I expected armed DEA agents to kick down my door any minute. Before my trip to Peru, I got lots of advice and warnings about altitude sickness. Much of it said that drinking coca tea would help. Search though I might, I could not find any coca tea before our...
Adventure / Modes of Transport / Off-the-beaten-path / South America
by Jeffrey Kontur · Published December 15, 2015 · Last modified December 23, 2015
You might say he was in the wrong line of work. A taxi driver whose driving skills are basic at best and who doesn’t know his way around his own city. He not only had to use GPS but also stop to ask directions. Four times! I’ll be the first...
by Jeffrey Kontur · Published November 6, 2015 · Last modified November 17, 2015
The promise of AmazingWorldAdventures is that you can take incredible trips without breaking the bank. Today I’m going to share a little of my process with you. My 20 year old daughter, who has been my default travel buddy for several years now, recently started planning her own trips independently...
by Jeffrey Kontur · Published September 9, 2015 · Last modified November 17, 2015
“Are you crazy?!” “You’ll starve to death.” “You’re going to end up mugged or killed.” “Why would you put your daughter in harm’s way like that?” “How are you going to communicate?” I heard all that and more. As my daughter’s 18th birthday approached, I told her that I was...
by Jeffrey Kontur · Published March 19, 2014 · Last modified February 24, 2014
People who have never been to Machu Picchu, and probably even a few who have, don’t really grasp how enormous it is. Machu Picchu is so much more than the ruins of a few stone buildings on some remote mountaintop. It was a whole village. In fact, in its day...
by Jeffrey Kontur · Published February 19, 2014 · Last modified February 12, 2014
One thing I love about travel is all the firsts. An especially fantastic trip typically has a lot of them. (I even think that’s one of the things that makes a trip especially fantastic.) For her 18th birthday, instead of wrapping up some trinket she didn’t really need I decided...
by Jeffrey Kontur · Published February 12, 2014 · Last modified June 2, 2016
As the nearest large city to Machu Picchu, Cusco Peru is the gateway to the celebrated “Lost City of the Incas”. In reality, Cusco is a modest sized city of only about 300,000 people. It is extremely scenic and picturesque, in that strange way that only third world countries have...