When we meet people and tell them about our travels, I like to joke that we have run away from our children. Well, in December, they found us! When we left Mississippi in September, we also purchased tickets to Santiago, Chile for our kids to visit us for Christmas during their college break. And, I am happy to report that we have had three wonderful weeks together with them in Chile! That is why we haven’t been blogging during the holidays. We enjoyed exploring the city of S

While we were traveling in Ecuador we realized that we had become experts at slow travel. We were so slow that we only had a few weeks to meet our children in Santiago which was 4,800 kilometers away, and we hadn’t visited Peru or northern Chile yet. So in our haste, we purchased five one way airline tickets which would allow us to see everything on our list in Peru and fly into Santiago on time to meet our children. Or so we thought. I now regret our hasty sleep deprived mid

Sleep would not come easy. After three days on the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu we were tired, but we would still not sleep. Tomorrow we would finally see the beautiful lost city of the Incan Empire. “We will wake up at 3:00 am and begin our final hike to Machu Picchu” Claudio said. “We will get in line and wait for the gate to open. No one is allowed to pass the gate until it opens at 5:00 am. We will then hike the final one and a half hours to Machu Picchu. We will be there s

Two days down, two to go! As promised, the second day on the Inca Trail hike to Machu Picchu was tough. Twenty-two kilometers and two mountain passes. There were lots of uneven stone stairways with steep uphill climbs and treacherous downhill steps. But, it was now behind us and we could begin to look forward to the final trek to Machu Picchu. Our guide, Claudio entered the dining tent to give us our hiking plan for the next day. “The third day is the easiest on the trail” he

We made it! We had just completed the first day’s hike to Machu Picchu on the Inca Trail. We walked into camp and we were shown to our tents. Hot water and towels were brought to us by our chaskis, the incredible porters who carried supplies along the trail. We zipped up our tent door and quickly got out of our trail clothes. We took a quick sponge bath and put on our evening clothes. We had a few minutes to set up our sleeping bags and stretch out before afternoon tea at 5:3

Our hike along the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu started easy enough, despite the light rain. (8,923 feet). The trail was relatively flat as it slowly climbed and followed the Sacred River. The entire area was a protected National Park, but there were a few families living in stone and makeshift structures along the way. These families have been living along the trail for generations. The Inca Trail is a fairly well defined, wide path. It is paved with large stones and has kilom

After receiving the itinerary for our Machu Picchu trek, I had a lot of anxiety, which is unusual. I just stared in disbelief; 22 km. I became fixated on that distance during our entire time in Cusco. I think that I asked Ol about five times, “how far is 22 km?” I kept hoping that the answer would change. We have hiked further distances and at higher altitudes, but we were also in better shape. For the past few weeks, we have acted like tourists. We were only walking about si

During our time in Peru I wondered why we had never visited before. I wish we had taken our kids here for one of our family vacations. They would have loved parades, riding four wheelers to ancient ruin sites, zip lining, biking, rafting to Machu Picchu, surfing on sand dunes, or getting kisses from llamas. A trip to Peru can be a history lesson, but it is also seeing a way of life that is simple and beautiful. As a bonus, it can be less expensive than a ski vacation or a tri