This trip was a lot of firsts for me. First time in South America, first time traveling with my boyfriend (Tim), first time traveling with my brother (Bryan) and his wife (Bridget), and first time using Adventure Life. Before leaving California, I had diligently read the ''Departure Information for the Machu Picchu Pilgrimage'' and …

We had no pre-set plans or arrangements for our time in Lima so we had decided to stay within walking distance of our hotel and just explore. The weather was typical for Lima with mild temperatures and a heavy marine layer blocking the sun. We started out by taking a self-guided tour through some Indian markets on our way to Huaca Pucllana, a …

On this morning we headed to the airport for the short (just over an hour) internal flight to Cusco. There were some amazing views of the Andes from the plane window and upon arrival in Cusco we were greeted by our AMAZING guide for the remainder of our trip, Teddy. He and our driver Orelleo took us to check in at our hotel and then we were off to …

This was a super fun day and we're all glad that it was a part of our trip. Our rafting guide - Alexander - met up with us the night before to do a little prep and go over what we needed to bring for the day which started at 8am. It took about a two hour drive south to get to the point of the river that we would be starting on. The drive was …

Today we left Cusco to journey to the Sacred Valley and ultimately Ollaytatambo. It is impossible to comment about the drive out of Cusco without mentioning the plethora of stray dogs that seem to overtake the city's outer edges. I wonder how they all manage to get enough to eat while appearing to leave the roaming chickens and such alone. Our …

I was a bundle of nerves and excitement as this day began. Had we physically prepared enough? Had we packed correctly? Would I starve, or worse, get sick on the trail? Could I make it four days without plumbing? Would Tim's knee be okay? Would we make it to Machu Picchu in one piece and still in love? Would the journey be as magical as I had …

In Tim's words ''This is no joke!'' The hiking on day two was difficult made more so by the fact that we didn't really get much sleep our first night in our tents. We all had the crazy assumption that roosters only started crowing in the morning as the sun was rising but at the campsite in Huayllabamba, they crow ALL night …

The first portion of the hike on day 3 was a pretty sharp incline, significantly shorter in duration than day 2 but I had thought all of the climbing was behind me and was exhausted before we reached the ruins of Runkuracay (less an hour into the day). But the day definitely got better and we had a fabulous time exploring the ruins of Sayacmarca. …

Day three ended and Day four began with all of us awake listening to a symphony of frogs. Apparently these particular frogs are tiny and transparent so they overcompensate your inability to see them by being too loud to ignore. Similar to the song of the roosters the night of day one, these frogs were able to keep it going all night long. But the …