May 2015

HEART FLUTTERS AT MACHU PICCHU

As a professional gypsy, I am very fortunate to have had the opportunity to travel to some of the most amazing places on earth. I have been affected by all of the places that I’ve visited but am very aware that not all destinations are created equal and everyone’s personal experiences in those places are different. For me, there are those places on this planet that cause my heart to flutter and face to beam every time their names are mentioned. I light up when someone asks me about them and a sense of euphoria overwhelms me when I begin to talk about them. Rapa Nui, Iguazu Falls, Torres del Paine, El Camino de Santiago, Ngorongoro Crater, and the Salar de Uyuni are a few of those places that make my heart skip a beat. The one place above all that has this euphoric effect on me is Machu Picchu. Machu Picchu is one of the most mind-blowingly beautiful places that I have ever seen. Of course there are older and more important archaeological sites in the world, but few of them have a location as stunning as Machu Picchu. The Inca were not only ingenious architects but they knew it was all about location, location, location. They could appreciate a room with a view in the 14th century. Located high above the lush Urubamba Valley, the stone buildings hug the mountain and the terraces cascade down the steep-sided slopes into the dense vegetation. There is no question that this… Read More »HEART FLUTTERS AT MACHU PICCHU

PIRAÑHA FISHING IN THE AMAZON

Deep in Ecuador’s Amazon Basin, with sweat rolling down my back, I sat patiently in the dug-out canoe under the equatorial sun’s harsh rays. The surrounding jungle was tranquil in the mid-day heat and not the cacophony of sounds heard the night before. The occasional mosquito buzzing in my ear wasn’t enough to make me lose my concentration. Nope. Bathed in DEET, I was jungle-ready and determined to catch a piranha! Piranha fishing? Whoa…back-up. Initially my boyfriend (Mike) and I were totally shocked by the guide’s suggestion, not because of the activity per se, but because there could not possibly be piranhas in the same river that we had swam in twice the day before, right?! Don’t get me wrong we were a bit crazy and had knowingly (some may say insanely) swam in the same river that we had spotted black caiman and massive anacondas in earlier…but piranhas?! They are all kinds of terrifying! Why didn’t the local guides tell us about the piranhas before we had gone swimming? Clearly because we NEVER would have gone had we known. Ever. Armed with nothing more than fishing lines, rusty hooks and rotten pieces of chicken, my boyfriend and I were poised to catch ourselves some fierce little piranhas from our dug-out canoe. Our Huaorani guide, Eduardo, demonstrated his fishing technique with such ease and within seconds, he had a piranha on his line. The fish was voraciously gnawing away at the meat…not even on the hook…when Eduardo plunked it in… Read More »PIRAÑHA FISHING IN THE AMAZON