I’m not sure I’ve ever felt so fat after a trip than when I visited Buenos Aires for a week. Blanket statement, I know. To be honest, I did it to myself, obviously. Why eat one empanada when you can eat five? Am I right? Or am I right?

I’d been having a truly healthy summer in the lead up to the trip in New Zealand, running every day and living on green smoothies, but that all went out the window the minute our Air New Zealand plane touched down in Argentina. A land famous for meat and wine, I knew I was in for a treat.

Good thing I love both. It would be rude not to try it all, right?

48 hours in vibrant Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires is a great gateway to South America now with the new Air New Zealand flights directly over from Auckland, making places like Argentina even more accessible to hungry humans like me.

While I definitely needed longer than a week to write a comprehensive food guide to Buenos Aires, and probably some kind of qualifications, I did, however, manage to chow down on some pretty incredible things before I had to head on down to Ushuaia to catch my boat to Antarctica.

In fact, most of my time in Argentina revolved around food. And drinks. And deserts. Some modern, some traditional, all delicious.

So I’ve put together my list of my picks for favorite foodie experiences and what to eat in Buenos Aires in the hopes it might inspire some of you guys to eat all the treats while you’re there too! Enjoy!

Go on a food tour around San Telmo 

While I’ve gotten pretty good at internet sleuthing to find the best dining spots in new cities, I have full and proper respect for locals who can explain food culture to me so much better than anything that I could learn on my own.

Perhaps also because one of my old friends from Spain successfully launched her own food tours, I now often join in on food tours when I first visit a new country or place. Especially in a place as big and intimidating as Buenos Aires.

Let’s be honest, pigging out on the best local spots is the perfect introduction to a new city.

I joined in on a food tour of San Telmo with Parilla Tours, and it was the perfect introduction to classic Argentinian cuisine. We wandered the beautiful backstreets of San Telmo and learned about the history of the food, where to go and what to look for.

Everyone knows Argentina for the Malbec wines, the Parrilla steaks, and of course, the empanadas. But with so many touristy places, you could easily end up not getting the best of the best.

That’s why I always try to get the best advice from locals about where to wine and dine when I’m a new place, especially if I don’t have heaps of time.

Life’s too short for bad food.

Stuff your face with all the cheap and fresh empanadas

You can’t talk about food in Argentina and NOT talk about empanadas.

I am pretty sure I ate at least two a day while I was there, not only because they cost like 30 cents each freshly made at empanada bakeries, but more because they are the ultimate comfort food. My  main tip is go where there are other people and where they are made fresh, and here are the main flavors you’ll usually see, each with its own unique fold:

• de carne – ground beef with onions
• carne picante – spicy beef (not really spicy it’s just cumin)
• jamón y queso – ham and cheese
• roquefort –  blue cheese
• humita – corn
• queso y cebolla – cheese and onion
• de verdura – usually swiss chard in a white béchamel sauce

I noticed that if I ate more than four in one go, I felt a bit sick later on. You’re welcome.

Binge on dulce de leche ice-cream and chocolates at Rapa Nui

Now, I haven’t tried all of the ice cream shops in Buenos Aires, but I did take an Uber all the way to Recoleta to go to Rapa Nui based on local tips and it was worth every penny!

They have an entire menu dedicated to creative dulce de leche flavors!

Now, if you haven’t heard, dulce de leche is the sweet to eat in Argentina. Similar to caramel its a thick sticky sauce made from caramelized milk that is a main ingredient in many deserts. It’s delicious, I’m obsessed and often ate it til I felt sick. No regrets though.

Coffee at Aleph cafe in La Boca

I wish I had had more time to explore the foodie spots in the colorful neighborhood of La Boca, but didn’t.

I did stumble upon this cute little gem of a cafe called Aleph which was great for average coffees and exceptional people watching.

Learn how to make local treats at a cooking class

I think my favorite memory from Buenos Aires was participating in a local cooking class with Tierra Negra. I love being able to come home learning how to make a new dish from the places I visited.

While I wish I had time for their empanada class, I really enjoyed the street food class one evening while in town. Bonding with the other visitors, we spent a fav night learning how to cook all my favorites, from choripán to dulce de leche pastries, learning about the local wines and the stories from Argentina from locals Manuel and Verónica.

As a solo traveler, cooking classes and food tours are two of my favorite ways to meet other people on the road.

Try mate at least once

You can’t come to Argentina and not try mate at least once. I can’t promise that you’re gonna like it though!

Mate (pronounced mah – tay) is a strongly caffeinated tea made from yerba mate, green leaves infused with water as a tea, drunk in a slightly ritualistic shared fashion from a gourd kind of mug with a special metal straw that filters the leaves.

It’s an acquired taste, even for one who loves caffeine more than life itself.

Be prepared to eat a lot of meat 

Vegans, Argentina might not be the place for you, where beef is its own food group and the average local consumed more than 70kg of beef per year.

Good thing I love steak!

Meat, specifically, the art of grilling meat, in Argentina is its own fascinatingly complex art form, that I can only begin to understand. The history of an asado is the grilling event at a family home on Sundays where the local grill restaurants are called parrillas while the parrillada is a big old platter of grilled meat. I think. They also have their own cuts of meat:

• Bife de chorizo – sirloin steak
• Entraña – skirt steak
• Bife de lomo – tenderloin/filet mignon
• Vació – flank steak
• Tira de asado – rack of ribs
• Bife de costilla – rib steak

And one of the best part is the sauces that come with it, like chimichurri. We learned all about this on our San Telmo Food tour.

Wander the San Telmo market

The market in San Telmo is famous and for a good reason, it’s awesome.

There is great food, coffee, fresh veggies and meat and antiques, ect, it has it all in a hodgepodge mix. We visited on our San Telmo food tour and I would recommend going back. It’s open every day and then on Sundays there’s the fair in San Telmo which is well worth visiting too.

Munch on crepes at La Panera Rosa

I can always depend on my talented friend Tara Milk Tea to offer good foodie tips at places that are colorful and with a good vibe and she didn’t disappoint in Buenos Aires!

La Panera Rosa has a few cafes in town and they are, you guessed it, bright pink, with a delightful menu of waffles, crepes and all around incredible deserts. I think I got a dulce de leche crepe with walnuts and bananas if memory served, and it was fabulous.

Yum!

Sip on a gin mate cocktail at Florería Atlántico

This is probably my new favorite bar in the world!

