It seems like it’s been forever since I’ve blogged about traveling. Puerta Vallarta in February didn’t really count for so many reasons, so it’s really been since Niagra Falls and Toronto last September. The next 6 weeks or so will make up for it as we’ll be traveling for 4 weeks total between 5/21 and 7/6.

First up: South America, a new continent for me. That’s a new continent 2 years in a row if you’re counting, which I am. Last year we went to Africa, about half on our own and half on a National Geographic safari. We were so impressed with that experience we decided to do more with them, and that’s what we’re doing next. This trip will be Machu Picchu and the Galapagos Islands.

On April 4th we had a box delivered from the tour company National Geographic is partnering with, Lindblad Expeditions. That’s the box in the photo above and a little pouch inside. Inside the pouch were luggage tags and name tags for our trip, shown below.

Before this moment I honestly hadn’t thought much about this trip, but this triggered some excitement. It encouraged Ash and I to finally look at the itinerary they’d sent us via an internet portal, and get some details on how it’s all going to go, where we will be staying, etc. Given our experience with them last time, we weren’t worried at all about lodging, and this trip may exceed what we had last year on safari. Did you know there were 5-star hotels in the Andes mountains? I certainly didn’t. So, we’ll get to experience all that together.

On Tuesday evening we fly out of Sacramento with stops in Los Angeles and Panama City before we get to Lima, Peru. We will have a day or two there on our own before we meet up with the tour. From there we will go to Cusco in the mountains and eventually make our way to Machu Picchu, shown below.

This whole area is rich in history about the Inca civilization and I’m excited to learn all about that. (PS: I lifted the photo above and the ones that follow from the travel guide they provided us.)

After a few days in the mountains, we head to Ecuador to board the National Geographic Islander II – the ship we will be on for several days as we explore the Galapagos.

This ship was originally built with 80 suites but they redid it to only have 48. That’s usually not the direction these things go in. We will be in suite 301 there are the bottom right.

I have zero expectations about this but looking forward to it all just the same. I’m generally not an “in the water” person so we’ll see how much I do on that front. I hear they have the best snorkeling in the world – something I’ve never done – so it seems like I should at least give it a try, right? Come along and we’ll see how all that plays out.

We look forward to you joining us!

Steve & Ash