We made it back to Cusco without incident, departing on a jam-packed PeruRail train that is known as one of the most expensive in the world, in terms of cost per distance travelled. It made for a pleasant ride at least through the Sacred Valley and back up to the cradle of hills that contains… Read More Calm Before the Storm
Thank you to Zak for allowing his mother to do a guest blog! After a twenty plus hour plane ride with 4 connections in four countries we landed in La Paz, Bolivia at 1 am. Within 3 hours I had a rip roaring headache which put me to bed for about 20 hours. I rallied… Read More What a long, strange trip it’s been.
The past couple days we’ve set up shop in the opportunistically-renamed town of Machu Picchu Pueblo, nee Aguas Calientes, the final launching point for tourists headed up to the ruins of Machu Picchu. We’d booked two days at the namesake ruins, something I wasn’t sure would be necessary but I find now that I am… Read More Past the Hitching Post of the Sun
First stop after leaving La Paz was a solo jaunt…Mom flew ahead to Cusco to spare herself arduous overland treks. About an hour into the bus ride outside of La Paz, as we chugged slowly through the traffic-choked suburb of El Alto, I thought she had made the better choice. The bus was cheaper, but… Read More Oye Ollanta
I sit in a stuffy cubicle at an Internet bar off the Panamerican Highway in northern Peru, typing here and hopeful that the thus-far lackluster Internet connection will hold long enough so that I needn’t retype everything that is to follow. It’s the last day in Peru; indeed, the last hours are near. By dawn… Read More In the Books
The next stop was Huaraz, a smallish city nestled up in a valley (yes, a valley) at a height of over 10,000 feet. To pardon a pun, it was rare air and I don’t know if but for a few exceptions that I’ve spent any time over such an altitude. It would have been a… Read More Soroche, We Meet Again
Looking back to last week, I´m not sure what exactly I was thinking to come to Peru and assume Lima would be just another large city. Eight million inhabitants didn´t quite register to me as a lot, and I´ll admit a bit of hubris in thinking that after dealing with the big cities of Asia,… Read More What´s in a nombre?
Nearly two years after what I thought was to be my final post on this blog, I find myself here again. In the intervening time I have had the chance to visit corners of the US that I’d not seen before and to reconnect with my family roots as well as friends near and… Read More Back in the Saddle
Zak Abroad 