When I last left off, I had just detailed how Jacqui and I spent the day hiking through the amazing site of Cumbe Mayo, and visiting the equally impressive Ventanillas de Cajamarca. For day two of our stay in the beautiful mountain city, we decided to forego some of the other full-day tour options to check out some of the more local (and walkable) attractions Cajamarca had to offer. Our day started early – 6 am. When I woke up the sun had not yet made it over the tall peaks surrounding the city, and as I got my things together I was able to watch the sky turn from a deep navy blue to a beautiful early-morning light pink. It was amazing. [Continue reading...]

Last weekend (June 24-26), I competed in the 2011 Peruvian National Short-Course Master’s Swim Meet. I’ve been swimming for my entire life, but never really thought I’d be able to say that I competed in a national competition outside of my home country! [Continue reading...]

Having stayed put in Lima these past 4 weeks, I decided it was about time to see some other parts of the country. Not that Lima isn’t full of things to see (even if I lived here a year I doubt I’d be able to see everything), I just felt like I needed to experience other regions of this beautiful country in order to fully appreciate it and all it has to offer.

My opportunity came two weeks ago when Jacqui mentioned she’d be visiting Trujillo for a swim meet. For those of you who are unaware, Trujillo is home to Chan Chan, one of Peru’s more famous archaeological sites. Having read about it in school, the site was on the top of my Peruvian must-see list, right under Machu Picchu. Having never traveled alone, I had hoped to buddy up with one of the other volunteers to go exploring – this was my chance! Having invited myself along on her trip, Jacqui politely accepted, with one condition. She’d be busy in Trujillo, but planned on visiting Cajamarca afterwards and welcomed some company on that leg of her journey. In other words, I’d get the chance to try traveling on my own and I’d be able to travel with a buddy. I thought “okay, I can do this!” [Continue reading...]

We are proud to announce that our annual Machu Picchu contest has just launched. The new format makes it very easy for anyone to participate as the contest is exclusive to Facebook and Twitter. Besides giving away a free Jungle Inca Trail tour, we have also thrown in the Peru Lonely Planet guide for six runners up. [Continue reading...]

Are you planning a trip to Peru and want ideas on how to best spend your time? While travel guides are useful at advising us which hostel is the cleanest and friendliest or where the closest ATM is, they often don’t cut it for assisting us plan out the ideal route to explore a country. [Continue reading...]