Trip Preparations

1. The bagpack

I chose the Deuter Air Contact Pro 60+15. I would suggest that you visit the sports and outdoor equipment store you trust and try on some bagpacks. It's important that it's comfortable, handy to use, not too big nor too small and that it has a reasonable price. For my purpose the Deuter is perfect. It comes with a lot of practical feauters like rain cover, compartments for drinking systems, it's extendable and very comfy. I paid something like 230 $ which is ok.

2. The shoes

I would say that the shoes are the most important piece of equipment you will need for such a tour. Don't save on good shoes cause you will be spending weeks in them and have them on for several hours a day. They should be comfortable, strong, support your feet and give you good grip on every underground you come across. I chose the Lowa Kody GTX II Mid. It's a trekking shoe and suitable for flat and slightly rocky underground. As I'm not planning to hit the mountains in terms of climbing, it's the perfect shoe to go for. It's around 180 $. I suggest you get good outdoor socks - which by the way are the only way to control the tempreature in such a shoe. The shoe is made of a Goretex material and thus very respiratory - anyhow...the right sock makes sure you don't sweat too much or it will keep you warm in higher regions. Ask your retailer - he'll be happy to help you on that matter.

3. A knife

You will spend a lot of time outside on a backpacktour - so I believe that a good knife will be very useful. For me it was important to get a small, lightweight and flexible knife. I chose the Gerber Remix foldable knife. It's small, made of aluminium and has a serrated blade as you can see on the picture.

4. Clothes

Space is the only thing you don't have on a backpack tour cause you don't want to carry around a heavy bagpack. So you need to cut back on the clothing you take with you and choose wisely. What I take with me is 3 tee's, 6 briefs, 3 pairs of socks (2 for warm temperatures, one for cold temperatures), a hat to protect your head from the sun, a thermo shirt for the mountains, 2 pairs of outdoor pants with zipper to take off half of the legs, a raincoat. If there's anything else you need, you can still get it at your destination. And to be honest - I'm really looking forward to get one of those alpaca wool pullovers they sell there. :-)

5. A moskito net

As we'll be spending nights in the jungle or nearby a lake, a moskito net is definitely a must-have. I got one from a friend which is very small and lightweight.

6. The first aid kit

You never know what might happen - so I think it's wise to take some medicine. A few basic things like aspirine or paracetamols, something against diarrhea, patches for small wounds, desinfectant, insect repellent and not to forget: the vaccinations you should get beforehand! These would be Hepatitis A and B, yellow fever, tetanus, polio and typhus. Talk to your doctor to find out about that.

I think that's all for now. I will add things if I can think of more. If you have any questions - feel free to ask! :-)

Travel plans are getting more precise

After not posting for a long time there's finally some news about our trip to Peru.

We finally decided about when to go. We will be flying to Lima/Peru on the 9th of January and fly back on the 29th of January.

Lan Airlines

We decided to cut back on the duration and to keep it simple: Only basic hotels and guest houses, economy class tickets for all flight sectors and there has been a change in the routing. We won't be flying via Caracas/Venezuela but we decided to take Bogota/Columbia since this is more convenient as Lufthansa has a direct connection departing from Frankfurt/Germany which takes us there in 12 hours.

It's going to be an adventure flying with Avianca and Lan Airlines in South America since I've never used any other Airline outside the EU. The flight will take 15 hours in total and after that we will be spending one or two nights in Lima to familiarize with the public transport system and of course take some time to get to know the city.

Avianca Airlines

After that our trip will take us to the coastline of Peru all the way down to the Lake Titicaca from where we'll be taking a national flight to the north to continue our journey. We are currently working on the waypoints - which spots we absolutely need to see like Macchu Picchu, the Lake Titicaca, the Urus - floating islands on the Lake Titicaca and so on. Once we figured it out I will post up a map with all of those spots.

I am so excited right now cause it really starts to come together. We will soon get the tickets and send in our vacation planning. Once this is done we can think about getting all the stuff together.

Intuition leads us...

Sometimes it's hard to see why things might be related to each other but today I want to tell you a short story.

Some time ago I used to go to the gym on a regular basis because I wanted to do something to keep me fit and in shape. Last year I quit because it wasn't fun anymore. I always felt I had to force myself to do it and so I cancelled the contract and stopped working out.

In the meantime I always wanted to do something more challenging, more satisfying. I looked around a bit and one day I thought about climbing - or better "bouldering" which is the indoor alternative. But you know how it is...sometimes you get caught up in your daily life and time flies by...so things take sometime longer than they should OR the time is not right and when the time IS right, everything just happens naturally.

During the last 2 or 3 days the thoughts about bouldering came again repeatedly and I decided to finally make the next step: look for a bouldering hall here in Munich. Yesterday, while surfing around and checking on the different websites the next step came to my mind: get the equipment to start with! And so I looked up what I needed to start bouldering. Then the next step: find a store in Munich.

Today I went to town and got shoes and the other equipment for a reasonable price. Tomorrow I will try it for the first time - and I'm excited!

What has all this to do with synchronicity? Well I'm not sure...but think about Peru...the Andes...maybe it gives me a new possibility. Maybe I get the chance to get to places I could never reach without this climbing technique. Who knows - maybe I will have a chance to climb in the Andes. Just thinking about it gives me goose bumps.

I found the photos on google...I hope that's ok. If not - let me know and I will delete them from this post.

A brief overview of the planned journey

Preparations start from this point...the raw idea of the whole trip. Refinements are of course coming in the future.

For now I think our journey will take us from Munich, Germany to Caracas, Venezuela where we will spend a night or two before we take the flight to Lima, Peru.

In Peru we decided to just use public transportation to move through the country. This might be more challenging but it will definitely be cheaper and I think with our language skills we'll get along pretty well - since I want to learn some spanish soon.

Here is a map of the general route...travelling around half the world. Pretty exciting, isn't it?

The detailed plans for Peru itself are to just follow our intuition. There will be some spots we definitely want to visit...but the biggest part of the decisions about the journey will happen while we're in the country.

Some good books...

 To start my preparation I looked for a good travel guide about Peru and the one that had the best ratings and reviews was the german guide "Reise Know How: Peru & Bolivien" that you can get at http://www.amazon.de.

The guide is very extensive and has tons of information about the country, the culture, hotels, several maps, tours and much more in it and though becomes a perfect companion on this journey.