Woohoo! It’s that time of year again to feast on our blessings and appreciate a hearty meal! (Or is it the other way around? :D) Thanksgiving has always been one of my favorite holidays because everything about this day just feels so comforting and warm—even when it’s usually well below 20 degrees by now in(…)
There’s spontaneous travel and then, there’s Machu Picchu. A trip to this South American world wonder requires planning, and a lot of it. Thus, 8 rookie mistakes no traveler should ever make while visiting Peru’s royal estate.
Patacancha is a cold, barren town perched high in the mountains of Peru’s Sacred Valley of the Incas. Without the narrow dirt road hugging steep ridges and making its way from the nearby town of Ollantaytambo, it would remain an indigenous Peruvian village disconnected from the outside world.
“We need the tonic of wilderness… At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be infinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable. We can never have enough of nature.” — Henry David Thoreau
Life usually throws me surprises in the form of embarrassing ailments and disfigurements. For instance, I was really quite marveled by that one time my face was temporarily paralyzed after a spectacular Hawaiian fishing trip. And I can’t explain the joys I experienced when a Peruvian parasite showed up out of the blue and hung around for a(…)
There is usually nothing special about November 5th. Unless, I guess, you are celebrating the eponymous conspirator Guy Fawkes with effigies and fireworks. But for us non-Brits, it’s another day on the calendar filled with dentist appointments and rubbish reminders. This year was different. I didn’t adorn a sinister mask nor take to the streets(…)
*The following images are graphic and may not be intended for all viewers.* In addition to a few rigid excerpts from The Sun Also Rises, I may have only given three minutes of thought to bullfighting in my life. “Save it for Spain” was kind of the idea I held until the discussion of an afternoon fight(…)
And I catch piranha. But as blasé as I intend this to sound, I can’t deny the fact that fishing in the Amazon in the same manner as the locals takes the upmost skill, perseverance and patience. And I’ve only done it once, so maybe I should hold off on my newly self-proclaimed title until I have a few more(…)
I’m abruptly awoken on Halloween’s eve to the ruffling and shaking of my tent pitched deep in the Peruvian Amazon. A thick coat of alarmed chicken skin rips down my back and across my arms. “JAGUAR,” my mind races after spotting tracks on our trail earlier in the afternoon. No jungle cats here, just my(…)