Happiness, as Ross Wehner and Renée del Gaudio discovered, is an open road, a borrowed jeep, and an entire country to explore. While writing this book they spent ten months—and eight flat tires—zigzagging across the Andes to find the best travel experiences Peru has to offer.

A highlight of their research was kayaking across Lake Titicaca at dawn, with the orange orb of the sun rising over sapphire waters and lighting up a backdrop of snow-covered mountains. They climbed in the Cordillera Blanca, built a balsa raft in the Manu jungle, hiked the Inca Trail, and searched for lost cities in the Chachapoyas cloud forest.

Ross is the founder of Village Leaders, an organization that sends volunteers overseas to work with and learn from community leaders. Before that, he worked for seven years as a journalist in Peru and other Latin American countries. He has written for the San Francisco Chronicle, Mother Jones, Outside, and other publications, and has also worked as a wilderness educator for the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS). Ross holds an M.A. in Spanish and Latin American Literature from the University of Virginia.

As an architect, Renée has long considered Machu Picchu to be the world's finest example of architecture integrating with a landscape. She holds an M.A. in architecture from the University of Washington in Seattle and currently works for Semple Brown Design in Denver, Colorado. Her designs have been published in Dwell and House Beautiful, which ranked her as one of the Top 25 Next Wave Designers in America. She is an avid backpacker and has traveled widely throughout Europe, Asia, and Latin America.

Renée and Ross live in Denver and have two children, Sebastian and Francesca, and a fluffy white cat named Scout. They can be contacted at rosswehner [at] hotmail [dot] com and reneedelgaudio [at] yahoo [dot] com.

When Kazia Jankowski left food writing at Denver’s 5280 magazine to work on the second edition of Moon Peru, she had no idea of the highs and lows she would soon face. One evening, she was sipping champagne in her five-star Lima hotel, and the next day she was on a bus to Nasca, headed for adventure, only to have chili sauce spilled all over her.

After nine months in Peru, Kazia’s favorite attributes of the country were its sophisticated cuisine, incredible natural beauty, and generous people. She has combined these three Peruvian loves into a new business, Pica Peru Culinary Vacations (www.peruculinaryvacations.com). She and her Peruvian business partner will be leading vacations that focus on the deep relationship between Peruvian culture and its food. Kazia is looking forward to regularly traveling back to Peru for the trips.

Kazia has previously worked for Cook’s Illustrated and 5280 magazines. She can be reached at kaziaj [at] fast-email [dot] com.