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Ending in the Atacama
“It is always sad to leave a place to which one knows one will never return. Such are the melancolies du voyage: perhaps they are one of the most rewarding things about traveling.” – Gustave Flaubert Chile: Interesting Facts I spent my last week in South America in a giant desert. The driest in the world just so happens to be in Northern Chile. The Atacama. Google it. I’ll start by addressing the obvious question. Of all the places to visit in South America, why end my trip in the Atacama? I visited Santiago a few years ago and it was here that I learned about the geographically schizophrenic country of Chile. …
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Machu Picchu: Hiking my way through the Salkantay
“Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it.”– Greg Anderson The Backdrop It’s time for the apex, the highlight, the grand finale of a trip to Peru. Especially for what has turned into a mont of full blown TREKKING for me. Machu Picchu. I always planned to stop at this most famous of Peruvian sites. And I always knew I wasn’t going to be one of those tourists taking the train from Cusco for a day trip. No, I was hiking there. The only question was which route to take. As my travels wear on, my itinerary is getting more…
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Around Peru in 7 Days: Arequipa, Puno, and Rainbow Mtn
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Around Peru in 7 Days: Arequipa, Puno, and Rainbow Mtn
“Like all great travelers, I have seen more than I remember, and remember more than I have seen.” -Benjamin Disraeli Finishing Strong I have but a few precious weeks left in South America. In July I head back to US for a short break between continents. I’m trying not to think about it. I don’t want to leave. There are still so many things I want to do, and things I haven’t yet seen. This deadline has put me in traveling overdrive. I’m fighting my personal tendencies to exhaust myself. This is supposed to be a break, a travel sabbatical. Not full time tourist employment. But with my pending continental…
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Trekking Love: The Santa Cruz Trail in Peru
“The great difference between voyages rests not with the ships, but with the people you meet on them.” – Amelia E. Barr Huaraz After leaving Lima I took a night bus 8 hours north to the town of Huaraz. I arrived at 5:30 in the morning, exhausted, and ready to hike. Huaraz sits in central/northern Peru, is surrounded by the Andean mountains, and is more than 3,000 meters above sea level. It’s a few hours drive from Huarascán National Park. Within this park resides the peaks of the Cordillera Blanca range and Peru’s tallest mountain, Huarascán at 6,758 meters. Visiting trekkers have no shortage of choices here. You can opt…
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Hitting the Capitals – Bogotá and Lima
“Our happiest moments as tourists always seem to come when we stumble upon one thing while in pursuit of something else.” – Lawrence Block Bogota When I arrived in Bogotá, I remember sitting in a cab driving from the airport thinking “I’m going to like it here much more than I thought.” I didn’t initially want to go to Bogotá. After Panama City, Medellin, and Cartagena I was about done with high rise buildings and crowded streets. Big cities wear me out. For those of you crying hypocrite – yes, I’m aware that I have always been an urbanite by residence. But traveling is different. My favorite globe-trotting moments usually involve …
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Meeting Friends in Cartagena
“A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles.” -Tim Cahill Cartagena: A Quick Overview I’ve spent a lot of time traveling in mountainous cites and jungle hikes. Obviously I’m impartial to these locales. It’s time to spice it up with something different: Cartagena. To give some background, Cartagena is an old port city on Colombia’s Caribbean coast. It has a historical center called the ‘walled city’, which sits right next to the water. Tourists walking around the walled city can take in colorful colonial buildings, cobblestone streets, and balconies overflowing with tropical flowers. For those visitors looking for beach time, the nearby Rosario islands are known for blue…
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Minca in a Minute
“A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.” – Lao Tzu Why Minca After finishing the Ciudad Perdida trail and leaving Tayrona Park, I did a short stop over in Minca before heading to Cartagena. Minca is a small town in the mountains just above Santa Marta. The city was not in my original itinerary but I added the stop over on the recommendation of a German woman I met while in Guatape near Medellin. She told me I had to go. She visited it for a night and wishes she had stayed longer. My guide book didn’t say much about Minca, except for a…
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Ciudad Perdida – The Hike That (Almost) Killed Me
Because in the end, you won’t remember the time you spent working in the office or mowing your lawn. Climb that goddamn mountain. – Jack Kerouac First Stop: Santa Marta I spent most of the last week hiking the Ciudad Perdida (literally ‘Lost City’) trail in the Sierra Nevada mountains in Colombia. It was breathtaking and totally exhilarating. At times I also thought I was going to keel over and die right there on that mountain. And for the first time in my travels, I felt kinda old. And weak. For the record, I am neither of these things. But it’s fair to say my week included an abundance of…
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For the Love of Medellín
“Traveling is like flirting with life. It’s like saying, ‘I would stay and love you, but I have to go; this is my station.” — Lisa St. Aubin de Teran Seeing All Medellín Has to Offer Lately I’ve never wanted to be another nationality so bad as I lately want to be Colombian. Every time I look out onto the rolling green mountains of Medellin, eat a Buñelo, or hear someone roll their ‘rr’ I have a small pang of jealously. Part of my immense affection for this city may also stem from finally adjusting to the euphoric realization that I really did quit my job to travel the world. That…
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City Tours and Traveling Mishaps – From Panama to Medellin
“Stop worrying about the potholes in the road and celebrate the journey.” – Fitzhugh Mullan For those of you aching for more blog posts, you’re in luck. I’m covering a lot of ground in this one. Enough Spanish for One Month For my last Friday in Panama city I skipped my Spanish classes and played tourist for the day. Don’t judge me. I wasn’t just playing hookie because I didn’t want to go to class (which I didn’t). I also didn’t plan my Panama City flight itinerary very well. My arrival in Panama City was on a Sunday afternoon. I then had class all week, and a flight out to Colombia…
