Elizabeth’s Adventures

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Hi! I’m Elizabeth. Let’s go explore the world.

Countries visited so far

  • Amazon Jungle Adventure

    The day after we explored Machu Picchu in the rain we headed to the airport and flew into the Peruvian Amazon jungle. Our tour started in Puerto Maldonado, Peru. This town is at the confluence of the Tambopata and Madre de Dios rivers, which is a major tributary of the Amazon. We had booked a 4 day, 3 night jungle lodge stay with Intrepid Travel.

    However, as per the course for this trip, I got sick. I’m blaming the food in the tourist town of Agua Calientes (gateway to Machu Picchu) but it could have been anything. So instead of 4 days we shortened our trip to 3 days and 2 nights. (My mom thinks I got sick so much this trip because I knew she’d be along to take care of me. Hard to believe she is soooo much older than me, yet I’m the one who was sick repeatedly on this trip).

    Once I felt well enough to leave the hotel, we caught a motorized canoe upriver to the lodge. Sadly, our group tour was again a private one due to the lack of tourists. We were starting to miss having other people to talk to after 3 weeks together.

    The lodge had space for 20 guests so it felt very empty with just the two of us. There was the guide, cook, boat captain, and the cook’s children. Upon arriving we ate a large lunch and explored the rooms. The cabin lacked windows and screens but thankfully the beds had mosquito nets. There was electricity a few hours each day and flushing toilets in each cabin.

    The tour included lots of activities. One evening we walked to a rickety, old viewing tower (mom thought we would fall to our deaths) in the middle of the jungle, climbed up 160 stairs, and watched the macaws and other parrots fly. Later, our guide insisted on showing us every single tarantula in the forest. We also saw a tapir that had survived a puma attack. The next day included more bird watching, monkeys jumping over our heads, fishing for piranhas and caiman viewing at night.

    We loved relaxing in the middle of the jungle and hearing the birds call. The mosquitos ate me alive even with long sleeves and layers of mosquito repellent. But even with the annoyances, the ecosystems of the Amazon jungles are worth exploring and protecting.

    p.s. My mom wants me to add that I got over 40 mosquito bites in the jungle while she only got 4. We both applied tons of repellent and wore long sleeves and pants, but I was the lucky one — again. . . . Maybe one day I’ll write a blog on the pros and cons of traveling with one’s mother. (Love ya’ Mom!)

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  • Inca Trail Express

    After altitude sickness in Puno the last thing I wanted to do was go trekking. However, we had booked a tour from Cusco to Machu Picchu with Intrepid that included a 3D/2N trek called the Quarry Trail.

    The first day of the tour we explored Cusco with a guide. The other (all much older than me) members of the tour must have thought I was pathetic since I could barely keep up and had to keep asking them to wait. We went chocolate tasting, admired the local market, saw temples and many churches.

    The next day we entered into Ollantaytambo or the Sacred Valley. We visited a community farm, ate delicious local food, looked for birds and just enjoyed feeling a bit better. The following day we started our trek.

    This trek was a highlight for me. I finally wasn’t feeling so sick and my body impressed me. Our group split into two so my mom and I had our own private guide and crew for the next 3 days. The summit was 14,600 ft. The surrounding mountain peaks were 19,000+ft. Unlike the Inca Trail, we didn’t see any other tourists on this trek. Just farmers, herders, and animals. The Andean condor flew over as we descended on the last day.

    After the spectacular weather, scenery and emotional high of trekking the Quarry Trail, our arrival to Machu Picchu in the rain was a let down. We saw the ruins and got to wander around with hoards of other rain-soaked tourists. However, it didn’t have the same impact as it would have had on a clear day when you can absorb this ancient city perched on a mountain top. We’d seen lots of Inca sites leading up to Machu Picchu and they felt just as impressive.

    I don’t want to end this section giving my readers a falsely negative impression. Au contraire, I loved the Sacred Valley, the lush forests, massive mountains, challenging hiking, attentive and knowledgeable guides, local crafts and fresh fruit and veggies! Peru is full of many different landforms and habitats, wild animals and birds. A month traveling there barely scratches the surface!

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  • Lima to Cusco with PeruHop

    Instead of flying to Cusco from Lima we took buses. Why? Mostly because I was scared of altitude sickness and had read it was better to slowly acclimatize. Cusco is at 11,200 feet while Lima is at sea level. The summit of Mt Hood in my home state of Oregon is 11,239. Only 39 ft higher!

    In addition to avoiding sickness, the buses would let us explore lots more of the country. I chose PeruHop since it was easy. They picked us up at our accommodation, provided an English speaking guide, included a few fun stops and allowed us to book one ticket for the whole trip. We took 7 days to get to Cusco.

    Our first stop of the day was Paracas. It was a barren desert all the way to the coast. There is normally incredible wildlife on a few islands offshore but sadly the tour boats weren’t running due to the weather. The fog made everything look otherworldly.

