nights up there to make it worth it.

The train is run by PeruRail (www.perurail.com) which has three options: the Backpacker ($48 oneway), the Vistadome ($71 oneway), and the Hiram Bingham ($294 one way).


I was able to get a Backpacker from Poroy to Machu Picchu. Poroy is 30 minutes from Cuzco by taxi which costs about $7 US. The trains no longer run all the way to Cuzco. For the way back I could only get the Backpacker to Ollantaytambo. From there I will need to take a bus. There are apparently tons of buses and it is way cheaper than the Hiram which was the only other option for that day.

I also researched hotels in Aguas Calientas since it is closest area to the mountain that has places to stay. Unfortunately, you are looking at crappy hostels at $40 a night and $800 a night resorts. Not much in between.

After scouring Google and TripAdvisor, I found a brand new boutique hotel called Hatun Inti that was $280 a night. A little steep but I figure I'll save it in other hotels on the trip. Hatun Inti doesn't have a site, nor does it show up on Expedia or Hotels.com, so I ended up going through Peru Gateway Vacations (peru-explorer.com). They seemed legitimate (I'll let you know how that goes).


Thus, I booked both Hatun Inti and my two railway tickets at once, locking in my trip to Machu Picchu. The rest was easy - I just needed to find a room in Cuzco for my first and last nights in Peru.

At this point, I researched flights from Cuzco to Buenos Aires to ensure that before I booked my last night in Cuzco I knew I could get out the next day. Luckily, there was a flight so I booked that.

I'm staying at one hotel the first night in Cuzco and then a second one when I come back down the mountain. They both look really nice and weren't very expensive. The Terra Andina Hotel is more your standard hotel.

Second Home Cusco is a B&B where you have a little living space. It looks more like a home than a hotel so we'll see which style I like better.


After some tricky combinations, I've got Peru booked now and am now into the Argentina part of my journey.

Check back tomorrow for my next steps in the land of wine!

Two Continents Left - Time to Cross One Off

I am officially planning my next trip! Only two continents stand in my way - South America and Antartica. They haven't put a Four Seasons on Antartica yet so to South America I go (jk).

I apologize that I've been getting busy without keeping you up-to-date but 2010 just won't slow down. I'm really interested in almost every country in South America so I needed a way to slim down the countries because I've only got two weeks.

So I went to my friend, Frommer, because he puts together mini-itineraries. They are pretty generalized but give you a great place to start. After reading them, I really felt drawn to Argentina, Peru and Brazil, so I grabbed some of the places he referenced and put them in their raw form in Excel.

It looked something like this:

PERU
Lima
Cusco
Cusco
Cusco
Machu Picchu
Machu Picchu
Fly to Puerto Maldonado
Puerto Maldonado
Puerto Maldonado
Lake Titicaca
Lake Titicaca
Arequipa
Colca Canyon
Colca Canyon
Lima

ARGENTINA
Mendoza
Mendoza
Wines of Luján
Wines of Maipú
Alta Montaña
Wines of the Valle de Uco
El Calafate
Perito Moreno Glacier
Estancia Cristina
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires

BRAZIL
Sao Paulo
Sao Paulo
Iguaçu Falls
Iguaçu Falls
Salvador
Salvador
Manaus / Amazon (MAO)
Manaus / Amazon (MAO)
Manaus / Amazon (MAO)
Manaus / Amazon (MAO)
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro

From here I had to think in terms of the weather since we'd be going during my boyfriend's spring break from law school. This meant we had to find something that worked from about March 27 - April 11.

Based on my favorite travel weather map, I wanted to stay somewhat north which really only cut out southern Argentina.


From there I just started to prioritize. Machu Picchu was at the very top of my list and Rio was at the very top of the boyfriend's. So Peru and Brazil were definitely in.


The second priority was a trip through the Amazon. Unfortunately, this just put us in a bit of a bind because it takes up a lot of time and is relatively expensive. We really felt like there was so much else to see that we'd rather do the Amazon on the next trip.

Based on this information we were looking at about 4 days in Peru to see Cuzco and Machu Picchu and then 3-4 days at the end of the trip to see Rio. This left 4-5 days smack in the middle to fill in. Again this used to be where the rainforest was going to be fit in but again just a huge hassle.

The first inclination would be to see other places in Peru and Brazil right? Well besides Machu Picchu and the Amazon, you've got Lake Titicaca and Colca Canyon. At this point in my travels, I've seen a lot of lakes and a lot of canyons so these just weren't interesting me.

