PLANNING THIS TRIP

This is to be my fifth trip to South America since I began working for the airlines following retirement from the FAA. The first trip was to Peru in 2000 (?), primarily to visit the exquisite Inca ruins at Machu Pichu. At the time I knew little of international travel and nothing of South America. That first destination was not so much chosen as it was simply one my prospective travelling companion wanted to visit. I ended up going on the trip solo—as I have every subsequent trip—just me and my miniscule knowledge of the area and the language.

Trips 2, 3 and 4 were each planned based upon the recommendations of travellers met on a prior trip. On that first trip to Peru I talked with someone who recommended a trip along the southern Chilean coast, cruising the archipelago aboard the M.V. Magallanes to Patagonia. On an extension of that trip, while aboard a ferry to Tierra del Fuego, I learned of an incredibly cheap and scenic trip across the Andes into Bolivia via 4WD vehicles, an experience that anchored trip 3. Over a beer at an outdoor table in the Bolivian town of Uyuni, a young European lad showed me pictures he had taken in Argentina at Iguazu Falls. Voila! Trip 4 was set. I would visit northern Argentina, the falls, the Jesuit missions, and the friendly, cosmopolitan, inexpensive city of Buenos Aires.

I returned from Argentina last year having enjoyed a grand natural, cultural, and dining experience. But, unlike the other trips, I returned with no set destination for future travel.

Some thought was given to a return trip to Italy, a bit of which Barb and I had visited three (?) years ago. It didn’t work out for my prospective travelling companion, a first-year college student, to go with me, so I looked for another destination.

Scotland! Scotland has always sounded great, and even more so as our great friends, the Bo’s and Vernon’s, would be there as well. The guys will golf at some of the sacred venues of the venerable game, including a coveted tee time at St. Andrews. I’m not so enamored of the game as my pals, certain as I am that an equal measure of humiliation can be visited upon me by a skilled dominatrix at significantly less expense. I expect that, given the state of the dollar vs. the euro and the relative expense of European vs. South American travel, my total cost for a trip to a Latin destination could be reached in one robust day of travel and golf in Scotland. Also, I think that Barb might one day be talked into a trip to Scotland, and so it can wait. Still, the cold and mist and Scotch whiskey were appealing...

So it´s ´no´ to Italy and ´no´ to Scotland. My thoughts again turned south, to the Amazon River. Like most people, I assumed that a trip to the Amazon meant a trip to Brazil, and that is what I spent a couple of months planning. Like Italy and Scotland, though, Brazil was removed from my list of destinations for this trip. Contributing factors were—

• Brazil requires a visa for U.S. citizens visiting the country
• Portuguese is the national language and I’ve spent the past several years attempting to speak and understand a bit of Spanish
• Most important, though, is that my employer (US Airways) does not have agreements with any airlines fling domestic routes within Brazil. In other words, I’d have to pay retail for any flights beyond the gateway cities of Sao Paulo or Rio de Janeiro
  
  

One thing I have learned through recent travel research is that the Amazon River and jungle are not solely Brazilian features. The source of the Amazon is high in the Peruvian Andes, and the river proper is commonly accepted to be formed at the confluence of the Ucayali and Maranon Rivers in the Peruvian department (state) of Loreto. And so a return to Peru began to insinuate itself into my thoughts.

I enjoyed Peru and Peruvians on my previous visit, and domestic air travel within the country would be on LAN Airlines which I´ve used and admired on three previous journeys. (LAN flies under different guises in different countries, e.g., LAN Peru, LAN Chile, etc., and my experience has been one of great service and excellent planes...plus, their travel agreement with US Airways provides me standby travel within Peru for $23 - $28 per flight, not including taxes.) So, for the past several months at least, I´ve planned a trip back to South America, back to Peru, but to an altogether different region than I had previously visited.

These trips are much work and great fun to plan, to research the natural and cultural highlights of the areas being visited, to consider the logistics of getting from point A to point B and back. How will I travel? What will I eat? Where will I stay? I´m never really sure what´s in store, but each previous trip has been overwhelmingly positive. So will this trip to Peru, I hope.