California, 2017

Vernal Falls

Another successful, semi-annual California summit of Sarah, Michele, and Laura is in the books! We spent 2.5 days in Yosemite hiking (including climbing Half Dome) and driving around the park, and 2.5 days in the Monterey area drinking wine, visiting the aquarium, and eating tons of delicious food. Here are a few highlights and photos.

Half Dome Village

View from Half Dome Village

On Tuesday, Sarah flew into LA from NY, where Michele picked her up and they drove 4.5ish hours to the Fresno airport, where I arrived. Then we drove a couple hours (but surprisingly few miles) to Yosemite National Park. We booked a tent with four cot-beds on a wooden floor, nestled in a colony of identical semi-permanent shelters in the Half Dome Village. We arrived a little before dinner time, so we dropped our bags and toured around our little colony. There were hundreds of tents next to a little center with a souvenir shop, grocery store, pizza place, buffet restaurant, and bar.

We had a quick dinner and got ready for an early bedtime. We were going to get up around 5 am for the Half Dome hike, estimating it would take us anywhere from 10 to 14 hours. We met a girl in the bathroom who did it in 10 hours, which instilled a tiny bit of optimism, but she also appeared to be in much better shape than us.

Wednesday morning the alarms were blaring, but we were moving pretty slowly. It was too early for the park shuttle (or breakfast, but Michele brought coffee), so we had to walk almost a mile from camp to the trail head. We started on the trail by 6:30, and it was gorgeous. Towering green trees (I can't tell tree species, sorry) soaring around us, soft dirt surrounding our paved path, a creek babbling by, little woodland creatures scurrying. But then it quickly became steep, and didn't stop for a couple hours. We passed two waterfalls and then slowly plateaued out. We had "lunch" at 9:30 in a nice meadow area by the river where people who don't bring enough water restock their camelbaks on the way down. (Tip if you want to hike Half Dome: I had a 3-liter generic camelbak and a 1-liter Nalgene, which was the exact amount of water one person needs. I also had hiking poles, gloves for the cables, a visor and sunscreen, and plenty of food.)

On the Mist Trail

Cables!

Shortly after lunch (PB&J and trail mix) we got to the second uphill push, which consisted of a bunch of switchbacks for about an hour. Then we came out to a nice, flat vista where we could see Half Dome, and people climbing up the terrifying cables strapped to the side of the rock face. It's way too steep to just hike up, so the park installed cable handrails that you use to pull yourself up the rock face for the final 400 or so feet. My palms started sweating looking at it.

Then we had a bit of gradual uphill before the "granite stairs," also known as the "sub-dome," which is the last uphill push before the cables. It was about 30 minutes of granite steps in switchbacks, and then an expanse of open dome face, but at a low enough grade that you just lean in and walk up it. There's no trail or anything, but the peak of Half Dome is right there, so you just aim for it.

Top of Half Dome

And then we got to a little dip in the terrain. We had completed the sub-dome and were staring at Half Dome. It was a flat reprieve, except that you were walking toward the cables, and you could see the people scurrying up them. All of my pores started sweating. I'm terrified of heights, and this was a doozy. But Michele and I charged forward valiantly (Sarah decided she had enough just before the end of the sub-dome), bracing for the inevitable. We already hiked straight up for almost 7 hours. Of course this shit was happening.

We both knew to bring gloves (anyone considering it: BRING GLOVES. There's a pile of gloves left by other hikers at the base of the cables, but I wouldn't depend on them), so we pulled them out and slid them on our hands like warriors of old preparing for battle. We left our hiking poles at the base of the cables but carried our backpacks with us for water.

Yosemite Falls

Mish and I conferred at the base of the cables and decided I would go first. I walked up, put one hand on each cable (imagine a narrow stairwell, where the railings are thin cables and the steps are wooden planks 10 feet apart and 10 feet straight up and everything else is a rock face steeply leading off to your death), and went for it. It wasn't difficult in the beginning because it wasn't too steep yet. Just step, step, cable, cable, and boom, you're at the first wooden plank. But then it got steeper, and we caught up to a girl having a panic attack on the way up who caused a traffic jam for people trying to go down (did I mention up and down traffic share the same narrow cable staircase?), and it got a little hairier. But I shocked myself by not freaking out about the heights. I was able to chill and look around at each wooden plank I had to stop at, while also encouraging the girl in front of me. It took us much longer than it should have to get to the top, but panic-attack girl made it too and I'm glad I didn't devolve into one of those assholes who yelled at her about keeping it moving so they could go. Slow and steady wins the race for everyone. 

