My Dream Job

Single Girl had commented that I should work for National Geographic or the Travel Channel since I love to travel, learn about the places I will visit, and educate people about the things I learned on each of my journeys. I will admit, that has always been a dream of mine...for the most part.

I always wanted to write for a travel magazine - traveling the world to exotic destinations (tropical and/or historical) and tell the tales of my adventures as well as provide insider tips. That type of work, from my understanding, was mainly freelance. Translation: not a steady paycheck. That, my friends, I can't imagine living without. Therefore, I work my 8-5-er just like everybody else.

When I plan a vacation, I am absolutely meticuluous. I try to keep all the prices within reason (actually, as cheap as possible without losing out on quality), and try to hit not only the major tourist attraction but also getting to experience some local secrets off the typical beaten path. I utilize every travel site and travel bulletin board to search out the information I need, and 9 times out of 10, I am able to tailor an itinerary to the best interests of all those traveling.

Any of my friends who have taken a trip with me will attest to my attention to detail, and almost OCD way of coordinating a vacation. All they have to do is tell me the few things they want to include within the days of our trip, and I plan the whole thing. Controlling much? Yes, but in a good way :) You think I'm exaggerating, but Baby and friends will tell you that I hand everyone a typed itinerary for everyday of the trip upon our departure from Houston. I. Kid. You. Not. It's not an hour-by-hour itinerary or anything to that anal degree, but it will outline what time we have the one major touristy thing to do for the day and what hours are our free times to do whatever....oh, and prices of everything so we can keep a tally. To give you an idea, here is an example of mine and Baby's itinerary for Peru. Yes, I typed and gave him an itinerary a couple of days before we left to prepare him for our holiday. The format is a bit off due to blogger, but you get the drift.

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Rice Spice and Baby's Itinerary
IAH-LIMA-CUSCO-SACRED VALLEY (URUBAMBA)-MACHU PICCHU-CUSCO-LIMA-IAH

Wednesday, May 23rd--
3:50 p.m.- Depart IAH
Continental Airlines – Flight# 590

10:34 p.m.- Arrive LIM

HOTEL FOR 1 NIGHT
Recommended –
Hotel Basadre Suites ($70) (we didn't end up staying here though)
http://www.hotelbasadre.com/
Confirmation# xxxxxxx
011 51 1 4422307 – Phone
Free car from/to airport
Cancellation policy – 48hrs prior

Thursday, May 24th--
1:15 p.m.- Depart LIM (~$58 USD ow)
LAN Peru flight# 39
www.lan.com

2:30 p.m.- Arrive CUZ

***TAKE CAR/TAXI TO SACRED VALLEY – URUBAMBA ($25 through KR)***
Recommended –
Kuychi Rumi ($100/night for a house + $25 for start-up kit – start- up includes basket of oranges, papaya, bananas, apples, tangerines, pineapple, cheese, ham, eggs, butter, bread, coffee, tea, milk, sugar, salt, pepper, Andean cereals, yogurt, drinking water, and napkins – enough for breakfast and snacks for a couple of days)
011 51 84 201169 – Phone; 011 51 84 9690952 - Cell
Contacts: Claudia or Rodrigo
http://www.urubamba.com/webing/home.htm

Until end of day- Relax in Sacred Valley to acclimatize

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So there you have it. Proof of my anal rentative travel planning. All in all, it makes for a smoother trip in the long run though.

I found a blog called Reason to Wander a few months ago about a couple chronicling their trip around the world. I wish I was as brave as they are to do what they did just to be able to fulfill a lifelong dream before they are too old or physically unable to make it happen. A young, married couple decided one day that they should travel the world for a couple of years. So they sold all of their belongings - cars, house, gave away pets, quit their jobs, etc. - and headed out on their journey. Crazy, huh? I propositioned Baby while we were in Peru of this idea. Although he thought it was very cool, he didn't think either one of us were geared to just drop our lives to travel without a stable income. Alas, he is right. Even if we saved up, used all our savings, borrowed against our 401K's, cashed all the loose change we have in jars, we wouldn't be able to sell all our personal belongings nor his house. It's just the concept of not having something to come back home to when you're done with the adventure that scares the bejesus out me. As you can tell, I am a planner. I would need a plan on where we would end up, and "homeless" is not an outcome that sounds pleasant for my final entry in my travel itinerary.

What is your dream job?

Peru in 5 Days (4 Days if you want to get technical)...PHEW!

We made it back and all in one piece! Well, maybe not all in one piece. I lost my driver's license somewhere between Lima and Cuzco, but I have a trusty passport to serve as ID until I get my replacement. Not bad if that's all I lost throughout the trip, don't you think?

