Kate's adventures

(Written on Aug. 20, 2007) Well, thanks to the New Mexico Department of Health, I have a nickel sized bruise on my arm, my first step to becoming vaccinated against a slew of icky sounding inflictions. Yep, over the weekend I got the Twinrex vaccine against Hepatitis A and B. The bummer is, I still need other shots, including one for yellow fever that the guy at the UNMH travel clinic says causes nightmares and "some other pyschological stuff." Excellent. Coupled with my fear of needles, I'm now worried about nightmares. Nightmares, and of course, earthquakes. My Ecuadorian roomate was the first to tell me of the gigantic trembler that struck this week. Peru, of course, is her next door neighbor country, so we've been watching the news over the last week with interest. The earthquake was brutal: more than 500 dead so far. Tens of thousands of people -- entire cities, including Pisco, rumbled and tossed to the ground. I've lived through a mentionable earthquake just once, when I lived in Barcelona in the mid-90s. As I walked down the hall of my flat, a mirror began to slowly sway back and forth, back and forth. I stumbled a bit, figuring I was just tired on my way into the kitchen for some coffee. Nothing of course, like what's happened in Peru. I'm keeping that in my thoughts as I order my Samsonite travel adapter for my digital camera, more flash cards for photos and my Peru Reader, which probably weighs enough that I'll give it away by the end of the first week on the road. I got the Lonely Planet Peru months ago, in the hopes this trip would work out. It did -- although it took years to bank up the miles i'm using to fly to South America basically for free. And it took some schedule finaggling to get the time off from work on the days the airline deemed I'm good enough to fly without paying. I'm booked from Albuquerque to Lima. From there, I sleep overnight in the airport, because I get in around midnight and the first flight out is at 5 am. Easier, I guess to sleep on the floor than to go into town, find a place to crash and to get back up on time. Arequipa is where I'm heading first. friends Jeanne and Abe and their son Noah live there. They'll be there for the next two years, but I wanted to be the first to visit. Jeanne confirms that I'm the first -- and only -- person to visit so far. Cool. I'll be in Arequipa, known as the White City for its volcanic rock used in all the key buildings -- for two days. Then, we're off to Cuzco. Many a traveler has landed in Cuzco to begin their trip to Machu Picchu. Yes, that place. i've long wanted to check it out, long thought about the train ride and then the hike that must be involved to get that high, to go that far, to see the Inca empire I'm about to see...