A speakeasy style bar in the Retiro neighborhood, it’s so trendy and hip I almost felt uncomfortable descending down into its depth. But not enough to stop me, even though I was underdressed in my Antarctica clothes and leggings after a whole day of cooking and eating.

A bar slash restaurant, you enter through what appears to be a flower shop upstairs with a huge wall of liqueurs and homemade gins for sale before opening the big fridge door and climbing down the stairs into the the bar itself. Shivers, one million points for creativity!

Be sure to get a drink made with the local yerba mate gin! And plan to stay for hours!

Try all of the alfajores and medialunas that you can

At our cooking class we learned how to make the iconic alfajores treat – a typical soft cookie filled with, you guessed it, dulce de leche, and rolled in flaked coconut.

While medialunas are crescent moon shaped croissant-like pastries. Some are made with butter others with lard, both are delicious.

Hang out at the classic Cafe Tortoni

Cafe Tortoni is the grandaddy of cafes in Buenos Aires. Full of old world pomp and splendor, it’s definitely the most famous cafe in the city, with a century of history of visits by artists and other famous people.

Personally I found it to be overpriced with bland food and the waiters had a look of wanting to kill themselves, but besides that I’d go just for some churros and chocolate and to enjoy being in an historic place with charm and character.

Come for the scenery not the food.

Have as much choripán as you can

Choripán is my JAM!

A simple sandwich of yummy sausage, fresh bread and flavorful chimichurri sauce, it’s a staple dish in Argentina. We used to have a place where I lived in Spain that made these, and I didn’t realize how much I missed them til I got to Argentina.

The ultimate street comfort food, a trip to Buenos Aires would be incomplete without at least one choripán.

Try all the wines

All you need to know about Argentinian wine is that it’s cheap and delicious.

I jest, I jest.

But seriously, I could write a whole post on this but I am not going to. The most famous of Argentinian wine being the bold and intense red Malbec, which is hearty and full-bodied and obviously goes well with steak.

Another favorite was Torrontés, a dry white wine that smells sweet and tastes a bit floral. It was lovely.

Be happy and have a healthy brunch at Gratitude

Before leaving Buenos Aires, I really wanted to make sure to visit the incredible Frida Kahlo mural in Palermo.

Right next door was the cutest little healthy food cafe. Now, I am such a sucker for cute cafes, and this bordered on too much, but I still loved it. And it was a really nice break from all the carbs and meat I’d been chowing down on.

The cafe is called Gratitude – vivir, disfrutar, regalar, which means “gratitude – live, enjoy, and gift” cheesey as all hell, but it got me, I was hooked. I even bought a mug, and the brunch was divine, and the pastries delicious. I recommend!

Have a coffee on stage at el Ateneo

Where else in the world can you sip a cappuccino on a historic theater stage surrounded by books?

While I can’t speak for the quality of bean, being a total coffee snob, the atmosphere and location gets a 20/10. Worth it.

Dig into ice-cream at the classic Nonna Bianca

More people immigrated to Argentina from Italy than any other place in the world, and luckily brought both a pizza and a gelato culture with them.

There are tons of ice-cream shops to chose from, but besides Rapa Nui, my other favorite is the local popular spot of Nonna Bianca in San Telmo which we visited on our food tour.

How did I do? Did I cover it all?

Have I made you hungry yet? I am certainly starving after writing this and I don’t have any good substitutes at home for any of this. Sigh, I guess it’s time to start planning a return to Argentina.

Have you ever visited Buenos Aires? Do you travel for food too? What’s your favorite foodie city – inspire me, share!

Many thanks to AirNZ for hosting me in Buenos Aires – like always I’m keeping it real – all opinions are my own, like you could expect less from me!

The post Eating my way through Buenos Aires appeared first on Young Adventuress.

Honestly, I feel like this title could be a name for an OPI nail polish. Whoever is in charge of coming up with the color names, I want to BE you (OPI marketing team; are you listening? I would be so good at this job!)

Sidetracked. Sorry. So three years ago today (ok, last week) I wrote my first ever blog post! Yippee! More coming soon about this next week – stay tuned as I am preparing a little something-something to say thanks to you guys.

Exactly three years ago was my last college spring break, and I wanted to go out with a bang; so I spent it gallivanting around Peru, my first and last (so far) trip to exotic South America. Some girls like spring break in Mexico or party time for only adults in Punta Cana, me included. Nothing sounded better than visiting a new continent and getting to see some of the sites of my dreams. But more than anything I needed a break from frigid, wintery Massachusetts along with my insane last semester course load.

I needed to get out, and my then-boyfriend and I decided why not Peru?! Looking back, sometimes I think, why didn’t we just go to an island like everyone else?!

Did I mention I have the worst luck in the ENTIRE UNIVERSE? The worst!!

I fell head over heels in love with Peru, but she was not an easily romanced. In fact, without doubt those 10 days were jam-packed full of misadventures and failures whose like I’ve ever experienced while traveling. If something could go wrong, it did. Guilty of being a bit of a control freak, I don’t like it when things don’t go according to plan when I am traveling, so I was not exactly happy.

In spite of everything, it was still an epic trip, and I loved it. Peru was a total catastrophe, in the best way possible. Here are the 6 dumbest, craziest, unluckiest misadventures to befall me while traveling around Peru. 

I think I need to give Peru a second chance; what do you think? Have you ever had anything major go wrong while traveling? What’s your best incident?

1. Missing out on Machu Picchu

So this one time, I traveled all the way to Peru and didn’t get to go to Machu Picchu! Can you believe it?

A month or so before we were scheduled to depart, there were massive flooding and mudslides around Cuzco and the Sacred Valley, knocking out the train tracks to Machu Picchu for months and closing the famous site to the public; thousands of trapped tourists had to be helicoptered out. Heartbreaking! Not the tourist rescue part but the closed indefinitely part (see, I told you I was selfish!)

It’s every kid’s dream to climb up to these mystical ruins in the Andes, wearing a wooly hippy hat and taking the obligatory llama shot (or was that just me?)

Amazing photo from Over Yonderlust (some of my fave bloggers), and the best llama photobomb ever!

Left with the dilemma of canceling the trip, or trying to make the best of it, we opted for número 2. At the time, there was no official stance on how long the monument would be closed (any day now for months), and I being the stubbornly optimistic fool that I am, was hoping and praying every night that magically Machu Picchu would reopen in time for my arrival.

