Perhaps surprisingly, hostels are still somewhat of an exotic concept to me — prior to this trip, I’d probably stayed in less than fifteen. My travels have predominantly been in Southeast Asia, where hostels are still a rare choice compared to cheap guesthouses and bungalows — though they are gaining popularity. In Europe, where the hostel…

Read Part I here. I woke up after the second night aboard The Aria so grateful that I was on a four night itinerary — there was no way I’d have been ready to leave the next day! The ship was already beginning to feel like home and I knew I’d soon miss waking up to…

There are many seasoned travelers who seem to take pride in declaring themselves “sooo not cruise people.” I am not one of those travelers. My first cruise, a Silversea voyage from Athens to Istanbul, showed me all that is sunny about sailing the high seas. I loved the camaraderie onboard, the convenience of surveying a large…

The views alone were worth the price of the flight — just $73. First, we soared over the Andes mountain range, and then dipped low over the snaking tributaries of the Amazon river. I snapped picture after picture and later captioned my first Instagram from Peru, bienvenidos a la selva; welcome to the jungle. When the plane…

See Part I here. I must have been adjusting to the Amazon schedule, because on the second day of my Three Day Amazon Adventure at Heliconia Lodge I was awake at 6am. My excitement about the mornings’ excursions helped bolt me out of bed — we were going piranha fishin’ and pink dolphin spottin’! The river…

I’m reporting live from Lima, where I’ve returned to the land of decent internet connections after eleven days in the jungle. My dear friend Zoe arrived yesterday, marking a new — and super fantastic — chapter in this journey. I’m shivering my buns off, but otherwise enjoying searching out hidden gems across Peru’s overlooked capital. This…