We arrived in Cusco in the evening on the 20th and we got into a taxi to take us to our hostel. Challenge #1. Our driver drops us off and says our hostel is the door where we were dropped off but it was a closed dentist office. Our driver leaves and we are stuck not knowing where the hell we are. We wander around for about 15 minutes or so and we find a sign with the name of our hostel. So we enter and it leads us down a dark creepy ally. The sign says number 4 ...

It has not even been a full two weeks yet in Peru but the village of Chivay is a perfect representation of what you would expect when you picture Peru. But before all of the amazingness of this town and Colca Canyon and Colca Valley we had quite an adventure getting there. We left the city of Arequipa at about 9am and we stopped into a store to purchase coca leaves, which acts as an excellent remedy for altitude sickness. I personally did not need to chew them be...

We left Huacachina in the afternoon to go into the actual city of Ica for a pisco bodega tour. We went to an artesan pisco bodega (which is a winery- felt strange since I grew up in Napa but very interesting) and we learned about how pisco is produced and had tastings afterwards. The tour was at El Catador bodega which began pisco production in 1856. We learned that there are eight different grapes used for pisco in Peru and there are three types of pisco, the on...

Huacachina is the only South American desert oasis. Makes me feel like I am in the Sahara desert haha. When we arrived on the 15th, Michelle and I were told that we must climb one of the sand dunes to catch the sunset, which of course we did. It took us about 15 minutes to hike up but it was a steep incline and it's all sand so by the time I reached the top I'll admit I was winded and sweating profusely. Once we got to the top though, we could see just how vast...

We arrived in a small but touristy part of Peru called Paracas. Roughly 4 hours south of Lima on the coast and it is kind of the Peruvian version of Monterey. Well only so due to the fact that both are peninsulas and the climate and birdlife are similar. Originally we were going to spend two days here but it got extended to three days due to travel plans. Not much to do in this town except for visiting Paracas National Reserve and Islas Ballestas, which is referr...