The Incan gods did not hear my prayers.

Stepping off the plane in Cuzco, it was a ghost town, with hardly a fanny pack or blond in sight, except yours truly. Machu Picchu was closed of course, but luckily most of the other attractions and activities in the region were still going strong.

As bummed as I was that I missed out on one of the world’s most popular travel destinations, I still had a fabulous time in Cuzco and got to see plenty of things I might have missed otherwise. As I understand it, it is usually a very crowded and can be a costly destination, but since most tourists postponed or cancelled their trips, we had Cuzco to ourselves, making it all that more memorable. I hate crowds almost as much as I hate fanny packs.

2. We can still be friends

Are you ready, dear readers, to hear one of the dumbest things I have ever done while traveling? I can’t believe I am going to admit this on here, but I promised you guys a 100% disclosure policy, and I don’t think I can really write about my time in Peru and neglect to mention this. Besides, you guys loved it last time I overshared on here, so I’m actually do it for you all. Ok, here we go (god, this is hard).

I went to Peru with a boyfriend. NBD, right? How about, I went to Peru with a boyfriend right AFTER we broke up.

WHAT WAS I THINKING?!

21 year old me wasn’t thinking, that’s what. I had my eye on the prize, Peru, and nothing was going to take that away from me. Do I even need to elaborate on here why traveling with an ex is a bad idea?

Exhibit A: it sucks having to do this to all your photos

A break-up and a mudslide in Cuzco before I even got on the plane. Why don’t I ever listen to fate?

I had mentally invested so much into the trip by this point, I couldn’t bear to not go, if that makes any sense. Part of me was hoping we’d get back together, part of me was hoping it wouldn’t matter and we could travel together as friends no problem, and the other part of me wanted that goddamn llama picture on top of Machu Picchu SO BADLY! I should have listened to fate and realized all three were impossible.

I haven’t written much about Peru on here mostly because I preferred to forget that it ever happened.

Nowadays, I don’t regret going to Peru with an ex, though it took a while to come to that realization. I had an amazing time in spite of everything, but I definitely learned a lesson. Several lessons. Listen to fate, and realize that so many things while traveling are out of your control and you have to go with the flow or it could end up blowing up right in your face.

Riot police or relationship police?

3. Double camera fail

For this trip I decided to rent a super fancypants camera lens to go on my DSLR camera. I love wide angles and sweeping landscape shots, and I was beyond excited when my Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 (try saying that 5 times fast) arrived in the mail a few days before leaving. My first day in Lima with it was magical, and I took hundreds of photos as we headed north to Huaraz where an old study abroad friend was working in the Peace Corps.

The lens lasted a full day while we were high altitude trekking up in the Cordillera Blanca mountains. It even lasted enough to take the beautiful sunset photos that are now my blog banner; then my camera died. Something happened and it shorted out and no amount of begging, pleading or crying would make it turn back on again. Is there anything worse for a blogger than having your camera die on you in the middle of a big trip?

Sitting on the rooftop of our hostel, I tried to hold back tears. Was nothing going to go right on this trip? Then I manned up and realized several important things. Much worse things could happen than having a camera break; I was so lucky to be there. Looking around me and seeing half finished houses and children without shoes, with mongrel dogs running every which why. Who was I to be upset about such a luxury?

Of course my back up point and shoot broke on our last day, as it got caked in sand playing around in the desert. Typical.

Ultimately, it wasn’t a big deal. I had another camera with me that worked, and it made me realize that it’s important to step back and really absorb and soak in everything that you experience and see, smell and taste while traveling. Nowadays, it’s so easy to get caught up with documenting things, with your eyes glued behind a lens, that you miss what’s going on around you. Sometimes you have to step back and admit you are being ridiculous. Also, bring a back up camera, maybe two.

4. Getting stuck on a bus for almost 24 hours

After a beautiful few days in Cuzco, we boarded a luxurious overnight bus to Nazca to see the famous Nazca lines. These are mysterious shapes and drawings carved into the landscape, and many companies run small plane flights over them. Luckily, the fancy double-decker buses in Peru are pretty swank, with attendants, meals and seats that recline almost into beds. Swallowing a few sleeping pills, we promptly passed out, hoping to wake up in Nazca the next morning.

Vaguely, I remember waking up in the middle of the night in a sluggish haze, wondering why we had stopped. Turning over, I fell back asleep til the bright sunshine woke me up the next morning.

Wait, why are we still stopped?

6 hours later and so many behind schedule I can’t even remember, we finally rolled in Nazca. The bus had broken down in the middle of the night and took hours and hours to fix. Yawning and stretching we grabbed out backpacks and paddled off to go find one of the flight operators.

There is nothing positive I can add to getting stuck on a bus for a full day; at least it was a fancy bus and not a chicken bus, right?

5.  No Nazca lines

Are you even surprised at this point? A week or so before we arrived one of the planes carrying tourists over the famous Nazca lines crashed killing everyone on board. The government finally intervened and grounded all the companies while they carried out mandatory safety inspections.

Of course.

Why hadn’t we heard anything about this? Oh, they didn’t want tourists to stop coming to Nazca! WTF?! There is nothing to do there except see those lines; it’s in the middle of the desert! And the designs are so massive, you can only see them properly from a plane.

Grumbling, we stuffed some hot food in our faces before catching yet another bus to Huacachina, a village oasis in the desert.

 6. Getting sexually harassed in Huacachina

It was hot and sunny, just what I needed. Hanging around in hammocks under palm trees by the pool at our awesome hostel while parrots chirped and the sand dunes glowed gold in the afternoon sun was just what the doctor ordered. We scheduled a fun ride at sunset over the sands in the dune buggys. Perfect end to a long day, right?

I should have known something was up as I eyed a group of drivers drinking beers, smoking and making crude jokes as we piled in. What did we get ourselves into? Flying over the dunes at warp speed, I got sand in places I didn’t even know existed. No wonder my camera broke! Convinced we would surely DIE SCREAMING as our rather rotund driver flung the buggy up and down mountainous dunes laughing maniacally, I held on for dear life.

Finally we stopped and he let us out to try sand boarding, which is a lot harder than it looks by the way. I am not the most coordinated of persons, but I gave it my best.