We made it to the top, and stumbled our way toward the edge of Half Dome. As always with these sorts of things, it was anti-climatic. I never get a rush of satisfaction at reaching a peak. I never imagine ticker tape raining down upon me. It's a sweaty, exhausting, drained moment in which I say, "Cool. I'm here." I feel the satisfaction of a hike when I'm at the bottom, looking back up at where I've come from. So Michele and I drank some water, took some photos, and I headed back down as an unchanged human.

But here's the crazy thing. Going down the cables was AMAZING! It was so much fun. I felt like I was at an amusement park. It looked awful on the way up, but on the way down it was a ride. I held each cable in my corresponding hand and slid down Half Dome, stopping when I needed to let people going up pass. It was the best part of the hike, hands down. Super fun.

Fish Hopper on Cannery Row, Monterey

Then we got back to the sub-dome and we had 5+ hours of downhill until we were back at camp. I'll spare you the details because it's like every time I go downhill: awful, painful, grumpy, nothing worth reading about. We made it back to camp after 13 hours. Much worse than the super-fit, friendly girl in the bathroom, but much better than everyone who didn't make it to the top. Overall it was about 15 miles. We took the Mist Trail up (which is steeper but shorter and takes you closer to the waterfalls) and the Muir Trail down (which is longer but has less extreme downhills).

Monterey Aquarium

We were all hobbled and sore, but we made it to the village square for food and celebratory drinks. And then a loooong night of sleep.

I'm going to breeze through the rest of the trip, not because it was less interesting, but because the hike was the formative lynch pin of the trip. And because I got carsick and puked twice on the ride from Yosemite to Monterey and no one needs to read that.

The day after the Half Dome hike, Michele drove us around Yosemite. We saw Yosemite Falls and various other parts of the park. That night we had dinner at our village and took the shuttle to the fancy hotel for drinks.

Sunset, sisters, wine

Vineyards

Lover's Point, Monterey (great for reading)

Big Sur

Andrew Molera Park, Big Sur

The next day we headed out of the park (which always takes a long time) toward Monterey, arriving in time for dinner overlooking the water at what the hostess said was the best table in the restaurant (why she gave it to us will always be a mystery). We went back to our adorable AirBnB for wine and board games. The next day we did the 17-mile drive through Pebble Beach to Carmel, and hit up some wine-tasting rooms in Carmel. We drove out to the Carmel Valley to a couple of tasting rooms and then drove back to town (Mish was being a very good sport and being our driver). Then it was a sunset drink on the beach, another awesome seafood dinner, more board games, and bed. The next day we went to the aquarium, which is so much more expensive than I expected but I'm happy to pay it. Our rental house provided 2 free passes, but it was still $50 for the third admission. Worth it, because they do so much education and conservation work as well. Go to the aquarium!

Big Sur

Sarah and Mish drove out to more wineries that afternoon, but I wanted to walk to the beach with my book and relax. Everyone got what they wanted, and we met up for dinner later at the fantastic Red House. The next day we had breakfast at the Red House again because it was so good, dropped Sarah off at the airport, and Mish and I drove toward Big Sur. The town is still cutoff because of the mudslide, but we were able to do a little beach walk and see some beautiful sights before it was time for me to go to the tiny Monterey airport for my long flights home.

Bixby Creek Bridge, Big Sur

Tips to Reach Uhuru Peak, Kilimanjaro

Andrew and I successfully summited Mount Kilimanjaro, but it was much harder than I anticipated. Most of what I read in advance said Kili is a challenging hike but it doesn’t require special training or skills. I guess I would agree with that, but Andrew and I definitely did more training than I thought was necessary, and I’m glad we did. In addition, we picked up a couple tricks from our guide (that might have been mostly psychosomatic but either way I’m not complaining) and I brought a couple with me. For anyone embarking on the hike, I’d recommend all of the following.

Train More Than You Think You Should
A full nine months before we headed to Tanzania, Andrew had us on a training schedule. It consisted of one hike a week (on Saturday mornings for us), a weekly Body Pump class at the gym for general strength, swimming for cardio and lung capacity, yoga, and the stair climber at the gym. I thought he was going way overboard, but I’m so, so thankful he did, now that the climb is over.

