Three days of bussing from Lima and I finally arrived in Cuenca, Ecuador. It's the third largest city and said to be second in charm and architectural beauty. I stayed much longer than planned in Peru, and now I'm racing to see the places I hope to see in one week in Ecuador. So far since leaving my lovely Peru, the weather has not cooperated. Immediately after crossing the border into Ecuador, the world was transformed into the misty cloud forest of the souther...

I love traveling by bus in South America. There was waking up in the middle of the night with a small child laying across me like an octopus, while mom slept peacefully across the aisle. And then there was waking up to a beautiful sunrise behind my first sight of the Andes mountains growing larger in the distance. It's always memorable. First place goes to Cruz del Sur company, who makes everyone feel like a VIP even in "Backpacker class". Thank you for your...

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...