Huffing and puffing, our group slowly made our way up the giant sand mountain to the buggy. As I walked past the group of drivers, I realized they were talking in Spanish about all of the girls in our group, and let me just say, it was not nice, friendly, complimentary or appropriate. Then I realized they were talking about me, the only rubita (blondie) in the gang. Oh no.

I could feel my face getting red in embarrassment and anger. I can tolerate a lot of things while traveling, but listening to a bunch of lewd men saying filthy things about me (after I had paid them too-what nerve!) thinking I didn’t understand is NOT one of them.

Throwing my sandboard at them, I calmly and politely (read: hysterical girly yelling) in Spanish said something along the lines of “listen bitches, I understand every dirty word coming out of your foul mouths. Don’t you dare talk about my tits to my face-your man boobs are so big you have no room to talk! And keep your nasty opinions to yourselves, you pigs, before I go complain to the hostel owner myself.” Fold arms, pop out hip to the side followed by the sassy-girl side to side head move, then walk off with my nose in the air.

Men suck sometimes.

Keeping quiet after that, we witnessed a beautiful red sunset over the dunes, turning the sand gold, orange and red. In spite of a few rude people and the fact that I cannot sandboard to save my life, it was still one of my favorite parts of the trip.

The post Making Do in Peru appeared first on Young Adventuress.

Ollantaytambo, Peru: an amazing alternative to Machu Picchu!

So it’s been way too long since I’ve uploaded a post onto my Photo Friday series! Bad blogger, I know. Looking back, I realized I’ve posted a lot of photos from Europe, where I spent most of my time. I need to expand my horizons! Why hadn’t I posted more stuff from Africa or South America? 

Oh wait, I remember why, I’m still sifting through thousands of photos from Egypt and I’ve avoided looking too much at my stuff from Peru because that trip was quite possibly my biggest travel CATASTROPHE EVER! Nothing went right on that trip!

Where do I even start?  About a month before I left for Lima, there were massive rainstorms  and mudslides knocking out the trails and train tracks to Machu Picchu, closing it for months, and right during my visit there. That’s right, folks, I went to Peru and didn’t get to go to Machu Picchu. Biggest travel fail ever.

Or was it?

Because Peru’s start tourist attraction was out of commission for a while, there were hardly any tourists the entire time I was there. We had Cuzco pretty much to ourselves, which was amazing, and it also gave us the opportunity to really meet and chat with locals. Tourism dropped completely, which changed what would have probably been a super touristy city into one that felt a bit undiscovered.

As an alternative, we decided to book some day trips to visit other Incan ruins and smaller towns on the Inca Trail. Owing to our bad luck, we ended up getting to see a completely different side of Peru that few visitors get to see!

One day we went out to a place called Ollantaytambo, Peru, about 60 kilometers from Cusco. As my bad luck continued, my beautiful Canon SLR broke a few days into our trip. Did I mention I had paid a small fortune to rent a fancy wide-angle lens especially for the trip? Typical. Luckily I still had my point and shoot so I was able to capture some stunning landscapes around Cusco, including of Ollantaytambo (try saying that 3 times fast!) and this shot above.

Nowadays, Ollantaytambo, Peru is an archeological sight you can visit as a day trip from Cusco. Nestled high in the mountains, it easily feels like you step back in time, walking along the overgrown paths staring out at the lush green valleys and mountains. It almost felt like Switzerland. Local women amble by selling corn and hand-woven blankets, still dressed in the traditional Peruvian garb and hats. This area of the Cusco region is magical, from the bright blue skies to the misty mountains and valleys covered in yellow flowers,  it feels like something out of a movie. Ollantaytambo definitely brought my spirit up and made me extremely happy after the disappointment of missing out on the famous Machu Picchu.

That was until we got to Nazca only to discover that a plane crash over the Nazca lines caused every flight company to be shut down and investigated. Sheesh, you win some you lose some.

Have you ever been to Peru? Have you ever had massively bad luck traveling or had a trip go completely wrong? How did you cope?

The post Photo Friday: Ollantaytambo, Peru appeared first on Young Adventuress.

When Lindsay over at My Life as a Foreigner posted about the 5 most beautiful places she has been to so far as a blog link up, and seeing Megan’s response on a Suitcase and Stilettos, I decided to give it a go too.

Spain is not on the list since I am incredibly biased, and I already blog about it all the time! I’m trying to shake things up!

What are your 5 most beautiful places you have ever been?

Don’t forget to like my blog’s new facebook page!

1. Lake Bled and the Julian Alps, Slovenia

Hiking in the Julian Alps

Lake Bled

2. Luxor, the Nile and the West Bank, Egypt

Nile River at Sunset

Valley of the Queens

Sunrise over the Valley of the Kings from hot air balloon

Karnak Temple, Luxor

Hatshepsut Temple on the West Bank

3. Grindelwald and the Jungfrau region in the Bernese Alps, Switzerland

View of the Aletsch Glacier from the Jungfrau

4. Around the Amalfi Coast, Italy

Positano

Pompeii

Amalfi Coast

Island of Capri

5. The Cordillera Blanca mountains near Huaraz, Peru

Lake 69, around 15,000 ft! Highest altitude trek I’ve done!

Huaraz

Hiking in the Huascarán National Park

The post Top 5 Most Beautiful Places…So Far appeared first on Young Adventuress.

Here’s what to do:

• Publish a post with your submissions (you can do all six colors, or any of the six that you would like; however, you will only be eligible to win the grand prize if you submit all six).
• Either share the link to your post on Facebook while mentioning Capture the Colour and tagging the TravelSupermarket.com Facebook page, OR tweet the post while tagging #capturethecolour and @travelsupermkt, OR email your entry to capturethecolour@travelsupermarket.com with your name, address, and phone number.
• Do this all by August 27, 2012! (Make sure to check out the Terms & Conditions as well.)

Blue:  Lake Bled, Slovenia

When I first traveled to Slovenia a few years ago, I was expecting nice mountains and some fun adventure sports and not much else; it was just a stopover for us on our way to Croatia. I arrived at Lake Bled at night, thinking it sounded nice from it’s little bio in my guidebook. My friend and I were the only ones who got off the train. The view that awaited us in the morning about knocked us off our feet. A glowing turquoise blue lake greeted us, surrounded by blue mountains and a bright blue sky. Blue blue blue!! Viewed from a medieval castle on a mountain with a tiny island in the middle right were you expect it to be with a church on top, Lake Bled seems surreal, almost fake, like a place in a fairytale.

