The Spark that Started this Adventure
Chris and I have always enjoyed traveling but actually didn’t do much during the first 20 years of our marriage. Too busy working and raising a family, too little money, too limited vacation time. We took a few family vacations, accompanied each other on a few work trips and took some long weekend trips to a family reunion or wedding. But in 2016 our youngest daughter spent a semester studying in Cuzco, Peru. She planned a two-week tour of the country at the end of her studies for us and her boyfriend. The trip included the Sacred Valley, Nazca Lines and, of course, Machu Pichu. Travel to South America had not been anything we had ever envisioned, but we found the country fascinating, the logistics manageable and the cultural differences not at all overwhelming. We followed it up the next year with a trip to Portugal, where we met a couple from New Zealand who introduced us to the concept of house and pet sitting. We were immediately intrigued with the idea of trading free acc...