In 2010, I traveled to Peru with my mother-in-law, a Peruvian native, my mother, and my godmother. We stayed in an apartment in Lima, near my in-laws’ family, and spent time exploring the country with them as our guides.

One of the best places, and somewhere I’d dreamed of going to since I was a kid, was Machu Picchu. The majestic climb to the top of that mountain, learning all the rich history of the Incas, is something I’ll never forget. Swimming in the warm waters of the Pacific Ocean, the water feeling like silk on my skin when I plunged into the waves. Meeting women who worked with alpaca yarns every day was also something I truly enjoyed, gaining some of their past down knowledge about the process of shearing, sorting, cleaning, carding, combing, spinning, washing, stretching, and dyeing the wool to create beautiful, colorful yarns they use to make all sorts of handmade knits. Yes, I came back home with some of those balls of yarn, how could I not?

Although Peru isn’t the only place I’ve traveled to, it remains, to this day, one of my favorite destinations, and I would return in a heartbeat.