Preparing for Our Trip

Chris and I are getting ready for our next trip to Mexico City, Panama City, the Galapagos Islands, and Peru. We'll be spending lots of time in the places we're visiting so we can really get to know the area. In total, we'll be traveling for about 4 months. Long-term travel is different than just going away on vacation for a few weeks and the planning we need to do for a long trip takes a bit more effort.

We're heading to the doctor to update our vaccines and get meds like malaria pills, preparing to leave by making sure our home and finances are in order, checking our gear, and packing everything we need for our trip into one backpack each. Check out the full blog posts here.

Mexico City

We're in this beautiful city for a month and our list of places to see and things to do keep growing. At the top of our list is exploring the historic downtown center, which was once known as Tenochtitlan - the capital of the Aztec empire, including Zocalo and El Templo Mayor, visiting the Teotihuacan archeological site, taking a colourful boat called a trajinera along the canals in Xochimilco, walking through Chapultepec forest, visiting as many street markets as we can find, and trying lots of food. Check out the full blog posts here.

Panama City

Panama City has been a whirlwind! We were only here for a couple of days on the Copa Airlines "Stop Over" program so we had to run all around the city seeing as much as we could in the short time we had! In just two days we saw huge ships go through the Panama Canal, took a boat ride to see the wildlife and ships on Gatun Lake, hiked up to the top of the Metropolitan Natural Park, walked to the end of the causeway, toured Casco Viejo, visited Panama Viejo (old Panama), and walked the downtown and malecon areas. All in 30+ degree heat and humidity! Check out the full blog posts here.

Galapagos Islands

As long-term travellers, we're touring the Galapagos Islands a little bit differently than most people. We've rented an apartment for a month in the biggest town in the Galapagos, called Puerto Ayora, located on Santa Cruz Island. From there, we're going snorkeling with the sea lions, ray, sharks, sea turtles, and tropical fish, going hiking to visit the giant tortoises, and taking in life in this UNESCO world heritage site. Check out the full blog posts here.

Ecuador

Cuenca, Ecuador is a city of just under half a million people located in the Ecuadorian Andes. And it has attracted a lot of early retirees and people looking for a less expensive cost-of-living. So we we're going to see what all the fuss is about. And afterwrds we're taking a quick side-trip to Quito to visit the Equator line. Our blog posts on Ecuador are here.

Peru

We're breaking out of our usual travel style to do a 6-week tour of Peru. We're starting in the capital city of Lima, then heading to Arequipia and hiking the Colca Canyon. After we're going to Cusco to visit the city and hike the Salkantay and Inca trails, ending the trek in Machu Picchu. And finally, we're going to Iquitos, the world's largest city that's inaccessible by car to catch a boat into the Amazon junble. Read our full blog posts here.