Camaná & Mollendo: A Tale of Two Eerie Peruvian Beaches

THERE ARE TWO beach towns within a three-hour drive from Arequipa: Mollendo and Camaná. Each costs between 10 and 15 soles to reach, and there are loads of minibuses and regular buses that leave every hour. Neither is better advertised from Arequipa’s bus terminals, and neither is a popular foreign tourist destinations, which might lead a sun-starved off-the-beaten-track backpacker to ask: Which is better? Camaná is known as a young … Continue reading Camaná & Mollendo: A Tale of Two Eerie Peruvian Beaches

mfraiman03/14/201605/25/2021Leave a comment

Peru, South America

An Independent Traveller’s Anecdotal Guide to Trekking Colca Canyon, in 11 Aphorisms

1. Appreciate silence. Near the end of our six-hour bus ride from Arequipa to Cabanaconde, three awful, young French people boarded the bus, standing near our seats. The loudest wore a backwards cap and blue tinted shades, and I could see the flowing tattoo of an angel wearing armour on his arm beneath his too-tight white T-shirt. He could not stop talking, joking, tapping his hiking stick on the … Continue reading An Independent Traveller’s Anecdotal Guide to Trekking Colca Canyon, in 11 Aphorisms

mfraiman02/05/201605/25/2021Leave a comment

On Travel & Writing, Why Travel

A Long Way Back: Stories of Travelling Home is Now a Real (e-)Book

A LONG WHILE BACK, I said I was going to publish a book based on a four-month trip I took in late 2013. I finally did. You can buy it for Kindle here. The book is a simple one, roughly two dozen chapters of two millennials’ travels from South Korea to North America. It’s a collection of travel stories for people who genuinely like those sorts of things—misadventures, characters abroad, a … Continue reading A Long Way Back: Stories of Travelling Home is Now a Real (e-)Book

mfraiman02/04/201605/25/2021Leave a comment