Specifically, our weekly hikes were key. Three out of four Saturdays a month we’d do a random trail in Austin, but we ended up repeating River Place Nature Trail almost every week. It had the best ups and downs we found in town. The fourth Saturday we’d do the full, ten-mile loop around Lady Bird Lake to build up our stamina (we also biked there and back for some extra oomph). We carried daypacks with water on each hike, but the packs were much lighter than what we ended up climbing with. One thing I’d do differently is to add more weight to the pack to get used to it.

Rest Step
Dustin, our American guide, introduced us to the concept of rest step early in the hike. He said it’s something people do on much harder hikes (Mount Rainier all the way up to Everest), but that it would be helpful any time we were tired and going uphill. It was a little awkward to me, and it involved locking my knees, which I’m fundamentally opposed, but I gave it my best effort. You take a step uphill, plant your stepping foot, and then as your other leg follows, you lock out your standing knee. The idea is that your knee and hip in the standing leg take your body weight as your other leg steps so your muscles don’t tire as quickly. You don’t just do it once; you’re supposed to walk that way, on each leg with each step, for long uphill stretches. It felt really clunky and weird to me, but when Dustin would holler, “rest step!” I’d try my best to obey. I don’t know if it really helped me all that much, but knowing that a professional guide who has gotten people up much harder mountains than Kili believed in it was enough to keep me trying.

Pressure Breathing
This was the second trick Dustin introduced us to. Like rest step, he said people do it on harder hikes but that it would be valuable on Kilimanjaro when the altitude made breathing difficult. It’s really simple and easy to do, as long as you don’t mind looking and sounding like a lunatic around other hikers. You take in a deep breath and then exhale in at least three sharp, fast, audible breaths. It’s supposed to open up your lungs more and allow the bronchial tubes and lung surface to take in more oxygen. Andrew, Dustin, and I all randomly did it throughout the hike, and as soon as we heard one person exhaling loudly, we’d all join in. It was silly but also fortifying. I don’t know if it physically made much difference, but at 18,000 feet, it’s mostly a mental game anyway.

Meditation Tactics
Which brings me to a trick I brought with me to the mountain: meditation. I mentioned doing yoga as part of our routine training. Every Sunday we’d go to a yoga class at the gym and our instructor offered a short, guided meditation at the end of the hour session that people could stick around for it they were interested. I’ve always been curious about meditation, so I stayed every week she offered it. The most basic part I gleaned was to focus on my breathing, even to the point of thinking, “inhale, exhale” with every breath. She also gave us a little mantra to say to ourselves when our thoughts started wandering: “Not now, I’m breathing now.” Very basic stuff, but it got me up Kilimanjaro.

Around the second hour of summit day, I started hurting hardcore. I needed to focus on the basics to keep my mind off my misery, so I tied my breathing to my walking. One step with the right foot = one inhale. One step with the left foot = one exhale. (Yes, we really were walking that slowly!) And I actually thought to myself, “inhale, exhale,” with each step. When you’re making your brain say that, it can’t wander to other thoughts, like how cold it is or how much the mountain sucks or how you want to lay down and take a nap even if it means you’ll get hypothermia. Inhale, exhale. I literally thought that for hours on summit day. Hours. And when I couldn’t sustain that, I’d go to, “Not now, I’m walking now.” I’d feel exhausted and think of a nap, and I’d make myself say, “Not now, I’m walking now.” People would start singing loudly and I’d start to get angry but make myself say, “Not now, I’m walking now.” It all sounds very basic but fluffy at the same time, but if you actually commit your brain to the thoughts, it helps. At least it helped me.

Emergen-C (or any equivalent product)
I loved these little packets of magic on the trail. I was first introduced to them as a hiking aid on the Inca Trail, when one of my trail-mates gave me a packet to add to my water after I puked on the side of trail. When Andrew and I were planning for Kilimanjaro, we knew we would be using water-purifying tablets during the entire hike and that they would make our water taste funky. So I stocked up on packets of the pink-lemonade flavor to cover the taste. I also knew from the Inca Trail that altitude sickness is exponentially worse if you don’t drink enough water, so I didn’t want to give myself any reason to not stay hydrated. Toward the end of the hike I was sick of the packets and found the water tasted just fine without them, but they still got me through many days when I’m sure I wouldn’t have drank enough without them.

