Too many coats, not enough pants

This is mostly just a random collection of my thoughts and (lack of) actions thus far.  10 days to go.

This 

In my FB feed this morning to remind me of my packing issues. And to ramp up my worries about missing our Machu Picchu entrance.

Packing Part 1

How does one pack for one vacation that will include the beach in summer (sandals, tank tops), the city in rainy season (rain gear) and the tops of mountains (winter coat, layers) and fit it all into one backpack? Val and I are trying to figure that out now.

I have a down coat that packs down into a 'large' ziplock freezer bag and if I squish the air out (and the seal holds), it is pretty compact.  But do I need it or do I do layers of fleece/rain gear so I also have something for non-mountain top days?

I have a rain jacket that I can wear around town.  My friend Amy lent me a rain poncho that will be better for Machu Picchu.  Do I take both?

I choose my pants.  I hemmed them and put in the security pocket.  Thanks to some kid named Yan who donated his boys team jacket to Value Village so I could use the pockets (it had a racist logo on it anyway so it is being put to better use).

Now I have to choose which capris.  Too tight or too loose?  Welcome to my life (and my butt).

Vaccines

Typhoid vaccine is a 7 day course of four pills.  Pill one on day one, pill two on day three...  pill four on day 7.  Sounds easy.  But I missed day 2.  I took pill one on Dec 31 and then remembered pill two on Jan 4.  The instructions are pretty adamant that the schedule NOT be messed with.

So, I had to shamefully call my travel clinic and admit I am a travel novice/idiot and screwed up my vaccine.  They said I am fine.  They don't advertise this but the four pills can be taking over 10 days without reducing their effectiveness.  I am taking them over 9 days so I am good.

I will take the Dukoral tomorrow.  It has to be taken one week (or earlier) in advance.

To do

Haircut - booked for Friday
Get car serviced so C&J can use my car while house/cat sitting
Buy house insurance so C&J can wreck the place
PACK!

Machu Picchu tickets and vaccinations

Well, after all of the whining and whinging from my last post, I checked the Machu Picchu site a week later and 2020 tickets were on sale. According to the website, they only sell 100 tickets to Machu Picchu and Mountain (6am entry) per day so I forced Val to pick a day and I bought the tickets. Now we just have to be there at the right day and time.

Here is how full December is! 

Then I had to send in a scan of both of our passports.  Val figures we are just paying someone to steal our identities but I figure if my super-sketchy Uganda tour worked out, this should be fine, it is only moderately-sketchy.

We booked a room in Aguascalientes for the night before our entrance date.  We added the bus option to our entrance tickets which takes up from Aguascalientes to the park entrance  Now we just have to book the train from Cuzco (but not Cuzco because the train doesn't leave from there in the Winter) to the Aguascalientes.  No problem.

Yesterday I went to see the travel nurse at Nova Clinic.  She was her usual efficient self.  I needed several updates.  I got the Pertussis (Whooping Cough) shot.  I was sent home with the oral vaccines for Typhoid and E coli (Dukeral, my poop-based best friend). And prescriptions for antibiotics (* just in case if you know what I'm saying) and altitude pills.  And I got a flu shot at Shoppers Drug Mart on my way home.

There is yellow fever in Peru but not where we are going to be.  Plus, my yellow fever vaccine from 12 years ago, which was supposed to be for 10 years, has been upgraded to lifetime immunity so that's a bonus.

Again the talk about not playing with kittens (which I will probably ignore) and not eating dairy (goat's cheese is out so that is a definite ignore), no street food (that will probably get ignored within the hour after we land in Lima), and no unpeeled fruit - as if!  I might be able to not touch rodent excreta but I really don't think I can make any guarantees.  I didn't dare mention cuy (guinea pig street food!)

There are so many diseases that are transmitted by bug bite.  Bugs that will kill me by various means are out and about at night, during the day, at sunset/sunrise, at low altitudes, high altitudes, in the mountains, on the beach, and in my mud hut with its thatch roof. 

Here is a list ("Other Diseases" is where the bug borne nightmares live):

So, bug spray, lots of bug spray.  Although that's not going to help with the plague.

http://novatravelclinic.com/

Only other update is my mom gave me some hiking boots. They are green.