Spiced and Rummed in Grenada
Originally posted: Thursday, May 31, 2007

I knew Grenada was going to be a special trip when I discovered that I was one of the few non-Grenadians on my flight. =) I soon found out that I was also one of the dozen or so people on the island who was not a local or a med student. Hooray for being off the beaten path!

My brief sojourn in Grenada kicked off with a swim at Grand Anse beach with one of my dearest high school friends, Milania. What a gorgeous place to start my Caribbean vacation! Grand Anse is almost always listed as one of the most beautiful beaches in the Caribbean and it's not hard to see why!

The next 2 days were spent doing my 4 open water certification dives and lazying about on various beaches. My certification dives were a success and I am now part of the elite card-carrying scuba diving community. I did 4 reef dives and 1 wreck dive (SO SWEET!) in total while in Grenada. During the course of my dives, I saw huge lobsters (like at least 7 pounds!), spotted trunk fish, moray eels, sea fans that shrink away at the touch, angelfish, rainbow fish, a multitude of sea urchins in a variety of colors and a myriad of other types of marine life.

I also had the fabulous experience of seeing a leatherback turtle lay her nest at Levera beach. It was truly a night that I will never forget! I departed from St. George's University and arrived at Levera Natural Park close to 7:30pm. Our guide, Karl, gave us a briefing on sea turtles and the research that they were doing while we waiting for a leatherback to beach. For those of you who don't know, leatherbacks are the largest of all turtles and they spend most of their life in the ocean. The females come to shore after they've matured at 15-20 years of age to nest their eggs and they only come back to shore every few years to nest. The leatherback that I had the privilege of seeing nest was gigantic, estimated at around 500 pounds! Unfortunately, she looked to have once been trapped in fish netting and/or fishing hooks as 3 of her 4 flippers had massive trauma to them, each missing at least a third of their natural size due to the trauma (Karl believes her flippers were ripped out of the netting/fish hook). She had difficulty digging a nest big enough so Karl had to help her dig. It was amazing to see her lay her eggs and then take off for the sea again. She laid about 30-40 eggs in total. I couldn't use flash photography so the pics are a bit dark and blurry with red lighting. A guy took a pic with flash and sent it to me so that's why there's only one with better lighting. I was very saddened to know that these beautiful and docile creatures were near extinction and that they were still being hunted for their shells and their eggs poached for aphrodisiacal purposes. For more information, check out Ocean Spirits.

To make matters worse, earlier that day, I had gone to Hog Island and had tasted a Grenadian delicacy of turtle stew! I thought it tasted weird and the idea of eating a turtle become less and less appealing to me so I ended up not eating most of it. You can imagine my horror when Karl gave us the details of their declining species! Then and there I vowed to help bring the turtles back from the brink of extinction! My first deed was to purchase a t-shirt from Karl. For those of you who are curious, turtle tastes like beef with a livery texture and an added odd taste/smell that was most decidedly turtle.

Moving along… We ventured out to Gouyave for Fish Friday which is a little bit like a street fair. The local vendors bring out their fresh catch of the day and prepare it out in the streets. Tourists and locals alike gather here from some fabulous eats, such as fish pizza (one of my faves), tuna kebabs, fish burgers, fish stew, fish bakes, fish quiche, fish you get the idea. They also had a dessert drink called sea moss which is prepared by boiling sea moss, adding milk, sugar and spices, then chilling it. The sea moss is strained before serving. The result is a deliciously refreshing drink. Sounds kinda nasty, but it was pretty darn tasty!

One of the most striking things that I discovered while I was in Grenada was the poverty. I knew that Grenada was still a developing country but I was truly amazed to see that amount of shanty homes lining the roads and the level of devastation or repair, depending on how you want to think of it, they were in. It is hard for me to say if they state of affairs was a direct result of Hurricane Ivan in 2004 or if that was the way that it was originally. Perhaps a little of both. Unemployment rates is about 30% and is evident by the number of people hanging out on the side of the roads at all hours of the day.

I had the good fortune of befriending several locals and they were truly some of the nicest people I can ever hope to come across. I met a waitress, Kathyan, at Coconut Beach who, when asked for directions to Mt. Carmel's waterfall, offered to take me there herself! And to top it off, she invited me to her home after the waterfall for a homecooked Grenadian meal! WOW!!! She made a feast of fish stew (delicious!), pumpkin puree, fried plantains, and Grenadian callaloo (some sort of vegetable that grows on the side of the roads) served with rice and salad.

