Wake up, eat up, pack up – all part of the routine – every step of which became increasingly difficult to accomplish after our attention was taken. Crawling out of our nylon nest now dripping with dew, we lifted dreary eyes across the valley as a rolling fog unveiled the fabled City in the Clouds,…

We woke to a morning marking one week in the Andes cradled by a dense cushion of grass that rivaled the most luxurious pillow-top, and treated ourselves to showers before heading through the streets of La Playa. The rumors which painted the town a drab and dusty brown had not unfairly exaggerated its condition. We…

“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people just exist.” -Oscar Wilde Day 6, 11/26/16 And on this day, we lived, if only for a moment. Today began as an ordinary day on the trail, but would unfold to reveal hidden weaknesses, unexpected triumphs, and heights previously unimagined. I don’t speak of…

  After the best sleep we had thus far we woke to the sound of small streams flanking our camp feeding into a river that rushed white through the center of the Great Valley. For any doubters, Mel could be seen carrying out the cooking AND cleaning duties this Thanksgiving morning giving me reason to be…

The ground spilled out far before me a deepening blue. Over the horizon hung a pale and hallowed moon casting a shimmering luminescence onto edges of objects within view. Slender blades curling softly into spirals grew before me, surrounding me. The night sky was black, and there was only silence. I was alone, and I did not…

As expected, the morning of day three was a cold one. We sluggishly woke to a frost covered ground and started to prepare breakfast, eventually noticing that two of the three trekking poles we had stored in our vestibule were missing. We immediately set out to blame the large squirrel-like rodents seen romping around the…

Mel and I commenced dia dos later than expected after shaking off the long hike which had swiftly settled into our joints and muscles. The once plush landing where we made our camp the previous night had hardened to frozen tundra as we tossed and turned, punctuating the importance of the missing mats. We woke,…

The beginning: Cusco to Marco Casa In search of an adventure to highlight our Thanksgiving holiday, Mel and I stumbled upon some information regarding a trek interlacing the glacier-laden Andes of Peru and the low lying jungles near the foot of Machu Picchu. Due to it’s proximity to our home base, and the fact that…