Well, Here You Go...

After weeks, and I mean five or six weeks of working three or four hours a day, I finally have all the hotels for the guests on the two upcoming Peru trips. That's 3 hotels for each in Iquitos, Riverboat cabins, Spaces at Sachamama for ceremony, my team in place, restaurants scheduled, Airline tickets (Saved everybody doing the whole tour more than $450 each but man was that a lot of work), and then airport transport paid for Lima, and a hotel in Lima, then in Cuzco, then a bus to the Sacred Valley, then a hotel in Ollantaytambo, then a train to Aguas Calientes, at the foot of Machu Picchu, then a curandero who will make a magic ceremony for my guests in that holy ground, then more trains, and private buses and then another hotel in Cuzco, and arranged horseback riding, and box lunches, and BOY AM I TIRED!!!! This is not like calling your travel agent! This is maybe 400 hours of work, at 2 AM, AT 5 AM, AT 10 AM, AT 3 PM, AT 6 PM, AT 11 PM....IT IS endless, these lousy details that exist. But if I don't do them, no one can or will. I pay people to take care of it and they're the best but it still takes 15-20 emails to get a single plane reservation done. I finally made all the hotel reservations, train reservations, several ceremonial reservations by myself and the agent is still looking for their cut on it all. NEWS: There is no cut if I do the work.
Still, as of tonight, I think I've taken care of every detail possible from up here. I've sent down the river water, kerosene, gasoline, new sponge mats for guests to sleep on, toilet paper, oil for the boat motors and cartridges for the shotgun. I've ordered breakfasts at 9 hotels, gotten permission to put chocolate and fruit and water into all the rooms the day before the guests arrive; I've made sure the plane tickets in Peru match the international tickets for arrival and departure, have written more than 5,000 words in three long missives explaining the trip to the guests....And now? Now I'm gonna call it a day. I Have only one plane ticket not accounted for--for a guest who joined yesterday--and then it's done. Done as much as can be done before I arrive in Peru on June 2 and begin paying my staff their thousands of aggregate dollars for doing the next 100 things that need to be done.
And when the guests arrive they'll think it is all so smooth. HAHAHAHA! It's like putting on a Broadway show: Nobody saw the out of town tryouts or the 4 weeks of intense rehearsals that make it look smooth.
So now I rest and enjoy a nice glass of wine.
Cheers everybody. Workday's done for me. Hope it's done for you as well.