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Here is a run down of how things went over our trip from May 23rd thru May 28th. Sorry if it's long-winded, but trust me...I could go on and on and on....

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Day 1-- Getting to Lima, Peru

Ok, so there was a miscommunication on our hotel reservations in Lima. Basically, we somehow lost our reservations (long story) and were arriving into a city in a foreign country with NO WHERE to go. NICE! So, I emailed Rodrigo at the place we planned to stay in the Sacred Valley asking for overnight stay suggestions in Lima. We were emailing back and forth via my blackberry up until the time the cabin doors closed on our 6.5-hour flight to Lima. Luckily, he found a place for us that was expecting our arrival once we landed. The first "phew!" of the trip.

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We landed in Lima. Let me tell you, it was COLD! Right now, South America is experiencing their winter season. The temperature was in the 40's. Not that I was outright freezing, but it took some adjusting seeing as we were sweating on our way to the airport in Houston.

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We took a taxi to a town along the beach right outside of Lima - approx 40 minutes away from the airport - called Barranco. Have any of you seen the Quentin Tarantino movie "Hostel"? It's where these kids travel to Europe staying at, what else, a hostel and get killed/tortured one by one. Baby and I were driven down this dark alley and couldn't see anything at the place we arrived to stay for the night. It was a Bed and Breakfast called Second Home Hotel. We were kind of freightened all night - so much so that I emailed my sister from my blackberry all the hotel info in case we turned up missing. We woke up the next moring and realized in the daylight how beautiful the grounds were and that our backyard overlooked the ocean. Come to find out, after I did some research when we got back to the States that this place is the #1 suggested B&B in Barranco. Yes, we are crazy Americans!

View of the actual room we stayed situated across from the courtyard

View of the Second Home Hotel from the backyard

View from Second Home Hotel's backyard overlooking the beach. Nice huh?

We also learned that the hotel use to be the home/studio of world-reknowned Peruvian artist Victor Delfin. His art is everywhere on the property.

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Day 2-- Flying from Lima to Cuzco and heading to the Sacred Valley to the town of Urubamba

After awaking to the beautiful grounds of Second Home Hotel, we caught a quick breakfast with the owner of the place Victor Delfin's daughter, Lillian. She was very helpful. She got us a taxi back to the airport so that we could catch our 1:15pm flight.

Once we touched down in Cuzco, we immediately felt the difference in the oxygen level. Cuzco is about 10K feet above sea level, so most people get sick pretty quickly with altitude sickness. Luckily, we were staying in the SV which was lower, so we weren't going to be in Cuzco long...also we had medication for altitude sickness as well because we're cool like that and think of almost everything.

Our drive from the airport to Cuzco already started our whirlwind vacation. Claudia who works at K'uychi Rumi (the place we were headed to in Urubamba) called the driver's cell phone and asked us if we wanted to stop at Pisac Market. Pisac is a nearby town in the SV and they hold a huge market only on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays. This would be our only day available to see it during our stay. Of course we said yes. On the way to Pisac, we stopped at an alpaca and llama petting zoo. Alpaca are bred for their hair similar to sheep. Alpaca sweaters are very similar to cashmere and just as pricey. After the petting zoo, we walked around the market, bought a few souveniers, and headed to KR. Didn't get very good pictures of the market though.

I heart alpacas, but they don't heart me... Wow, my feet look like Keebler Elf feet...

Being attacked by llamas and alpacas. I'm hoping they like white meat more than dark ;)

We called it an early evening since we already had a full day of sightseeing just getting to our house at KR. We grabbed dinner on the main street in Urubamba at a restaurant that I can't remember the name, and then turned in early.

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Day 3-- Horseback Riding through the Sacred Valley (Going through the towns of Moray, Maras, and the Salt Mines)

On our first full day in the SV, the KR set us up with a 4-hour horseback riding tour (that actually ended up being about 5 hours) with a personal guide named Mario for just me and Baby through the SV, along the Urubamba River, seeing some towns along the way, and stopping at the Salt Mines.

Baby was quite surprised at my equestrian expertise. Not that I'm awesome or anything, but I did ride quite a bit in college since I knew someone whose parents had a ranch. Guess that paid off...

