Still acclimating to the altitude, we skipped the steep climb up Vinicunca for the more gradual but still strenuous incline up Palccoyo mountain. The long drive and low oxygen at 5,000-meter elevation made for a grueling day trip, complete with dusty clothes for us and Raynaud’s phenomenon for Melody. Our dining options were limited without reservations, but Pachapapa’s baked trout and lamb shank washed down nicely with their chicha morada. We awoke Wednesday to drop off laundry and enjoy our hotel’s buffet breakfast and freshly-washed resident baby alpaca. We then Ubered to Sacsayhuaman, where our driver sent us climbing a steep hill to the fort’s back entrance which left us breathless as we wandered the zig zag walls, lava-rock slide, and cave-like tunnels. We split up on the steep descent through the San Blas district, as Melody and Westley waited for a pizza while I snapped photos of the unimpressive plaza and twelve-angled stone en route to the ChocoMuseo for our Bean-to-Bar workshop. Here, we learned about the chocolate-making process, sipped a cup of Aztec-style hot chocolate, and worked our arms grinding cocoa beans and pouring chocolate molds before returning in the evening to pick up our treats, solve “llama” on Wordle, and share chaufa and chifa hot pot at Chicha. Our early Lima flight and hotel check-in on Thursday gave us some rest before our walking tour of Barranco’s Plaza de Armas, Bridge of Sighs, Iglesia la Ermita, and various murals. Lunch at Isolina included a butifarra sandwich, ceviche, and layered minced meat on rice that did not match the restaurant’s hype. Melody passed out at the hotel, but struggled through her cold to stroll along the Malecon. There, we took in views of the Pacific and watched locals enjoy picnics, playgrounds, and paragliding before dinner at Maido. The Peruvian-Nikkei tasting menu at the “World’s Best Restaurant” were highlighted by freshly-sliced toro and a-la-carte black cod tempura “fish sticks” for Westley. We took a private tour to Paracas on Friday, where our boat tour of Ballestas Island featured pelicans, penguins, and sea lions that were worth the bumpy ride. We toured the vineyard and lunched at CulturPisco, then headed to Huacachina oasis for an adrenaline-fueled dune buggy and sandboarding adventure until sunset. The screwy shower knobs at our hotel led to a cold shower that had me shivering until we warmed up to pasta and pizza for dinner. Luckily, we slept through the Friday night partying before our early drive to Nazca next morning. Here, we toured the Cantalloc Aqueducts and were lucky to catch the nausea-inducing flight to view the Nazca lines before the airport closed down for a sandstorm. With the inclement weather, we skipped the Chauchilla cemetery for an earlier lunch and drive back. Our flight home was delayed by 3+ hours, which scored us meal vouchers at Las Reyes but an extra connection through LAX before we arrived home 6 hours later. Despite the mosquito bites, altitude sickness, and URI, our Peruvian journey was a fulfilling mix of wildlife and culture, luxury and adventure, and a trip to remember.

Cusco is more than 11,000 ft above sea level, so we booked a ride directly to Ollantaytambo and popped acetazolamide to better acclimate to the altitude. Westley was too exhausted for dinner in town and missed out on Apu Veronica’s hearty quinoa soup, alpaca skewers, and chicharrones. The walk back was slow, however, as our tiny house was hard to find in the dark and Melody struggled to catch her breath. The unheated and uninsulated tiny house required extra blankets and hot water bottles overnight, but the morning revealed the property’s charming garden, golden retriever, and yoga deck. We retraced our path in daylight to Ollataytambo station for our train to Macchu Picchu. The Hiram Bingham was decked out in old-world opulence, pampering us with a lavish lunch and complimentary backpacks to our destination. Voted one of the “new” Seven Wonders in 2007, Machu Picchu was breathtaking, as our knowledgeable guide taught us about the site’s purported function as a learning center or pilgrimage site, and its unique architectural feats in mortar-less masonry, advanced irrigation, and astronomical alignments. We concluded with elaborate snacks and mocktails at Sanctuary Lodge, then boarded the Vistadome train that featured music, an alpaca-clothing fashion show, but no views after dark. We had dinner at Apu Veronica again for soups and cuy al horno – roasted guinea pig with more bone than meat. On Sunday, we awoke early to tour the Ollantaytambo Ruins and its resident alpacas and llamas, hunted for an ATM, then relaxed with late breakfast tacos and pancakes at Sunshine Cafe. Our day driver took us on a tour through the terraces of Moray, salineras de Maras, and a stop in Chinchero for a textile demo and alpaca sweater shopping alongside beeping guinea pigs and a moaning baby alpaca. We arrived in Pisac for dinner, where we watched a French cartoon in Spanish with the owners’ daughters as we sampled sopa criolla, loma saltado, and more food than we could handle. Our cute guest house’s made-to-order breakfast stuffed us even more for a morning of bargaining at Pisac market for an alpaca blanket, fish paintings, and carved gourds. The hotel staff offered to drive us to Cusco himself, with stops at Awana Kancha to feed llamas, alpacas, vicunas, and guanacos, and at Cochahuasi Animal Sanctuary to marvel at Andean condors, say ‘hola’ to saluting macaws, and gawk at a spectacle bear. Our room at the Palacio del Inka was not yet ready when we arrived, so we checked out the Colonial-style property and nearby Quorikancha where Christians built a church atop Incan temples. After settling in, we explored the bustling Plaza de Armas and tried Nikkei fare to feed Westley’s udon cravings as we prepared for the rest of our Andean experience.

