A long time coming

Tuesday 16 February 2016
It certainly has been - a long time coming. I sat down today and went through some very yellowed newspaper cuttings that I have kept (along with more recent brochures!); some date back to 1999 and there was one brochure - a medical conference in Peru - dated 1995!

So yes! I HAVE been wanting to go to Peru for a very long time. It definitely has been on the "bucket list"!!

And as things turn out, Bolivia has been added to the mix.

A casual (but nevertheless genuine) invitation to a friend at the local community pizza oven last October to join me on a trip to Peru which was accepted enthusiastically, started the adventure for the 2 Pams (who are also 2 Pharmacists - can you believe it?!). I had more-than-draft plans on my computer but it wasn't long before we had a comprehensive itinerary which incorporated the salt plains of Bolivia ("if we're going to La Paz we might as well see the rest!") plus the Amazon jungle (same idea really).

So we are both in training mode. April seems a long way away - but isn't really. We have a 3-day trek in Peru (NOT the Inca Trail) we need to be fit for - plus the anxiety of altitude sickness - so we have our training plans: on Mondays (generally) the 2 Pams plus my son Dave plus Mieka the dog walk the hills out near the local tip and otherwise we are cycling, going to the gym and doing other walks with friends.

And getting vaccinations done - and mosquito-repelling strategies (like buying citronella-impregnated clothes, wrist-bands etc.); news to hand is that there is an outbreak of Zika virus in Central and South America; plus we need to take the usual malaria precautions.

We (Dad, Dave and I) had a lovely couple of days at Falls Creek last week walking and doing some MTB riding at Fall Creek! (trying to get some altitude training - all 1800+ m of it (we'll be at 4000+ m in Bolivia!!)

Falls Creek: