Wetting my whistle with someone else’s spit
“Chicha de jora? Isn’t that the stuff they make with spit? Eww.” Such was the typical reaction when someone heard chicha de jora in the list of foods and drinks I wanted to try in Peru. That or a confused,…
Sacred Valley, Peru travel guide – The YEH, MEH, NAHs
If Machu Picchu vanished, retrieved by Incan extra-terrestrials, the Sacred Valley would still be a top Peru destination. We visited in mid-March, at the tail end of Peru’s rainy season. I can’t imagine a better time to visit. The valley…
Buzz kill bus crash in Peru
First, to our friends and families: We’re fine. We were not on this bus. Pisac, Peru is a small town with a central area of cobblestone streets fit only for tour groups, pedestrians, packs of dogs, donkey-drawn carts, and wheelbarrows….
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!”
Drawing of drinkers at a nameless Pisac bar
After a long, hot day spent exploring the old town of Pisac, Peru, I persuade Lauren to share a beer with me at a nameless bar. At the next table, four men laugh hard and loud together. Their accents and…
Cebollas y choclo at the Pisac Sunday Market
Some people like to window shop on chic urban streets, imagining themselves rocking an outfit worn by a headless anorexic mannequin. Me, I prefer to un-window shop (hush, you try to figure out an antonym of “window”) out in the…
Eating on the cheap at the Pisac Sunday Market
I can’t recall how we got the notion in our heads, but Peru is not a bargain travel destination. After a few too many expensive and yet disappointing restaurant meals, Todd and I are thrilled by the food stalls at…
Drawing of the produce women at the Sunday Pisac Market, Peru
There’s perhaps no more famous market in South America than Pisac’s Sunday Market. The touristy tchotchkes, fake alpaca scarves, and mass-produced blankets were not all that interesting. But, the part of the market where women sold produce they’d hauled down…