Another local, Keishaun, who was one of my dive instructors, took me to the Seven Sisters waterfall and to Grand Etang to see Grenada's resident monkeys on his day off from work! Unfortunately, the rain was a major deterent and the monkeys were not at all enticed by my bananas to make an appearance. =( I was all for doing the 45 ft. jump off of one of the Seven Sisters' waterfall, even jumping off several other falls on my way to the 45 footer but as soon as I got up there, I totally chickened out and had to make my way back down. Whatever! I didn't jump because I value my life too much. I know, so lame. But it was cool because I got to trek barefoot in my bikini through mud, mystery goop, up and down rough terrain, grappling onto vines for support, climbing over and under trees. At one point, I lost my footing and fell hard on my ass, then proceeded to slide down the STEEP incline, taking my guide out with me. We fell down about 5 ft. or so before we managed to grab a hold of a loose vine. We came out of the barely visible trail with mud smeared all over our bodies and twigs sticking out of my hair. Talk about your Survivor moment!

A special thank you to my dear friend, Milania Dela Cruz, for sharing with me her Grenada!  It was a fabulous trip and I'll never forget all the fun we had! Kathyan, I hope you are reading this: Thank you so much for inviting me into your home and for giving me the best tasting meal I had in Grenada! Keishaun, thanks for the encouragement at 7 Sisters! I'm glad one of us made the jump!

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Pura Vida, Costa Rica!
Originally posted: Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Costa Rica was an amazing trip for me!

Prior to my departure, I had many a lofty notion of all the things that I wanted to do while I was there. I wanted to go hiking in an active volcano, zip lining through the rain forests, surfing, scuba diving, as well as other miscellaneous site-seeing activities. Little did I know what Costa Rica had in store for me. Truly, that will be the one and only time that I scour over travel guides. I find that the best travel adventures happen when you just let it unfold itself before you. Planning leaves little room for adventures and in some cases, wonderful misadventures too!

I flew out of JFK and arrived into Miami close to midnight. A friend picked me up from the airport and off we went to Ft. Lauderdale's Riverfront (idiotically named as we were actually beach front). It was pandemonium there! Crowds of people milled in the streets, drunk AND drinking! Ah, how I miss the days of walking down the streets of Vegas/Lisbon inebriated and with alcohol in tow! After several hours in Ft. Lauderdale, we went back to Miami where I took a short 1-hour nap, showered and then headed back to the airport to catch my flight into Costa Rica.

Upon arriving into San Jose, my friend Chris picked me up and we set off exploring the surrounding hills and jungles of San Jose. Everything was so green! The sun was shining and the air was warm when I first arrived but by noon, the clouds were rolling in and threatening rain. By 1pm, it was pouring all over the valley. As we headed back to San Jose in the late afternoon, I noticed a fruit stand on the side of the road with huge, dark green melons the size of my head (I kid you not!). I wondered what they were and as we passed, I saw that someone had cut one open and was displaying the inside for all to see. It was a fricking avocado! Amazing…

We got back to San Jose just in time to meet a group of Costa Ricans for dinner in a suburb of San Jose called Itzcazu. It was a lovely dinner and I relished in meeting with locals and some Europeans teaching English in CR. We spoke of a legendary traveler who basically traveled the world for kicks and whenever he ran out of money to travel further, he would bunker down wherever he was, get a job teaching English, save up for a few months and then off he went again (this sounds SO ideal, though instead of teaching English, I would probably want to be doing environmental research or the like)!

The next morning I met my German friend Christoph at the airport. We boarded a small little charter plane for the Osa Peninsula. It was a bit of a bumpy ride in the plane and we hit some scary turbulence going over the mountains. The view out of the plane's window, however, took my breath away. Snap snap snap away I went on my camera!

We arrived in Puerto Jimenez just as the rain started coming down. We rented a 4-wheeler and drove to Playa Plantaneras, our home for the next 2 and a half days. We arrived at the "lodge" and fell immediately in love with the place. We basically had the stretching beach to ourselves and nothing but the lush jungles behind us. Our tent was set up for us already so we dropped off our things and ventured into town in search for food. We found a nice "hotel" and ate some delicious fried fish and burritos. Afterwards, we lounged around in the hammocks while a young local boy curiously played with us and learned how to take pictures with my camera. I managed to speak poor Spanish with the young lad who just looked at my quizzically whenever I spoke.

