We couldn’t come to Peru and skip Machu Picchu, but we’re skipping the crowded Inca Trail. We’ve found an alternate route boasting fewer trekkers, more Quechua culture, and unencumbered vistas of peaks, glaciers, and rivers: the Lares Valley Trek.

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If a fairy godmother offered me three decadent days, of the G-rated variety, I’d wish for one like this: filled with chocolate. The Denver Gourmet Tour du Chocolate isn’t only delicious, but also educational. A day learning about chocolate is a day you don’t want to ditch school.

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Here’s a moody moment from my trek around the world that didn’t make it into my memoir, “They Only Eat Their Husbands.” It’s a reminder that solo travel is sometimes romantic, often lonely, but always stirring. This one takes place in America. It is a story of sand and solitude, though it didn’t start out that way.

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The Lighthouse Writers Workshop has published my first author interview! If you’d like to learn more about They Only Eat Their Husbands, my memoir of adventure in Alaska and around the world, and about the challenge of writing a book and getting published, check it out. You can read the interview in this fall edition of The Beacon, under “Meet Two of Lighthouse’s Rising Stars.” Star? Wow, I hope. For now, let’s just call me a reflective planet with possibilities!

https://lighthousewriters.org/images/document/217-Beacon%20October%20November%202009.pdf

As our car approaches Seward, Alaska, clouds crowd the mountaintops. When we reach Resurrection Bay, they’re sagging low and heavy, like pregnant women ready to give birth. Certainly their water is breaking. Nonetheless, I call the kayaking company, to see if they’re planning to go through with the 3-hour guided paddle at 1:00. It’s 11:00, and they’re still not sure. They’ll decide by 12:30. The forecast calls for 3-to-5-foot waves, but often those forecasts come to nothing.

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