Last spring I spent two months backpacking South America, solo female travel style, with one day pack strapped to my front and another to my back. Here are 19 tips I learned from my eight weeks abroad.

If you’re planning a visit to this wonder of the world, I’m incredibly excited for you. Not only does it seem like an impossible feat but the landscape these ruins were built into, is unreal.

Regardless of whether you are planning on no hiking, a little hiking, or doing the complete trek, here are some of my tips from one traveler to another.

My weekend visit to one of the seven wonders of the world: Machu Picchu. The visit of a lifetime, that is totally worth the hype (even if my original plans got a smidge thwarted).

I can’t say enough about the beauty of Peru. The colors, the landscapes, the llamas! I cannot wait to go back and explore more of this country. There were so many vivid colors in the landscapes but also the decor - I fully plan to recreate the Peruvian pom pom garland you see in so many shops, for my own home sometime soon.

I tell you what, I am a sucker for positive reinforcement. Give me a motivational quote on a coaster, the back of a t-shirt, scratched into a wall or spelled out with food, and I will feel automatically empowered. So you besta believe, when I see any and every type of could-be motivation while I’m traveling, I capture it. These are 15 of my more recent finds.

This isn’t the comprehensive list we all love and adore BUT I believe it’s just as important of one - it’s the random stuff that you don’t always think to pack but praise yourself when you do. During my two months backpacking South America, these are some items that came in handy during my trip.