There’s more to California than the coast…Lake Tahoe, Yosemite and Death Valley

Before planning this trip, I thought the Golden State was mainly about coastal scenery, from beachy towns to wild stretches of sand to seaside metropolises. But the areas of California we actually enjoyed the most were far from the Pacific. Lake Tahoe This was just added to the itinerary as a stopover but the lake itself…

California dreaming…Los Angeles to Sonoma

After the relief of getting back into the USA, we had seven weeks to explore California, Nevada, Utah and Arizona. We kicked off with a few days in Los Angeles staying with friends in Santa Monica, flexing our biceps on Muscle Beach, stalking celebrities (actually just Tobey Maguire) in Venice and generally trying to look cool….

The Inca-redible Sacred Valley

For our second week in Peru, we wanted to revisit an area we first explored 11 years ago: Cuzco and the Sacred Valley. Back then we hiked the four day Inca Trail to Machu Picchu and enjoyed the nightlife of Cuzco. This time we wanted to stay somewhere else (as well as revisiting Cuzco) in the…

Ceviche and Pisco sours A.K.A. how to cope with turning 35

A misunderstanding of the US visa rules meant we needed to exit and re-enter the country to get another 90 days in the States so we could finish our exploration. Countries neighbouring the USA were forbidden, so a trip back to South America was soon devised. We quickly booked two weeks in Peru, and in that time one of our…