Day 1--Journey to Huchuy Cosqo: We woke up at 6am to meet Jonathan in front of our hostel at 6:30. After meeting him, we drove to Ollantaytambo to pick up the family of 3: Bob, Trudy, and Zack, who would be joining us on the trek to Huchuy Cosqo. After this we drove another hour and a half to Patabamba where we began the trek. Patabamba was a small town with basic homes made of mud bricks--one of the porters let me use his bathroom in town, which ended up just being a hole in the ground with 2 foot prints to place your feet--hadn´t done that one in a while... The views of the Andes were instantly breathtaking and absolutely indescribable. The path was so remote that it wasn´t even a path at times. Every ... read more

We arrived into Ica at around midnight on Monday night... way later than we wanted and we were exhausted from the bus ride, which ended up being a lot longer than anticipated. Ica is famous for being the capital of the Peruvian wine region and an important industrial center. About 5km from Ica is a small desert town called Huacachina, which is famous for its relaxed atmosphere and sandboarding. After some groggy decision making we decided to go straight to Huacachina because the hostels there are more backpacker friendly (ie cheap). Huacachina is tiny! Basically a couple buildings, restaurants, and hostels around a small lake (called the oasis). It is so small that most buildings do not have an address so it was a bit hard to find the hostel we wanted to stay in. In ... read more

We arrived in Mancora on morning of the 6th (Tues) and now that we're at the beach, I feel like we're on a vacation from our vacation. The Loki hostel is like a resort right next to the beach with a pool, bar, ping pong table, and loads of daily activities for less than $9 a night! I've definitely decided that I want to open a hostel somewhere abroad when I retire...I've been keeping tabs on what is good and what is bad. Since traveling is one of my biggest passions, it's pretty much perfect for me hehe Mancora is gorgeous and the people are super friendly, however it is more touristy that the cities we've been to with more gringos, especially at the Loki... The highlights: We watched the 2 semifinal soccer matches with everyone ... read more

We arrived in Baños Friday night with Brigette and Elisa and got some dinner at a little pizzeria. Little did I know that the personlized pizza and salad doused in too much dressing was going to give me Montezuma´s revenge...We went to the thermal baths at other side of town and they packed! We were expecting calm natural pools of hot springs, but just got a building next to a huge waterfall with different pools of varied temperatures and kids running around all over the place. However, that night (July 3rd) was the town´s celebration to its Holy Water Saint and there were loads of fireworks going off next to us while we were it the baths, which was really cool. That was our 4th of July celebration, just one night early... The next day I ... read more

So we finally made it out of Colombia after 3 weeks! On the bus we met these two awesome girls; Brigette from Las Vegas & Elisa from Italy and found we were pretty much traveling the same route so after easily crossing the border via bus and walking, we arrived in the cute town of Otavalo in the afternoon. We went to get some lunch at a restaurant called Otavalito and paid $5 for a 4 course meal of sopa de mote, crepe de atun, lomo asado con verduras y papas (grilled beef w veggies and potatoes), and helado de mango...mmm super rico! After filling our bellies with Ecuadorian deliciousess, made camp at a cheap hostel called Takia Makia. We ended up squeezing 4 of us in a 3 bed room, so it was a little ... read more