Trekking Across Peru

Sunday, June 17, 2012 | Travel 12

Peru is a vast country which enjoys 96% of the world’s microclimates—deserts, coastlines, tropical rainforests, mountains, canyons, snowfields—and plays home to approximately 30 million people. It’s a place where you can enjoy the beach one weekend and climb an icy mountain the next. The food is cheap, the bus rides are painfully long, and the people are friendly and helpful… when they understand you. This fine gentleman let me help direct traffic in the city of Arequipa. No casualties were incurred. A...

How To Prepare for Traveling the World

Monday, June 11, 2012 | Travel 4

Being a globe trotter is a learning game. I’ve been on the road for just over a month. I’m currently moving through my fourth country, learning my second language, and figuring out how to maintain a sober mind each and every day. My travel mates have been robbed twice already. We’ve missed busses, been in situations where communication is a losing game, and had bank cards and cash rejected in multiple places. The single most important rule that needs to be followed when traveling through foreign countries...

Life Is A Series of Storms

Thursday, June 7, 2012 | Life, Travel 11

Life is a series of peaks and valleys. It is this very fact that spawns a beautiful, emotional walk in which we all participate. I spoke with a seasoned man in New Zealand many years ago who shared the following observation with me. While I understand not everyone agrees with this view on life, I find it to be both insightful and comforting. Life is made up of storms. You’re either right in the middle of one, just emerging from one, or you’re on your way into one. Remember that banana chocolate pancakes...

5 Lessons Learned While Traveling In South America

Monday, June 4, 2012 | Life, Travel 14

Welcome to your comfort zone. This is a place filled with security, friendship, wealth, and ignorant bliss. In this space, you’re allowed to turn your mind off and simply fall into routine. It’s beautiful, simple, and full of difficult questions such as, “Which SUV should we purchase next?” and its closely-related cousin, “Should we step into a 40-year mortgage to upgrade to a nicer home?” In this place, most challenges are superficial. Not all of them, I understand, but most of...

Zip Lines and Hitch Hiking in Toilet Town

Thursday, May 31, 2012 | Travel 4

I’ve spent the past few days in a small town called Baños (that’s pronounced ban-yos). I was under the impression that the word “baños” meant “toilets” in Spanish, so I thought we were staying in Toilet Town. However, I was quickly corrected and now understand that it stands for “baths,” which makes perfect sense due to all of the natural thermal pools in and around the town. In any regard, Baños is a small settlement playing home to 9,000 people, each of them kinder...