Ever since I've first known Craig he has always wanted to go to Rio de Janeiro - though preferably to the Carnivale.  In fact he used to have a map on his office with Rio highlighted. For me South America has always been one one of those fascinating places and Machu Picchu has long been on my bucket list.  Many years ago Clive backpacked round South America and I still have many of his emails from that time - a source of much hilarity - some of them - and panic - others!   But his stories and photos from then just cemented my desire to go there one day.  A few years ago we visited Niagara Falls which were just spectacular but then I read some articles which said that Iguazu Falls were on a par with Niagara if not even better.  That merited them a spot on the bucket list too.

But if you're going to go to South America - its a long way and not a cheap trip,  you need to try and cram in as much as possible without succumbing to exhaustion.  So obviously being cruising habitués it seemed like a good idea to incorporate a cruise somewhere in the itinerary.  Princess do cruise tours as well as cruises - so you have a cruise with either a pre or a post cruise land component which is all part of the package.  I discovered a cruise which had a pre cruise tour which included both Rio de Janeiro and Iguazu Falls and a post cruise tour which incorporated Machu Picchu.  There wasn't a price to do both tours - only one or the other so I asked Mark to get on the case to get a price for both.  And the answer was you can't!  He didn't take no for answer and in fact called Princess a couple of times and asked the question to different people - but the answer was still no.  Go figure!  But then the beauty of having a great travel agent becomes apparent - he said - Ok so I can put together a similar tour for either before or after the cruise.  So we opted to do the Princess post cruise tour to Machu Picchu and Mark put together a pre cruise tour for Rio and Iguazu.  I've outlined our itinerary as a separate post.

There's a lot of costs in a trip to South America which aren't apparent until you actually get into the nitty gritty.  There's visas, reciprocity fees, immunisations, medication - the list goes on.  In fact with what it's cost for these - it's probably equivalent to another cruise for each of us!  But if you're going to do it you need to do it properly and have all the ticks in the right boxes and all the jabs in the right places.  So we filled out all the necessary paperwork for a Brazilian visa - they even need to see a copy of your bank statement for the last 3 months - to see whether you're financial enough for the duration of your stay - at least $100 each per day!  The visa cost was over $200 each. A bonus was that Argentina decided to suspend their reciprocity fee in July last year so that saved a bit.  However Chile still has one - thats $117 each.  

So then I started to check up on what immunisations we needed.  So to be fully covered we needed Flu, Typhoid, Hepatitis A and B, Yellow Fever, Cholera as well as Malaria protection.  But you can't just go in one afternoon and come out looking like a pin cushion - the Hep A and B is a total of four injections - three before you go - on a strict timeline, and a booster 12 months later, yellow fever is a live vaccine so can't be given at the same time as some other vaccines,  cholera is shorter lasting - a series of two - which you have to have close to when you're leaving and malaria is a tablet you have to start taking 2 days before you leave and carry on all the time you're gone and for a few weeks when you come back.  I almost had to have one of my famous spreadsheets to keep track of them all.  Thank goodness for our doctor and the nurses at our local medical centre who kept us on the right track.  After a visit to my specialist who has travelled extensively in South America and visited Machu Picchu, I learnt that there was a medication available which is very good for altitude sickness.  This has always been a bit of a concern since you really can't predict how you'll react - apparently everyone is different.  So we now have that dispensed and have to start taking that the day before we travel to the higher altitude and every day while we're there.   

We started the jabbing journey back in October and Wednesday of next week will see us have our last immunisation - our second oral vaccine for Cholera.  Fortunately we've had no major side effects from any of them.  I was doing a bit of googling the other day - as I do and found out a few things - some of which I knew but hadn't really thought through.  The highest altitude we encounter isn't Machu Picchu - it's Cusco - 11,200 ft above sea level.  Machu Picchu itself is 7,900 feet.  However I decided to check on the elevation for Los Alamos, New Mexico,  where we've visited on many occasions and which I knew was pretty high.  It turns out it's 7,400 feet and we've never had any issues any of the times we've been there so that's left me feeling a little bit more confident that we'll be able to cope ok if we just follow all the guidelines - take the pills, drink the coca leaf tea, lots of water and minimal alcohol.

Packing also is providing it's own set of challenges - we're allowed a truck load ( 2 x 23 kgs each) from Australia to South America and back.  But only half a truck load from Santiago to Lima (50lbs), and down to quarter a truck load (44lbs) from Lima to Cusco.  All perfectly doable but just means being quite organised as to what to pack separately and leave at the hotel in Lima while we head up to Machu Picchu.  And then of course we go from summer temps in the north (mid 20s) to winter temps round Cape Horn as well as at Machu Picchu (8-11) so a bit of layering going to happen.

I've probably bored the pants off you all with this post - no fun stuff at all!  But to be honest I'm doing it partly for anyone who is considering a future trip to South America but mainly for myself - I like to capture all the pre trip organising as it's quite interesting to look back on down the track.  

So it's now just over 3 weeks till we leave - I think my organisation is trucking along pretty well - some preliminary packing and sorting done, all the medications prescribed and dispensed, and only one vaccine dose to get.  We've done the guaranteed booking thing again and have a balcony but no idea where yet as our cabin hasn't been assigned yet.  Hopefully that will come through in the next couple of weeks.  As usual I've been participating in the Cruise Critic roll call and have gleaned some great info for private tours at each of the ports and have been able to book spots for all the ones we wanted.  

My next post will be a bit closer to departure when I can hopefully post where our cabin is and a couple of pics of the ship.