By Mary Mancera Mind Over Matter: Our Adventure On The Inca Trail "OMFG! I can't catch my breath." Twenty minutes into our hike on the Inca Trail, Nancy - our JUGS (Just Us Girls) mate and travel companion - was gasping for air and pleading with our guide Ernesto for a hit of oxygen. Not a good sign for the first quarter mile of a 10-mile hike. "Take a deep breath and exhale slowly ...three times," Ernesto told Nancy. In all his years as a Andean guide, Ern...

WOW!! Adrenalin rush flying over the Lines of Nazca. Up at 5 am, our driver Erneso drove us 2 hous down the coast of Peru. Very dry, sand everywhere lik the Sahara Desert. Extreme poverty - no sanitation, living in straw shacks. One of the side effects of Diamox (for altitude for Cusco) is you have to pee alot. So poor Ernesto was constantly looking for bathrrooms on our 4 hour drive to Ica. After 2 hours of driving along the coast,we headed inland and it got ...

by Nancy Well here we are in Houston a stopover on our way to Lima. Meanwhile, Mary & Yamila will be at their stopover point in Miami very soon. They should beat us into Lima by about 1 hour. The rest of the gang, Donna Marie & Cynthia and Victor & Hardy won't arrive until tomorrow night. Although flying isn't as fun as it use to be, I still love to TRAVEL. Going somewhere new is fun and exciting, filled with anticipation about what is to come. Thi...

On Thursday, Maggie & I are heading to Peru with JUGS (Just Us Girls) + 2. Maggie's brother, Victor and his partner, Hardy will be joining us along with Donna Marie & Cynthia, and Mary & Yamila. Peru is the #1 destination on Maggie's bucket list and since she will be celebrating a milestone birthday in January (Peru's rainy season), we thought we would get a head start and check it off her list. How exciting for us that our friends and family wanted ...

This is our last travel blog as we pack up and get ready to head home. Our 3 weeks have been great and we have spent the last day reminiscing about all the wonderful places we've been. After we left Lisbon, we stopped in an adorable town call OBIDOS (see pictures). This picturesque village sits within an old Roman Ruin wall that you can walk around. We shopped and enjoyed the views and after a few hours took off for COIMBRA. This was our last stop in Portugal,...