We started off at the town of Moray. Moray had three big meteors hit a mountainside and created these large craters. These craters were used as research facilities for the Incas (or so they theorize). Each terrace (or level that you see) was considered a micro-climate. They grew various crops on each terrace in order to determine which crops would do well in what levels of altitude. Those Incas were smart, huh? This is only a picture of one of the craters since the others were not as ornate. I literally almost died on the way back up from walking down the base of the crater seeing as we were 12K feet above sea level and the air is so thin. This was my only time I had issues with acclimatizing, but let me tell you...it was SCARY! I really couldn't breathe, my vision was blurred, I was dizzy, almost lost consciousness a couple of times, and felt completely nauseated. Luckily, I recovered after resting about 30 minutes.

Note the 3 tiny specs toward the top of the circles. You might not be able to tell from the size of this picture, but those are people. Gives you perspective of just how big this thing is!

Here we are near the base of Moray by all those circles you see in the above pictures (before I almost died - note the smile still on my face)

After recovering from my altitude issues, we got on our Peruvian Paso Horses and rode through the SV. The views were breathtaking.

I keep thinking of the movie City Slickers...hahaha!

**Insert the theme song of Bonanza**

If we slip off the side of the mountain, we're screwed!

How awesome is that view?!?!

The glacier that looks like snow-capped mountains in the above picture has been melting for thousands of years to provide freshwater to all of the SV creating the Urubamba River. Pretty awesome, huh? Sadly, scientist believe there are only a couple hundred years left of the glacier due to global warming. Once that all melts, the SV will dry up and create all kinds of problems for the people who live there since the Urubamba is their source of freshwater. How depressing!

Photo of the Salt Mines of Maras

Apparently, there is this mysterious spring of saltwater that flows from the mountain. The Incas used this same methods thousands of years ago to harvest salt and distribute it throughout the entire empire. It's fascinating how largely it takes up this specific part of the mountainside.

Getting closer to the bottom of the SV

View of the Urubamba River towards the end of our riding tour

By the time we finished our horseback riding, we were so worn out by the day's events that we again just caught a quiet dinner at a nice restaurant called El Huacatay and was asleep by 10pm.

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Day 4-- The Big Day: Machu Picchu

We got up early that morning so that we could make our 7:05am train ride from Ollantaytambo Station (which was about 15 minutes away from KR) to Machu Picchu. Our guide Jaime would be waiting for us at the train station when we arrive.

The train ride on RailPeru was spectacular! We were lucky enough to get the very first row on the first train car, so we got to see everything coming - best seat in the house! Once we arrived to MP Station, Jaime was there holding up a sign for "Jennifer Ling." Seeing as he was the very last guide standing there, I determined that somehow my name must've been lost in the translation (how, I have no idea). I asked him if he was expecting people from KR, and he was. We finally sorted it out...thank goodness. And, no, you cannot start calling me Jennifer Ling.

Jaime was extremely knowledgeable and spoke near-perfect English. That was awesome seeing that my Spanish is only so-so and Baby's comprehension of the language consists of five words: bano, cerveza, queso, agua, and gracias - ok, he does know a few more words than that, but not many. Jaime told us everything about everything we came across throughout MP - theories, beliefs, Inca ideologies. He is a history and tourism major at the university, so MP is his specialty. We were lucky to have him for the whole 8 hours we were there!

Here we are at the main square of the town of Aguas Calientes at the base of the mountain of MP. Baby thinks I look like a child next to him. I've always said I wanted him to carry me around in a Baby Bjorn...teehee!

View from the bus ride up the mountain to MP

Welcome to Machu Picchu! Note that these buildings all once had thatched roofs on them.

Again, I'm hearting the llama...and again denied reciprocity

I've decided that llama is a HAM!

These terraces were multi-functional. They not only assisted in the prevention of erosion, they also served as areas to grow crops to help feed those who lived in the city.

I think they used this large field to play futbol (aka soccer), but researchers say it was merely a place to congregate. What do researchers know anyway? ;)

The guy who lived in this house was apparently BIG TIME! He had a separate room in his house with his own personal hole (aka toilet). Most people only had a one-room home. Nice!

Until next time, Machu Picchu!

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Day 5-- Going Home

We got up relatively early to pack up and be driven to Cuzco. We took our LAN Peru flight to Lima and had an 8 hour layover before we were to head back to Houston. Upon the suggestion of Lillian, the lady who runs Second Home Hotel, we went back to Barranco. We left our bags with her and walked around Barranco. We had a late lunch/early dinner at a wonderful Italian restaurant and even stopped into a supermarket to see how they displayed things. All the different fruits and vegetables, and how they presented their meats was quite interesting. After hanging out for a few hours at the B&B, we headed back to the airport and took our almost midnight flight back home. We arrived back at IAH at 6:02 am Monday morning.