It’s hardly a subtle or quick use of blue, rather Lake Bled’s dominant color screams attention. I chose it because, years later, it is still one of the most beautiful and profound places I have ever been. And what’s more, it’s a temperamental blue. Rarely is the lake this color, depending on the season, clouds and weather, it changes color drastically. But on this day, I was absurdly lucky because everything as far as the lake, mountains and sky were vivid shades of blue, making the experience even more precious.

Red: Elciego, Spain

This year I am living in the red wine capital of Spain, La Rioja, and by far the best time to be here is in the early fall, when the grapes are harvested all over this tiny, overlooked region. Driving around the hilly countryside, the land screams yellows, oranges and reds from the changing grape leaves. The thousands of wineries in the area are fast at work bringing in the crops, barreling and preparing the wine for the year.

I snapped this photo as I was touring one of my favorite bodegas, Marqués de Riscal. Famous in and of itself for its revamped modern hotel designed by Frank Gehry, below ground is another, older world of 150 year old wine making. These barrels have just been filled, the bright, young red wine staining the light oak, making an incredible contrast of red and light brown wood, almost as if the barrels are about to burst with wine.

Yellow: Luxor, Egypt

One of dreams come true was getting to go on a hot air balloon ride over the Valley of the Kings at sunrise. Between being violently ill and sort of a murky, dusty dawn that you find in dry, arid places in north Africa and the Middle East, I thought for sure I would be disappointed as our balloon began to rise.

White: Laguna 69, Huaraz, Peru

We spent hours hiking and getting lost around the Cordillera Blanca mountains trying to get to the infamous Laguna 69 lake. It’s situated at 4,600 meters, which is damn high when you haven’t had time to acclimatize. By the time we made it up there, the clouds had moved in, covering the snowcapped peaks in fog, and the normally bright blue lake was murky. Stuffing bread in my mouth and shivering like crazy since we were basically in a cloud, I was so peeved!

Just as we were getting ready to head down, the clouds lifted for a few minutes and blue sky peeked through! Hooray! With dramatic white clouds, snowy white mountain tops and white waterfalls crashing down into the lake, it was just the boost of happiness we needed to trek back down to Huaraz.

Green: Giverny, France

Visiting the place that inspired so many of Monet’s impressionist paintings was a dream come true. Getting to visit his house and gardens in springtime, when anything and everything is in bloom was just magical. The soft young green of spring combined with millions of flowers bursting everywhere, the air filled with their heady fragrance and the sound of frogs croaking everywhere made for an extreme sensory experience. I love this shot because the green of the trees and flowers is reflected perfectly in the still lake, only interrupted by the iconic lily pads.

Nominations: 

Sunshine and Siestas 

Christine in Spain 

La Tortuga Viajera

 Spanish Sabores 

Ella Coquine

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I woke up with the sunrise, wondering where we were. The attendant came down eventually with some bread and cheese for breakfast, yum! It turns down the bus had engine problems in the middle of the night, prolonging the ride from 14 hours to 19. oh my god. That is the longest I have ever spent on a bus, and hopefully the last. Once we left the mountains, we entered a completely different terrain that looked more like the desert and just as winding. There were more mountains and valleys that made the ride pretty scary.

We drove through some nature reserve that had a lot of animals running around that looked like a cross between a gazelle, a deer, and a llama, called a vicuña. Occasionally we could hear the bus driver honking at them to get out of the road.

View from the bus heading towards Nazca

We finally arrived in Nazca, and we were so relieved to get off the bus! It was so hot and dry, it felt great after the cool rains in Cuzco. After getting our backpacks, we were going to head over to one of the flight companies to take a plane over the famous Nazca lines in the desert.

Unfortunately, it turned out that there were no planes flying over the lines because of an accident a few weeks before that killed a couple of Chilean tourists. It turned out the government intervened and were inspecting all of the companies to make sure the planes were up to safety standards, thus closing down all the flights. Fantastic! And in typical Peruvian fashion, they failed to announce this fact ANYWHERE!!!

So incredibly annoying! First Machu Picchu, now the Nazca lines. So after arguing with some random tourist info guy in the bus station for twenty minutes, we decided to grab lunch and then catch a local bus to Ica, a town a couple hours north from where we could catch a cab to Huacachina, a little desert oasis famous for its dunes and sandboarding.

After hanging out for a few hours in the back of a bus filled with locals, we eventually arrived in Ica, where we caught a cab to Huacachina. We took it to a hostel that a few people had recommended to us that turned out to still have space. We walked into the center of town during siesta to grab some chips and juice before heading back to the hostel to catch the buggy that would take a bunch of tourists up into the dunes for a few hours to sandboard.

Luckily, or unluckily – depending on how you look at it – we got seats in the very front of the buggy. Our driver, a misogynist pig, was absolutely crazy! I couldn’t believe some of the dunes we would go over! It was sometimes scary but overall pretty amazing! We went so fast, sometimes got air, and I definitely got sand in places I didn’t even know existed, especially in my camera. oops. but totally worth it!

We drove all over the dunes before arriving at a set of three hills where we would practice. Everyone went down first on their stomachs on the boards before trying to go down standing. It was really hard, at least for me! It was so hard to stay standing, and once falling on your butt, it was hard to stand up again, especially because it was so slow on the sand. But it was still worth it and great fun.

We ended up going down some really steep hills on our stomachs before heading back to the buggy. I also didn’t realize what jerks Peruvian men can be! I overheard the buggy drivers talking in Spanish about the girls, including me, as we walked back from the last dune ride. I guess they didn’t expect blond little me to understand them, let alone yell at them. It was pretty funny to see their faces when I said something back at them in my best colloquial Spanish. What jerks!

We drove around the dunes for a while before stopping to enjoy the sunset. It was beautiful watching it set over the dunes. We then headed back to the hostel to try to shower all the sand off of us. I was still washing sand out of my ears two days later! Seeing the dunes was definitely one of my favorite parts of the trip! After going out to a yummy dinner, we hung out by the bar with some americans studying abroad and some other guys at bar at the hostel.

The next morning we got up, ate breakfast, and hung out by the pool at the hostel for most of the day. There are some parrots that were just wandering around the back of the hostel. They even let us hold them! We met a really cool dutch couple living in Peru for the year, and talked to them for a while before heading into town for some lunch.

