I was so excited for this trip because we were finally going to Machu Picchu and I was going to be gone from work for 16 days. It took a lot of will power and patience to save up vacation leave for this. I made sure everything was on my calendar, I told my coworkers all the information they needed up to the point I was gone and when I would be back in the office. I needed a vacation so bad it was literally eating at me. Almost like when you're a kid and you can't wait for Christmas to come.
Machu Picchu has been on my bucket list for a long time so being able to go was a huge deal. We were suppose to go last year but plans got messed up.
(Not my photo but I wished it was.)
Since January, I've been painstakingly collecting the gear I would need for our upcoming Ecuador and Peru trip. I got a small back pack for when we went to Machu Picchu, I bought a couple of pairs of dental scrub pants so I would be more comfortable, I bought snacks, tuna, crackers, breakfast bars, I bought new underwear and made sure it was all visible when I started to pack my suitcase.
As we got closer to March and everyday after, my hopes dwindled every day as we approached our leave date because of the Covid pandemic. We had already got the email from Khealynn stating that the Love Project in Ecuador was canceled due to the Covid outbreak. Mom and I decided that we were still going to go to Peru until we can't. We were super disappointed we weren't able to go to Ecuador this year. We were really looking forward to it.
On the day of our trip, I got up around 9:30, took a shower and then washed laundry. I had a couple more things I wanted to have with me on my trip that were in the hamper. I ate some Corn Pops, got the recycle ready and drove out to Rainier to dump it off at the recycle. I had gotten off of Spurgeon Creek Road and noticed a light dusting of snow. As I got closer into Rainier, there had to be at least a few inches on the ground and the trees. Rainier is definitely at a higher elevation than Lacey is because we had none.
I drove home and folded my clothes and set aside the ones I was taking with me. I little while later I went over to Doug and Jenn's house to feed their cat because they were able to travel to Vegas before they stopped travel due to Covid. They were suppose to be home Sunday evening. The last time I went over there and fed their cat and made sure I had a copy of their key just to make it easy. I get over there and made sure Freya had water and some food. I sat there for a few minutes and gave her some pets. They took Charlie, their dog, over to one of their friends house so I didn't have to worry about him.
I came home and started packing my stuff into my suitcase. It took a little while because I had to make sure I had everything and it all fit. It would have been different if we were also going to Ecuador as well...I would have had to fit more clothes into it. Meanwhile, I had Ben go pick us up some sandwiches for "linner" because I didn't feel like making anything. I did my final checks on everything and made sure I had my money, passport, ID's and was able to open up the tickets on the app from the phone.
Around 5:30, we loaded up the suitcase and back pack into the Escape and drove out to Rainier to pick up mom and her luggage. When we got there, Mom was actually ready to go with all of her stuff ready. Ben took her suitcase to the Escape while I made sure she had all of her money, passport, ID's and phone. Off we go to SeaTac with our fingers crossed. At this point, the Covid pandemic has freaked out everyone and no one knew what was going on. I wasn't freaked out as long as you kept your distance, wore a mask and washed your hands. The only thing that was giving me anxiety was not being able to go to Peru after we paid for everything.
We got onto I-5 and it really didn't take us long to get there. We pulled into the the departures in front of Jet Blue around 7ish. We said our goodbyes and Ben said to be safe and wear the masks on the airplane. He drove off towards home. We wheeled our luggage into the airport and found the line that we needed to be in. I have never seen the airport empty before. It was eerie. We saw that the Jet Blue line didn't open until 7:30 so we waited in line with all of our stuff. We chatted with a few people who were on our flight to JFK in New York. They asked us where we were going and we told them Guayaquil, Ecuador and then connecting to Lima, Peru. Then we had a discussion about Machu Picchu and how excited we were to go.
Once the line opened up, we had trouble printing off our bag tags for some reason so we told the guy at the ticket desk. He said sometimes that happens and that he would help us. While he got all of our stuff situated, we talked about pies because it was pie day. We finally got our bags checked in and he printed us our boarding passes. We thanked him and continued to security. There wasn't anyone waiting in security which was also eerie. Security is usually packed. This was the quickest I've ever gone through security. It literally took us like five minutes.
We grabbed our stuff and checked the board to see where we had to go and because we were international we had to take the train to the S concourse. When we got there, we walked around, got water in my Nalgene and use the restroom before we sat at our gate.
Literally before we were to board our plane to JFK in New York, Khealynn, from the Love Project, messaged Mom on Instagram stating that Ecuador was going to close its borders on Sunday at midnight to foreigners due to Covid. That means if we did go down there, we would be stuck in Ecuador and never make it to Peru. Then we weren't sure if we would be able to leave Ecuador and be stuck down there for who knows how long.
Mom tried to get a hold of Adam (he is our Peru contact) while I tried to find out more information from Khealynn. She said that Peru (she has an aunt who lives there) will also probably follow suit but at that point most places are closed to Asian and European travelers. This sucks so much! I was so disappointed at this whole situation! Mom and I quickly discussed our options and we didn't want to be stuck in a foreign country for an undetermined amount of time so we just decided not to go. I was so crushed.
We quickly talked to the airline and told them our situation. They got our bags off, gave us credits to use our tickets some other time (within the next two years) and we thanked them for the inconvenience we caused but they understood our predicament. They gave us instructions on where we could get our bags. We thanked them again. Mom and I got back on the train and went to the main concourse and grabbed our bags from the oversized luggage near carousel 8 and made some phone calls.
We couldn't get refunded for our hotel in Guayaquil so we ate that $26, luckily we booked it through hotels.com and that was mom's free night so we used it to book it. The $26 we paid were for the hotel fees. I figured out how to cancel our international data plans we had on both of our phones and now we just had to work with Adam to see if we can get anything back from our tour or reschedule it for another time because this was out of our control. We called Dad, Doug, Trish, Grandma and Amy to let them know what happened and I called Ben to turn around and come get us. He said he was in Lakewood when he got my phone call. He turned around and told us he would get there as soon as he could. I told him we were going to be by the Jet Blue area.
He arrived around 10:30 and we packed the stuff in the back of the Escape and got back onto I-5 to head home disappointed. Mom wanted some French fries so we stopped at the McDonald's near the Southcenter Mall in Tukwila. We stopped and ordered two cheeseburger Happy Meals, a side of fries, a vanilla milkshake and I bought everyone apple pies because it was pie day. We all essentially ate our feelings because we didn't get to go on our trip we were so excited for.
We got back on I-5 and got off at Mounts Road. There were a few geocaches that published a while back and I save them for a time we went through here at night when this road was less busy. We picked up Nisqually Overlook (GC8C958) and Nisqually River Fishing (GC8C94J). The overlook on a nice day you would be able to see the Olympic Mountains from this point. It took me a little bit with a flashlight to find the cache hidden amongst the rocks. The river fishing one was in the guardrail about 100 feet from the Nisqually River.
When we got to Nisqually, near the Red Wind casino, Ben pulled over at the gas station to fill up. However, he only filled it up halfway which I didn't get why he just didn't fill it up. We drove into Rainier and dropped mom off and then headed home ourselves. Once we got home, I unpacked my stuff in utter disappointment. This virus is such a wasted of time. It has taken so much away from us so far, money, experiences, sports, it is just awful and was totally preventable. I hope it goes away soon because it is disrupting our lives.
Eff you Covid! (middle fingers)
Next Adventure: Dupont Caching
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