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Viva La Vida: Intro
There is a pulse-raising art to traveling. With every train or bus or plane, my mind and heart start racing, competing with the wheels that carry us off to somewhere new. The adventure can be a bit...
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Viva La Vida: To market, to market
Each weekend, my two roommates and I gather plastic shopping bags and head to the outdoor markets that grace Cuzco's side streets. Sidenote: We love the Peruvian food one can find in the restaurants...
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War & Pisac
Every February in Peru, the carnival season seeps through the mountains towns like the steady showers the rainy season brings. And I am beginning to see we are in the wet season for more than just the...
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Viva La Vida: The Wheels (and doors) on the Bus
Transportation in a new culture can be similar to trying the food: you have to try a few different options, there will be something that will throw you for a loop, some of the options will make you...
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They Play Soccer.
On Sunday, Cuzco's beloved Cienciano matched up against arch-rival Universitario from Lima at the Estadio Garcilaso de la Vega, a circular stadium that is one of the easiest landmarks to point out when...
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An Andes Reenact-mint: Welcome to Pumamarca
On the way to the sky, there is a village. It is not easy to tell; there isn't a "Welcome, this many people live here" sign or a high-rise that boldly establishes the village as somewhere important....
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The New Race: Traveler or Non (please check one)
At the beginning of each month, Peru's Challenge extends a welcome to 15-20 new faces from around the world and looks to them to build school classrooms, construct chimneys, plan lessons for 140...
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Viva La Vida: Weather Happens Outside
I sat, all folded up on the floor, while the weather did its thing today. That happens everywhere you go. Today was not like any other day here, but it isn't what I am used to. March means that awkward...
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Profiles: An Array of Faces
The New York Times has started a brilliant features section called One in Eight Million, just finding the tales of The Big Apple's people and telling them through photos and audio; everyone has a...
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More on Water
The water that flows through Pumamarca is over 200 times the safe-drinking water level. I can't even comprehend what is in this water, but I watch the school kids drink it and wash in it, and they...
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The Road to Education
This might be a long one, but this dusty road to proper education is longer and too important to disregard. When Peru's Challenge first started out, Jane and Selvy wandered into the mountains to find...
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When We Dream Together - Please Vote
These are the little things that work. You see, all of our dreams, in one way or another, weave together. Today I got an email from Lucas, a person I have never met and who I don't know anything about....
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Para la Mama, Con el Amor
Hi Mom;I was having a think about moms today and missed you from so far away through admiring those mothers right here. That reminder of missing is everywhere: the bus, Pumamarca, the market, the...
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French Inspirations
Today I had the pleasure of sitting in a balcony above the Plaza with three guys my age from France. We talked about how the sun shined, how San Blas has particularly gorgeous views, what we wanted to...
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A Few Love Stories
In a few minutes, I shall head off to the beautiful Sacred Valley to celebrate (and photograph) the Peru's Challenge founders' (Jane and Selvy) wedding. Their story is one for the books, and it is much...
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A Little More In Focus
The week in Urubamba was absolutely stunning. I came back to my desk in Cuzco feeling refreshed, exhausted from pressing one little button Tuesday through Thursday and simply inspired. Some of the...
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One Village in a Huge World
A very interesting article on the vast amount of impoverished people in third-world countries, the fires they use throughout the day, these effects on our environment and just another reason to fight...
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An Andes Reenact-mint: Sounds of Silence and Knowing Community
The other day, I walked the 1-hour-15-minute climb uphill to the Pumamarca school. I carry an iPod around with me a lot of the times, and I assumed this would be one of those times that I would stick...
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Melanie
I met a girl the other day. We were about 8 years apart, but we weren't that different. She approached me in the plaza as I was reading before Easter festivities, and we spoke in a little bit of...
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The Inca Trail and Its Rainbow
Here is where I am supposed to rave about Machu Picchu, how its splendor is indescribable and too majestic for words. It was named one of the Seven Wonders of the World in 2007, for crying out loud....
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Lesson Learned: Climb Waynapicchu
In the pitch black dark, someone rustled our tent, a husky voice saying, "beunos dias." I look at my watch, and it is 3:45am, and it is time to go. The rainbow day had come - the 4th and final day of...
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On the Photo Above and Holding Hands
I didn’t know that the last time I went up to the communities was my actual last time. For those of you who know me, you are probably nodding, thinking Good; it’s better that way. You would be a mess....
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What's Also Hidden in the Andes
My Perusing here has been quite minimized as of late but I still think about the smiles and little hands hidden in the Andes every day. And then, opening up The New York Times to read stories that make...
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When Birth is A Burden
Families up in the mountains have an average of six children per family. I came across families with many, many more: nine, 10, 12. Each child just as precious as the next and each child one more mouth...
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For Peru's Sake
Not that anyone wants more of this girl writing, but here are two articles that I have had published about time in Peru:-South American Explorers Magazine: Little Hands -- Here is an account of...
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