    We spent the night in Huacachina. It’s a little village in an incredible desert oasis with sand dunes all around. This was a highlight of the trip for me.

    The next bus ride took us to the Nazca lines. These are hard to photograph the scale of but picture football field-sized figures drawn in the desert rocks. Now imagine the figures are between 1500-2500 years old. Then we took an overnight bus to Arequipa. A stop for an evening wine tasting and large dinner made the bus ride not that bad. Arequipa was a gorgeous historic town surrounded by volcanoes.

    View from hotel in Puno

    After a few days in Arequipa (7,546ft) we felt strong and ready to tackle the higher elevation. Our bus drove us up to Puno with sitings of vicuña and viscacha along the way. We stopped for a stretch and potty break at Lagunillas (14,580). I felt weak but overall ok. We had some coca tea just in case. However, the altitude hit me as we arrived in Puno (12,565). I fainted on a street corner and spent the next few days in bed feeling horrible. A doctor visited, reassuring me I wasn’t dying and giving me 4 kinds of pills to combat this sickness, but I didn’t have an enjoyable time.

    After two horrible nights in Puno, we finally headed for Cusco. Cusco is a bit lower so between that, the altitude medication and time to acclimatize I should have felt better. I was well enough to slowly walk around the main sites and eat plain chicken with rice.

    While I still got altitude sickness, I am glad we took the long route to Cusco. Arequipa was my favorite city in Peru, the coast and desert oasis unique, and the animals interesting. The guides on each bus made sure we knew where to go and they helped take care of me when I got sick. If I did it again, I might pick a route that avoided the very high elevation of Puno or just take altitude medication in advance 🙂

  • Language School in Lima, Peru

    April 2022. The covid pandemic finally seems more manageable. Vaccines have been out for 1.5 years. Omicron has peaked. Travel restrictions have finally started to ease. Now it was time to go on a “big trip”.

    A “big trip” for me is more than a week or two vacation. It is travel where you have time to dig deeper. Maybe it’s time to explore more of a country or learn the language. This time I had 9 weeks off work and I planned to spend 6 weeks in Peru and Ecuador. My goals were to travel all over Peru, improve my Spanish skills, complete a trek towards Machu Picchu and explore the Galapagos.

    Language school in Lima was step one of the trip. My mother came along and we both attended Spanish school in the morning then explored Lima in the afternoon. I studied Spanish in university and lived in Spain for a few years but the vocabulary and even the grammar in Peru is different. This week of class helped me adjust and not make as many embarrassing mistakes.

    The first afternoon we tasted our first ceviche of the trip. Delicious! Then we explored the neighborhood of Miraflores.

    The next day we joined a walking tour of the old town

    Wednesday walked over to Barranco, a neighborhood with a small town feel, and had ceviche style sushi. Yummy!

    Thursday we tried lots of different fruits from a local market. Granadilla is the orange and grey one, maracuya/ passion fruit is the orange and white, cherimoya/ custard apple is the white and green, carambola/ star fruit is the yellow one.

    Friday we graduated from Spanish School! In the afternoon we visited Huaca Pucllana, a clay pyramid from 200-700 AD. They laid the bricks vertically which is thought to help prevent collapse during earthquakes. Dinner included Causa Limeña- a typical dish made from layers of potato, avocado and fish.

    After a week in Lima, it was finally time to leave. I enjoyed the city but felt ready to explore more of the countryside. Plus I was tired of homework 🙂 sitting in class for three hours was an adjustment.

  • Iceland in the Winter-2021

    Let’s rewind to 2020. We are in lockdown. I’m watching youtube travel videos and stumble upon Flying-the-Nest camping in Iceland. How pretty! Everything is green and the temperature is mild. Fast forward to May 2021. Iceland is one of the first places to open back up for travel. The travel planning starts and I realize Iceland is expensive. I book the camping in Iceland tour for August and hope for the best.

    My naive self thought Iceland in August would be dry and mild. However, the weather was mostly in the 50s and raining the week I was supposed to be there. I’m from the Pacific Northwest and have experienced camping in the rain enough to prefer not to. Thankfully, my grandmother chose the week before to get COVID so I cancelled my trip, left my travel nurse job in New York City a week early and flew to her home to help take care of her. Thanks to the vaccines and modern medicine she improved over the next few weeks before returning more or less to her precovid baseline.

    Fast forward to December 2021. Intrepid travel thankfully let me switch my trip to the “Northern Lights Escape” and I just had to pay the difference in tour price. Hotels cost more than campsites- surprise 🙂

    First day in Reykjavik. My overnight flight on Icelandair wasn’t too bad. I tried to beat the jet lag by hanging out at the Blue Lagoon for a few hours. I took a short nap on the bus into the city and tried to gather my energy. Thankfully, Night Shift nursing is great practice for surviving while sleep deprived. I had an Icelandic hotdog for lunch and otherwise just wandered the streets in Reykjavik.