Backyard of our hostel in Huacachina

We then caught another local bus heading towards Lima for our last night in Peru! Qué triste! We took a cab to the hostel we stayed at the first night there in Miraflores, but they didn’t have any space, so we eventually found another place close by that was really nice! We went there, dropped our stuff off and got changed and went out to look for food. After getting dinner at a nice, crowded street smack in the middle of the party area, we went into a discoteca for a bit. The next morning we got up, had breakfast on the roof of the hostel before heading out into Lima for our last day.

We walked down to the coast for a bit, had some coffee, then decided to catch a cab into the center of the city to visit the monasterio de san francisco. Completed in 1774, it is a major tourist site in the city, especially because they will take you on a tour into the catacombs beneath the basilica, where you can see the millions of bones of people piled up. Even going into the catacombs in Europe, I had never seen the bones of the deceased stacked up like they were there. There was also a man selling handmade woven textiles inside the church of typical Peruvian images that we were able to purchase very cheaply. It was really fascinating to watch him weave them himself on his loom.

Monasterio de San Francisco in Lima with an armored government truck

We then headed back into Miraflores to continue our search for stamps to send all of the postcards we had written. I figured that you could buy stamps at other places besides the post office, but it turns out you can’t. Being a Sunday, we couldn’t find stamps anywhere. Luckily, the hostel was really great and we left them enough cash for stamps and all our postcards that they promised to mail for us. Hopefully they actually did it….

After returning to miraflores, we walked around for a while before grabbing dinner at a very nice restaurant on the cliffs overlooking the ocean. Since Lima is famous for its seafood, we decided we had to try ceviche. Ceviche is a famous dish in South America, especially in Peru, consisting of raw fish marinated in citrus juices. It was especially delicious here. We finished dinner just in time to watch the sunset over the ocean, a beautiful lasting image of Peru and a wonderful end to a great trip.

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So perhaps you all are waiting to hear about how cool it was to see Machu Picchu. Well I hear its pretty awesome.

Unfortunately, we didn’t have the chance to go because in January (about one week after we bought our flights) there was a massive mudslide that knocked out the train tracks to the lost city. Mierda. Of course, in typical Latin-American fashion it took the government over two months to restore the tracks and in the meantime there were absolutely no official announcements of its reopening date to ensure that tourists would still come to Peru. Machu Picchu is by far one of the biggest sources of revenue for the country, seeing over 2500 tourists per day, and you would think they would be a little more efficient in repairing the tracks.

But no, it was closed when we arrived in Cuzco; even when we were in Peru, we kept hearing different reports of when it would reopen. The good news was that there were almost no tourists in Cuzco; we had the city to ourselves, which was great! It was also a lot cheaper too. Besides, there are so many other cool Inca sites in the Sacred Valley, so we were able to do a day trip to three of them.

Our third day in Cuzco, saw us waking up early and meeting downtown to get on a bus trip through the valley. We opted to go on an organized tour – as much as absolutely detest them – because it is rather difficult to get around the valley on public transportation, especially now because of the flooding, and we just didn’t have the time. So we met up with our awesome Peruvian tour guide, approx. 4 foot 11. who led us to all the sites. We stopped on the way into the valley at a little bodega touristy spot on the side of the road for toilets, and there was a lady selling corn on the cob. we bought one and it was the biggest piece of corn I’ve ever seen!

Not as sweet or soft as American corn, but still tasty. Yum! Then we got back on the bus for a winding journey into the valley. The scenery as we headed up into the mountains was absolutely breathtaking! We drove down into the valley, where you could still see evidence of the recent floods. We got to the first site was Písaq, and it was pretty amazing.

We arrived at the top of the mountain before walking along the top of the city. Looking out across the valleys, you could see the shadows of the clouds on the other mountains, as well as the Incan ruins atop the steeped agricultural terraces. There were wild flowers everywhere, and it was so green it almost seemed fake. It was beyond idyllic, and it was like stepping back into time.

We spent a while climbing around the ruins, and taking a million photos of the same view. You could see where the Incan tombs were held before they were all looted away in the mountainside wall across from the city, which was also pretty cool. We departed the ruins at Písaq to go get lunch in one of the towns in the valley. Lunch consisted of completely unidentifiable foods, which turned out to be pretty tasty.

We climbed back on the bus to head to Ollantaytambo, another Incan city in the valley. Much bigger and better preserved than Písaq, Ollantaytambo boasts some spectacular scenery, as well as agricultural terraces, well preserved Inca walls, as well as a partially constructed sun temple at the top. Built by the emperor Pachacuti, and conquered by the Spanish, Ollantaytambo fell into to decline and ruin until rediscovered by European explorers in the 19th century.

Climbing up to the ruins

We spent most of the afternoon at the site, climbing around the ruins and taking funny pictures before heading back down to the town. I remember that all the climbing we had done began to bother my knee, and climbing down all those steps was super painful. Good thing we had a million hours to spend on buses for recovery time haha. We were heading back out of the valley to our final stop, Chincheros, as the sun was setting.

We got of the bus to head into the store of some traditional weavers. We watched them demonstrate how they wash and spin the wool they get from both sheep and alpaca, how they make the dye and then how they dye the wool, and finally how they weave it. It was really cool to watch, because we had not see the process before. It was a family of girls all working together in traditional Andean garb. They even made us coco tea.

Afterward we had the opportunity of buying what they made. I bought myself a hat and a little purse-bag thing. It was more expensive here than in the markets, but I didn’t mind paying more because it really was not expensive by our standards in the states, and it was cool because we knew it was all handmade. All of the stuff sold in the markets, you can tell are mass produced. We then left the house to walk up to a well-known colonial church in Chincheros. Inside the walls and ceiling were covered in fresco, with a lot of the ornamentation being made from wood. It was interesting to see the adaptation from traditional Spanish churches here. It was also interesting because you could see traces of the old Incan religion in the imagery. We then got back on the bus and returned to Cuzco. After a long night going out, we finally went to bed. phew. long day.

The next day was our last in Cuzco. We were scheduled on an overnight bus to Ica, which was going to take around 14 hours and was leaving at 4pm. We spent the day hanging out in town and doing some souvenir shopping. There was some sort of social protest going on in the main square. Everyone was protesting selling water from one region to another leaving a lot of people without water – this is at least what I think was going on, not 100% sure though.

