South America - Here we come!

OK... So, it's been forever since I posted anything, but I'm so excited about our trip that I wanted to capture the details beforehand to share them with you... If you know of any hidden gems along our route, that we shouldn't miss, please let me know!

First, we're headed down to Rio De Janeiro on June 8th. We'll spend a fun-filled week seeing the Copacabana, watching those girls from Ipanema, checking out some favelas, doing the samba, the merengue and the cha-cha-cha and just generally soaking up the Brazilian atmosphere!

From there we'll be flying to Iguazo Falls for a couple of days. This series of 275 waterfalls is on the border of Brazil and Argentina.

Next we'll be flying to Lima, staying the night and then heading off to Cuzco in the Andes in Peru. (Cuzco is the historic capitol of Peru.)

We'll be hanging out in Cuzco for a couple of days to give us time to acclimate to the 11,400 ft altitude. Then we'll head off to a day in the Sacred Valley and we'll be spending the night in someplace called Ollantaytambo.

Now the real adventure begins! We head off on the Inca Trail. This is a 4 day hike through the mountains and old Inca villages that the Incas used before the Spanish arrived to get from place to place and that they used to ultimately get to Machu Picchu.

The trek is limited to 500 people a day, and you have to go with a group, to keep damage to the trail limited. I've never been on a hike that required porters to carry your belongings and apparently, even with the porters this is a grueling hike, but it should be an amazing experience. Each day we'll start hiking at 7am and end at 4-5pm and there are lots of up and and down hills. It will probably be the most "remote" civilization I will have ever seen.

After our time at Machu Picchu, we'll be flying to Puerto Maldanado, the entryway to the Amazon Basin. From there, they will be taking us via motorized canoe into the Amazon to our eco-lodge. (No electricity, but working toilets and kerosene lamps!) We'll spend a few days checking out the wildlife and meeting the natives.

Next we'll be flying to Lima, where we'll spend a quick night before heading to Curacao, where we'll spend a week decompressing from all of our adventures on a hut on a beach. (Or at least the closest thing we can find!)

I've always believed that every time I've gone to a new country, I've come home a changed person. I can't wait to be the Trigby that has experienced all this.