Peru/Brazil/Argentina Day 1: Leaving SF

Note: For those of you who haven't read my trip blogs before, I'm actually already back from South America now. I retroactively post my trip blog and photos after the trip now. I'll post the actual date of the blog "entry" at the top of each post. Enjoy!

May 3, 2012
Peru Day 1: Leaving SF

All my bags are packed...

What a great pre-roll to the trip!  I had such an amazing week at work, working super hard to knock out a bunch of stuff before the trip and totally rockin' it. Awesome times. I also saw AVENGERS last night!!!!!!!!!!! Arrgghghghghgggggggghhhhhhhhh soooo ammaazzziing!!!!!!!!!! The Hulk was so epic and was used so carefully and so well in the storytelling. I friggin' LOOOVED it. What a movie! The story was so good and such a great blend of visual effects with a strong and exciting story. Epic job, fellow ILM-ers!!! I spent a lot of time working on the Animation Pipeline for Hulk and it was so awesome to have played my part in such a cool movie. Also... this is my 2nd film credit at ILM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh man, what a credit to get too. I was so excited for it and nearly burst out of my seat when the end credits rolled. What a feeling and what an amazing team to be a part of.

Last night after the movie I had the usual pre-trip "What did I forget?" jitters, cleaned the apartment and bathroom, etc. There's always so much work before you leave for a big trip: take out the garbage and recycling, turn off all your electronics, clean the fridge out BEFORE taking out the garbage otherwise you have to do it again, and so on... lots of work! Given all that pre-trip stuff I had to do, I got to bed a bit late, but oh well.

This morning I got up pretty early and took care of any last minute stuff. Frank picked me up and we went back to his place to wait for the SuperShuttle. It picked us up right on time and we zipped off to the fancy new Terminal 2 at SFO - I haven't been there yet! It was fun to chat with people in line and, of course, we met a random Canadian in line who noticed my flag :)

Ready to rock

My stuff with Frank and Jess's stuff

I am really loving this Triple Aught hoodie that Frank and Jess suggested I buy. It's funny because all three of us are wearing it today and we all look damn sharp. It's made of Merino Wool so it's very soft and comfortable, and also nice and warm. I really like it. This morning I started the Acclimatization Pills and they seem fine, no worries taking them. Everyone else in our group is just planning to take Advil instead, which also helps. I feel better taking them to ward off any potential problems in advance, with all the other general nervousness at the beginning of a trip (is it gonna go well? are we gonna enjoy it? is everyone going to be safe? is anyone going to get sick? etc etc) it's nice to take some things off the list of items to be worried about.

We met up with Kevin and we were all so excited to be rollin' to South Amerrriiccaa!! We had a nice lunchy/breakfast at Rulli's in Terminal 1 and then we left SFO on the way to Miami, intending to meet Christy there continuing together as a group of 5 to Lima. Everyone looks so healthy and thin and fit. We rock for following through on our fitness goals. Oh yes - I almost forgot to mention! Katie at the gym at work did my Caliper Body Fat Percentage test at work yesterday - the acceptable range is 12-22% and I'm 15.9%!! I am so psyched, this is already much better than expected. I will have to continue doing these tests as my weight loss continues... I want to ultimately aim for lower, maybe 12%-ish. (5-12% is considered "Lean").

Pre-trip weight

Turtle Power - funny backpack we saw at SFO

On the plane I read an interesting quote from A.J. Jacobs in the inflight magazine describing his new book "Drop Dead Healthy" about trying to achieve "physical perfection". I'd like to read it. His quote:

"It's incredibly hard to change your habits, but you have to do just that. You have to think of your future self, and treat your future self with respect."

I feel like I would have nodded but ignored that quote 6 months ago - now it really resonates. I'm so happy with my progress and I'm very keen to make sure I keep it going during the trip and afterwards too. I think I'll need some explicit goals to set. Say "Maintain at 170 for 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, 1 year." Maybe that's enough to keep me on track until these habits become self-sustaining.

So in the first few hours of the trip, we had a couple mishaps... that's bound to happen. We arrived in Miami to find out that Christy's plane was cancelled. :( Poor Christy. We scrambled to quickly send a few emails to give the hostel and trekking place a heads up. It sounds like it will work out well but we all felt bad for Christy. Jess talked to her on the phone for a bit which was nice and we all tried to help out as best as we could. We all sat in different rows for SFO-Miami and met up at the terminal. Kev turned out to be on a different plane to Lima, even though it was leaving at exactly the same time! That was weird, and a bit of a pain as he had to run across the terminal to re-check in.

We ended up searching for Cuban Food and found an awesome place. It was super good!! I got a flank steak spiced with onions which was fantastic, and some friend plantains which were SOOOOOOOO good, I almost jumped right onto the plate. Also it came with excellent rice and black beans, a great meal to start the trip!

Dinner in Miami, minus Christy :(

Banana Fritters, you epic fiends

Frank, Jess and I headed to our next flight and were chillin', and chatting with some people also headed to Cusco. Now it looks like we're getting some more food on the plane?!?!?! YES!! It was random beef and rice, basically a repeat of what we had for dinner but airline-style... oh well, it's warm food!! Mmm. I totally crushed it and then went right to sleep for 4 hrs. That rocked.