So that's it. We're still a bit tired - needing a vacation from our vacation so to speak, but it was well worth it. Who would've guessed that we'd be able to fit so much in such a short amount of time? Baby and I decided that we would come back and spend more time at K'uychi Rumi. Just relax and take some horseback riding tours. Maybe we'll tackle white water rafting next time. Maybe.

Howdy...yes, I'm still here...

Lately, I've hit a blogger writer's block. I know you other bloggers know what I mean. It's those moments when you feel you should really write something profound and continue to hold off until you come up with something. Then, a week or two passed and you realize...hell, I'm really not that profound...teehee.

Well, I guess I will digress to the simple recaps of my life's goings-on. Since my previous post of bitterly trying to understand the once fabulous Britney Spears' wardrobe decisions, not much has happened. This past weekend, I went shopping for a rain-proof/outdoors-y jacket for my trip to Peru. In my separation from the ex-fiancee years ago, much of my camping equipment and activewear of that sort have somehow managed to disappear. I'm guessing I left many of those things in our shared apartment upon my packing up and leaving, but who knows now? So there I was at REI on Saturday trying to find stuff that I needed. After trying on about 20 different jackets in an array of colors, I've decided that the one jacket in that entire place that fit my short yet not stick-like frame only came in pea-soup-Exorcist-vomit-green. Baby's facial expression was less than impressed with my choice, but let's just say that jackets of that nature aren't made for people who are barely 5'0" on a good day that have boobs and hips. Although I think he was just happy to get out of there after an hour and half of watching me give him a fashion show of boring jackets.

So...I guess we're as ready as we'll ever be for our trip to Peru. We've done tons of research, and plan on taking in the breathtaking sights. Tomorrow, we depart at 3:50pm and arrive in Lima, Peru at about 10:30pm. We'll overnight in Lima and leave the next afternoon on a flight to Cuzco. From Cuzco, we have a car picking us up and taking us to Urubamba which is in the Sacred Valley of the Incas. Sacred Valley is the area between Cuzco and Machu Picchu filled with a number of little towns each with their own different things to offer. We plan to stay three nights at K'uychi Rumi. From what I gather from Tripadvisor.com (where I get all my insider travel info), this is by far the best place to stay in the Sacred Valley. It's basically six rustic Andean houses on beautiful grounds managed by a couple. The website has some pretty awesome pictures. There is a common house with a place for everyone to congregate and has a dining area...although each house comes equipped with a kitchen, living room, and dining area (I think). Baby and I have a house to ourselves that is big enough to hold 4-6 people, so I'm guessing we'll have room to sling all our crap everywhere.

Over the course of our time in the Sacred Valley, we plan to do a horsback riding tour to the Salt Mines and along the Urubamaba River...we'll see how sore we are after a 4 hour trek...yikes! Also, we plan on spending all day Saturday at Macchu Picchu. I'm so excited!!!

We head back Sunday night arriving back into Houston at around 6am on Monday. Hopefully, that will be enough time to recouperate before we have to be at work on Tuesday.

Wish me and Baby luck that we don't suffer from altitude sickness which could ruin our entire trip. Apparently, we will be about 10, 000 feet above sea level and sometimes take more than the time of our vacation for people to acclimatize. Luckily, we got prescription medication that will assist in that, but I'm still a bit nervous...

WTF?!?!

Help me understand this monstrosity...

This can't be socially acceptable, can it? I think those wigs are starting to eat poor Brit Brit's brain!

Real Men of Genius are so effing right!

Since I'm really not in a mood to post at the moment, but feel I should add something today, I've decided to give you something to smile about...ENJOY!

Weekend Recap

I had a FANTASTIC time in Scottsdale. It was so relaxing to just do nothing on Saturday but be massaged and read a book. It's amazing what downtime can do for the soul. The only planned events with our group from work had were dinner Friday and Saturday night, so the rest of the time was ours.

The resort had lots of wildlife running around as part of it's charm. They had a couple of these birds pictured below milling about the grounds and flying around, little bunny rabbits hopping about (tried to chase one down for a photo but to no avail), and huge beautiful fish in their ponds.

After the dinners, a few of us took in South Scottsdale which apparently is where all the college party crowd goes. I'm talking "18 & up" kind of crowd. Wow, I felt pretty old even though I know I'm not! But, our group still found a way to have some fun entertaining each other. We were the obnoxious "old farts" dancing in the center of the room. What's funny is that we didn't care, but all knew these kids were thinking what we use to think when we saw people our age at the clubs when we were young, arrogant college partyers - "Please kill me if I'm that old and still at clubs!" Hahaha! You know we all thought that about people in their late 20's/early 30's, so you can relate!!! We made the best of our surroundings though and have great pictures to prove it.

