Here we go again

One week from today I'll start a new adventure.  Seated on the left is Margaret Lawson the former drama teacher at Pickerington North High School.  She started years ago taking students on trips but for some time now has been taking adults all over the globe.  Some of these folks have been traveling with her 15+ years, some like me are first timers.   I've been wanting to go to Machu Piccu for years,  I am fascinated by ancient civilizations and have visited Mayan and Aztec ruins.  Now is my chance to see the remains of an Inca settlement constructed in the mid 1400's in the Peruvian Andes.  I stumbled on this trip by chance when I did the costumes for Pickerington North's production of Legally Blonde last year.  Margaret had put an ad for the trip on the back of the program, I called and signed up as soon as I saw it.  Our first stop, however; will be the Galapagos Islands.  I didn't know that much about the Galapagos, but after doing some research, am almost as excited about that part of the trip as I am about Machu Piccu.

We start in Quito, the capital of Ecuador, which sits at an elevation of 9,350 feet above sea level (Denver, Colo. is at 5,280) and was one of UNESCO's first World Cultural Heritage Sites.  From there we will fly to the island of Baltra and board the Galapagos Legend for 5 days.  We'll visit several of the islands, check out the terrain and do some snorkeling.  After the islands we'll fly to Cusco, Peru, the jumping off spot for day trips to Machu Piccu.  This city sits at 11,200 feet and was once the capital of the Inca Empire.  It is also recognized as a WCHS.  We'll have a full day to explore Machu Piccu which is ONLY 7,970 ft above sea level.  Our last stop will be Lima, which according to Anthony Bourdain, is the Gastronomical Capital of the  Americas.

In an effort to keep up with the times and travel light, I'll be using a Samsung Galaxy tablet to blog, so bare with me if I have some tech problems.  Also, we will not have wifi on the ship so I'll be catching up after we get back to the mainland.  Feel free to leave comments, I can see them and even with so much going on it's nice to hear from home.