Missed opportunity at El Misti volcano
I’ve always wanted to hike a volcano. There’s no source for this desire of mine that I know of — no suppressed trigger from my childhood, no daredevilish dream needing realizing, no genetic memory of mountaineering in my family tree….
Views to die for in Colca Canyon
Having carrion-craving birds circling in the hot updrafts above you can indicate that those expert hunters of the dead and dying consider you a likely next meal. The condors in Colca Canyon, Peru may have smelled my sweat, thick with…
Packing list for a Colca Canyon hike
Trekking into Colca Canyon, Peru, the world’s deepest canyon, is relatively easy because there are small villages a short day’s trek apart. At these villages, guesthouses are ready to provide hikers with hearty country meals, bottled water, beds, and the…
Hike Colca Canyon without a guide: Map and trail guide to Llahuar
The most compelling benefit of hiking Colca Canyon, Peru without a guide is that you can trek at your own pace. This means you can crick your neck watching circling Andean condors, stalk birds and beasts, and stop and smell…
Huff, puff, and smell the flowers of Colca Canyon
Who’da thunk that hiking up the steep, deep, Colca Canyon, Peru would have been easier than hiking down the same 3,300-feet? Going downhill was so rough that I couldn’t stop and smell the…well, I don’t know what they’re all called,…
The greatest fool in Peru
During dinner in a rustic hiker guesthouse at the bottom of Colca Canyon, Peru, Todd decides to treat our fellow travelers to a conversation to remember, for all the wrong reasons. His choice? A story about a penis.
Hitting rock bottom in Colca Canyon
I’m not the kind of chick who cries. Though I’m overflowing with empathy, I’m cut from stoic stock. I cry more often while cutting onions than from sorrow or joy. Yet, at the bottom of the world’s deepest canyon, I…
The hills are alive with the sound of pan flute
“Where’s. That. Music. Coming. From?” I ask Todd as we pause our up up uphill hike to the ruins over Pisac, Peru. “Do you. See. Anyone?” “Nope.” “Wait. Is that, pan flute? It is. Ugh, pan flute!”
