Peru Overview, With Help From Mom

Each time I travel it seems that I 'report' about it differently on Always Standing. Some of the styles I have used include single photo updates, a series of photos, a rare video post, standard responses, slightly cryptic messages, written posts, live updates, scheduled itinerary details, but most frequently a long list of notes provided as a summary.

My mom has a very consistent documentation style on her blog vicarious travelling, she posts each day of her trip separately and outlines the events like a diary entry. Her goal is to share details with friends, like she would if she was emailing them about the trip. She includes a lot of photos each day, and often captions them (something that I never do.) I figured that because she had also described a big portion of the Peru Trip, I would send you over to her blog for the days that related to my time there.

- MARTES - Tuesday December 29 - We arrived in Cusco in the afternoon, so Jason and I are mentioned (with a photo of us shopping) at the very bottom of Mom's post.

- MIERCOLES - Wednesday December 30 - This is the day that the three of us went horseback riding into the mountains around Cusco. Rereading her post now I am reminded of watching the lightening hitting the hills on the other side of the valley - it was incredible.

- JUEVES - Thursday December 31 - Mom only has a short written post for this New Year's Eve, which was when we spent the afternoon doing a bit of a practice hike. I got good pictures of both Jason and Mom during our walk.

- JUEVES 2 - Thursday December 31 - After she got home from the trip, Mom wrote about the last 6 days in more detail and included photos. This is her bigger post about our Cusco hike.

- SACRED VALLEY 1 - Friday January 1 - The first full day of the G Adventures Tour was a trip in a van around the Sacred Valley.  No real hiking to deal with at this point. Her first post is mainly about a weaving place that we visited.

- SACRED VALLEY 2 - Friday January 1 - We also saw various Inca Sites and had lunch at a local restaurant, my mom has lots of photos from this day. Three posts worth.

- SACRED VALLEY 3 - Friday January 1 - This is her final post from New Years Day, mainly focused on Ollantayambo, a town where we visited an amazing Inca Site and then spent the night at a local hotel.

- DAY 1 - Saturday January 2 - The pictures from the first day on the Inca Trail are perfect! They show the sites, the camp, our food, and how much fun we were having (though at the same time, I was still pretty nervous at this point about what the other days would bring.)

- DAY 2 - Sunday January 3 - This day was hard. Everything I had read told me it would be hard and it was. The last hour uphill was very very very difficult and I practically crawled up the last 50 meters. Then, in a surprising twist, the last 2-3 hours doing down hill was even harder for me! I ended up wishing I was still going up hill since the steps down were very painful on my ankles. I was dehydrated and unhappy during that descent.

- DAY 3 - Monday January 4 - Everything I had read was right again - this was the best day on the Inca Trail! I loved every second of it. If you could have seen me I was beaming from ear to ear all day and how could I not be on a day that was an incredible combination of jungle, physical challenge, ancient ruins, mountains, cake, waterfalls, llamas, and more.

- DAY 4 - Tuesday January 5 - We made it to Machu Picchu! My mom has a great picture of the three of us posted.

I am glad to be able to link over to Mom's writing to share my experience in Peru with you. You may want to also read her Reflections or Recommendations for the trip as well. Oh, and like me, she loves to receive comments so feel free to post some either on this post or any of hers.