Year in Review: 2008 Top 5 favorite trips, media friends, blog posts and more

This little girl toted around her cousin like he was her own child! Patacancha, Peru.

1. Best International Travel: Two months in South America! Photos and stories coming soon. Here are the cities I visited:
Brazil:
Santa Catarina - whale watching at Vida Sol e Mar!, Sao Paulo, Rio, Porto Velho, Manaus
Peru:
Lima, Cusco - mountain bike tour with Sacred Rides!, Ollantaytambo, Patacancha, Machu Picchu: Sacred Valley.
Best Domestic Travel:
Idaho: Whitewater rafting with ROW Adventures
Montana: Bicycle tour with Adventure Cycling Association

2. Best Professional Networking Group:
Adventure Travel Trade Association World Summit
In 2007 and 2008, I was selected as a guest speaker at ATTA world Summits in Whistler, British Columbia, and in Sao Paulo, Brazil. I made incredible friends and contacts worldwide.
Photos from Summit in Sao Paulo, September 2008.

3. Best Awards Ceremony:
National Geographic Adventures of the Year presented by National Geographic Adventure Magazine.
I was thrilled to receive an invitation to the Washington, D.C. event at National Geographic headquarters. Talk about inspiration. Check out these world travelers:
These folks were written up in a cover story in Dec. 08/Jan. 09 issue: "Best of Adventure: Adventurers of the Year."


When I met Gretchen Bleiler, Olympic snowboarder, I learned her fiance is from Aptos, California, part of Santa Cruz County, where I live.

4. My Best Blog Posts
First Place: Away.com
I was thrilled to be hired to write a twice monthly blog for the Orbitz-owned travel website. Here's a sample: Machu Picchu blog entry.
Second Place: My Travel Journal blog (right here!)

Special thanks to new media friends I made in 2008:
Photographer:
Stacy Niedzwiecki
Web: www.StacyN.com
Your Daily Michigan Moment: www.MichiganMoments.com
Multimedia:
Tim Shisler
Multimedia wizard and blogger living in Boulder, Colorado when he's not on the road.
http://www.timshisler.com
http://onthewater.wordpress.com
American journalist living in Brazil:
Marilyn and I connected on travelwriters.com then met in person at her home in Sao Paulo.
Marilynn Diggs
http://www.mdiggs.com

In my very special outfit, in which I emceed a Halloween event for the City of Santa Cruz, pictured below, I wish you a Happy New Year!

Karen
www.karenkefauver.com

Please link to me, friend me or tweet me!
Got Linked In, Facebook, Twitter, Plaxo and even Hi5.

Cusco Culture Shock

From the amount of disorientation I experienced today arriving in the hectic hub of Cusco, Peru, you would think I had lived in the remote Andean town of Patacancha all my life! (Yes, that's me and my Patacancha family from my overnight visit last weekend.)

Cusco is a wonderful place, but it's also a very busy city. Lines of cars scrape by me so closely that I swear the drivers play, "Who Can Hit the Tourist." Then again, tourists are the taxis' livelihood and tourist dollars, (oops, I mean euros), fuel the economy.

Rarely have I been bombarded with so many aggressive sales pitches. As soon as I step out of my hotel and head to the central Plaza de Armas, I am propositioned so many times: "Senorita, massage? artwork? poncho? bracelet?" that I grow weary. "No, gracias," I say with a smile, at first. Then I reply more curtly. Finally, I don't say anything and keep walking, feeling slightly guilty.

To overcome my culture shock at the urban noise, traffic and hordes of tourists, I did what any red-blooded, experienced travel journalist would do: I got my eyebrows waxed.

I imagined some urban grooming would help me feel more like a city sophisticate, despite my multiple layers of fleece, dirty jeans and mud-encrusted hiking shoes. And I knew the expense would be under $5 U.S.

While others set off for adventures to Machu Picchu, Lake Titicaca and Colca Canyon, I set out on a mission to find a salon in Cusco.

It was easy: there was a "Massage and Waxing" sign just steps away from the plaza. I wandered through a marketplace filled with trinkets before I found the set of stairs leading to the room where Maria worked. I was concerned about how dark it was - bright light is the best bet for any hair removal process!

I gestured to my eyebrows that were in need of taming after weeks of trekking, mountain bike and horse travel. Maria smiled at me and then slathered most of my face from the mouth down with hot, golden wax that looked like dried-up honey. There was no time to protest. Maybe she thought my natural peach fuzz looked more like a goatee.

A moment later, she was slowly peeling off bits of wax - ouch! I tried to indicate that ripping off the wax faster was better for this painful process. When she left the room to reheat the plastic tub of wax, I wondered what the correct word for "eyebrows" was in Spanish. She returned and did my brows. She suggested I return for a massage and I declined. I paid and left her a nice tip.

I strode into the street and joined the throngs on Avendia Sol, with a new bounce in my step. I was Happy and Hair Free. Back at the hotel, I examined her handiwork in the light and noticed my brows were still full of golden wax.