Sonali does Planning

Anyone who knows me knows that i love planning. Is it a control thing? I don’t know. But I do like to know what i’ll be doing at any given time. Besides, a trip to Bolivia and Peru definitely warrants some serious planning. For example, did you know that to do the inca trail tour in the summer (south america’s winter) you need to book it 4-5 months in advance? Our summer, their winter is actually the best time to go because it’s dry season and pretty perfect. To conserve Macchu Picchu(8000ft), El Gobierno de Peru restricts it to 400 visitors a day selling tickets only to tour agencies. So basically there is no way to do the trail without a tour agency. After careful deliberation, we decided to do the “Short Inca Trail” which basically takes you on the trail and the other MP attractions over two days. The cost of the permit + travel + lodging + tour guide = a grand total of $510 a person. After doing some due diligence and talking to one of my coworkers (who has been on this trip) we picked Sun Gate Tours. Anthony from Sun Gate was very accommodating and helped me get all the documents we needed for the trip. For those who are curious, this is what you’ll need to book the tour: passport copies, travel insurance, half the money as deposit and some personal information. He also sent our way a whole bunch of pdfs about tipping, packing for the trip, altitude sickness, being a responsible traveler and medical kits. (Ask me and I can share them with you)

Macchu Picchu is only part of our trip. We had a whole of bunch of other things to plan. My Bolivian friend was able to pull some strings (read negotiate) and get us discounted tickets and tours to the Chalalan Madidi Rainforest in Bolivia. So if you really want to know how she did it you’ll have to ask her. But in a nutshell, we are spending 3 days in the rainforest which at this time of the year is in the high 90s with 90-100% humidity. We also planned day trips to Lake Titicaca(12,500ft) and the Valley of the Moon from La Paz(14,5000ft). Before heading off to MP, we have a couple of days in Cusco(11,000ft). So we booked a free walking tour of the city, the Sacred Valley(9000ft) tour and a Peruvian Cooking class. A lot of the research came from travel blogs and TripAdvisor. 

Hotels! There are different ways to do this. If you want to be conservative with your budget you’ll find many reasonably priced hotels. For example, you’ll find 2 star hotels from $30 to $60. Now, if you want to splurge, you can go for 5 star hotels from $300 - $450 a night. We decided to go for 4 star hotels this time around. I mean this is a once in a lifetime trip, so might as well, right? I used Expedia to book all our hotels in La Paz and Cusco some non-refundable because they had some good deals.

You’ve probably noticed that these places are at higher elevations than most people are used to. Not to be overly concerned (you probably should be a little concerned), but altitude sickness is no joke. The funny thing is that it’s hard to predict how your body will react to such high altitudes. The best you can do is take it easy, refrain from drinking/smoking, hydrate yourself and take DIAMOX. Yes, ask your doctor for the prescription. It will save your life. But that’s not all, going to any developing country requires a trip to the travel clinic. The doctor consults for an hour during which he’ll prescribe meds and vaccinations required and recommended for the countries you’re going to. Quick rundown for Bolivia and Peru: Yellow Fever, DTAP, Typhoid, Hep A & B, Chicken Pox. Most people already have had some of these. The Yellow Fever is unique to the rainforests though. In addition make sure the doctor prescribes, DIAMOX, Malaria meds and anti-diarrhea meds. You’ll get a yellow card with all the vaccination info which you’ll have to show border security in Peru to be let in. Dr. Thompson at the Sunnyvale PAMF travel clinic was great! Thanks to a steady stream of my fellow travelers visiting him before me, he knew exactly what trip I was on haha. 

Also Visas! For Peru, if you’re a US citizen you get a visa on entry. Citizens of other countries will have to do their due diligence. Since the US requires Bolivianos to get tourist visas, we(US citizens) need to get one for Bolivia. Things you’ll need: one passport photo, application form, hotel reservations, flight reservations, money order for $160 and proof of solvency. It’s relatively straightforward unless they run out of visa stickers(which they did in our case). Huge shoutout to my Bolivian friend’s Mom-in-Law for getting all our visas done!

I was going to talk about what clothes to take, but i’ll include that one in my future post “Sonali does Packing”. This one turned out long, but was hopefully informative!

Yellow Vaccination Card