Started with a SW USA road trip, looping through Rockies, desert, Aztec ruins, and Moab arches under endless skies and pure open-road Freedom.
Early-October took me to Hawaii’s Maui and the Big Island for volcanic landscapes and a sunset hike above the clouds on Mauna Kea, then a week in Waikiki chillin beachside before my Asian tsunami: Japan’s colors and temple serenity (Osaka, Kyoto, Kawasaki, Tokyo) for a week in mid-October, then Malaysia’s breathtaking skyrise poolside views and Deepwali street fairs, Sri Lanka’s Buddhist shrines, elephant rides and coastal sunsets, Singapore's advanced... everything, before finally chilling a week in tropical Darwin, Australia with waterfront sunsets, southern stars, and one 6.5 tremor. 🫨
Early November was onto New Zealand's urban harbor Auckland up north, then down south to fjordland, an unforgettable Milford Sound cruise, a Queenstown gondola ride, and glowing caves that felt like drifting through the Milky Way.
A quick Melbourne layover before a 12-hour flight to Santiago launched my South American chapter: colorful hillside port city of Valparaiso, then Argentina’s wine country with steak in [HeIs]Mendoza, and then up the Andes to Lima’s sophisticated parks and sunset beaches, a coastal desert detour to Paracas & Huacachina that was pure magic: oceanic cruise to see penguins and sea lions, then buggying up & down golden sand dunes at sunset.
Finally the penultimate goal, acclimatizing to Cusco and basking in Machu Picchu’s breathtaking reveal. Before a tight Bogotá layover, ending in Panama City to explore old quarter with its fascinating global mix.
Eleven relentless weeks of flights, buses, trains, Ubers, scooters and time-zone jumps across deserts, volcanoes, temples, fjords, dunes, and ruins. Exhausting but exhilarating, and exactly the deep immersion I crave.