    This was my third tour with Intrepid. We had a local guide and a small group of tourists, and we traveled in a van around the south coast. It was a lot of driving and the daylight was very minimal, but between the folk stories from the guide, local Icelandic music and time spent chatting with the other tourists, the drives went quickly.

    Tbingvelir National Park, Strokkur Geysir, Gullfoss Waterfall and my lunch of bread and salami.

    We all really wanted to see the northern lights but the first few nights it was cloudy. I hadn’t realized that the clouds block your view of my the northern lights but it’s just like stars. You need clear skies plus electrical activity to see the northern lights. So we continued with the road trip

    Skogafoss waterfall, Reynisfjara/ black sand beach, and Dyrholaey. Not pictured- sneaker waves trying to pull people out to sea.

    We drove through lava beds left over from the 1783 eruption that caused the mini ice age. This night we lucked out and the northern lights danced across the sky. The experience was even more magical than I expected. I absolutely recommend everyone try to see the lights at least once.

    On our final day in the countryside we visited the largest glacier in Europe, Vatnajokull. This was what I had been looking forward to the most. We were going to hike over the glacier. Sadly, the weather wasn’t safe for hiking so we visited an ice cave instead. This was the most touristy activity of the whole trip. Yes, it was amazing to walk inside a glacier but the lines and lines of tourists really took away from the experience. It was sad. The glacier had retreated so much in just the past year that we had to walk 30 minutes to get to the glacier when before the trucks could reach it. Climate change and its effects were glaring me in the face. Yes, the gushing river was interesting, but seeing how quickly the ice was melting was just sobering. Glad I got to visit but it was hard to take selfies when I was feeling such profound emotions about the state of our planet.

    The trip ended back in Reykjavik. The group meshed really well and it was sad saying goodbye. Group tours are special in that you meet new people, then spend all day, every day together for a week, and by the end it feels like you’ve known each other for months or years. But then everyone goes separate ways. I picked up some Christmas presents and enjoyed the Christmas lights before flying back home.

    Christmas Cat- wear new clothes for Christmas or the cat will steal you away in the night

  • 1 week in Costa Rica – 2019

    Costa Rica is gorgeous country just a few hours’ flight from the US. It was my first real international trip. My 8th grade Spanish class visited for two weeks to celebrate the end of middle school and practice our Spanish. We stayed in homestays, volunteered at a school, hiked in the mountains, played on the beach and got a little taste of freedom. I was hooked. Fast forward a few years to 2019. My friend Monika and I wanted to go on an adventure. We had both studied in Madrid, Spain, and done lots of cheap travel in western Europe, but now we had been back in the states for three years. We wanted a backpacking, staying in hostels, eating cheap food type of adventure. Costa Rica with its small yet incredibly varied countryside seemed the perfect choice.

    The plan was to arrive in San José, each find our own way to the hostel, and then head up to Arenal Volcano the next day to start our week-long adventure around the country.

    StrayCat hostel- this place was great. I arrived early and two volunteers took me around to city to see an outdoor music festival. We all ordered pizza in the common room for dinner.
    Monika and I ran into each other somehow while wandering the streets of old town San José.
    The hostel had a walking tour that explored the central market. Lots of fresh fruits and veggies
    We managed to take a public bus up to La Fortuna which is at the base of the Arenal Volcano. We ate at local “soda” restaurants where we got lots of beans, rice, plantains and delicious fruit milkshakes.
    We hiked all the way from town to this waterfall instead of catching a taxi. I think it saved us $20.
    Boat ride to Monteverde with Arenal Volcano in the background

    The quickest way from La Fortuna to Monteverde was a “jeep, boat, jeep”. The boat was beautiful but I remember the last part in the jeep as horrible. I get motion sick and even with my drugs I felt sick. The roads were very rough and it felt like we drove for hours.

    Monteverde and the Cloud Forest Preserve was totally worth it. Sunny skies, mild weather, lots of birds and animals plus incredible forests. Monteverde is the town where my school trip spent a week in a homestay. A lot had changed in the 10 years since I had been there. It is touristy but still worth a visit.

    Zip lining through the canopy was my highlight
    Or maybe just admiring the size of the trees

    Then it was time to head to the bus station again and head toward the Pacific coast.

    Hopped off the bus in Puntarenas. Quick beach break before catching another bus to Manuel Antonio

    The Manuel Antonio National Park is incredible and absolutely worth the ticket price and long wait to enter. Gorgeous sandy beaches, calm warm water, hiking trails along the coast line, monkeys, sloths and tons of birds.

    We ended our time in Costa Rica with a sunset cruise. We got to snorkel and sunbath before the sun set. A fun way to relax and celebrate a successful trip. Thanks, Monika, for being one of my favorite travel partners!