Footsteps and thoughts from the Inca Trail
No one really knows why Machu Picchu exists. It may have been built as a resort for Incan royalty or as a retreat specifically for the king. It may have been a holy place. Historians do believe, no...
View ArticleCompleting the tough road to Machu Picchu
Read part one about our trek to Machu Picchu. On day three we awoke to gray skies and low clouds but our spirits were high because our hardest day was behind us. Day three was what our guide called...
View ArticleUpdates, rickshaw run, and travel fits and starts
It is hard for me to believe that we left Oregon five months ago. Five months. Where has the time gone? My brain is overwhelmed by all that I have already seen and done and I know that it will take...
View ArticleA visit to Peru’s Amazon Jungle
The first thing I noticed when I stepped off the plane in Puerto Maldonado, a small Peruvian jungle town a stone’s throw away from both Bolivia and Brazil, was the oppressive, suffocating heat. ‘Oh...
View ArticleA little story about a little sloth
On our third day in the Amazon we boarded a tiny wooden boat and puttered along a small, muddy tributary of the Rio Madre de Dios. We’d set out to go fishing with tree branch poles and to do a little...
View ArticleOur incredible weekend with monkeys
Puerto Maldonado, Peru is no place to write home about. It’s booming, as far as jungle towns go, with a frenzy of rickshaws and motorcycles zooming and beeping through the rutted, dusty streets. Brian...
View ArticleEl Chalten, Argentina in pictures: my new favorite place on earth
There is a tiny town in Argentina’s Patagonia region called El Chalten and it is my new favorite place on earth. The village of El Chalten The village of El Chalten was founded in 1985 (!) and has a...
View ArticleTouring Rio de Janeiro’s national park (’cause, yeah, they have one)
As our last few days in South America came to a close, Brian and I found ourselves in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. We’d never intended to go to Brazil but flights from Rio to India, where I was flying for...
View ArticleTips for surviving South American bus rides
When I think back on our time in South America I don’t automatically think about volunteering in Ecuador or visiting the Galapagos Islands or even hiking the Inca Trail. The first thing I think about...
View ArticleAbout this OM symbol
Brian and I were backpacking in Torres del Paine National Park, a pristine and stunning wilderness area in Chile’s Patagonia region. Friends had flown in from the U.S. to join us. We were having a...
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