Twenty-four hours in Lima was not a lot of time to see this Peruvian capital city. Arriving late in the evening, we took a long taxi drive to the Miraflores area of the city. The expressway runs along the waterfront of the city with an ominous 200 foot cliff edge lining most of one side of the road and a beach on the Pacific ocean on other. Even in the dark the sights were quite captivating. Miraflores is an upscale suburb in eastern Lima with a real multicultur...

Health is always potentially a concern when travelling. We have been really healthy on this trip besides some minor skin irritations, bites and normal aches and pains. However, during our first night in Arequipa at Casa de Sillar I had a mysterious allergy attack. I woke up at 3:30am from vivid dreams of cats to which I am deathly allergic. My sinuses were totally blocked and my face looked like I had been on the losing end of a boxing match with all the puffines...

Altitude. For travellers, it is a big deal. Everyone talks about it, how high they have been, who is sick and who has no difficulties at all. We normally live at sea level. When I visit my sisters or parents who live between 700 & 1600 meters, I notice the dryness in the air and the shortness of my breath. I also have some difficulty sleeping for a few nights. Well, as my t-shirt from Boulder, CO says, 'sea level is for sissies'. We have been living at altitu...

We have fallen behind on our blogging because are in an area where internet is very limited and we can´t upload our pics from the last week. So you will have to await our next postings...we will likely do 2 or 3 catchup ones when we are in Arequipa on Saturday to Monday. Anybody been to Arequipa who have any suggestions for things to do or places to stay¿ Send us a note! We fly out of Arequipa on Monday night, in Lima for a couple of days then out of ...

We could not decide if we should go to Lake Titicaca or not. We have heard very mixed reviews of it and having been there, I get it. It is a beautiful lake – the highest navigatible lake in the world. And they have created a tourist experience that is downright bizarre. First of all, every tour operator offers the exact same 2 or 3 packages. There are literally hundreds of the exact same boats that pile up with tourists all within an hour of each other and ...