by Elaina Marie | Nov 3, 2015 | South America, Travel
After our graffiti tour in Bogota, we took a bus to the airport for our quick and cheap flight North to Cartagena. Stepping off the plane into the open-air exit, we were swamped with humidity and heat searing through our layers of merino wool that had served us so...
by Elaina Marie | Oct 28, 2015 | South America, Travel
While likely influenced by preconceived sentiment, coming into Columbia felt different. The country side flirted between wild and powerful and then pristine and intentional. After a long bus ride, we were quite excited to be in the long-awaited Columbia! We took a cab...
by Elaina Marie | Oct 27, 2015 | Inspiring People and Stories, South America, Travel
While Ecuador has been our most punitive experience as tourists, it also provided opportunities for great kindness to be extended by a few special people. I don’t have any pictures for this section, so it might border on TL;DR, but if you’re in the mood to...
by Elaina Marie | Oct 20, 2015 | South America, Travel
The beginning of our journey in Ecuador was not… easy. We felt nickel and dimed from the moment we arrived, including being charged to leave the bus station. Bus information was nowhere to be found and yet there were twenty from which to choose. Our few days of...
by Elaina Marie | Oct 20, 2015 | South America, Travel
We were told was Cuenca was one of the most beautiful cities a fellow traveler had seen. It was beautiful indeed, with interesting mixes of architectural styles, but we were ripped off from the moment we pursued Cuenca. Our bus tickets said $16 on the bill, but the...
by Elaina Marie | Oct 15, 2015 | South America, Travel
After a rewarding trip to Machu Picchu and Ollantaytambo, we took the day-long bus ride back to Lima, where we stayed a couple of nights to refresh and get the next few days of our trip organized. Next, we headed to Huaraz, from where we intended to hike the Santa...
by Elaina Marie | Oct 5, 2015 | South America, Travel
Backpacking South America – Peru: Cusco, Machu Picchu, Aguas Calientes, Ollantaytambo Days 5-12 CUSCO We took a 24 hour bus ride to Cusco on a Cruz Del Sur bus. Cusco is a required stop to proceed to Machu Picchu and has an elevation of 11,500 feet. We took...
by Elaina Marie | Oct 5, 2015 | South America, Travel
Backpacking South America – Peru: Lima, Miraflores DAYS 1 – 4 The overwhelming feeling of, “what are we DOING?!” didn’t hit me until the shuttle was pulling up to the Jet Blue terminal. It hadn’t seemed real up until that point. Three months of backpacking...