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Sunday, a few of us decided to get up early and climb Camelback Mountain's Cholla Trail. We found out the hard way (since none of us did any REAL research about the trails) that the specific trail we chose was considered "Difficult Strenuous" and "recommended for experienced hikers." Could explain why we were absolutely dying going up the rocky mountainside. I thought we were all just being weenies because we were up late drinking the night before...lol. I'm a lot more proud of us now! Here are some photos on the way to the trail, and then along the trail up the mountain.

Cacti on our walk to the Cholla Trail up Camelback Mountain

Beautiful lush trees on our walk to the mountain trail

Spectacular view of Scottsdale from the mountain

Me all hot, sweaty, and practically out of breath thinking, "Wow, this hike is pretty hard!"

Beautiful view of Phoenix on the other side of Camelback Mountain

Off to Scottsdale...

I leave for Scottsdale right after work today...YIPPEE!!!! I'm so excited to go on a relaxing trip. Boss from Job# 1 takes us on a trip every year as a Christmas gift. This year, he's taking all of us, the spouses, and fiancees to Scottsdale, AZ and staying at The Phoenician Resort.

GORGEOUS, HUH?!?! Last year, he took us all to Vegas, and he let me take Baby. Baby wasn't allowed to come this time since our office is getting bigger, and he'd have to allow everyone to take dates (I was the only one not married but dating someone last year, so one exception was ok...this year, we have a number of new guys who have girlfriends...grrr!). Although Baby was almost willing to get down on one knee when he realized where we were going this year...ha! I'm looking forward to it. Spending time hiking up Cambelback Mountain (seen behind the resort), laying by the pool, getting some mountain bike riding in, and a full day at the Spa tomorrow. What I failed to mention (and yes, our guys at the office spoil us) is that for a gift from all the guys in our office, each of the assistants were given a $500 giftcard for The Phoenician - which can be used at their spa, all their shops, and activities equipment rental. How freakin' awesome is that! Remind me NEVER to bitch about work...

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Tomorrow, I have an appointment for a Shea Butter Wrap and Honey Avocado Foot Therapy service at 11:30am. Then, I have a hair appointment at 2pm. I think I'm going to color my hair. I highlighted my hair for a couple of years up until about 4 years ago. Since my hair was long, it was soooooooo pricey for up-keep...especially when my hair grew so fast; therefore, I decided to go back to my natural goth-like black. But, since I have all this money to blow at the resort that I can't use anywhere else, I figured why not do something fun and change my hair color. Now I have to decide if I want to just lighten it to maybe a chocolate brown or deep auburn brown or do highlights or both. Decisions, decisions... As sad as it sounds that I'm using him as a hair template, I was thinking about Sanjaya's most recent 'do. What do you think? Just the color not the style. I'll probably keep my long hair but add layers or something.

Boy may not be able to carry a tune very well, but he does have some schnazzy highlights.

Well, I'll post pictures when I get back. Hope you all have a fantastic weekend!

Rice Spice out!

My new love...

Other than the nice trousers and jacket I got from my wonderful Baby, I got a couple of other things for my birthday as well. My mother got me a great beige and tan suit (which I'm guessing work clothes must've been the theme for my mom and Baby). I also got couple of little aroma plug-in doo-hickies and toiletries from Firecracker. Midtowner gave me an AMEX gift card which purchased my newest love - a black pair of Skechers.

Aren't they just too cute? I'll still look fashionable in dark shoes while walking around, say, NYC but still have the comfort of a sneaker...woohoo!

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Dealer got me a gift certificate from the Container Store. I LOVE that place! Organizers are so awesome...but it's damn expensive to be organized!!! Anyway, this gift will be of a more practical nature. Seeing as I have to walk through a locked gate and through a yard to go behind a house to get to my apartment, carrying groceries is such a pain in the arse...or carrying anything for that matter. We all know we NEVER have just one or two bags of groceries. I always end up with about 4 plastic bags (or more) on each wrist trying to lock my car, maneuver through the gate, walk the distance to my place, and unlock my front door because, Lord knows we don't want to have to make a second trip! Well, as tacky as it sounds, I've ALWAYS wanted one of these things to make taking stuff back and forth to my car an easier task. Now I can thank Dealer for it.

Yes, I'm a dork, and I'll look like some crazy bag lady. But you know I'm right! This thing will make my life soooooo much easier!