Colca Canyon

Such an amazing part of my trip!  I may have to return one day and make the hike to the bottom of Colca Canyon.  And maybe stop in that one small town again to get dressed up like the locals.  All I know is I sure wouldn’t mind seeing the condors fly again…pictures can’t do it justice.

The last couple are from a random bathroom stop in the middle of nowhere, and they capture what may have been the most beautiful sight of the trip.  Just goes to show that the best travel moments are hidden where you least expect.  In places not even the best guide book will talk about.

Arequipa & Chivay

 

Between Arequipa and Chivay, we hit the highest elevation of our trip (over 14,000 feet!).  One of my favorite memories happened in Chivay, where we met a little girl named Nicole.  She was so clever and curious about my camera.  I taught her some of the basics of how to use it, and could feel her own excitement as she snapped at least a hundred pictures, smiling huge the whole time.  I may have to dedicate a post to her outtakes.  I will never forget our brief but amazing interaction.

Lima, Peru

 

I’m alive and in Portland!  And will be slowly updating this blog with all my photos from the past month and a half.  Which includes the rest of Peru, my road trip from Dallas to Portland, and my time here since move-in.  It’s been crazy and busy and frustrating and stressful and wonderful!

The above photos are from my time in Lima.  The highlights for me were El Parque del Amor, the beach, and the folk dancing.  Not my favorite stop on the tour (okay, probably my least favorite, no offense Lima!), but it still had its moments.

More to come 🙂

Camping Trip Digital Short

This is a collection of clips from the camping trip in Medina a few weeks ago. I’m off to Peru, so it’ll be quiet around here for awhile. But I should be returning with some great photos, videos, stories and more!

Filming Colorado

Here’s a little video to sum up the Colorado trip. Hopefully you can see what an amazing adventure it was! I am much more excited to make my way to Oregon and live near equally amazing scenery. I love Texas, but there’s nothing like the mountains and the trees and the lakes and the coasts in the North West.

Colorado Recap: Instagram Style

“Travel brings power and love back into your life.” – Rumi

Great Sand Dunes National Park

Our final stop, and a great way to spend the morning before a long drive home.  Walking up the sand dunes was so surreal, especially with the mountains in the backdrop.  I can only imagine what the view from the top might be like…one day!

 I couldn’t be happier with how this spontaneous trip turned out.  It’s got me even more excited for the road trip up to Portland, and all the possibilities that lie there.  I’ve been taking a lot more video footage and am hoping to put something together covering the trip before I leave for Peru!

Telluride & Black Canyon National Park

I heard of Black Canyon National Park for the first time about two or so weeks ago.  Naturally, when we decided to road trip to Colorado, I knew we had to make a stop.  And I’m so glad we did, this canyon is unreal!  Maybe even better than the Grand Canyon, although they are very different and thus hard to compare.  We shared the park with leather-clad bikers and older couple and young families, so I feel like we stuck out a bit.  More kids our age need to get out to the National Parks!  If only they knew what they were missing!

We also ventured out to Telluride, hoping to see the balloon festival there that I’ve heard so much about.  Unfortunately, our timing was off, and we missed the early morning take off.  It was a great (hipster-y) little town, regardless.  With delicious food options. I definitely will be returning one day with more solid plans (maybe for the bluegrass festival, who knows…).

Hiking Breckenridge

My friend isn’t a big hiker, but she certainly appeased me by putting up with this particular adventure.  She followed me up steep hills and through trails covered in two feet of snow, and she was a trooper about it!  We heard about McCullough Gulch from our waiter at Breckenridge Brewery, and how his friend had hiked it recently, no problem.  But we failed to take into account the snowfall that occurred between the recommendation being made, and the recommendation being taken.  And on top of that, we completely missed the trailhead, and end up walking along the road for 2 extra miles before until the trail intersected with it once more and we were able to hop on there (this was my fault, I didn’t look at the map before we took off, leaving my poor, directionally challenged friend to make the calls…opps).

But even with all these incidental factors, it was still an amazing hike.  The views of the surrounding mountains from the road were outstanding, and we beasted our way through some very thick snow, which made for some funny memories of us struggling to get out of the holes we sunk into.  Plus, we got some pretty cool pictures, too.

I think the next time I visit these mountains, I’ll plan to go later in the summer, after the snow melts completely!

Red Rocks Amphitheater

I thought maybe this trip to Colorado would get some of my obsession with the state out of my system, but I was entirely wrong.  I 100% will live in the Denver area someday!  The Red Rock Amphitheater is just outside of the city, and it’s pretty cool.  We went on a whim, on the way-ish home from RMNP, and I’m so glad we did.  The Postal Service was actually playing a show there that night (soldout, unfortunately), and apparently the acoustics are amazing.  We weren’t able to explore much of the actual amphitheater since the were setting up for the show, but we did get a good workout and a good view from the trails around the venue.