oday I’m excited to share that I’ve been accepted into the Society of American Travel Writers (SATW). The SATW is a professional association of North American travel writers, editors, photographers, publishers, and PR pros. When I first came across the SATW a few years ago, it seemed only relevant to traditional print journalists and professional [...]
overing some 20 square kilometers of desert between Trujillo and the the Pacific Ocean, the adobe city of Chan Chan was constructed by the Chimor civilization starting around 850 AD. This was about the same time the Moche civilization, which created Huaca de la Luna and Huaca del Sol, went into decline. Chan Chan was [...]
ollowing in the footsteps of my friends Jack and Jill, I departed Chachapoyas in the mountains of northern Peru for Trujillo further south along the coast. As an aside, I took an overnight bus, which was far more comfortable, modern, and efficient than any bus I’ve taken in Colombia or Ecuador (or heck, even the [...]
ager and excited to do some hiking and view some incredible mountain scenery, I boarded a bus from Guilin to Longsheng in Guangxi Province, China. The bus driver chose to use his foghorn instead of his breaks as our public mini-bus screeched around mountain switchbacks, over tiny bridges and around completely blind turns. In just [...]
isiting Gocta Waterfall, which is arguably the world’s 3rd tallest at 771 meters (2,530 feet), is an easy day trip from Chachapoyas. For $18, you can join a tour that includes roundtrip transportation in a minivan. The park entrance fee is another $2, and a fresh trucha (trout) lunch will run $3.50. The hike from [...]
Apocalypse Later from Niles Harrison. A short film documenting my travels through the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand in October of 2011. Inspired by Francis Ford Coppola’s 1979 film “Apocalypse Now”. “Moonlight Mile” was written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards in 1971 and performed by the Rolling Stones. “Run Through the Jungle” was written [...]
One of the many reasons I chose to take the long, scenic route from Ecuador to Peru was so that I’d be in a good position to visit Kuelap, a Pre-Inca, Pre-Colombian, mountaintop fortress built by the Chachapoyans (know as the Cloud Forest people). Little is known about Kuelap, though we do know through carbon dating [...]
My first stop in Peru was the town of Chachapoyas. This pueblo, which is far smaller and far less visited by tourists than Cusco, is the ideal base for exploring the Pre-Incan ruins of northern Peru.