After dinner (mind you, I'm talking 5pm here), we took off on the Jeep again. We tromped through the bush for a couple of hours, getting lost numerous times along the way. The sun set a little before 6pm and it was literally like a light switch. There was light and then, sudden blackness, in the span of maybe 5 minutes.

When we got back to our lodge, we had some wine by candlelight and spoke to the other 2 guests for a bit before retiring for the night. The time was 9pm.

The next morning we were awakened by the cries of howler monkeys at 5am. I didn't have much time to contemplate the nearness of these wild beasts as first light was upon us. Christoph and I rushed out onto the beach to catch the sunrise in its entirety. We were the only ones out on the beach and we just completely owned the magnificent sunrise. It was definitely the most incredible sunrise I have ever seen. The clouds were perfectly formed over the crashing waves and the colors! Oh man, so many shades of pinks, blues, corals, and greys! To make me even happier, I discovered turtle tracks on the beach! A sea turtle had beached sometime in the night and had nested! Yippeee!!!!

Unfortunately, as Christoph and I sat down on the veranda for breakfast, we were informed that 5 turtles had beached last night and that 3 of the nests had already been poached! I was furious! So furious that I threw my cup of steaming hot Costa Rican coffee at the informant. Just kidding, I didn't do that but I was pretty saddened by the news.

After breakfast, William, our tour guide for the day picked us up and we headed for Matapalo, a private nature reserve approximately 45 minutes away by car. I asked William about Costa Rican music and he let us listen to "machata" most of the car ride there. The drive was a beautiful, albeit bumpy ride.

Upon arriving into Matapalo, we were greeted by more cries from howler monkeys. The growls and cries resonated from the rainforest canopy and echoed all around us. I was a bit frightened to encounter the howler monkeys but as we set off, not two minutes into our hike, we chanced upon two dueling groups of howler monkeys. Their cries were deep, gutteral growls, but when I saw the monkeys, I had to laugh out loud! They were small things, about the size of a toddler! I tried to take pictures, but it was really hard to get a good shot when they were going crazy running up and down the branches. As we continued along our hike, we crossed paths with toucans, scarlett macaws, spider monkeys, white-faced monkeys, squirrel monkeys, a gazillion bugs, and my personal favorite, the morpho butterfly, as well as a sloth! The morphos are pretty sizeable butterflies and they have these amazingly azure blue wings but when they land, only the undersides show and then they look like regular brown moths.

Throughout the day, we came upon several hidden, secluded beaches with absolutely perfect surfing waves. It made me so bummed that I hadn't been hiking around with a board! It was probably a good thing because these waves would have most definitely kicked my ass. It was just thrilling nonetheless to see more seasoned surfers catch a few waves.

We continued our hike to the King Louis waterfall. It was a beautiful spot. Christoph had originally made fun of me for wearing pink ballet Crocs to go hiking but I was the one having the last laugh when I was just walking over the river without a care while he had to carefully maneuver the rocks to avoid his shoes slipping on the rocks and getting wet. We rested a bit and had lunch at King Louis before making our way back to the car in the late afternoon.

Later that night, after we had a lovely dinner with a Canadian/Londoner couple at our lodge, I decided that I was going to stake out the beach to make sure no more poachers came. Christoph sat out on the pitch-black beach with me for awhile before I realized that we were sitting alone in an empty beach in complete darkness, with the jungle directly behind us and the crashing waves muffling all possible noise. I quickly made my way back to the tent.

The next day we boarded our little charter plane back to the San Jose region and met up with Christoph's friend Hamish in Cuidad Colon. Hamish is an awesome New Zealander attending the UN-run University for Peace in Costa Rica. I had no idea that such a school existed! Hamish took us on a tour of the campus and it really sparked my interest to attend UPeace (I've since decided that I would much rather do work in the field, but Hamish has promised to send me his readings so I'll be telecommuting to "class").

Later that evening, Christoph and I took off driving in the bush again. I'm not sure where we ended up going but we had spectacular views of San Jose and the surrounding region. It was raining pretty hard and there were a few times where I thought our Jeep was just going to give out on us and we would slide down the hill to our deaths, but as you can see, we managed to make our way back to town. We met up with Hamish and his friends from UPeace for dinner.

