I arrived back in Lima to the most amazing surprise: sunshine, and a new appreciation for what the city had to offer. My first visit back in October had been blanketed in thick fog. Returning for the last week of November, the city was approaching its short but highly anticipated summer season, where blue skies and…

While most travelers breeze through Paracas just long enough to get pooped on by the birds at Islas Ballestas, we stuck around for four days, leaving plenty of time to explore the other activities the area offers. And by “other activities the area offers,” I basically mean kitesurfing and touring the Paracas National Reserve. I told…

The poor man’s Galapagos — that’s the enticing sales description I kept hearing for Peru’s Ballestas Islands, right off the coast of Paracas. While many tourists visit the islands on day trips from Lima or Huacachina, we decided to go straight to the source. Paracas is a funny little resort town just four hours south of…

As you may have noted from my Inca Trail facts and figures post, this is not an cheap or easy-to-book route to take to Machu Picchu. Prices are sky-high (or should I say Dead-Woman’s-Pass-altitude-high?), and reservations must be made months in advance. Luckily, there are alternative treks that require much less money and advance planning. When…

Yesterday I arrived in Ecuador (both Anders’ and my 22nd foreign country, isn’t that weird?), making this my final of my eleven editions of Photo of the Week from Peru. Eleven weeks! The only countries I’ve spent so much time in are Thailand and Indonesia. And, well, the United States. Our arrival in this new country…

There’s something decadent about returning to a favorite destination a second time. You don’t have to fret about how much a taxi should cost, or checking sights of the list, or how you can creatively blog about them (maybe that one is a little me-centric) — you already figured that out the first time. Instead you…