
[Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria] The river Yantra begins high up on the slopes of the Balkans, and winds its way down to the Danube. On the way, Yantra carves up gorges around the hills of present-day Veliko Tarnovo where the medieval Bulgarian Khans decided to build the stronghold of the Second Bulgarian Empire. Named Tsarevets, after one of the three hills in the area, the stronghold became the most important political, economic, religious… Read More
[Arequipa, Peru] Our transport to Arequipa was another bus ride with guided tours of sights along the way. Our first stop was Lagunillas lake, which, in the winter time, is home to Chillean pink flamingos. We could only observe them from afar, but the landscape was still beautiful. We made a couple of other stops to admire glaciers and volcanoes along the way. Before veering off to Arequipa, we drove by Pampa… Read More
[Cusco, Peru] When I woke up this morning at 5:30 am, I did not feel like I had only gotten 3 hours of sleep. I was excited to finally begin the three day journey through the Peruvian Andes that would take us to Machu Picchu by Friday. Cuzco, our first stop in the district, was the historical capital of the Incan Empire and was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Historical Site in… Read More
[Lima, Peru] Our first day in Lima could not have been any better! We woke up relatively early so that we can get breakfast and get our day started. By 9 am, we were ready to set off for the short walk from our B&B to Larcomar, a shopping center nearby that makes for an unlikely tourist attraction due to the fact that is carved off the cliff and cannot even be… Read More
[Mysore, India] Faced with the prospect of spending the entire Saturday in Bangalore with hardly anything to do and a late flight to Hong Kong (11 pm), we decided to take another road trip instead. The destination: Mysore, the cultural capital of the state of Karnataka, and a city known for its palaces and temples.