Vivian Harvey Receives an A+ as a Tour Guide

Before I go on, I must say a word about the wonderful woman who held our 3 weeks in Peru and Bolivia together. She's a champion cat herder: Vivian Harvey. I know that a number of people worked very hard both before and during our trip to make everything run so smoothly. Believe me, there were a LOT of details to attend to. We covered a great deal of ground, including who knows how many different buses and drivers, a cadre of local guides, and 4 internal flights in South America. Not to mention the boat captain on Lake Titicaca and the train trip to Aguas Callientes and Machu Pichu from Cusco and back again. We visited villages, markets, and museums all over the place. A real hacienda, too. Not to mention 3 meals a day (more or less). And more. Lots more.

Through it all, Vivian kept the 28 of us in Peru and the remaining 20 of us in Bolivia, on track. She always gave us exactly enough information about schedules and plans, and never too much information. She kept us on time and counted us over and over and over again. Indeed, she pretty much knew what was going on with each of us most of the time. Which was NOT an easy task. Plus all of our luggage. And there was lots and lots of luggage. She kept us safe and smart and tolerated our unending desires to shop, shop, shop. Vivian has a great sense of humor, a voracious appetite for people and conversation, and a wonderful attitude toward the people we met everywhere we went.

Vivan is as close to a perfect tour leader as anyone will ever be. Indeed, my only sadness about Vivan is that I doubt any other tour leader we ever have will come even close to her. She will forever be one of the best aspects of our trip. I never got tired of her conversation, her enthusiasm for Latin America, and her incredible wealth of knowledge. Perhaps most importantly, she was always there when we needed a little help negotiating some critical aspect of shopping.

P.S. Just so you know, in spite of some genuine South American adventures, there were NO incidents on our trip. No one lost anything. No injuries. We always felt safe and, indeed, were safe. This is to the credit of Peru and Bolivia and its people, and to the leadership we were lucky enough to experience.

P.P.S. Randy took _War and Peace_ with him to read since he was sure he'd have lots of long, dull evenings stuck in some miserable hotel room with, gulp, his wife. Randy never cracked the cover of _War and Peace_. Vivian didn't give him time. Yeah Vivian!!