The next morning, Christoph and I left for Volcan Poas at 5:30 in the morning. Now, let me explain something about driving in Costa Rica. There are no maps of Costa Rica and the maps that they DO have look like a drawing done by a child. Not that a map would help much as there are no street signs nor are there street names in Costa Rica. Fun, right? To boot, Christoph and I are not Spanish speakers and the fact that I had spent much of my summer practicing French did not help matters. Needless to say, we got lost driving to Volcan Poas. Lots of times. We were told that it would be a 2 hour drive to Volcan Poas. It took us near 4 hours before we were on the right track. The funniest moment had to be when we stopped at a store to get some breakfast and did our best to get directions to the volcano. We asked "How do you get to Volcan Poas?" and the response was "Take the bus." We then clarified that we had a car and would be driving. "What's the easiest way to Volcan Poas?" we inquired again. "The bus."

When we finally got to the volcano we were greeted with the delightful stench of rotten eggs. Volcan Poas is the 2nd largest active volcano in Central America (or something cool like that) and boy did it smell active! We took some pictures and then hiked further along to an old crater that has since been collecting rain water to form a lovely lake. Of course, the lake was too toxic to swim in so we merely admired it from a distance. On the drive back to San Jose, we stopped at one of the cutest coffee shops EVER. There, we had a wonderful cup of Costa Rican coffee to help wake us up for the drive home. Speaking of coffee, as many of you know, I'm not a very big coffee drinker but I figured I would try some Costa Rican coffee while I was there. Absolutely delicious! After my first cup on the first day, I was a coffee drinker. I would have 2 cups with breakfast and at least another cup in the afternoon. I became rather addicted and on my way home, I tried to get a cup at the airport, but to my grave dismay, the only coffee offered was Dunkin' Doughnuts! NOOOOO!!!!! It was like being in coffee hell and I went through coffee withdrawals for the first few days upon my return.

Anyway, we returned to Cuidad Colon and I bid Christoph goodbye. I spent my last night hanging out in the hip area of San Jose called Escazu, where there were a lot of bars and clubs. I boarded the plane the next morning and headed off to Dallas for my 4 hour margaritas-with-Chris-Dees layover (Chris, I do adore you!), before making it back to NYC late that same night.

I'm still dealing with the head cold that I contracted in Costa Rica (here's to it not being another awful tropical disease!) and have sadly, gotten back into the swing of citylife, though some nights when I hear the blare of sirens and loud drunkards roaming the streets of Manhattan, I yearn for the peace and tranquility of my private beach in Costa Rica.

Thanks to all the Chris's on this trip: Christoph Pilger for putting up with a crazy girl who tagged along on your trip to Costa Rica with you!  There wasn't anyone else I would have wanted to get lost in the jungles with! Christian Ramirez for your hospitality in Costa Rica on my first and last days there. Chris Dees for willing to spend a few hours at the Dallas airport with an old friend. And thank you to Robin Cruise for being just as crazy as me and partying with me in Miami during my overnight layover.

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"Why's It So Cold in Iceland?!?!?!"
Originally posted: Monday, December 3, 2007

If I had to condense my 10 days in Iceland down to one word, I think I would say: WOW!!!! But here's the long story: =)

My friend Seth and I arrived into Kevlavik (Reykjavik's International airport) at 6am and it's still pitch black. We hop on a bus that takes us into central Reykjavik and we are promptly greeted with cold. Extreme cold. The wind was biting into my very soul and I swear I felt like my body was dying. We walked the short distance from the bus station to our friend Setta's apartment, where her mother met us with keys as Setta had left for Cuba just that morning. Seth and I quickly freshened up and then took off to walk around Reykjavik and explore. We headed towards the tower of the Hallsgrimskirkaja and rushed inside to escape the cold (however briefly). I didn't particularly find the church to be all that impressive looking, but it was most certainly impressive compared to the rest of the architecture in the city.

We soon discovered that Reykjavik is quite small, and that most points of interest were located off the main shopping road. We went to the small cultural museum before enjoying some Icelandic fish stew, which had the consistency of mashed potatoes but was extremely tasty and filling. Later that night, we met up with a couple of Icelandic guys who we hung out with briefly before meeting another girl, Svanny, at a bar for our first "runtur" experience. A runtur is what occurs every Friday and Saturday night and it mainly consists of jam-packed bars and clubs filled with completely drunk Icelanders. Now, bear in mind that hardly anyone is drinking during the week so they REALLY let loose on Fridays and Saturdays, drinking truly, as if there were no tomorrow. At one point in the night, I had asked for a glass of water and the bartender filled it 3/4 of the way and then topped it off with vodka and a knowing wink. It was completely our luck that Svanny's friend had free tickets to a concert that night and had invited Seth and I to come along. We went to one of the "hottest clubs in Reykjavik," called NASA and we immediately knew we were in for a very special night. The concert was really a CD release party for the number 1 gay singer in Iceland, Päll Oskar, who was DJ'ing until around 2am. He then took the stage to sing and had a trio of male dancers. It was a spectacle to say the least. Icelandic people can get really pushy when they're drunk and it was almost an elbowing fight trying to get through the crowds. It was a bit too much after awhile. As we walked back to Setta's, we saw more people falling over, stumbling by, and being held up by equally drunk friends than ever imaginable.

