Initial preparations

Just as I spent quite a bit of time on the research of where I should travel, I also spent about 5 months collecting money for it :) After the famous Inca Trail booking I started to build the schedule around the booked 4 day hike.

Full route (almost)
The schedule looks like this:
- 12th leaving Tallinn, going to US
- 12th-16th of June in San Francisco
- 16th-22nd of June in Minnesota
- 22nd of June leaving US, going to Peru
- 22nd-24th of June in Lima
- 24th-27th of June in Cuzco
- 27th-30th of June is the Inca Trail
- 30th of June till 1st of July in Cuzco
- 1st of June leaving Cuzco, going to Puno :)
- then there is some mystery, trying to come back along the coast, don't know the exact route yet
- 18th of July leaving Lima, going to Tallinn via US
- 19th of July, arriving in Tallinn

On the 24th of June there is the biggest celebration of the year in Cuzco: Inti Raymi - Festival of the Sun. That is why I'm not staying in US any longer, because of school I can't leave any earlier from Tallinn either.

What is required for the trip
As much as I wanted to just get the tickets and be done, it is not quite that easy. Here are the things I have managed to get done already:
- plane tickets: all the way around :)
- US visa: go figure they gave me 10 year visa, last time I visited I got only 2 year one (perhaps one helping fact was that the guy who interviewed me graduated from the same university as me, no idea, it is pretty rare to find a UND alumni in Estonia though)
- Inca Trail booking
- vaccinations: I got a whole deal including hepatitis A and B, yellow fever and typhoid fever
- hotel in Lima and Cuzco (as I want to be able to go straight to the hotel after the long flight and in Cuzco I read that during the festivities time it is quite impossible to get a room)
- bought the hiking shoes

What still needs to get done:
- travel and health insurance
- equipment for the hike: some iodine drops (and gotta learn to use them as well), some medications suggested by the doctor and a smaller back bag
- finish the finances planning as I want to have enough money with me to survive :)
- finish the urgent preparations and research (like check where to call or what to do if all my things get stolen, make a backup plan if something goes totally wrong, make copies of my documents and write down any phone numbers that I might need at the trip and so on and so on)

I won't book any more hotels or reserve any transportation in Peru, will most likely figure it out on the road.

As you can see, I can't wait for the trip. But I just started with the blog since I know I should not leave it to the last minute. I probably won't update much before June, when the trip gets closer.