Planning: Peru on a Shoestring

Something we have talked about for over a year now, is soon to become a reality. Up until Christmas the focus had been on saving, saving and guess what more saving! But then we stepped in STA travel last month to make some decisions. With the help of Jack at STA Travel Manchester and his two hours worth of patience, our flights were booked!

Our Round the World trip covers; South America, North America, New Zealand, Australia, South East Asia, India and Europe… in just over a year! There will be plenty more blogs breaking all of our plans down into bitesize chunks. It will be interesting to see how much of what is planned… actually happens!

While at STA Travel our talks centred around our South America plans and Jack kindly informed us about the VISA’s needed for Machu Picchu. This is something we were blissfully unaware of. Only 500 VISA’s are granted a day and these are booked well in advance. Our hearts sank, thinking we were too late to book the Inca Trail. But as luck would have it there were about 7 available for 3 months into our travels (if we had left it much longer we would have had to take the Lares Trek instead).

One of these dates meant we will be hiking the Inca Trail on my Birthday… so that was it! Big decision made and we now know we are definitely seeing one of the 7wonders of the world!

Through G-Adventures we have booked the 14 day ‘Peru on a Shoestring‘ experience. We will meet and stay with local families, visit Colca Canyon, surrounding villages and conquer the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu on a 3 day trek. Our meals, accommodation and transport are arranged. This will be a big change to our self-sufficient 3 months prior to this. It will be all hostel living and navigating the buses, up until this point.

The Checklist that we have been sent literally looks endless. However, at a second glance there wasn’t much on there that we hadn’t thought off. Although were going in ‘dry season’, we have read not to presume it will be dry. Apparently it can feel very damp so cotton clothing and jeans are big no no’s. All of our trekking gear and waterproofs will go with us and the rest will stay behind, hopefully safe and sound!

Having the date booked for this has actually really helped us in planning everything up until Peru. We have been able to allocate time to each country on the journey up to Peru much easier, as we have no choice but to get to Lima in time.

I genuinely cannot wait for these stock photos to become our own pictures with the most incredible memories attached.

Read about our experiences completing the Inca Trail here at: Need to Know: Inca Trail to Machu Picchu

Go the Distance to see the world,

Chloe