I almost died on the way home to Cusco from Lima. Maybe that’s a little dramatic.  But it felt pretty damn real at 4 am, when our driver took a little nap behind the wheel and we veered dramatically across the narrow Andean road before one of the wheels blew.  This was enough to [...]

Feeding the masses?  Image: Camden Luxford Mistura, 2011 is over.  I went twice. Twice I fought the crowds outside to buy my last minute tickets at S/.25-30 (instead of the ticket office price of S/.20). Twice I elbowed my way through the hordes to line up for delicious ceviches, anticuchos, and chicharrones, along with twists [...]

Mistura.  I’ve had far too many beers and Pisco Sours, and way too much good food to really express in words how awesome today was.  So I’m going to leave you with some photos, and head on out to celebrate a great day of over-indulgence with, you guessed it, yet more over-indulgence.  The actual blog [...]

Days 1-6, here Hours chugging along slowly in the Volkswagen, piled on top of each other as the monotonous desert roads slide past the windows. Long pauses to cool a rapidly overheating motor. Hours more broken down and waiting in the drugging heat for the local mechanic of a dusty anonymous town to appear from [...]

With 2,500 people trampling over its manicured lawns and shooing its herd of chilled-out llamas into the optimally photogenic pose, finding an unseen corner of Machu Picchu seems impossible. And it is:  almost.  But there is one corner you can slip away into, if you have the time and energy.  You won’t see an incredible [...]

There’s nothing quite like a family visit to spur an expat into hyper-turistic mode.  I’ve been in Peru for about a year and a half now, and the list of places I haven’t been yet is embarrassingly long.  The last few days have seen quite a few of them scrubbed off the list, at least. [...]

#ColombiaOrBust didn’t go exactly as planned:  I made it to within a few hours drive of the Colombian border with Ecuador and regretfully turned back, leaving my Argentinian ches, Diego, Alejandro and Ari, to head on without me while I began the long haul back to Cusco in time to meet Mum when she arrives [...]

“Bad news, guys.  The engine’s doing that thing again.” It’s 4:30 am in the morning and we’re at a service station in a place called Huacho, somewhere between Lima and Trujillo.  This is not news we want to hear.  The five of us plus dog that are heaped on top of each other in the [...]

The rainy season will finally come to an end in a few weeks, Cusco will once again be blessed with too-blue skies and clear mountain air, and all of a sudden every time I turn around there will be a raging Andean fiesta going on. Peruvians, like all latinos, love their festivals.  Most tend to [...]

Update 27/07/2011 – I’ve been advised the project described in this post is currently on hold for family reasons.  I’ve heard vague reports of other permaculture projects in the Sacred Valley, and will try to track down firm details in the next few weeks.  In the meantime, feel free to get in touch for the [...]