Trails 2 Travel

Salkantay Trek Day 3 –Through the Jungle Waterfalls, Coffee farms, and hot springs Looking at the town our camp had been in and back up the canyon we'd hiked down the day before Day 3- Supposedly the “easy” day I’d say it was really only easy in the fact that it was the shortest and at a lower altitude day. It probably had at least 1500 feet of up and down gain/loss through the jungle and after the previous hard day, it definitely didn’t feel all that easy. 

Hiking to Salkantay Pass-  Highpoint  of our trek If Day 1 was the warmup, Day 2 was certainly the main event, the big kahunas , the “challenging” day. It also set the precedent for our daily routines. We were woken up at 5 by our guide bringing us Coca tea in our beds. (room service as they called it) and with camp 1 being so cold, the tea was definitely a welcome wakeup. Ater that, we were in for QUITE a day.

Salkantay Trek – Humantay Lake The moment you’ve all been waiting for, and most definitely my main excuse for visiting Peru… I give you the Salkantay Trek. I’ll likely write up an overview of this trek/ tour to compare with the Inca trail tours but to start with you may just wonder why choose one over the other? Here’s my top reasons: Less Crowded (though that is becoming less so as word is getting out about the beauty of this trail) LESS MONEY - Salkantay treks are much more luxurious (I’ll get into that) for less money Let me emphasize LUXURIOUS . Our tour had enclosed domes/huts for 3 nights with actual BEDS, 3 course meals, snacks + “happy hour” (more on that later), electricity and showers some of the nights, and the use of horses if needed. More Flexible. Can be booked only a few months in advance instead of a whole year- plus you get more options for dates you like. Since this trail isn’t permitted like the Inca trail, you ...

Cusco Day 3- The Museums   Following our EPIC riding tour in the morning, we still had an afternoon to play in Cusco and plenty still to see. What better way to polish our time off than with a trip to the Inka Museum and Qorikancha ruins.

Horseback Riding to forgotten Incan Temples While our first 2 days in Cusco were enjoyable, this day really BROUGHT it. It was one of the first tours I landed upon when searching things to do in Cusco for a half day and for only $65 riding, it really intrigued me. So far the only other country I’ve ridden in was Iceland, so I was definitely interested to see what tours were like in other countries. Luckily my friends were also game for a little riding adventure so we booked it, made sure to wear pants, loaded up on sunscreen, and got ready for out tour.  We did NOT know what we were getting into, in the best way possible. This was hands down the BEST riding tour I could imagine , and possibly one of the best tours I’ve ever taken. 

The Sacred Valley What is a trip to Peru without a visit to the famous Sacred Valley? About as important a visit as seeing the top wonder of the World, Machu Picchu, the many sites and towns along the Urubamba (sacred) river are a must see. Preferrably over a few days with time to spend in each place. But if you are on a time crunch like we were, 1 day on a tour is what you get. 

CUSCOOOOOOO I literally can’t read Cusco without singing it in my head exactly as it is sung in the Emperor’s New Groove. ( In fact I quotes/ sung a lot of parts from that movie throughout this trip)  Peru has been on my bucketlist for quite some time- specifically to do the Salkantay Trek to Machu Picchu, but due to cost of flights and time off needed, this was the first year I was able to make this trip happen! And it all started when a coworker told me how he and his wife booked the Salkantay Trek. - Obviously I couldn't let them have all the fun. So after researching a bit more, I found a SUPER reasonable tour and decided the flight prices were good enough to go ahead and book it. And here we are. 

One of the first things you do after booking a cruise (or even shopping for a cruise) is check out the shore excursions and what each island stop has to offer. In our case, the only port my mom (the cruiser extraordinaire) hasn’t already been to was Amber Cove, The Dominican Republic. This was a huge win as it opened up a whole new host of possible shore excursions and places to explore a new. The very first excursion that stood out was the waterfalls of Damajagua.

A day in the US Virgin Islands : St. Thomas While planning a trip to the Carribbean you have several clusters of islands to choose from, one of which is the US Virgin Islands . This group is composed of St. Croix, St. Thomas, and St. John. Visiting these islands offers a bit more than just your standard beach vacation with diverse architecture (evidence of nations that colonized the islands in the 17th and 18th centuries) and culinary encounters, artisan fairs, and most fun of all if you time it right: Carnivals.

Historic San Juan in a day Walking Tour Whether you have an extended stay in Puerto Rico, or less than a day from a cruise stop over, here’s my walkable itinerary for seeing the best of San Juan.Puerto Rico in one day! Experience history, art, shopping, and admire tons of cool city architecture. 

Why go on a cruise? As somebody who loves to travel and also frequently talks to other travelers, the general opinion of  that cruises are boring and that though you are technically traveling, you don’t ever actually “experience” the places you go. So if you love to travel, why take one?

About: Why 100? Why hiking? Well let's just say I have a favorite hobby, and that hobby is hiking. I love the feeling at piece with nature, the exercise from climbing up hills, the general sense of adventure in seeing new places AND having those places to yourself, and lastly the people in the hiking community! I really love it all (even if I still complain on the steeper trails) How to accomplish the 100 hike challenge If you haven't tried the 52 hike challenge yet, give that a go! It aims at getting you to hike once a week for a year. (I was hitting the goal easily by October every year so I wanted to push myself even more and aim for 2/week)  They don't all have to be hard hikes! My only requirement for myself was that it was a mile long and got me out in nature (no urban hikes ) and I tried to make them as different as I could but with changing seasons, the same trail can look many different ways.  DO try to use this challenge to get a little out of your comfor...

Evermore Aurora  Review OK this has been a long time coming but I’m finally writing up my thoughts on the new Evermore park in Pleasant Grove (aka.. my back yard) We went for the Fall experience of “Lore” and came away happy but somewhat let down by the mass of crowds we encountered the Monday before Halloween as well as how complicated the process seemed to be. Let’s just say it wasn’t a place for introverts. We mostly just walked around admiring the building/garden details, character costumes, and we did dabble in some ax throwing. (There was archery as well but the line was too long).

Day 9… our last day (and not even a full day at that) ended as any busy trip should- with a lazy Sunday morning stroll through a park. Not just any park though. Jingshan park.. which I hadn’t even known was a thing until we arrived in Beijing and our first tour guide mentioned it to us. Luckily our hotel was an easy 5 minute walk from the East gate of the park.

Our day started on a train and similar to our last sleeper train experience, I was up at the crack of dawn unable to fall back asleep… starting what would be a fairly long day. Luckily we didn’t have to worry too much about organizing our trip as this day was our 2nd tour and was organized for us.  About the Tour : I didn’t book this tour through a website or by happening upon someone’s page but instead was referred to the tour guide Lisa from a friend who had previously visited Beijing. The cost was the most affordable I saw comparing to online prices for a private tour and the biggest benefit was since we had a private car for the day, we didn’t have to worry about what to do with our luggage while we explored the city. While we didn’t get to meet Lisa personally (she had a family emergency) we did have a great tour with one of her associates. Our stops would be the Summer Palace and Forbidden City and would only end up taking about half a day. If you are wanting to bo...