Fun Cusco Facts...

With 30 days to go till we leave, here are a few fun facts about Cusco...which will be our home base while we're in Peru.  Did you know...

• that Cusco is the #1 tourist destination in Peru, with 2.5 million expected visitors in 2013 (up 10% from 2012)?
• that June is actually the most popular month for tourists with traditional festivals, like Inti Raymi or the Festival of the Sun and traditional folk parades?
• that Cusco is also considered the "The Archaeological Capital of America"?
• that an hour massage in Cusco costs less than $10?

Immunizations

Well, it wasn't pretty but we got it done!  On Wednesday of this week we went to the travel doctor and after a long lecture about all the risks in visiting a foreign country and more than a few tears from the kids, we got our immunizations.  We are now officially safe from...

• Yellow Fever
• Typhoid
• Hep A
• Hep B
• Tetanus

Melanie and I also still need to get some boosters for MMR and Meningitis, but the majority is behind us.  We'll also need to pick-up some Malaria meds that we'll take with us, as well as others for things like traveler's diarrhea, altitude sickness, and more.  If you know Melanie, it's probably not surprising that we'll be traveling with a mini pharmacy!

By the way, if you're at all curious...immunizations are NOT cheap!

Great book on Peru

Our Lonely Planet Peru travel guide showed up yesterday and it's fantastic.  Lots of great stuff on Cusco restaurants, kids activities, hiking the Inca Trail, Machu Picchu and more.  Here are a few fun facts you may not already know...

1) Popular foods in Peru include Cuy (guinea pig, often served with the head still on it) and Anticucho (beef heart on a stick) which is served by street carts at night.
2) Cusco is actually at 11,000 feet high!  In  fact, Peru is home to the 2nd highest mountain range in the world.
3) Peru boasts the greatest number of butterfly species in the world.
4) Peru is host to the second largest portion of the Amazon rainforest (2nd to Brazil).

Looks like someone's ready to start packing...

70 Days To Go

Well, we're 70 days away and lots of planning is done...

• Itinerary is set!  We'll be volunteering in Cusco.  Plan is to spend 6 weeks in cusco doing mostly orphanage work (although Melanie may spend 1-2 weeks doing nutrition work), followed by 2 weeks of Jungle Conservancy in the Manu Biosphere Reserve.
• Flights are booked!  We leave June 26th and return August 26th.  Not a ton of flight options from Los Angeles to Peru so our flight there is a red eye and we have a 6 hour layover in Lima before making it to Cusco.
• Inca Trail Trek is reserved!  That's right...Melanie, me and our 7 and 6 year-old kids are going to hike the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu.  Well, not exactly the full trail.  We signed up the 2 day trek where we'll walk for about 6 hours to Machu Picchu, spend the night in Aquas Calientes, tour the ruins and then take the train back to Cusco.  Check out the details here.

But there are still tons left to do...vaccinations, packing, planning and, of course, we're still trying to rent our house out.  Know someone that wants to spend the summer in Laguna Beach?  Check out our rental on VRBO!  If you're interested, email me and we'll work something out :-)!

Volunteer in Peru with IVHQ

Here's a video from IVHQ about volunteering in Cusco...

Summer Plans

As most of you probably know by now, we've decided to take a non-conventional summer vacation this summer.  Melanie, Lucas, Sydney and I plan on spending July and August traveling, treking and taking in another country and culture.  So how did this trip come about?  Well, the truth is I was transitioning jobs and was thinking about taking some time off...you know, read some books, go to the gym and just generally enjoy some down time.  Well, I had coffee with a friend and he wasn't much a fan of the plan.  His 2 cents...if you're going to take time off, make it memorable, travel, get out of your comfort zone!

Well, I discussed the idea with Melanie, and she loved it...rather than send the kids to camp or take in another Bexley July 4th celebration, we'll spend this summer traveling as a family!  Now that it was settled, we just had to decide where to go and what to do.  Well, we knew we didn't want the experience to just be an extended vacation, with 5-star hotels and fancy dinners.  Not only do we need to be a bit budget conscious, we wanted the experience to be both memorable and immersive for our kids so, instead, we settled on volunteer tourism where we'll have the opportunity to see another culture up close by living and interacting with locals and giving back.

We reviewed lots of volunteer groups and ultimately settled on IVHQ.

IVHQ has a great reputation, programs in lots of different countries and reasonable fees.  We looked at lots of opportunities...Croatia, Tanzania, and all throughout South America...and as much as I wanted to go to Africa, we settled on Peru because of the diversity of volunteer opportunities, proximity to the U.S. (central time zone!), and language (Melanie majored in Spanish in college).

So...we're all signed up and ready to go. Keep an eye out here for more details as the trip comes together and watch for video blog posts from Lucas and Sydney documenting their experiences throughout the trip.