Diamox
Get altitude-sickness meds if you’re going hike Kilimanjaro! Just do it, even if you don’t think you’ll need them. It is so much better to have them and not use them then to get five days (and thousands of dollars) in and have to turn back because you’re ill. I started taking them on the second day at the lowest dose so I could add to it if necessary. And it was necessary. By the third day I was taking the lowest dose in the morning and again at night. Andrew stuck with the lowest dose once a day the entire time. Give yourself enough wiggle room to adjust for what your body needs. There’s no shame in taking it; altitude sickness is a beast. When we got back to our hotel in Moshi after the hike, we met a woman who had also just returned with her group. She told us that she made it to summit day, hiked about an hour, but then had to turn back because her altitude sickness was so bad that she was hallucinating trolls and other creatures on the trail. We commiserated and said we couldn’t have made it without our Diamox, to which she responded, “Oh, yeah, I had the pills with me but I didn’t want to take them.” What?? It seemed crazy to Andrew and me, but to each their own. (Except no, don’t be that lady.)

Vocabulary

Mysha morefi!

This section isn’t really going to help you get to Uhuru Peak, but I think it’s fun to learn some of the local language. I have not checked the spelling of any of these words (yes, I know Google is very user-friendly, hush). It’s more fun to see how my brain mishears things anyway, right? So, the limited Swahili I picked up:

Cabisa = all of it (“Laura, how much bread do you want?” “Cabisa.”)
Mogie moto = hot water
Ahsante (sana) = thank you (very much)
Jambo = hello
Zurie = good
Baya = bad
Karibu = welcome (to a place, food, etc.)/you’re welcome
Pole pole = slowly
Rafiki = friend
Lala salama = sleep well
Mysha morefi = long life (“cheers”)

Good luck to future trekkers!

Pre-Hiking in Tanzania

Machame Gate

Kilimanjaro National Park is a wonderful place for hiking, if you’re looking for one. There are various routes hikers can take to Uhuru Peak (the highest point on Mount Kilimanjaro), and they can do it in anywhere between two and nine days. Andrew and I opted for the Machame route over seven days. Most people do the Machame route in six days, but when you tack on the extra day, the chances of summitting skyrocket. We were paying a stupid amount of money for this hike, so we wanted as much of an assurance of reaching the top as anyone could give us.

We booked our trek (and the following safari) through an American company called IMG. I lobbied for them because they had great reviews and particularly a great history of treating and paying their crew members well. That was my priority but I was maybe blinded a little by the ease of using a U.S. company to navigate all the Tanzania pieces to realize I was essentially paying a big markup for an American middle man. Andrew and I booked together and then we expected eight other people to meet us in Tanzania to share our guides, porters, and other hiking crew members. A small group would have been six hikers and the normal group size was ten.

Andrew and I got off our very long flight (Houston to Amsterdam was 8 hours, then Amsterdam to Kilimanjaro was 8.5, plus the 2.5 hour drive from Austin to Houston); battled our way through the mob at the customs checkpoint in the Kili airport (I made A uncomfortable with my cutthroat mob/line abilities but he later agreed I did it well); joyously picked up all our bags (KLM, our airline, has a bad record of losing bags and not giving a shit); and exited the airport to find a ring of drivers with signs waiting to pickup passengers.

We walked along the semi-circle of dudes with signs, looking for our names, our tour group, or our hotel, but found nothing familiar. We stepped outside the ring of guys, dropped off our bags, and took turns (one waiting with our stuff, the other scrutinizing the signs), until finally, about 20 minutes later, I spotted a guy with a piece of paper that said, “K’s hotel, Dustin x3, IMG.” And the IMG was in much smaller font than the rest of the text. I went back to Andrew and explained my reasoning: Our hotel was Keys Hotel, I was pretty sure I saw the name Dustin in one of the emails from IMG, and … well… IMG was our operator. I figured K’s was a translation difference for Keys, and that maybe Dustin was also on our flight so they didn’t put all the names on the sign. Andrew was understandably doubtful but it was our best lead, so we flagged the guy who looked annoyed that we were so dumb that it took us that long to find him.

The driver, Gavin, helped us carry our bags (we had two giant duffel bags of hiking gear, two big backpacks of clothes, and our carry-on bags) further away from the crowd and then went back to wait for Dustin. We still weren’t sure he was our guy, but it was better than nothing. About ten minutes later Gavin came back with Dustin, who happily introduced himself as our guide and told us he just arrived on our flight. Dustin came in from Bend, Oregon, and was going to be our hiking guide on Kili. We asked if we were waiting for more people and he told us everyone else had canceled. It started off as IMG’s smallest Kili group at only five hikers, but then within two weeks of the trip the other three people canceled. IMG considered canceling on me and A since they would be operating at a loss with just us, but they kindly decided it awful customer service to cancel our costly trip with only two weeks' notice. Lucky us, but also, the two of us would be hiking with Dustin and two Tanzania guides and 12 crew members. It was kind of embarrassing. And Dustin looked way too much like my ex-boyfriend. But what are you going to do?