The next day Seth and I wandered to the Reykjavik Market which was a bit of a disappointment, though I had the mortifying experience of unknowingly handling whale meat, its juice running onto my hands. Later that night, we met up with 2 Londoners, Jake and Beth, whom we were going to be traveling the Icelandic Ring Road with.

Monday morning, we pick up the rental car and the four of us headed off for the Golden Circle. We drove into þingvellur, a national park and marveled at the scenery. We made it to Gullfoss (Golden Waterfall) and Geysir, the geysir in which all geysirs are named for. It was a day filled of beautiful sights that we all ended with what would become our Icelandic trip tradition of nightly swimming. The pools are heated and there are series of hot tubs with varying temperatures. It really was a spectacular way to end each day.

The next day, we happily said goodbye to Reykjavik and started our trip of circling Iceland's entire exterior via the Ring Road. We drove most of the day without too many stops but it was simply breathtaking to watch the amazing scenery go by. During the winters, the sun stays pretty low on the horizon, thus casting incredible lighting over the entire country. I kept thinking how it was perfect lighting for falling in love and it was a bit true because I completely fell in love with Iceland (and almost all the Icelandic men that I met).

As we were arriving into the second largest city, Akureyri, I glanced up at the now-dark sky and was blown away that I was seeing the Aurora Borealis! I nearly crashed the car! Of course, I quickly pulled over and we all rushed outside to get a better look at the Northern Lights. As it was still amazingly freezing cold, we quickly rushed back into the car to ward off the hypothermia creeping in. We made it into Akureyri but decided to go swimming while we waited for our couchsurfing hosts to meet us. Bjarni and Hlynur were probably the 2 most amazing guys around. They met us at the pool and told us that there really wasn't much to do in Akureyri on a Tuesday night besides drive around in circles. They proceeded to tell us stories about driving in circles and asked if we wanted to do that. The four of us thought he was joking and agreed in order to play along with his joke. They took us to the main shopping area and told us to drive one way while they would drive the other way. We started driving around the parking lot and waved to each other as we passed. We continued to do this a couple times not really knowing what to think of this experience when we realized that other cars where doing the same thing! They hadn't been joking! This was REALLY something that they did.

Hlynur took the next day off to go hiking with us and we did a short but beautiful hike up the mountainside behind Bjarni's house. At 1pm, we met Bjarni back at his place and discovered that he had brought back a baked log cake of some sort for us that he had baked at work. We had lunch and tasted the cake, YUM YUM YUM!!!

Bjarni and Hlynur took us on a special tour of the area during the rest of the day. Our first stop was Godafoss, the Waterfall of the Gods. We drove for about an hour to Lake Myvatn (pronounced MEE-vah), which was a gorgeous lake formed by volcanic craters. It was only around 5pm but the sun had set and it was pitch black except for the moonlight and a couple of flashlights when we arrived to Dimmuborgir (translation: Dark City), which is a park of sorts where you can hike into volcanic formations. I was unprepared for hiking in the snow and my feet were starting to get wet and numb from the snow that was seeping in. When Bjarni realized this, he sat down without hesitation, took his shoes off and gave me his Icelandic wool socks to wear! Luckily he had on 2 pairs, because I think his Icelandic wool socks were the only things keeping my toes from falling off. Bjarni and Hlynur took us into a magnificent cave that they had found themselves, one that we would have easily walked passed had we not been with them. It was a great secret spot. Next up was swimming. We thought we were going back to town for a swim in the pool so when we parked our cars in the middle of nowhere, we were very confused. As it turned out, Bjarni and Hlynur's last surprise was their greatest: they were taking us swimming in a natural geothermal pool located in the crevice between 2 tectonic plates! WHAT!?!?!?!? Yes!!!! We had to climb down a rock face in the dark in order to get to the pool and when we got there, we were told to change into our suits. In the freezing cold. It was a near impossible task but we quickly changed and entered the water which was hot enough to allow us to sit with our upper bodies out of the water without getting cold. It was magnificent!!!!

