The world is ripe with parties and festivals, each with its own unique flavor of the local culture, cuisine, love and dance. This month’s photo contest, chosen from our Flickr group, was a celebration of travel through partying. Our winning shot comes from the Inti Raymi Festival in Cusco, Peru. This [...]

What makes a place? Is it the food, the drink, the clothing? The winning shot from this past month’s Flickr photo contest suggests a definitive answer: people. Though culture can be defined by so many things, it is passed on and embodied by those within. Congratulations to Filippo Tafi and [...]

Travelers have been visiting Machu Picchu for 100 years now, ever since Yale University professor Hiram Bingham III rediscovered the site on July 24, 1911. But with increased traffic, site degradation, and bureaucratic wrangling, many are left wondering: How much longer will visitors be able to visit Machu Picchu? Much [...]

The rain sounded different to Cusco rain. Fatter, wetter somehow, the decadent splatter of water on leaf. The drugs had me pinned between an exhausted indifference to whatever may have been crawling through the holes in walls and window screens, and a lurid imagining of too-many-legged tarantulas seeking escape from [...]

The high season for Machu Picchu is roughly June through September, as summer travelers use their vacation time to explore the ruins in the predictably good weather these months bring. In October the rainy season begins, not a great time to trek along narrow paths and camp outside. Oddly enough, [...]

Let me just start by saying that when I was a kid, I had Guinea pigs as pets. Those Guinea pigs had babies. Those babies then had babies with their parents. Those babies had an odd number of limbs. Regardless of my pet’s incestuous behavior, I loved them. When my [...]

Not for the weary traveler, the multi-day trek to Choquequirao tests even the most experienced hikers. But what about the result? How about unforgettable Inca ruins far from the crowds of tourists at that “other” site. The streets of the former Inca Capital, Cusco, Peru, are usually filled with tourists [...]

Not long ago, it was common to read a family’s vacation itinerary to include theme parks, beaches, and guided tours of museums or cathedrals. Nowadays, with the increased capacity to boldly go where few folks have gone before, family vacations are turning into, what Bella English refers to in her [...]

Were you wondering what all the fuss was about last week when we told you about how travelers were having to be flown out of Machu Picchu via helicopter due to mudslides? Take a look at this video, shot by a visitor on his way out of the ruins last [...]

• Cheap Lodging For The Olympics: The Olympics are just around the corner. If you’re on TheExpeditioner.com staff you’ll be attending (like Jon will be doing), and you can expect meager accommodations from your employer: a luxurious stay in the back of a rented van and clipped coupons for the [...]