Gavin drove us from the airport to our hotel outside of Moshi, which took about 45 minutes. When we arrived it was almost 10 pm, so we just got our room and passed out. The next morning we had breakfast with Dustin (we would get used to intimate time as a threesome quickly), and went back to our room to prepare for a “gear check.” Our room was pretty spectacular because it was actually a suite. We had a living room, complete with a couch and two chairs, and the standard bedroom. Andrew spread his gear out in the living room and mine went all over our bed. At 10 am Dustin came in to judge our packing.

Gear

He started with Andrew’s stuff, which was good because Andrew buys the nice gear from REI and LL Bean. I buy things on sale at Ross and Academy, and borrow stuff. After a thorough review, it was deemed that A needed to rent rain pants, and had two lightweight fleeces that were redundant. After a thorough review of my stuff, it was deemed that I also needed to rent rain pants. I had about ten too many pairs of cheap, cotton socks; two unnecessary cotton, long-sleeved shirts; and two wool sweaters that should be replaced with Andrew’s extra fleeces. All told, I thought we did pretty well as a couple on the inspection.

Outside Union Cafe, Moshi

Dustin secured us each rain pants through the hotel ($10 rental charge each) and then loaded us into a car to drive to town. We exchanged money and checked out a souvenir shop (Did you know Tanzanite is more expensive than diamonds? I didn’t. It’s also way more beautiful than diamonds.) and then drove to Union Coffee for lunch. A man with a giant gun told our driver he couldn’t park where he was trying to park. Dustin, Andrew, and I got out of the car and our driver went elsewhere to park.

The food was not great but the place was very picturesque. Then we drove to a grocery store to buy chocolate (Dustin insisted that our trail mix wouldn’t cut it on summit day when all food would seem disgusting and that we needed candy bars), and I managed to squeeze in some extra souvenir shopping in the store next door.

After our tour of Moshi we drove back to the Keys Hotel for a little preparation downtime. Dustin said he’d meet us in the hotel restaurant/lobby for dinner at 7 but that he’d be in the bar at 6:30 for a drink if we wanted to meet him. This set the tone of our escalating cold war. There were no other places for the three of us to hang out. Andrew and I wanted to have a drink by ourselves before dinner with our tour guide, but Dustin wanted to have a drink by himself before his clients came by. It wasn’t that we didn’t like each other, but we didn’t want to always be together and there was nowhere we could be without the other. Andrew and I got to the bar at 6. We won that night.

Pre-hike happy hour for two

Planning for Tanzania

Andrew and I booked a trip to Tanzania! We’re going for the first two weeks of September to hike Mount Kilimanjaro and do a roving safari, which involves driving around every day to see the most animals possible and setting up camp at night. Seeing an elephant in the wild is one of my ultimate life goals, so fingers crossed.

As you probably know, the logistics of hiking a 20,000-foot mountain on another continent are a teensy bit complicated. It’s an eight-day trek and, like my Inca Trail experience in 2014, we’ll have porters who carry most of our stuff and set up camp for us (my first-world guilt will come back). Therefore, it’s not going to be a super-taxing endeavor for me (other than climbing 20,000 feet and not succumbing to altitude sickness), but there’s nevertheless a lot of planning involved. And we’ll be hiking in snow but safariing in equatorial heat, which means lots of clothes to pack (and buy).

If you’ve read other parts of this blog, you might remember when my hiking boot disintegrated on the Inca Trail and I received a hasty replacement pair. Well, I still haven’t bought new, good boots, so that’s at the top of my to-do list. But the company we booked the trek through (International Mountain Guides) sent Andrew and me a detailed list of gear to buy, and I need to buy more than just boots. Luckily I have a lot of stuff on the list, but I’m going to have to get at least the following:

• Padlocks for bags
• Trekking poles
• Sleeping pad
• Expedition-weight set of synthetic long john tops and bottoms
• Parka (A mid-weight down or synthetic insulated parka with a hood is what you are looking for.)
• Warm pants (Fleece is good, soft shell type pants are even better.)
• Shell Pants: Waterproof/breathable pants (full side zips are best and Gore-Tex is perfect).
• Heavy gloves or mittens: down or synthetic insulated for summit day
• Hiking boots
• Gaiters
• Naglene bottles (2)
• Chemical hand and toe warmers (6)

This is only the stuff I don’t own from the three-page list of gear. I’m concerned for the porters…

I had to get my doctor to sign a form saying I’m fit to hike the mountain (did that today!) and I need to visit a travel doctor to discuss vaccines and malaria pills (doing that Wednesday!). I know the trip isn’t until September, but I want to give myself excessive planning time. I’m maybe a little type A, I guess.

