Titicaca. Get your giggles out now. Nestled in the mountains between Peru and Bolivia, Lake Titicaca is the highest navigable lake in the world, sitting at just over 12,000 feet above sea level. For hundreds of years before the Incas took over, and continuing on to this day, the Uru people have lived in self-constructed […]
A few hours south of Lima lies the small city of Ica, and just a ten minute taxi ride from Ica is Huacachina, which looks like it sprung right out of a cartoon or fairy tale. Located in the middle of Peru’s southern desert region, Huacachina is a literal desert oasis. A natural freshwater lake […]
Prior to the Spaniards’ arrival to Peru in the 1500’s, the Andean region was host to a multitude of indigenous peoples. The most well-known of these cultures is the Inca civilization, but there were at least a dozen others, including the Nazca, Wari, and Caral. The oldest stretches back as far as the 30th century B.C., and […]
It’s been a while since I posted last; since the Galapagos post almost two weeks have passed. Since then, we’ve worked our way through Ecuador and down into Peru. Rather than post on a few weeks’ delay, I figured I’d attempt to get up-to-date with this “catch-up” post and get better about updating between cocktails on the […]
The Galapagos Islands are lands of unparalleled uniqueness. In the 1830’s, Charles Darwin made a historic scientific visit to the Galapagos, and in 1859, he published his Theory of Evolution, largely using the flora and fauna of the Galapagos to further define and prove his ideas. Between three and five million years ago, the islands […]
When visiting a new country, you will of course notice many differences. Some of these differences are large and expected, such as the fact that everyone speaks a different language or that the typical cuisine isn’t quite what you’re used to. Other differences, however, aren’t so striking and sometimes even take a while to recognize. […]
Medellín, a city once infamous only for Pablo Escobar’s reign of terror, is now Colombia’s most modern, progressive metropolis, transforming itself from the murder capital of the world in 1991 to the world’s most innovative city in 2013. Investments into the education, culture, and infrastructure of the city have engendered social change on a scale rarely seen, […]
With Bridgette laid up with an unfortunate pool-related foot injury in Santa Marta, I was flying solo on our planned trip to Tayrona National Park, located 45 minutes or so outside of the city. Still a bit leery of the public transportation options, I took the direct shuttle from our hostel for 12,000 pesos, which […]
Envision paradise. White sand, palm trees, thatched roof huts, and hammocks. Nothing to do but sit back with a book, sip a beer, and occasionally hop in the water when the beating sun becomes too much. You’re picturing Playa Blanca, a beach tucked away 20 miles from Cartagena, the paradise that other paradises are based […]
A little over five years ago, a 16 year old boy by the name of Diego Felipe was shot and killed in Bogota for the crime of spray painting a cat on a wall. Since then, street artists both local and foreign have started a street art movement across Colombia as a form of protest […]