Trek The Planet

Yikes! We have been really good at not keeping up with the blog, and especially so since there have been so many bloggable moments! A quick catch up! Kevin worked a lot, we went to Maine for Christmas/(South American) summer break, went skiing at Bretton Woods, Abby broke her leg (not while skiing!) -> surgery -> crutches for months, we GOT ENGAGED!, back to Peru for the second half of the semester, Abby is learning to walk again. Life in Lima has been different without the ability to move around as easily as we'd enjoyed last year but we've been up to the challenge (with a lot of help from our friends). Kevin learned how to make the ATM work in Spanish so we can still pay for stuff, the grocery store does delivery, we take more cabs, we've learned to navigate the health care system. It's working. But where has the time gone? It doesn't feel like I year but our time in Peru is down to just weeks now. This has us thinking about what's we'll be...

“One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.” Virginia Woolf We have developed a Friday night tradition of ordering pizza and watching movies. Fine….movie singular and sometimes not even that. I get up every morning at 5:30 to beat Lima traffic to work. Also, I teach--ever heard of teacher tired? It's a thing! I love the idea of watching a whole movie but Kevin says I rarely make it. I disagree! Anyway, Fridays are wonderful! Movie. Pizza. Lima Delivery is an app that makes that happen. Kevin is an expert at that call from the doorman: “Pizza? Si!!” Did I mention it is Papa John’s? I have rediscovered my college love of garlic sauce! I am going to drown a lobster in that stuff when we get home in July! So as much as I love Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays are better! Tea and books and I am one happy girl.  I do love my job! I love teaching and I especially love teaching at Roosevelt. My twenty kiddos are fun! They are so intently curious about ...

With Abby on spring break from school, we're taking some time and getting out of Lima for a few days! We hopped on a Cruz Del Sur bus late last night and woke up in the Huarez region. Well, more accurately we woke up many times between the two but overall the bus was a good way to get here and we were both surprised at how much sleep we did actually get. As soon as we got off the bus in Huarez there were guys looking to sell us tours. We probably made a mistake by going this route but we did get a 5am tour to Lagunda 69 which by all accounts is a beautiful but challenging hike. So the tour guys shuffled is into a cab, promising us a ride to Lazy Dog Inn, our hotel for the next few night but first they brought us to a hostel and tried to upsell us on everything tour related. 3 day tour, 4 day tour, bus tickets back to Lima for the end of our stay? We declined all but the one day tour and they grudgingly took our money. But that's how we met the grumpy cab driver. The fir...

Being in Lima, Peru: 3,870 miles, one timezones and a hemisphere away from my team at Portland Webworks in Portland, Maine takes the definition of remote work to a new level for me. I've had opportunity to work remotely for an extended period on two other occasions in my career and had great results, but I've also seen people struggle when the distance became a liability. Over the years I've identified some tips that have helped me. The debate over remote workers is hotly debate these days. Pros and cons on productivity, teamwork and accountability are touted on both sides. Large companies like Yahoo and IBM make the news by oscillating between policies promoting remote workers then reversing position, but companies of all sizes grapple with finding the best balance. Overall I've found my times working remote to be both my most productive periods, as well as my most isolating. I've found that reduced distractions allow me to focus and better structure my ti...

Our first month in Peru has been amazing. It's hard to believe a month has gone by already. Both Abby and I are getting settled into work, and our new apartment. We've started some good habits. We've been running- we have a goal of 16k per week (about 10 miles). We've also been trying to do a "friend's dinner" every week where we pick a night and invite some friends for a home cooked meal. I've been very happy with my work set-up. I have a desk (the only furniture we've purchased so far, everything else we have was provided with the apartment) in the guest bedroom where I have a quiet place to work. I have a decent web camera set up so I can do video meetings with my team. I even hung a little white board on the wall for sketching out designs and for Abby to leave me notes about remembering to eat lunch 😬. There have been some challenges of course. After about a week of us moving in the gas to our apartment was turned off as a res...

Abby and I found ourselves with some days to spare before her work started and while I'm between projects. Since we aren't able to get into out permanent apartment there wasn't a lot of settling we could do. So we decided to take a stab at our Peru Adventure list and see if we could fit in a little adventure. Machu Picchu was the top of the list so we cobbled together a last minute trip. We weren't able to get a spot for the Inca Trail (spots on the trail are limited by the government and sell out many months in advance for the high season) so we opted for the Lares Trek to the Sacred Valley. We booked that trek as well as a hike to Rainbow Mountain with Llama Path , a tour company with a reputation for treating their porters well including building a house for employees and families to use and providing a school in the community for employee and local children. Day 1 Saturday: Lima -> Cusco Cusco (or Cuzco) is the historical capitol of Peru from Incan tim...

We're back at the airport today to catch a flight to Cuzco (alt. 11,000 ft.). We're planning to spend a couple days there to acclimate to the elevation then do a 4 day trek through Sacred Valley to Lares and Machu Picchu. Friday we scheduled a trip up Rainbow Mountain (expect some good pics coming soon!). We'd have loved to do the Inca Trail but it books up months in advance. I'm sure there will be some great highlights from this trip we'll be glad it worked out like it did.