Sharry Miller

Peru - Cusco

Travel courteously: Consideration for your fellow travelers and your hosts will smooth the way through the most difficult days. October 4 - 6, 2013 Cusco, or Qosqo as it's called in Quechua, a city of nearly 400,000 people in southeastern Peru. The Inca called it "the navel of the world," and it was the center of their empire. Now it is a cultural center in Peru, and the usual starting point for trips to Machu... Read more →

Peru - Uros, Taquile

Travel expectantly: Every place you visit is like a surprise package to be opened. Untie the strings with an expectation of high adventure. October 2, 2013 To my great delight, I met a couple from Oregon, Jerry and Debbie, at my hotel. They spoke English! And ironically, they'd lived in Juneau for 30 years before retiring south. These wonderful people were kind enough to let me tag along with them for a day on Lake... Read more →

Peru - Puno, Sillustani

Travel fearlessly: Banish worry and timidity; the world and its people belong to you just as you belong to the world.* October 1, 2013 I pressed my back hard against the cement wall and raised my camera to my eye, hoping desperately that no one would take offense at my photographing the crowd. Hundreds of men and women streamed past me on the narrow cobblestone street, blue and orange and gold hard hats bobbing as... Read more →

Peru - Puno

She woke up and realized she had forgotten the definition of the word "impossible." She decided it must not have been that important.* September 30, 2013 It seems to be my destiny to arrive in a strange (to me) place and hire a taxi driver who assures me he can take me to my hotel and who then proceeds to abundantly prove, even though I don't speak his language, that he has no idea where... Read more →

Hello Home

I'm going to cheat and jump ahead in the tale I've promised over and over to tell. Just 41 hours ago I finally made it home from Peru. I promise, once again, to tell you all about my adventures over the past three weeks, but first I need to express gratitude for making it back home. I was supposed to leave Cusco, Peru last Thursday afternoon at 4:55, but just as we were about to... Read more →

Vagaries of Time

Alas, this is not a post about the wondrous miracle of time travel. The Doctor has not come to whisk me away in the Tardis to marvelous places and distant times. It is only a brief commentary on time zones. In a proper use of time and space, Alaska would have five time zones. Time changes infinitely and incrementally as longitude changes, that is, as one moves east to west (or vice versa). At the... Read more →

Packing for Peru

It's been almost a year and a half since I wrote a post I called Packing for Bhutan. Not surprisingly, my thoughts then were very similar to my thoughts now as I pack to leave for Peru later this week, and for much the same reason. I need to be prepared to spend time at high altitude in another major mountain range. In Bhutan, we never exceeded about 10,000 feet in the Himalayas. This year,... Read more →

One Week to Peru!

The sun was shining, but I should have listened to my gut and worn a long-sleeved jersey for my ride. I had light goosebumps the whole 20 miles. They got a little bigger in the shady areas. Regardless, with just a week left until I head for Peru, I had to get some more exercise. Sun-kissed fresh snow on mountain tops may be one of the most beautiful sights around, but it's one I am... Read more →

No Need to Rewild on the Pack Trail

A week or so ago, I found a Facebook event link for the Rewild Your Life 30 Day Challenge being sponsored by We Are Wildness. Website owners Alissa Wild and Kevin Park say on their site: We Are Wildness is a website dedicated to the awareness of human wildness and our important connection to Nature. The project is for people who want to positively change their lives, create community, live naturally, evolve, discover and become... Read more →

Happy Right Here

The words repeated like a mantra in my head: Ollantaytambo, Huayna Picchu, Salcantay, Machu Picchu. I said them silently, carefully forming the words in my head, seeing them written in the space behind my eyes, correcting my unspoken pronunciation. I imagined the thrill of seeing these places in person. I lost myself in an imagined future in Peru. I was pedaling hard, enjoying the headwind for the challenge it presented, the opportunity to improve my... Read more →