Becca's Crazy Adventures

With the assistance of my crazy friends (namely Karen & Sarah), I've gone on some pretty spectacular trips. So, I'm deciding on one more.

I'm really excited to go to Greece in the Fall, but I need something else to look forward to, as well. Plus I want to get out of the rut of always adventuring in Europe. I want to knock another continent off my list. So, as the result of a particularly inspiring magazine article, I decided I want to hike the Incan Trail to Machu Picchu. In Peru. In the Andes. It seems to be calling to me. After reading that article, I noticed that Continental.com is running special flight prices to Lima this week ($450 - though their standard price is $550, still about the same as a trip to Europe). THEN, CNN.com listed Machu Picchu as one of the top 10 summer getaways for adventure travelers. Yep. All in one day. Its calling my name!

Its only a 25 mile hike, but it takes 4 days because its so grueling, you stay above 7,000 feet pretty much the whole time AND you cross two 12,000 ft+ peaks. You actually have to spend two days at a town near the trailhead, just to acclimate to the altitude before starting the hike. All in pursuit of a 600 year old Incan village so remote that it wasn't discovered until 1911 (at which point National Geographic devoted a whole issue just to it!). On the way, you pass ruins of numerous Incan settlements. Old piles of rock, my FAVORITE things to visit! And there are some significant sets of stairs to climb. Perfect!

Here's a travelogue of someone else who's done the trip, if you're interested.

I'm already starting to round up the usual suspects, plus a couple newbies, to come with me on another crazy quest (if you are also interested in considering this, drop me a line for more info). The reason its important to plan now is that it will take some pretty significant training (at least for me) to be ready for this in a year. Maybe this will even get me better prepared for one of the treks I've always wanted to do - go through the Himalayan Mountains to Everest Base Camp (no, I would never actually want to climb that mountain. ever.)

So now, I'm thinking Machu Picchu!! Yeh PERU!!

Volleyball victories

Last night our volleyball team won its first game! Yeh! Now its 1 and 62 (yes, we've lost 62 games). Unfortunately I wasn't be there - I haven't been feeling so well all week, so I decided to take it easy, its actually one of the first games I've missed since the team started. Sigh. But I'm still excited for them. Maybe we'll score another victory next week when I'm there!