The Amazon has always been on Melody’s bucket list, which helped kickstart our action-packed itinerary to Peru this summer. Melody returned from a work trip at midnight to find us still awake ahead of our 5am flight. We bought playing cards to replace our forgotten MTG deck for our 5-hour layover in Houston, but had only 30 minutes at the KLM lounge to learn Spit and Speed before filling on gumbo and etouffee and starting our malarone prophylaxis. Our Barranco hotel served as home base to explore Huaca Pucllana and the historic city center. After learning about Lima culture and the adobe and clay pyramid, we shared La Lucha’s chicharron sandwich and La Mar’s ceviche and arroz marisco, then Ubered to tour the ornate altars at Iglesia de la Merced, Moorish facade of the Palacio de Torre Tagle, and mosaics at Catedral de Lima. Plaza Mayor was bustling with tourists as we squeezed our way to the Convento Santo Domingo, bought Westley a fluffy toy alpaca, and sampled street vendor churros, queso helado, and mystery crema. We snapped photos of Casa de La Literatra Peruana’s stained-glass ceiling in the historic Desamparados Station en route to the impressive catacombs of Convento San Francisco and nearby Parque de la Muralla. Too exhausted for the Circuito Magico del Agua, we shared wonton soup and beef chow fun at Chifa Dragon Tong before calling it a night. We awoke Monday for our flight to Iquitos to meet our Aqua Expeditions crew, enjoy lunch on a floating restaurant, and bus to Nauta for orientation and safety training for our 4-night Amazon cruise. Our first morning excursion included sightings of kingfishers, vultures, and fly eaters as we passed pink and gray dolphins and a distant blob of a two-toed sloth on the Marañon River. Our afternoon visit to a local village taught us about high-low water seasons, a fisherman’s catch, a little girl’s pet turtle, and poking at a venomous snake carcass. We relaxed with Animalogic and a napkin-folding workshop before our night excursion featuring sloths, toucans, macaws, fishing bats, saki monkeys, river turtles, and a baby caiman but no anaconda, capping with ceviche & picarones for dinner. We awoke Wednesday to dolphins playing boatside and a morning excursion with a green iguana, a caracara unsuccessfully chasing a kingfisher, and an egret nearly faceplanting on the riverbank. We attempted to canoe dugouts while local women propelled us before we transitioned from the brown to black waters of the Pacaya Samiria National Reserve, where our jungle walk included sightings of termite nests, leaf cutter ant mounds, two millipedes, and giant ceiba trees. We hurried back for a picnic lunch on our boats under a gang of squirrel monkeys, then took a cooling dip in the iced-tea waters near some gray dolphins. After siesta and backgammon, we enjoyed a chocolate demo and a sunset jam with the crew on deck. Our attempt at piranha fishing on Thursday proved successful with Westley catching white and red belly piranhas plus an herbivorous silver dollar. We celebrated our last night with a final toast on the Amazon River, a round of Scrabble, and slideshow from the crew. Our last morning excursion included sightings of Amazon turkeys and a pygmy marmoset but no capybara. Afterwards, we disembarked to visit the Amazon Rescue Center for closer views of manatees and other animals we missed, then headed to the airport where our lounge access supplemented our bag lunch before our flight to Cusco.

Like rain on my cousin’s wedding day, July has been a month of irony. After lunch with Brenda’s family and fireworks at the Davis Community Pool Party, we took advantage of July 4th sales at the Hyundai dealer to lease a new Ioniq 5 for Melody, only to find the driver’s door handle needing replacement the very next day. My i4 also needed a tire swap just two years in. Beside car issues, I dealt with a gltichy e-mail migration at work and my grad student getting hospitalized, just as we were receiving notice of our new R01 grant to study gene therapy in the eye. News traveled fast as I received congratulatory remarks from friends at the ASRS conference in Long Beach last week. Aside from my talk on genetic testing using AI and a half-day ad board that ended with a tsunami advisory, I spent the rest of my time meeting industry partners and colleagues, including seafood with Genentech at Parker’s Lighthouse, kebabs with Apellis at Ammatoli, tofu stew with my classmate Brian at Sura, chicken-n-waffles with my co-fellows at The Breakfast Bar, and stir-fried lobster and grilled oysters with my friend Dan at A&J Seafood shack. I returned in time to join an 80’s-themed Murder Mystery Dinner Theater at the Old Spaghetti Factory with Melody’s division, where we placed dead last, of course. With Melody out of town for two work trips, I had bonus time with Westley. Between his UCD and Davis summer camps, we battled yaoguais, built a model castle, and preserved a dragonfly using isopropanol and acetone. He also had a playdate with his friend Albert, where they tried to sear an oak gall with a magnifying glass and sunlight. Beside preventing arson, I kept busy pruning backyard plants, patching irrigation leaks, installing bonsai spotlights, hanging a German gear clock, and brewing my first espresso. With fresh beans from Temple Coffee and my new Barista Impress Touch, I learned to craft my own latte, flat white, and cappuccino, which hopefully will power me through to wrap up loose ends at work before our upcoming travel.