Anyways, everyone makes a big day of it, all the local transportation was on strike and everyone was parading around town shouting and with signs. They also bused in a TON of riot police with big guns and big shields. It was kinda intimidating. But after talking to some locals, it turns out most of the protests in Cuzco are relatively peaceful and more like family events – not like the ones in Lima or Arequipa. Everyone boycotts going to work, they bring the kids and the family, maybe some fried guinea pig and corn to the square, and just hang out for the day and watch a ton of different organizations parade by chanting with their signs and extremely funny hats. We went into all the different shops, grabbed coffee, and had a nice lunch overlooking all the protests.

I also was able to get my picture with some women dressed in Andean clothing with some Alpacas. They come to the main square knowing that tourists will pay a sol or two (less than 50 cents) for a photo with them. I was totally fine with sacrificing my pride for a pic with them, especially because the alpacas are so fuzzy and cute! So we spent our last few hours in Cuzco taking in the local culture and enjoying ourselves. Before we would embark on the longest bus ride of our lives!

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From Huaraz we took a an overnight bus ride back down to Lima; it was much faster going down at night, especially because we were able to have big comfy seats and sleep for most of it. Before leaving we were able to pick up some sort of herbal sleeping pills that had catnip in them for real cheap. They sure worked wonders on that bus trip!

We woke up in Lima, caught a cab to the airport before flying to Cuzco. It takes almost 24 hours to take the bus there, but the flight was only an hour. Once in Cuzco, we bartered down a cheap cab to our hostel, Pariwana hostel, which was about a 5 minute walk from the main square. It was in a really neat building, a sixteenth century Spanish style colonial house, with a beautiful internal patio with cool archways. We walked downtown and had lunch on the balcony of a cool restaurant and sipped on pisco sours for the first time, yum! Pisco is a Peruvian liquor distilled from grapes, and in the typical drink it is made with lemons, egg whites, simple syrup and bitters. I was worried about drinking something with egg whites in a developing country, but it didn’t make me sick at all.

Phew! I took a nap and we went out later for coffee and hung around the Plaza de Armas or the main square as the sun set. I loved the main square. It was so beautiful with all its colonial architecture, mini-balconies, the gardens with a big fountain in the middle with children running around it, trying to get you to buy random trinkets. In the background is the cathedral and the university, with small side streets leading away from the square up into the foothills. At the top of one the hills sits a huge white cross, watching over the city. We then went in search of a restaurant recommended by the trusty lonely planet, where we had alpaca for the first time. I crashed that night in the super comfy bed in the hostel, especially compared to the hard bed in Huaraz with its pillows filled with rocks. yuck.

The next morning we got up and walked to the big covered local market a few blocks away. We found a few stalls that sold local chocolate and coffee, which we bought for gifts and such. The chocolate I bought never made it as gifts unfortunately. It was very tasty, not as refined or processed as chocolate in the states-you could see the chunks of sugar, but it was delicious nonetheless. We then went inside the market. There was anything you could ever need. There were aisles of textiles and clothing, fruit and vegetable stands, lots of potatoes, and then the meat aisle. It was obviously freshly slaughtered and hanging on big hooks out in the heat.

Lets just say it smelled almost as bad as it looked. Same goes for the fish aisle. We left those aisles real quick and went to the juice aisle. There are all these fruit stands lined up next to each other with women who call out to everyone passing by to see if they want to buy fresh juice for less than a dollar. We stopped at one, and she chopped up several kinds of fruit in front of us, threw it in a blender, strained it and poured us each a glass. It was so delicious! It was warm and thick almost like a smoothie. I wanted to snap some photos, and when I took my camera out a bunch of kids ran up to me asking me to take their pics. It was really cute!

So there wasn’t room for us in the hostel that night so we went in search of another place to stay. Since there were no tourists in Cuzco, we had heard that the nice hotels were giving big discounts, so we walked into one of the nice hotels in the main square, where we were able to finagle a room for 20 dollars a night. Lets just say it was pretty nice! We went back to the main square, grabbed more cafe con leche as usual to keep us going, before heading into the cathedral-la catedral de santo domingo.

It was interesting to me, after having seen so many cathedrals while living in Europe, to see one in South America. It was the same traditional style but on a smaller scale with much less ornate richness built in 1654. There is a really neat painting there that depicts the huge earthquake from 1650, el señor de los temblores, the oldest painting in Cuzco. Afterwards, we wandered into an artisan market in the square where we haggled prices to get some amazing souvenirs.

We also stopped in McDonald’s to grab a quick cheeseburger as a reminder of home. We got ready and went out in search of dinner. We went to a really nice restaurant that served an amazing meal with a live performance of traditional dancing and music. It was one of my favorite moments of the trip. We then went out and ended up at an amazing dance club. It was intimidating when we walked in because everyone was up dancing salsa and very latino style of dances. Eventually after a few drinks, they started playing techno and more typical club music. We danced and had fun before heading back to the hotel and crashing. Pretty good night.

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When people ask me how my spring break trip to Peru went, this quote always seems to pop into my mind because it is so completely true. Its challenging to describe just how amazing Peru was for me, but I am going to try to do my best here. So its been about one week since I’ve been back. What a trip! This was my first trip to South America, but it definitely won’t be my last. I had such a good time, I really didn’t want to leave and come back to the grind of my last semester of college. (The fabulous exchange rate helped too)

So Thursday March 11th began very early with a drive out to Logan airport in Boston to get dropped off for the first part of our journey. We got through security and caught our flight on time to Miami which took about 3 hours. We had a layover there for a while, got some lunch and hung out in time to catch our flight down to Lima which was about 6 hours. We had good seats and the flight went well; we arrived in Lima around 10pm.

It was very nerve racking because once we went through customs and came into the main terminal, we were bombarded by people trying to offer us cabs. Kinda overwhelming. Luckily I had arranged in advanced with out hostel in Miraflores to pick us up. Driving through Lima at night was an experience. I didn’t find it to be a very nice city. The pollution is atrocious, the city is very dirty, and the driving is terrifying.

