The Saga of Booking the Llama Trek

We finally wired the money for our Llama Trek! Part of the adventure in independently planning our trip is learning how to do new things. While we found the Llama Trek fairly easily via a link on the South American Explorers website, sending in the deposit was anything but easy. As I encountered a few years ago when I visited my daughter in Ecuador and tried to book passage to the Galapagos, not everyone accepts credit cards. At first, I called my bank to ask them about wiring money; they said it costs $35. I then asked my husband; he said our other account wires money for free. The third option, Western Union, was the most convenient so I decided to start there. At $85, I thought again about going to our "free bank." I drove over there today only to be informed they could only wire money to an American bank. No problem, the "other bank" was just next door. I walked over, asked about wiring money and was told it was no problem -- usually. However, the computers were down and they could do nothing until they came up again. Okay, I could be patient, especially when I went to kill time at LL Bean (they were having a sale!) Two shirts, a pair of capris and a bathing suit later, I was on my way back to the bank. This time, the system was up, the money was sent and now all we have to look forward to is coming up with the money to pay for the final 20% of the trek. After this, three days of hiking on the Inca Trail will be nothing!