Cusco: We’re Home?

For the first time in ages, maybe ever, I didn’t manage to get my “We’re Home” post published during our long stay. Normally I like to do the “We’re Home” post about halfway through the stay but between work, sightseeing, and being underwhelmed by Cusco, it has been easy to procrastinate. However, there is plenty…

All About Arequipa

We increased our pace during our last two weeks in Arequipa and luckily the weather did get a little bit nicer for sightseeing. In addition to the Colca Canyon tour I described in my last post, we also had a chance to see the famous Santa Cristina convent and take a Ruta Sillar tour. And…

Touring Colca Canyon

The number one activity I (and most visitors to Arequipa) wanted to do was a tour to the Colca Canyon. There are three main options for this you can book online or through nearly any travel agent (which there are dozens of around the main square) – one-day tour, two-day tour with an overnight in…

Arequipa: We’re Home

Our first two weeks in Arequipa have been really nice, though a bit of a mixed bag. For the most part we’re really enjoying our time here, especially continuing to try very tasty and interesting Peruvian food. But there are a few things about Arequipa that have been less than ideal, so I’m going to…

The Seaside Capital Lima

As I detailed in my prior post, we didn’t have the best start to our time in Peru. Still, we arrived back in Lima with open minds and high hopes for enjoying Peru’s capital city. Unfortunately, our first impressions of our Airbnb (review below) could have been better, mostly because Lima in February is quite…

Peru Arrival and Paracas

Chad and I have developed a bit of vocabulary to describe various phenomena we’ve experienced on our travels. One such term we call the “Japan effect.” It refers to our experience in 2019 being disappointed by Bangkok and Bali following five weeks in Japan. While they had several qualities we generally don’t like regardless of…

From Palermo to San Telmo

I’d planned to do four blog posts about our time in Buenos Aires. And honestly, the wonderful experience we had there warrants four posts. But my real job is very busy at the moment and that’s what keeps us traveling, so instead I’m just doing two BA posts – our We’re Home from a couple…

Buenos Aires: We’re Home!

Well, the digital nomads were right. Buenos Aires is amazing and we LOVE it. I’d been a little nervous before we left based on the political and economic news coming out of Buenos Aires, but in our first two weeks here we’ve found it to be beautiful, friendly, efficient, and extremely livable. Here are some…

FAQ – What Did We Learn in Africa?

Spending almost 10 weeks in Africa was eye-opening. We had a number of incredible experiences and learned so much. Here are a few of the lessons we’ll take with us: Beware of Bad Reputations Egypt really does have a terrible reputation among travelers – mostly due to the touts (the people constantly trying to sell…

FAQ – How Well Did We Budget for Africa?

Leg 13 was our first time visiting Africa, our first new continent since 2019. I tried to budget a little high for this leg since there was a fair bit of uncertainty, even reallocating part of our year-end time-at-home budget to Africa. Turned out that wasn’t necessary and we finished the leg $455 under my…