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Final Thoughts

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  Wow. Just wow. What a journey! These past 100+ days have been an absolutely incredible adventure, with highlights ranging from seeing a few wonders of the world to simply spending every day for an extended period with my life partner, creating memories and sharing experiences. I can’t believe it’s over but wow, what a journey it’s been. I want to thank our “sponsors” who contributed financially and emotionally to this journey, particularly my family and Sunny’s family and guests from our wedding that contributed to our honeymoon fund which allowed us to afford such incredible experiences. Also to all our friends being encouraging and giving tips along the way, we missed you and are excited to see you again! My final thought come from a description at the art exhibit we stumbled across in São Paulo. Sunny loves taking pictures of everything and I prefer more to sit back and observe so I think this quote addresses our relationship and travels in a provocative and encompassing way. ...

Cusco

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  The final stop on our adventure was to Cusco, Peru, with the primary goal of hiking to Machu Picchu, a dream of mine. As we arrived a few days early to acclimate to the high altitude, we got busy right away seeing the historic Inca sights and tasting some culinary delights as well. Our first day we checked out some ruins near the city of Cusco, important for their historic and religious significance. While a guide might have been a good investment, we enjoyed seeing the unique Inca construction of the walls and structures and reading some bits and pieces on he internet. Our day topped off with a gourmet dining experience (on a budget) of Peruvian delicacies: highly recommended! Our second day we went on an adventure into the Sacred Valley, visiting 2 sites and riding 4-wheelers, an activity Sunny has wanted to do for a few months now! Our first stop was the Mara salt mines, a natural salt collection site that uses salty water from the local mountains and dries it in shallow pools...

Bogota

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  Bogota was a wonderful final stop in Colombia: even though it was winter, the cold was not too harsh and the people were super friendly so we enjoyed a lot. One day we went on a graffiti tour; this was super interesting as neither me nor Sunny knows much about graffiti or street art in general, and the tour touched on this culture in addition to the art pieces themselves. From political to decorative, they were a beautiful splash of color to this huge city. We additionally made visits to the top of Monserrate hill for views of the city and to the renowned Gold Museum whose collection of fine gold artifacts was impressive to say the least! As a day trip from Bogota we visited the nearby Salt Cathedral of Zipaquira. This site has been an active mine for salt for over a century, but got its claim to fame as the “first wonder of Colombia” due to the transformation of various chambers into an underground cathedral carved into the salt rock. It was surprisingly impressive if gimmicky a...

Salento and Neiva

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  Salento is a small town nestled in the Colombian hills best known for its coffee production. We took full advantage of this and learned a ton about this bitter drink by visiting one of the local coffee farms and going on the tour. Unfortunately I still can’t find much enjoyment in a cup, but Sunny enjoyed tasting a few varieties and we walked away significantly more knowledgeable than when we started!   The other highlight of Salento are the super tall-about 60 meters- wax palms that grow in the Coroco Valley and the hiking throughout the nearby national park. We got to see these wacky palms as we embarked on a hike up to 3,400 meters. The hike was probably the hardest Neive done between the altitude, rain, and basically constant uphill climb, but we finally made it to a peasant farm up in the mountains and communed with other hikers for an evening before descending. Unfortunately we weren’t treated to many views but the fresh morning air cleared out the cloud cover for me t...