Bruce and Barbara Exstrum recently returned from a custom Myths and Mountains journey to Peru! Below is an intriguing account of their experience and a few photos, snapped along the way.... 

We wanted to celebrate our milestone birthdays with a special trip.  Our planning started with Machu Picchu and escalated from there.  How much could we fit into 14 days but spend enough time to get to know each place?  Allie took our wish list and turned it into a well-crafted custom itinerary:  deep rain forest for a week, then Cuzco-Machu Picchu-Sacred Valley, followed by a scenic bus ride to Puno with a home stay on Lake Titicaca, and just enough time for a day’s tour of Lima before heading home.  We emerged at the other end exhausted (by design) but very happy and with many wonderful memories.  We made all of our connections, the accommodations were as advertised, and our guides were very professional, knowledgeable, and fun to be with.    

We highly recommend the Tambopata Research Center for getting the full rain forest experience, complete with a rare spider monkey sighting (plus watching the expert river pilots in both low water and very high water), Machu Picchu of course (no pictures prepare you for how breathtaking that first view is), the bus from Cuzco to Puno (we were dubious about the wisdom of taking a 9-hour bus ride, but it’s a really comfortable bus with interesting stops and as it turned out, we appreciated the chance to sit for a while), and the home stay on Taquile Island in Lake Titicaca, which  came with beautiful people, beautiful views, and some of the best food of the trip. 

However, we may not yet be able to claim membership in the Adventure Travel community because 1) Everything went as planned.  2) The closest we came to a “crisis” was having the soles of Barb’s hiking boots come apart (both shoes!) halfway through our visit to Machu Picchu. In an uncharacteristic fit of packing light, Barb had brought only these shoes on this part of the trip, but was saved by a kind vendor at the market in Aguas Calientes who not only had superglue for sale, but helped us apply it to make sure it would work (temporarily, but long enough to get us through the day). 3) We spent our last several hours before our late flight from Lima observing the local culture at the high-end cliffside Larcomar shopping center (but there is a small satellite of the Gold Museum there).  Did we mention we were exhausted and not thinking clearly?

Thanks again to Allie, Katie, and everyone at M&M and their excellent local providers for giving us such a memorable experience and several future months of sorting and editing the photos. 

Here is a quick sampling of some of my favorite photos from our private trip to Peru. We have so many grand tales about our trip to Peru - from drinking homemade strawberry beer in a tiny, dirt-floored local bar, to being invited to the private ceremony celebrating the first haircut of a 4-month-old Aymaran baby (his mother was our guide), to rafting with a guide who was a member of the Peruvian Olympic kayak team. The topography, the people, the culture, the colors of Peru—from their yarn to their dirt, all together create an irresistible photographic journey.

About the pictures: 1) Machu Picchu, 2) from the drive to Colca Canyon where one really does feel like he is at the top of the world (the moss you see below the girls’ feet takes over a hundred years to grow), and 3) from Uros. The bird is indeed an Andean condor, the largest in the world. It was captured as a baby by one of the boys of the island and is almost full grown. I took four or five pictures of him and the two boats, but in this one he seemed to look straight at the camera. All together, they tell a wonderful tale. I am fascinated by the company that you have created.

I am a retired Advanced Placement English teacher, now pursuing my three passions, travel, writing and photography and hope one day we can travel again with you.

Sally Vihlen