Trip Itinerary

As promised various times in past blogs, here's my itinerary in case you want to follow the vacation trail! Pretty much everyone I know down here is doing a similar trip, so I fully expect to have random run-ins on the way.

July 13 (tomorrow!): Fly from Santiago to Arica, the northernmost city in Chile.
July 14-15/16: 2 or 3 day trip through the northern parks in Chile, Reserva Lauca and Las Vacuñas, where I will hopefully enjoy hot springs and see flamingoes. Depending on when I can get a tour (based on weather and demand), I'll either spend another day in Arica or go straight to La Paz.
July 17-23: La Paz, Bolivia, staying here: http://www.hostalnaira.com/
July 24-26: Lake Titicaca on the Bolivian side, staying here: http://www.hotelcupula.com/ as well as spending a day on Isla del Sol.
July 27-28: Meet Robyn and Matt in Puno, Peru (HOORAY!) We are staying here, which is a hostel with apartment-like accomodations for $10 each a night: http://inkasrest.com/
July 29-30: Going to Taquile, a tiny island in Lake Titicaca which doesn't have hotels; instead, each family does its part to support tourism, and take turns lodging guests in their houses. Sounds authentic... we're probably also going to do a fishing trip. Apparently there are great trout in the lake!
July 31-August 2: Puno to Cusco. Staying here, also $10 a night (I love South America): http://www.hosteltraveler.com/services/reservation/view_destination.php?dest=Rojas+Piuray+Lodge&searchregion=Cuzco&subcontinent=Peru&PHPSESSID=8ffcd9324b3
August 3-6: Doing a four-day hike on the Inca Trail ending at Machu Picchu. I hope the altitude doesn't kill us, but I'm really looking forward to seeing the ruins, especially since they're going to be shut down soon due to degredation from over-use. This is the tour we booked: http://www.sastravelperu.com/english/inkatrail.html
August 7-9: Back to Cusco, with Matt leaving for a wedding in Brazil on the 8th and Robyn heading back to the states on the 9th. The Olympics start on August 8, will be interesting to watch from abroad.
August 9-12: Cusco to Arequipa (all by my lonesome), the second biggest city in Peru and my friend John's favorite spot in South America.
August 12 or 13: Arequipa to Arica, to fly back to Santiago on the 13th

August 18: Santiago to Buenos Aires, where I will be until December 19, with plenty of other mini trips during those four months.

And that's my pending vacation! I'll try to blog from afar but we'll see how that goes. New post pending about my going-away party (last night, very fun) and a 'best and worst of Chile' good-bye.