I wake up early yet again and pack my bags yet again. My flight is at 4 p.m., so I don’t leave for the airport until 1. So I have one final morning to go wander through Cusco and enjoy the parades and have a lunch. My feet are a little battered at this point, so I drop my bags at the hotel and go find myself a nice spot to sit down and watch the morning’s parades. I am out on the town square for the first groups of the day at 8:30. There are barricades up now, so I find a nice spot to sit on the curb…
-
-
Machu Picchu Time!
Note: So this post is full of approximately one million photos. As I was going through them, it was so easy to just be overwhelmed and for them to all look the same. But… I really enjoy taking the time to pause and look at at least a few of them really closely. I was there, in that spot, looking out at this wholly unimaginable landscape before me. It looks like a cartoonish green screen. The colors and images look enhanced. But this is how it was. Greens and blues and mountains and valleys and ruins. I have to take the time myself to pause and truly appreciate these moments,…
-
Valle Sagrado – Llama time!
Today is the day I leave Cusco and visit the Sacred Valley. This valley lies between Cusco and Machu Picchu and must be traversed in order to get there. It is an absolutely breathtakingly beautiful valley, with enormous mountains on either side, fertile farming villages in the heart of the valley, and terraces and ruins dotting the mountain sides. Llama Time I begin the day with hotel breakfast. I actually got up early enough to slow down and enjoy breakfast before today’s guide arrived. I really enjoyed the various quinoa items, a yogurt parfait and quinoa pancakes. They also have a honey comb dripping fresh honey into a bowl. I…
-
A Day in Cusco
Photo Walk For my second day in Cusco, I got up early and met with a local photographer to take some artsy shots around the scenic streets of Cusco. We met at my hotel, took a taxi to the San Blas neighborhood, and walked back, taking photos along the way. It was fun, but a bit stiff. He had a translator with him, as he is Italian and now lives in Cusco, so he speaks Italian and Spanish, but not English. The translator was a lady from Argentina I think(?), and she was very helpful, mostly at holding my purse while we took photos. We walked through the narrow streets…
-
Cuscotopia!
Leaving Lima Today, I leave Lima at 7 a.m. to catch a plane for Cusco. Now, I have heard from my tour guide yesterday that the Starbucks here makes a lúcuma frappuccino. However, when I walked past the nearest Starbucks, about a block from my hotel, there is an armed security guard at the door. Now, either there are so many people out there doing bad stuff that every single store, bank, and restaurant needs armed security, or there are a lot of overly armed security guys out there, and either way, it feels very intimidating and not welcoming to me. So I was quite relieved to arrive at the…
-
Landing in Lima
I arrived in Lima at 6:30 a.m. on the red-eye from Dallas. And boy were my eyes red. We boarded at 10 p.m., but our 10:30 take-off was delayed for an hour, so we didn’t get into the air until 11. I eagerly waited for us to reach altitude, reclined my chair, and promptly went to sleep before (and during and after) dinner was served. I know tomorrow will be a long day, so I need all the rest I can get. By the time I got through customs/passport control, it was 7 a.m., but my driver was there ready to go. We hopped in the car and drove. And…
-
Luxembourg – April 2018
In April, we visited Luxembourg and fell. in. love. The city is absolutely beautiful and so picturesque up on the mountain. We loved the food and the people we met. We enjoyed venturing outside of Luxembourg city to Echternach, Joe’s familial home town. Food I loved the food of Luxembourg. It’s a peculiar mixture of German and French cuisines, and is quite unique. I love the heavy, saucy, creamy, old-world style foods, so I thoroughly enjoyed it. We visited a brewery and had bouneschlupp, a green bean and ham soup, followed by Kniddelen for me, which is a giant version of spaetzle, and Wainsaucisse for Joe. The kniddelen were superb,…
-
FAQ – Winter in Russia
Was it worth it? Absolutely! It was certainly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and I would definitely recommend it. I learned so much about the culture and norms in different places, which is a completely invaluable lesson in empathy and understanding. I saw places that weren’t just major cities, walked through the countryside, and I think that’s also a really important part of this trip. When traveling, it’s so easy to just go to the main cities and never explore an entire country. It’s so rare to get the chance to see this much of a single country. Why travel alone? It’s partially an exercise in exploring my personal endurance, and learning…
-
Great Wall – Great Food!
Starting the day After a late night, I was now scheduled to meet the tour guide at 8:30, so I meandered down at 7:40 to check out the hotel breakfast buffet. It was an amalgam of cultural breakfast foods, from Western bacon, toast, and sausages to Chinese breakfast items like dim sum and congee, but also Chinese dinner items like black pepper beef…even baked beans in case an Irish person shows up. I tried to stick with things I’ve never had before, but I’m pretty particular about breakfast food and I don’t consider things that are dinner foods good as breakfast foods. I even saw 2 Italian guys, so I…
-
The Big Day – Flying to Beijing
Ok, travel days are never fun, but wow, this was a long one. My flight from San Jose was delayed, so I spent a few hours fretting at work about what time to leave for the airport. I have zero chill. Finally, it was time to leave for the airport. Now, I had to pack 3 weeks worth of winter clothes into a carry-on size bag, so I *thought* it would be a great idea to wear the bulkier items so they didn’t take up so much space, as my suitcase is jam-packed as-is. Well, it isn’t so cold in San Jose, so spending a few extra hours in my…
