Proverbs are so weird. They really make you think, "am I interpreting that right?" Is it supposed to mean that. And I only get more confused if I know it has been translated because I wonder if or any of the message was lost in translation. But anyway, trying to find a title for this post, I came across some Peruvian proverbs and found this proverb to best describe our travel speed bumps (pun intended).
My friend Kiah and I are going to Peru in about two days. Kiah and I have never been to Peru. We are going to a wedding. One of my friends from college married his wife last year when I was in Europe and this is the religious wedding with her family and in her home town of Lima. Since neither Kiah and I have been to Peru, we decided to try and cram in as much stuff as possible. While planning our itinerary, we made sure two things were included: the wedding and Machu Picchu.
We had read so many blogs and got so many conflicting results of what was the best way to go about booking our trip we decided that we needed to plan and read together. We got together one day and literally mapped out a day by day tentative itinerary. We found out that many of the older blogs were outdated. Previously, there was not a maximum capacity of people that could visit Machu Picchu in one day. Today, they only allow 2,500 people a day to visit the Unesco World Heritage site. Not only that, if you wanted to go on one of the tours or hike one of the mountains, only 400 people are allowed to hike per day. So because we did not know what to expect, we started making reservations.
Kiah had the pleasure of trying to book Machu Picchu: http://www.machupicchu.gob.pe/ After several attempts of trying to book the trip, we realized that the site was just not working. Problem number 1. I contacted the Peruvian government agency through the website and realized that you have to translate the page in Spanish to make and then book your reservation. Problem number 2 is that you have to make sure to pay via Visa. And not only that, you have to call Visa before booking the trip so that way they can allow the transaction to go through. The service is called "Verified by Visa." If you are using a bank Visa, then contact your bank before hand and have the amount you are going to charge ready so they can mark it off to approve it. Also, Kiah had issues with her bank (Bank of America) and after several days of going back and forth with them, it was my turn to give it a shot. I called Chase, and got it all taken care of within the hour. (Shout out to Chase!) If you are going to call your bank, make sure you specify that you are trying to make an online payment for out of the country and mention "Verified by Visa". They will either transfer you to a "Verified by Visa" person or someone who does internet orders and can authorize it. The first time I called, it was a nightmare trying to try and explain what I was doing. The other two times, it took 5 minutes. I guess it all depends on who you get but just be have the time to spend on the phone.
But 10 DAYS LATER, we got our tickets. We were set. Now we could finalize everything. And hence why I picked this proverb. We were just so beaten down and frustrated that once we got our tickets, it was like "oooohh, I get it now. The world makes sense again."
After we got our Machu Picchu tickets in hand, we could now organize and book the rest of our trip. However, the more websites we went on, and the more we looked into it, we realized that the majority of the travel websites in Peru all operate through "Verified by Visa." What a pain! So then we decided I should book transportation and Kiah would book the hostels. Each time I had to make a payment, I had to call my bank and let them know the amount I would charge so they could authorize it and not block the transactions. But after our first 10 day Machu Picchu obstacle, the rest was a piece of cake and went by so quickly.
So for those of you trying to go to Peru and book Machu Picchu remember these few steps:
1) Plan early and make your reservations.
2) Make sure you have a Visa card.
3) Book your trip in Spanish and note the confirmation number they give you. You will need it to make the payment as once you leave that page, you will not see it again.
4) Call your bank with the amount you will be charging to authorize the payment.
5) And with the noted confirmation number, go back and make your payment through the Machu Picchu site within 6 hours because then they will release your reservation.
Hope our complications can help anyone that stumbles across this page!
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