Now that I'm at home and have time to reflect on the 11 month journey I just had I wanted to remember the highs and lows of the trip and include some details in general. Continents Visited: Asia, Oceania, South America Countries Visited: Japan, China, Tibet (I consider it it's own country and it should be), Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Bolivia and Peru Favorite Country: Tibet followed very very closely by Cambodia Best Restaurant: Spicy Noodle and Dumpling House (Chengdu, China) Best City For Food: Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) Favorite Major City: A toss up between Kuala Lumpur, Beijing and Sydney Friendliest People: Tibetans, Cambodians and Japanese Best Multi-Day Trip: Ha Long Bay (Vietnam) Best Single Day: Mount Everest Base Camp (Tibet) Bes... read more

We were really excited to embark on our last huge expedition. Throughout this journey the three of us had certain places we wanted to see the most. I wanted to see Mount Everest, Chris wanted to see The Great Wall and Krista wanted to see Machu Picchu. The first two had already been checked off, now it was time for Krista's choice. We had booked our trek in February and ended up going with one of the more expensive companies due to our strict time frame and limited availability. As we found out it is common place to book your trek a minimum of 6 months in advance. I think we were all just happy that we had anything at all. Unfortunately our experiences with Enigma (our company) started off a little shaky at first. First ... read more

So I´m usually use to long bus rides by now but the 6 hour ride from Puno to Arequipa felt like a day and a half. The air wasn´t turned on so it got real stuffy real quick and there was a lady in front of me that literally was about to die. No joke, I truly believed that this woman could die at any minute she looked that sick. Upon arrival we made our way to our hostel then headed out to get some food. We stopped by this place called Tacos & Tequila which actually had pretty good Mexican food and had some legit Tapitio style hot sauce. It was delicious. Arequipa was a really cool city all in all. It´s the second largest city and has an amazing backdrop of two massive snow ... read more

So we spent a few days in La Paz trying to decipher whether we wanted to go to the jungle or not. Basically it was going to cost us a pretty penny and we would have to deal with the humidity and, from what we had learned from other travelers who had been to the jungle, the ludicrous amount of mosquitoes. We ended up walking into a tour agency called Madidi Travel and spoke with the founder of the company and one of the founders of the Madidi National Park, Rosa Maria and after 5 minutes of her talking I was convinced that I wanted to go. Years ago she lobbied to create the Madidi National Park, which ended up happening, and has been working for animal and rain forest conservation her whole life. Her company ... read more

So after an incredibly enjoyable trip through the Salt Flats we headed to our next destination, the so called highest city in the world....Potosi. Whether or not it is the highest city in the world is up for debate but at 13,420 feet it´s pretty damn high. Our bus ride from Uyuni was an interesting experience. The bus itself was perfectly fine. I have read other blogs where people complained that the buses were worse than anything they rode in Cambodia or Laos and I must say that I completely disagree at this point. This was my first Bolivian bus though so we´ll see how things pan out. The road was uphill and comprised completely of dirt. It wasn´t a big deal though minus the occasional dust cloud that enveloped the inside. The bus did have ... read more

San Pedro definitely rejuvenated me. Before arriving here I had just thought most places were so so but this place was great and actually felt like South America instead of Europe. We arrived in San Pedro from Salta after a good 8 hour bus ride that brought us to heights of around 13,000 feet.....that'll give you a nice little headache. The town is located at 7900 feet with is high enough to make you dizzy but not do too much damage. The town is located in the Atacama desert which happens to be the driest desert in the world. The region receives hardly any rain because it is blocked from moisture on both sides by the Andes mountains and by the Chilean Coast Range. In fact the average rainfall per year is 1mm......so no more complaining ... read more