The hostel we stayed in was really nice, called Kokopelli, right in the center of Miraflores surrounded by a lot of cool bars and clubs. We checked in, went up to the rooftop bar, grabbed a beer before crashing. It was also about 80 degrees which was fantastic! The next morning we got up and grabbed breakfast down the street before walking down to the seaside cliffs. It was overcast but very warm, and we walked around a lot of Miraflores before heading back to the hostel to figure out the bus situation. The bus system in Peru is kinda crappy. There are a million different companies all working out of their own stations, ranging from super nice tourist buses with beds to tiny vans crammed with about 30 people. I was planning to head up to Huaraz about 8 hours north of Lima, which is in the heart of the Cordilleras Blancas mountain range, and a popular trekking center in Peru. I also have a friend from IES Salamanca who is working near there now for the Peace Corps that I was planning to meet up with.

Anywho, after a lot of confusion-typical for the trip-we were able to catch a nice bus up there. It had to be one of the nicest buses I have been on. It had two floors with a lot of leg room, super comfortable seats, with an attendant who served us food! granted, the food was unidentifiable, but still…It was really interesting driving through all the barrios of Lima to get to the “highway”-if you can call it highway haha-because it was my first view of such extreme poverty. The houses are literally one level shacks with tin roofs and sort of woven reed walls, completely open to the elements. Some did seem to have electricity and probably running water and others were made of more sturdy material like cement, but in general they were very basic and very dirty because the landscape around Lima is very much dirt and desert. These houses were almost stacked on top of each other, so I can just imagine what the health issues are like there.

Leaving Lima we got onto one of many terrifying roads around the country. The road is basically wide enough for two cars, one going in each direction, usually, but apart from that there are no rules for driving. The road followed the cliff along the sea, and there was no guardrail or barrier between the narrow road and a huge sand cliff down to the water with the space between the road and the cliff being about 2 feet. In the meantime this double-decker bus is flying past potato trucks. Needless to say, that was a LONG 8 hours.

We arrived in Huaraz at night, caught a cab to our hostel, checked in, and walked downtown to grab some food. It was called Caroline Lodging house and its run by a super friendly Peruvian family and an odd guy from Holland. Huaraz is the capital of the Ancash region with about 100,000 people living there. It is a really cool city because its surrounded by the snowcapped mountains, and its located at 10,000 feet above sea level. The buildings are all relatively new because most of the city was destroyed in an earthquake in 1970.

Anyways, we were hoping to get to go hiking in the area because it is so beautiful and we got lucky because a lot of people in the hostel were planning a hike to Lake 69 in the Huascarán National Park the next day. It is usually more difficult and expensive to do these hikes without a group because of the logistics of having to hire a guide and transportation and such, so we got really lucky. I was nervous though because its usually recommended that you acclimatize to such altitudes over a few days, and we were planning to go from sea level to 10,000 feet to 15,000 feet in less than twenty four hours. But who would pass up a chance like this? not me. So I took my diamox (altitude sickness pills) and fell asleep.

We were up the next morning before six to catch the van that was going to drive us to the beginning of the hike. We spent the morning gradually driving up beautiful high mountains, stopping at a small bodega to grab food for the hike-fresh bread, chips, and chocolate-you know, the essentials. We were to see five glacial lakes that day, which was really cool. The hike started out in a valley, surrounded by beautiful mountains, with wildflowers and a few cows scattered around a small stream. It was so idyllic it seemed fake. Except for the fact that we were all huffing and wheezing from the high altitude. Just walking was a challenge. Luckily we got lost and our bodies were able to adjust to the change for a bit.

We finally found the trail, there are no signs of course, and proceeded to climb up towards the second valley. At this point in my memory of the hike, I really wish I had remembered to put sunscreen on my face, since I literally burnt my nose and my cheeks off. The weather was nice and mild; though it started to get cloudy as the day wore on. There were about 1o people on the hike with us, and we all stayed together for most of it.

There was a lot of bonding which was really cool. There were a few of guys from California, a couple from France and from Holland and from Australia, and an American girl and her Peruvian boyfriend. We spent the day sharing stories as we hiked. I was really surprised how I was able to manage the altitude. I worried because of my asthma and not being in the best of shape, but we led most of the hike. It was pretty challenging near the top, and everyone had to stop for a breather every few minutes. It also got very cold and was raining and hailing.

We finally made it to the lake after 5 hours of hiking, and we could barely see the mountains because of the rain and clouds. It was so cold and wet, and we quickly ate and were ready to come back down when the rain stopped, and the clouds lifted, reflecting the beautiful cerulean blue of the water and the snow caps right behind it, with streams melting down from the ice. It was breathtaking! 15,000 feet-I made it!

It was absolutely worth the hike up there and the headache from altitude sickness, and it turned out to be my favorite part of the trip! We climbed back down which turned out to be just as beautiful because the clouds had lifted a bit from the valley so that we could see more snow capped mountains. By this point our muddy legs were so tired from the exertion we were very glad to climb back into the van and head back to Huaraz.

The ride back down the mountains was pretty intense because it started to pour and the roads are made of dirt. So it looked like we were driving down a brown river with a huge cliff along side that I was sure we were going to fly off at any moment, especially since our driver was doing his best to jerk the van around enormous potholes, undoubtedly made by said potato trucks. 3 hours and many prayers later we made it back alive to our hostel. After riding on mountain roads like this I am pretty sure I found God at some point by praying constantly.

After getting back to our hostel, I took one of my top 5 most satisfying showers of my life. We went back out and found a tourist restaurant near the main square where we housed our weight in french fries and past-yay carbs! We went out to a bar, the 13 owls or something, where we were going to try to meet up with my friend Pete, but we were so exhausted we came back early to the hostel and crashed. We slept in the next morning, had breakfast on the roof which included fried tortilla and guacamole-YUM! before heading into town.

We met up with Pete at the California Cafe for a few hours and reminisced about Spain and heard his amazing stories from living in Peru. We spent the rest of the day walking around and exploring Huaraz. Later on there was some sort of rally going on to support the regional soccer team, which was awesome! A cute little girl named Carolina came up to me and talked to me for a few minutes. At first I thought she was going to try to pickpocket me, but I realized she just wanted to talk to me because I was foreign. Did I mention I think I was one of 4 blonds in Huaraz at the time?

Anyways, Caroline is a 8 years old a huge fútbol fan, and wanted me to take her picture. It was a pretty sweet. Speaking of cameras, this was the last day my nice SLR worked. It just stopped turning on for some reason, very sad. But I was determined to make the best of it. I still had my little point and shoot with me, thank goodness. Anyways, we rambled back to the hostel, grabbed dinner and then caught an overnight bus back to Lima.

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