Packing brain dump

Y’all. My trip is coming up so quickly. I’m going to Peru in less than two weeks! I’ll hike the Inca Trail, see Machu Picchu, sleep in the Galapagos Islands (Darwin slept there; just saying), and (I hope) get some photos of equatorial penguins. PENGUINS!! I can’t even try to explain how excited I am. BUT. I’m going to Montana for my cousin’s wedding the weekend before I fly to Peru, so I’m feeling a little crazy about packing, shuffling pets around, and tracking flights. My stupid mind has decided to muddle up Montana and Peru/Ecuador into one giant suitcase of stress. Therefore, I decided a post on packing "strategy" would be both timely and therapeutic. So here we go….

The trouble with this trip (Can I even say there’s trouble with this trip? It’s so beyond amazing and “what the privileged kids do” that I don’t think I can say anything troubling about it. But I’m going to anyway.) is the different climates I’ll be experiencing in two weeks. And fitting what I need for said climates into one big backpack, one small backpack, and one purse. Hiking boots and a sleeping bag are huge, by the way.

Lima should be lovely: highs in the 70s, lows in the I-don’t-cares because I’ll have a fleece and a hotel room. The Inca Trail is highs in the high 60s, lows in the 30s, but mix in strenuous activity everyday and sleeping in a tent, and I’m all sorts of befuddled. I think hiking boots, good socks, pants, long-sleeved shirts, a sports bra, daily undies, and a fleece should do it, but then there’s also rain (rain jacket), sun (big-ass hat, sunscreen), and cold nights in tents to consider.

Quito will be mostly like Lima but with extra rain, all the time. So an umbrella is needed. And then the Galapagos are supposed to be highs in the mid-70s, lows exactly 70, so that’s awesome. But also unexpected. When I thought about spending five days in the Galapagos, I thought about high 80s during the day and low 60s at night, which meant a range of cute dresses and cardis for nighttime. It is good for packing to know that I can omit the warm-weather clothes like shorts and tank tops, but those are also the things that take up no space in a backpack. So pile on the bulky stuff.

After lots of thought and revision, I have come up with the following packing list for this trip, which I will amend after the fact for anyone who wants to take a similar trip and learn from my packing mistakes. Of which there will be many. Because I can admit that I’m a shitty packer. But here’s what I have:

1 pair of jeans (wear on the plane)

1 pair of hiking leggings

1 skirt

4 long-sleeved shirts

4 short-sleeved shirts (wear 1 on the plane)

1 dress

1 cardigan

1 fleece (carry on the plane)

1 rain jacket

14 undies

2 bras

1 sports bra

1 swimsuit

5 pairs of hiking socks

1 pair of sleeping socks

PJ dress and pants

Hiking boots

Toms (wear on plane)

Big hat

Sleeping bag

Water bottle

Water purifying tablets

Flashlight

Umbrella

Sunscreen

Bug spray

Toilet paper (buy in Cusco)

Camera with batteries

Phone and charger

Sunglasses

Snacks for the trail (buy in Cusco)

Kindle and charger

Hand sanitizer

Dry shampoo

Wet wipes

Deodorant

Toothbrush and paste

Contact solution, case, glasses

Face wash

Face creams

Minimal makeup

I don’t know if you can tell from this list, but I’m probably going to smell bad for two weeks. I’m okay with that. I’ll have clean underwear. I will also look like poop in all photos because I won’t be wearing makeup and it will most likely have been days since I showered. I’m also okay with that. Because I’ll be on the Inca Trail and in the Galapagos Islands!!! Who cares about smelling good and looking decent when you have knock-you-to-your-knees, humbling, magical, historical, amazing ruins to look at and a cornucopia of nature’s wonder to explore and gaze upon in awe and revelry? Not me. Bring on the ugly selfies with the cute sea lions.