Brazil and Peru, plans so far..
28 July 2024
Hi everyone. Just thought I'd hop on here and give a little update of our bookings so far, for those that may be interested. I'm desperately trying to brush up on my computer skills as I'm about as tech savvy as one of our Labradors! I'm really eager to improve and get comfortable with sharing and uploading pictures and updates. Bear with me!
So, after a few eyebrow-raising quotes from some travel companies, we decided to ditch the idea of a full-blown Round-The-World (RTW) ticket. Why, you ask? Well it turns out we could save a significant amount of money by booking our own flights individually and save the cash to splurge on some incredible experiences in other destinations. Plus, being in control of our own bookings means we can avoid those awkward stopovers that will definitely make us question our life choices!! One quote had a stopover in France, while the other had one in Miami. We're up for all the flying and stopovers coming up, but we are just so eager to kick off our adventure with that first flight direct to Rio!
With the flight to Rio in the bag, our next stop was to find our first place to crash. We stumbled upon this gem of an Air BnB quite quickly . Miraculously in budget and with a view of Christ the Redeemer from the pool - talk about starting our journey in style! It will be our safety net after diving headfirst into the local scenes. As for our itinerary, we are two blocks away from Christ the Redeemer. Sugarloaf Mountain and the Selaron Steps are a definite. Oh, and watching a Brazilian football match is a must for little Poppy (and for the rest of us, who are we kidding?). This is an absolute next on my to-book list. Let the Brazilian escapades begin!
After our whirlwind five days in Rio, we head to Manaus, the gateway to the Amazon jungle. We arrive late, after one stopover, and will be staying in this super cool little hostel for the night that is giving off some serious Encanto vibes! Can’t wait to sleep in the bunk beds here..
No time for teenage lay-ins, we have an early wake up call ready for a two hour journey to the village of Lindoia, and then a speedboat ride upstream on the Urubu river. We have a two-night adventure in the Amazon rainforest lined up with Antonio's Jungle Tours. Real-life piranha fishing, Amazonian pink dolphin spotting, late-night Cayman stalking, hammock lounging, and falling asleep to the symphony of the jungle. The kids are quite scared about this part, but I'm crossing my fingers that we can convince them to join in on this crazy, never-to-be-repeated adventure and we can all enjoy stargazing and soaking in those breathtaking sunrises and sunsets together.
(Ignoring those sticks keeping the jungle lodges upright!)
So, providing we survive the jungle, we crawl back to the Encanto hostel for some grub and a well-deserved nap, all in preparation for our delightful middle-of-the-night flight to Peru. Dan and I are bracing ourselves for this leg of the trip! From the intense jungle escapade, to a crack-of-dawn flight, with two pit stops (yes, questioning our life choices here!), we will finally land at a whopping 11,152 ft above sea level in the city of Cusco. The advice now is to hightail it straight to the Sacred Valley and chill for a couple of nights to avoid nasty altitude sickness.
We've secured this cosy Airbnb in Urubamba to recharge our batteries after surviving the rollercoaster of the first 10 days. We're hoping that here we can all kick back, relax, and recharge those exhausted souls. If the team is up for it, we may summon the energy for a Sacred Valley tour, but the main mission is to rejuvenate and gear up for our epic Machu Picchu trek ahead.
After three nights, we get the PeruRail train - which I'm so excited about - to the village of Aguas Calientes, Machu Picchu's next door neighbour. Our humble abode for the night is the SuperTramp hostel, where we'll be counting llamas instead of sheep, gearing up to meet our guide the next day and kick off our epic trek to Machu Picchu. Hoping that the clientele at this funky hostel won’t mind a family of six rocking up…
After conquering Machu Picchu like the fearless adventurers we are, we retreat to the hostel for, hopefully, a great nights sleep. Then, we hop on the train once more, embarking on a longer journey back to Cusco. By now, we should be as acclimatized as a llama in the Andes, ready to soak in all the city has to offer. Our home for the next two nights? You guessed it, another hostel! While I'm desperate to conquer Rainbow Mountain, the little ones may not be so up for the challenge. So I think here we'll settle for exploring the city and shopping for some perfect Peruvian souvenirs.
Now onto the next chapter of our exciting Peruvian journey, we are soaring south to Puno to explore the majestic Lake Titicaca, the largest navigable lake in the world! Nestled at a breathtaking altitude of 12,500ft above sea level in the stunning Andes mountains. Our adventure involves a cosy four night sleepover on one of the renowned floating islands, where the fascinating indigenous Uros people call home. These unique islands are meticulously crafted by stacking countless layers of totora roots and reeds. I think this is going to be a whole new and different culture to dive into (no pun intended).
Hoping that Fin doesn't take a midnight plunge while sleepwalking to the loo!
By this point, we have hopefully survived the chaos of Brazil and Peru and with our first month of travelling under our belts, we find ourselves in a quirky hotel in Puno (thanks to flight mix-up number one and an Airbnb blunder). With one night, two rooms, and six of us squeezed in for a mere £50, we're thinking, "What could possibly go wrong?!"
It's incredible to think about all of this as I'm writing and realise that these are the actual experiences we will all be sharing together as a family very soon! Especially with the joke in the friendship group being that Dan and I don’t like going anywhere outside of our safe 5-mile radius! It really doesn't feel real.
I find myself ending this entry with my brain playing tug-of-war with my heart and I can't help but wonder how this adventure will unfold. We can all picture the little ones running out of steam and hitting a metaphorical wall, and we have all the tricks in the bag to cope with that. But then there's our neurodiverse companions. Phoebe, when her overstimulation switch gets stuck in the ‘on’ position, and she can’t engage with anything around her - her body refusing to hear, touch, or see anything - even if we're halfway to Machu Picchu! And let's not forget about Floss, dear Floss, who's like a ticking time bomb of overwhelm, ready to explode at any given moment.
But this is what we're here for! This is the learning journey we want us all to be on together. I'm curious to see how Phoebe's vibrant personality shines through even in moments of overstimulation. We might be on our way to Machu Picchu and experience unexpected turns, but that's all part of this experience and what we’re here to work through. And when Floss reaches her tipping point, we’ll embrace the challenge of supporting her through it all, even if it means navigating through the jungle like we're Crocodile Dundee.
One thing we're always good at is laughing about all the ridiculousness together afterwards. I mean really, we're setting them up for a whirlwind in that initial month! I'm not sure anything we do now can prepare us for any of it, we'll just have to ride that wave as it crashes over us. And honestly, whatever ups and downs the days entail, we will always be ridiculously proud of our whole bunch.
Ok, let's wrap this up with a fun note!
As we reach this stage in the planning process, we can confidently declare,
Flights to Brazil - check!
Flights to Peru - check!
Flights to Costa Rica - check!
Travel vaccinations - check!
and four oblivious children - check!
The next blog entry will share our grand schemes for Costa Rica, California, Fiji, and good ol' Oz (having a break now, not only because it’s taken me over five hours to write this one, but also allow us to figure out what on earth we're actually going to do and where we'll be staying!) Our friend Vix (Hargreaves Holidays) is on a top-secret mission for us for a surprise for the kiddos, because, let's face it, they've been through enough "cultural natural experiences" to enjoy a little break from it! Time for us to now dive back into serious research mode…