four more sleeps and the new plan!!!

so after spending a few hours on the phone and talking to three american airline customer service agents (one of whom had NO idea what customer service means) - i finally have my flight into south america confirmed. i've decided to cut out bolivia completely and just spend two months wandering around peru and ecuador; i figure if airlines aren't flying in, it's probably in my best interest not to try to bus in from peru. i'm QUITE choked that i won't get to ride down the death road on my birthday and i've heard good things about la paz and was going to find me a jungle tour i bolivia, but apparently there's enough in peru and ecuador to keep me busy.

here's the new plan:

1. arrive lima (peru) october 1
2. hang out in lima for a day or two
3. head down to nazca and see if i can go up in a hot air balloon to see the nazca lines - a friend was telling me about the hot air balloon option as it is more appealing than the tin can airplane option; anyone know anything of this?
4. head over to arequipa and hang out for a few days
5. head over to puno and check out lake titicaca
6. head up to cuzco and hang out for a few days
7. start hiking the lares trek on october 24 and be back in cuzco october 27
8. start hiking the inca trail up to macchu picchu on october 28 and be back in cuzco october 31
9. head back to lima and make my way up the coast into ecuador
10. hang out on a beach somewhere on the west coast of ecuador
11. go surfing
12. make my way up to quito (ecuador) and hopefully check out cuenca, banos and volcanoes on the way
13. do a couple day trips from quito up to the equator line and otavalo
14. fly out to the galapagos islands on november 18 for an 8 day boat tour and be back in quito on november 26
15. fly out of quito and back to calgary on november 28 and try to figure out life again

so that's the tentative plan. and by tentative, i mean that there's a TON of other stuff that i'm just discovering that i can do. so that plan will change. i still need to figure out where i'm going to fit in an amazon rainforest/jungle tour. AND i just found out that i can do a cycling trip around some active volcanoes in ecuador!!!! so i just might hightail it to quito after the beach and do the volcano bike ride and amazon tour from quito...hm...so many options...

i did a practice pack earlier this week and had to stop half way cuz i was getting WAY too excited. gonna do another practice pack this weekend and then the REAL pack on monday!

that's all the stuff i'm bringing (not including the hammock)