Lima is a city that gets a pretty bad rap from the guide books and other travelers due to pollution, crime, and other problems you find anywhere in a city with over 8 million people. Over one third of the country lives just in this city! For me, it is more of an undiscovered jewel that I actually find quite pleasant. The historic center plaza, Plaza Mayor, is probably the most beautiful and interesting I've seen so far... and considering that every single central...

Happy Halloween...which seems to be fun no matter what country I'm in... last year I was in Nicaragua at this time. Now I am in Peru's big captial city, Lima. Since arriving in Lima, I've found a cool hostel in the Barranco neighborhood called The Point. And my timimg couldn't have been better as they were looking for staff... so, I'm kinda working again and will stay here for a couple months most likely. Lima is a huge city so there's lots to see and do while I...

First of all, if you look at the map over to the right, it appears as if my city hopping is a simple trip to the next town over... this is deceiving. In fact, the distance between each city is at least 7 hours on a bus...usually 10. Fortunately, the buses here are the big luxury coaches and nothing like the "chicken bus" experience through Central America. Huaraz is situated in the 2nd highest mountain range in the world and is surrounded by 22,000 foot snow-ca...

After exploring ruins and city streets, it was time for the festival weekend which was one big party. No one seems to go home from bars or discos until dawn and the parties here rock! Getting up for the parade on Sunday was slightly difficult but we were promised that all the beauty queens from several different countries would be going by so that provided some motivation. This entry is mostly just to post photos of everyone and all the fun from a weekend in Truj...

It's been a while since I've seen cool ruins but Chan Chan did not disappoint. I went with my buddy Jakob to take a self guided tour. The ruins are from the Chimu culture and the area around the Tschudi compound that we toured at one time housed about 60,000 people. The city of Chan Chan was built around 1300 and lasted until the Chimu were conquered by the Incas in 1460. Photos tell the story better so check those out.