It is a driving force in my creativity. I love losing myself in an unknown city filled with things and people and food and history that all connect together to tell a story. The story of a place and the story of who I am as a person and as a photographer.

Heck, I even like airports.

The adrenaline rush that starts consuming me as soon as I step foot into an airport is ridiculous. The sounds of people chatting in different languages, the hustle, the airline announcements, even the annoying TSA. I love it all.

I’d been wanting to visit Machu Picchu since high school. I’ll admit I’m a bit of a history nerd and visiting an ancient Incan city got my nerdy antennas going. I volunteered my sister to join me and we set off on a red eye flight to Lima together. A sister trip. We filled our ipods with old episodes of The Office, packed as lightly as we could arrived 9 hours later in Cusco.

We didn’t go with much of a plan, since the best part of adventuring is getting lost and finding things off the beaten road. We walked miles upon miles, rode horses, a train and many buses. Along with Machu Picchu, we got a chance to visit Cusco, Aguascalientes, Pisac, Saqsaywaman, Urubamba, Oyantaytambo and the capital, Lima. All with unique history and all filled with the kindest people. Markets, coffee shops, children playing with baby llamas and sheep and men playing their flutes was the usual scene in all.

We had Coca tea every day which helped a ton with altitude sickness, and the typical dish of Lomo Saltado, steak and potatoes with rice, was had almost every day. So good!

Peru was a wonderful learning and exploring experience. It’s humbling to stomp on the grounds were folks used to live hundreds of years ago. People who lived quite differently than we do now. I highly recommend everyone make it out there at least once in their life! It was an experience I will cherish forever.