An overnight bus took me to Puno, on the coast of Lake Titicaca, where the hostal owner kindly waited at 4am at the bus terminal to pick us up and take us to sleep for two hours before hopping on a ferry to set off on a 2 day cultural tour of the islands of Lake Titicaca. This is considered the highest elevation lake in the world at 3808 meters and it's shared by Bolivia and Peru. About a 45 minute boat ride off the coast of Puno are the Islas Flotantes, or floa...

At 4 a.m. we were on a bus filled with a loud group from Israel that smelled like they just came from the discos we were now driving past. We were headed for a 5 hour trip to the start of the Apurimac River, the farthermost source of the Amazon set deep in a 9,900 feet canyon, for a 3 day whitewater rafting trip with SwissRaft company. The Rio Apurimac is one of the top ten rafting rivers in the world, with amazing scenery, world class IV and V rapids, and prist...

Following a quick stop in Lima, I took a one hour flight over to Cusco. Despite the fact that Cusco has become a thriving tourist destination since the rediscovery of Machu Picchu in 1911, it is still easy to forget the crowds and become enchanted by the mystery of the fascinating Inca culture that is so carefully protected here. Cusco's elevation is 3300m, and the air feels cool and clean all of the time. It was the Inca empire's foremost stronghold, and remain...

Off trekking for a few wonderful days in the mystic Colca Canyon. The Canyon here, 3 hours inland from Arequipa, is twice as deep as the Grand Canyon and the second deepest in the world at 3140m. It's filled with some surreal scenery, traditional Andean farming terraces surrounding mountain towns built into the deep canyon walls, site of the Cruz del Condor where you can view 50 or so condors (3-5 meters wide) soaring above the canyon searching for carcasses, and...

Arequipa, the "White City" named because of the white volcanic stone the city was built with, is said to be the second most important and beautiful city in Peru. The city is built on the slopes of the active El Misti Volcano. A fact I found astonishing is that the actual summit of this volcano, lies a mere 17k away from the town, and as the town's population continues to grow it moves closer to where there are now residences built into the base of the mountain. ...