In terms of Brazil there was Iguaçu Falls, Sao Paulo and Salvador. I just got back from seeing Victoria Falls in Zambia so Iguacu was out. Sao Paulo? Just another big city in my opinion so that was out. Unfortunately, I really do want to see Salvador but it is on the other side of Brazil and thus a long and expensive flight from Peru for just the one city. Also, Brazil isn't the safest country to visit so we wanted to give ourselves to a few days in Rio at the end of the trip. Ya know, make sure we had our tans before we came back.


So, that left Argentina. Flights from Cuzco to Buenos Aires were cheaper than to Salvador, I love wine, and Mendoza is just so frickin cute in pictures. So we decided to fill in the middle of the trip with a little time in wine country. Relaxation after climbing ruins in Peru before some hardcore beach parties in Brazil. I like to switch it up!


Based on all this our tentative itinerary was shaping up:

LAX to Lima
Lima to Cusco
Cuzco
Cuzco (Machu Picchu)
Cuzco
Cuzco to Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Mendoza
Mendoza
Mendoza
Buenos Aires
Rio
Rio
Rio
Rio
Rio to LAX

An initial look at flights showed that you can do the long haul directly from Cuzco to Mendoza and Mendoza to Rio but you can easily cheapen the trip and the layover with stopovers in Buenos Aires. We decided to extend the stopover to and from Mendoza to a day each time in Buenos Aires. BA isn't a huge sell for us since it is so European but why not enjoy it for the day rather than spending it in the airport. That's why in the itinerary above BA is surrounding Mendoza.


I feel really good about this itinerary so the next step is to start locking it down.

Adventures in Africa

Hey Readers,

Sorry I've been MIA for the past month!

I've been in Africa and have just finished uploading stories, itineraries, and photos from my trip on www.travel-addict.com.


For my journal, itinerary, or photos from Zambia click here.


For my journal, itinerary, or photos from South Africa click here.


Enjoy! There's a lot of great information there for those of you who are interested in visiting.

Sunday Serendipity

First thing in the morning we packed, checked out and then ran like crazy to Serendipity to get our name in at 11am when they open. Luckily, there was only a little line so we were able to get in after about 20 minutes.

The inside of the shop is tiny with only enough room for a handful of tables on each floor. The bottom floor as a gift shop near the entrance where you can buy trinkets and candy. The entire place was decked out for Christmas including glass ornaments in an array of colors clinging to the walls and a neon pink Christmas tree against the back wall. There are also a myriad of old-fashioned glass lampshades hanging from the ceiling.


We sat at a tiny little table in the middle of the restaurant and ordered from the ornately decorated menu. I had the Haight-Ashbury sandwich and my mom ordered the black bean soup. Lastly, I ordered a frozen hot chocolate which is the Serendipity trademark. It really did taste like frozen hot chocolate! It was massive, ice cold, and definitely used high-end chocolate. The Haight-Ashbury was a little soggy and strange tasting but it's not what I came for so I didn't really care.


The staff was really nice and when I asked about the movie, Serendipity, they said that the table Jon Cusack and Kate Beckinsale sat at was upstairs. The upstairs area was just as small and cozy. And yes, I took a picture of the table because I am a total geek.

Full of chocolate sauce, my mom and I decided to hit up a few more landmarks before we had to go to the airport. FAO Schwartz was AWESOME, Rockefeller Square was romantic, and Grand Central which was empty but beautiful.

From there, we picked up our suitcases from the hotel and took the $45 flat fee taxi to JFK. Something I noticed about JFK that is annoying is that all the restaurants and stores are past security. My mom and I were flying on different airlines in different terminals so we didn't have anywhere to hang out for the three hours before our flight left. It sucked. We ended up parting ways and I sat for two hours with nothing to do because I was too cheap to buy a $14 book.

To end the blog, I will provide my review of the Sheraton Towers Hotel. Location-wise it is the ideal place for the first-time tourist because it is so close to many of the things you would want to see and do the first time you visit especially the fact that it is on the Macy's Day Parade route. Next time I think I'll head to Soho which has much more of a locals scene than Midtown.

In terms of the hotel, itself, I felt that I was overpaying for the experience. After the parade they refused to let us back in through the main door resulting in about two hundred people trying to jam through the tiny side door into the building. The rooms were relatively spacious but my mom's comforter was dirty and they never replaced the dirty water glasses in the room. The bed was really comfortable but the room was way too hot so we ended up leaving the windows open all weekend to get some air. Overall, for over $300 a night it was not good enough.

In terms of the trip? New York is my new favorite US city, although Austin comes close. For someone who is always on the go and extremely social, it was the ideal place for me. Granted I probably experienced the best four days of November weather ever, I think that I could stand the cold in exchange for the culture and activity. I'm literally returning home just so I can plan my next trip here!