We spent the next 2 days finishing our drive of the Ring Road. Along the way, we hiked to a glacier, saw more waterfalls, went to the Folk Museum where we were given a private tour and the curator serenaded us with a pipe organ in the church, and merely marveled in all of Iceland's natural beauty.

We made it back in time to Reykjavik to partake in our last runtur. It was, once again, an experience unlike any other. On our last day (Sunday), we decided to go to the Blue Lagoon, which is one of Iceland's most famous attractions. It is a lagoon with special algae and minerals that's supposed to be great for the skin and the setting is supposed to be really relaxing and tranquil. We were not so lucky. It was basically storming out when we arrived to the Blue Lagoon. I'm talking violent wind and rain, and it was the late afternoon so it was also dark. It was our last opportunity to go to the Blue Lagoon so we decided we'd do it anyway. We got in our suits and entered the water in the indoors area. Not so bad. Then we tried to go outside. Seriously, it was like a tsunami had hit. The waters are usually flat but because of the wind, the lagoon's water was pushing strong waves. The lagoon's waters are not too hot to begin with but with the wind and the rain, it was almost too cold to be there. If you stood up, it was like standing in a freezer. I decided to tough it out and make my way around the lagoon. I started swimming across the tsunami sea of the lagoon only to bump and kick and swim into rocks, with the occasional slap across my face with water that stung. It was quite an ordeal just making my way around the massive lagoon. I found the waterfall that would give me a hydro-massage and enjoyed that for awhile and then tried to apply the clay in the lagoon to my face but it was too cold to leave it on. I endured the mayhem of the Blue Lagoon for as long as I could but got out after a little over an hour. I felt like such a champ for sticking it out, though I'm sure the experience of the Blue Lagoon minus the storm is one much different than what I had experienced.

I was extremely sad to leave Iceland (even with the cold) but I feel as though I have made several good friends there and I know that I will eventually be back again. I HIGHLY recommend Iceland to anyone and honestly, I think I went at a really great time. The weather may have been colder than humanly possible but there were almost no tourists, the outrageous Icelandic prices were slightly less than during peak season, there was certainly something very magical about snowy Icelandic scenery and the low-rising sun, we caught sight of the Northern Lights, and personally, I feel like I can conquer the world now after surviving a pre-winter in Iceland. =) It's funny, Hlynur went around in ski pants and an Icelandic wool sweater and we couldn't get over how he wasn't freezing like we were. His response: "This is nothing. It's just fresh out." Ahh, gotta love those Icelanders!

Thanks to Seth Wright for agreeing on embarking on this outrageous trip with me.  Thanks also to Jake Morley and Beth Upton for joining us on the road, sharing Iceland's gorgeous scenery with us and most importantly, keeping Seth and I from ripping each other's heads off!  Special thanks to Svanny, Kolli and Svenni for giving me a taste of Icelandic nightlife. Last and certainly not least, an amazing, heartfelt thank you to Bjarni Arason (Marco) and Hlynur Arnason (Polo) for giving me, without a doubt, a story of a lifetime!  You guys win the best host award, hands down!

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Viva la vida en Peru!
Originally posted: Thursday, June 19, 2008

As many of you may not know, I embarked on my first trip south of the equator on my own, with no real travel plans. Yes, it was a spur of the moment trip but I felt a sort of liberation in its randomness and as for going at it alone, damn! You've got to have balls to travel by yourself, and I felt so self-assured, independent and brave, not to mention proud of myself for taking this adventure on.

Unfortunately, I didn't remain a solo traveler for long. I arrived into Lima and walked around the Barranco, Miraflores and central Lima districts. Barranco is the more colonial section of the city and it was here that I had my first Peruvian ceviche (a delicious dish of raw fish doused in lime and onions) and cicha morada, a sweet Peruvian drink made from Peruvian purple corn. Lima wasn't really all that exciting so the next day, I traveled by bus to Pisco, the home of the pisco sours, and also where the devastating earthquake hit last year. The town was still in a great state of ruin. There I met 2 Danish boys and a Brit whom I ended up becoming good friends with. The 2 Danes and I traveled to Islas Ballestas together the following morning where we encountered flocks of birds, a few thousand strong, herds of sea lions, several Chilean penguins, and on our way back to the Pisco port, a couple of dolphins! JOY!

Upon returning to Pisco, the Danes, the Brit and I took a bus to Ica in the middle of Peru's gorgeous desert, picking up an American boy along the way. The 5 of us dropped off our bags in Huacachina, a little oasis town in the midde of the desert. No sooner were our bags off our backs, we were heading to the sand dunes for some sandboarding! The dune buggy drivers took us for a crazy ride in the desert, thundering down the dunes, catching air and whipping sand into all sorts of bodily crevices. We sandboarded for a good hour and a half, which was a pretty awesome thing. It was late in the afternoon when we came upon our last dune and I was exhausted so I decided to just enjoy the desert instead. I climbed up a lone dune and sat by myself in this perfectly golden desert, watching the warm sun set to my right while a near-full moon rose to my left. I cannot deny that there was a certain magical feeling of being caught there in that moment, and I just remember being so peaceful and content. Truly, one of my favorite memories in Peru…

We relaxed that night in Huacachina and the next day, we all took a wine tasting tour in the region. That night, the Brit, the American and I said goodbye to the Danes and took an over night bus to Arequipa, a beautiful colonial city known as the "White City." We explored the city and that night, visited a Dominican nunnery in the near darkness, guided only by lamp and candlelight. It was a beautiful convent, lavishly decorated with amazing architecture. After visiting the convent, we went for dinner where I tried alpaca meat. Alpacas are closely related to llamas. It was wonderfully prepared alpaca, covered with a raspberry wine sauce.

The next day I bid my newfound travel companions farewell and left on an early morning (2 am) expedition to Canon de Colca to catch sight of condors in flight. To my grave disappointment, I only managed to catch sight of two condors, and both from a distance away, which offers me no substantial awe-inspiring story to report back to you. I got back to Arequipa that evening and basically boarded another overnight bus for Cuzco, the old Incan capital.

I arrived into Cuzco very early and since my friend Joe Che from New York was arriving later that morning with a couple of his friends, I dropped off my luggage at his hotel, and went for an early morning stroll through the city's Plaza de Armas. As I wandered the city's winding cobble-stones walkways, I stumbled upon a huge street market! Rows and rows of venders selling clothing, trinkets, household items, fresh vegetables, spices, raw hanging meat, chocolate, coffee, etc. There was even an area to get freshly prepared food. I sat down for a heaping bowl of sopa de pollo, which was wonderfully delicious. On my way out, I came upon a seamstress and got a one of a kind, made specially for me skirt, all for 20 soles, which is approximately $7.50!

It was almost time for Joe to arrive so I went back to the hotel to wait for him. While I was unpacking my bag, it was then that I realized that my cell phone and half of my camera charger had been stolen. Not a big deal, but what a major annoyance. Since I hadn't charged my camera the whole time I had been in Peru, I had to now carefully ration my camera use in order to preserve the battery for Macchu Picchu. Joe and I ran around Cuzco with his two friends as best we could given the high altitude that we were in. It was difficult to breathe even if you were walking fast, and going up stairs was a heart attack every 5 steps. It was this afternoon that I nearly broke my own nose in a puppeting accident (but THAT's a whole other story, though it is caught on film for your viewing pleasure…

Anyway…I spend the next day exploring Incan ruins near Cuzco with Joe and company. It was great fun, but very tiring and exhausting again due to the elevation. I seriously thought my heart was leaping out of my chest with each step I climbed. That night, Joe and I tried cuy together. Oh yes. The cuy, or better known as guinea pig. It gives me the heebie jeebies just thinking about that experience. So, guinea pigs are high in protein but are low in fat and cholesterol. But it lacks any significant amount of meat. It's mostly skin. Tough, chewy, thick skin. Not pleasant to eat. I liken it to chewing a piece of burnt rubber. It tastes as good as it sounds. And the look, well, you'll see it in the pictures but it looks like the cook grabbed the guinea pig, slit its throat, tossed it in the fryer, and then plopped it onto your plate seconds before serving it to you. Make no mistake, you are eating a guinea pig.

I left Joe and Cuzco behind the next morning again and headed to Aguas Calientes, the little town nestled at the foot of Macchu Picchu. My trip was nearing it's end and I was glad to be alone again. Don't get me wrong, I loved meeting all these people and spending time with my friend Joe, but I came to Peru as a solo traveler and I wasn't solo'ing hardly anything. I arrived into Aguas Calientes, which unfortunately had taken advantage of the influx of tourists and had turned into a huge tourist trap of a town, I had the afternoon free as I was planning on going to Macchu Picchu at first light the next day. I inquired about hiking trails in the vicinity and was told of a strenuous hike up a mountain that afforded amazing views of the whole of Macchu Picchu. I decided to do it. Since I'm no avid hiker, I was originally planning on taking a guided hike up Putukusi but when the guide asked me if I was casada (married) I decided that a guided hike probably wasn't the best idea with this man. I was told that I could do the hike by myself because although steep and strenuous, the trail was clearly marked and I couldn't get lost. Alright then, alone on this hike was what I decided (never mind that I didn't have proper hiking shoes and that the only pair of shoes that I had that could be somewhat appropriate were my pink ballet Crocs…)

I sat down for lunch before my hike and a couple of American girls sat down next to me. We started talking and I told them I was hiking Putukusi after lunch. What do you know, they wanted to join me!

We set off for Putukusi just before 3 in the afternoon. According to the book, it was a 2 hour hike up and a 1 hour hike down. No problem. Oh. My. God. STEEP can't even begin to describe the trail. After 45 minutes of STEEP hiking, we came upon "the ladder." Now the guide books described "the ladder" almost as if it were a rickety ladder hanging down the side of the mountain from a 90 degree angle and gave off the impression that once you climed "the ladder," the hike was complete. Although not exactly 90 degrees, it was pretty darn close though thankfully, not rickety at all but it was a formidable sight to behold as we couldn't see the end! It literally looked like it strectched into the skies. We told ourselves that getting over this ladder would be worth it as the view from the top would be amazing so we ventured on up "the ladder." We made our precarious way to the top, ready to take in our first view of Macchu Picchu…only to be confronted with more STEEP trails and MORE LADDERS of the same nature!

After another hour and a half of grueling hiking and ladder climbing, we finally rounded the top of Putukusi. The sun was sitting low on the horizon, casting a golden light over the citadel. Our first sight of Macchu Picchu! We were all exhausted, out of breath and out of water but we sure were proud of ourselves for making it all the way there. The three of us sat down to soak in the glory of Macchu Picchu, which is difficult to describe. I had seen the pictures but to see it right before your very eyes, it's a completely different experience all together. Also, Putukusi is not that famous of a hike so many pictures of MP are not from this vantage point. We soon headed back down the way we came as the sun was just beginning to set. Our knees were shaking and threatening to turn into jelly at any moment and I was afraid that I would plummet to my death off the mountain side if that were to happen. We reached the tallest set of ladders just as twilight was beginning to disappear. Luckily we made it down the ladder with the last remaining light because the instant we all got our feet back on the trail, it was near pitch black. We, of course, didn't have flashlights with us so we hiked the rest of the way back down in the dark, stumbling most of the way. It was a true miracle we didn't end up killing ourselves on that trail.

The next morning the 3 of us woke up sorer than we had ever known possible. We had considered hiking up to MP, but with our bodies in the state that they were in, we decided to take the bus to MP instead. It was a bit drizzly when we arrived into Macchu Picchu but were told that the haze usually burns off by 9am. 9am came only with a torrential downpour. I was completely drenched. We sought shelter out in one of MP's sacred chambers and after 40 minute, the sun was out and we explored more of the ruins. No words can do the experience of walking the grounds of MP any justice. You simply have to see it for yourself.

Looking out from MP, you could see Putukusi and it was amazing how high the mountain was, and to think that I had climbed the whole of it just yesterday was almost unreal. I think if I had seen how high the mountain was, I may not have done the hike. It was a great feeling, seeing "my mountain" and knowing that I had conquered it.

That was basically my last day in Peru as the following morning, I boarded a plane in Cuzco for Lima, hung out in Miraflores with Shirley, a Peruvian woman that I had met who spent the afternoon educating me on the various types of music popular in Peru. I then boarded a plane for NY that same night. I couldn't have asked for a better way to end my Peruvian adventure!

Thank you to the wonderful people, most notably: Rob Frost, Niklas Johansen, Rune Rosenfeldt and Sean Wall, that I was lucky enough to meet and spend time with on this journey! You will always remain dear to me in my heart! Until we meet again! Joe F-ing Che, you crazy fool! Always a good time with you and I'm glad we got to spend a few days traveling together, even if it meant putting my own life in danger!

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© Connie Hum 2009