The Royal Livingston Resort is located in the Wild Animal Park. So it's normal to see zebras walking by you chewing grass, giraffes picking up leaves in the woods within arm's reach, and of course, tons of monkeys running around everywhere.

One afternoon, I decided to have a relaxing afternoon by myself, I adjusted myself cozily in the leather chair at the balcony outside my room. A nice cup of hot tea sat next to the bags of snacks on the table. I opened the book started to read. From the corner of my eye, I saw some movements. All of a sudden, I was surrounded by monkeys eyeing the snacks on my table.

They started to close in to me from different angles. Swiftly, one big monkey flew over to the table and snatched the bags and started running. I dropped the book and chased after him tried to get the snacks back. The other monkeys slowly closed in on my table, I rushed back by the table to guard what was left on the table. Another even bigger monkey came up trying to snatch things out of my hands, forcing me to stumble back behind the sliding door. Finally they gave up on me and went after the monkey with snacks. By the way, I rescued two out of the three bags. The monkey only got one bag. And I hope the monkey liked Chinese food!

If you are going to Africa, you should not miss the famous Victoria Falls. You can take the grand view from the Zimbabwe side, or go via a safari by the park and river on the Botswana side. If possible, I recommend you spend a couple of days and stay at the Royal Livingston Resort in Victoria Falls, Zambia. A British Colonial Style resort with beautiful luxury rooms sit in the Wild Animal Park right by the Zambezi River. You can kayak peacefully down the Stream or you canhike the bank along the river.

I highly recommend that you do not miss the dive by the edge of the Falls. It will be the highlight of your after trip! Remember to bring some La Fresh Sunscreen SPF30 towelettes along with you.

Travel Inspirations

WELCOME

Welcome to our new Travel Inspirations Blog, a.k.a. Me and La Fresh and Everywhere We Go on www.LaFreshGroup.com. This is a place to share travel inspirations – what inspires you to travel and what inspires you while traveling. I can’t live without traveling. It recharges me for my daily life. How about you??

We encourage to you to share your stories, thoughts, experiences, tips, ideas and anything else you feel like about travel. All submissions should be sent to betsy {at} rms-biz.com. Writers of published submissions will receive a complimentary La Fresh Travel Kit!!

To kick of the blog, I’ll share one of my recent adventures… You can read the entry here.

The Inca Trail to Machu Picchu

In November 2007 I traveled with the WOW Travel Club ( www.wowtravelclub.com) to walk the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, the best known and most popular hike in Peru. The Inca Trail links a range of stunningly preserved Inca ruins. Along the way the natural scenery is breathtaking, with views of snow capped mountains and rainforests.

Visitors come from all parts of the world to Peru, not only to see Machu Picchu, one of the New Seven Wonders of the World, but also to walk the Inca Trail Peru. They come to see the ruins and the scenery which makes this trail so famous. The total distance of the Inca trail is approximately 43 kilometers and runs from 5,000 feet about sea level to 13,000 feet!

With the high altitudes, intense heat and proximity to the rainforests, the bugs were out in droves and biting! When I saw my travel companions pulling out their DEET bug spray and filling the air with toxins, it saddened me. Here are breathtaking rainforests and poisonous DEET is mixing into its atmosphere. It hit me that as the president of a successful travel towelette manufacturing company, I could do something about this!

Within eight months La Fresh All-Natural Biodegradable Insect Repellent was on the market! We met with our R&D team who developed a natural oil (that actually smells good!!) that is as effective as DEET (in a 30 percent concentrate)! I’m so excited to share this new product with other travelers. Not harming the place you are visiting should be a top priority in traveling!

Stay tuned for my next blog where I’ll tell you about how our new All-Natural Biodegradable Insect Repellent worked against the bugs in Africa this past Fall! Below are some fun facts about Machu Picchu. I encourage you to go – it’s an amazing experience!!

FACTS ABOUT MACHU PICCHU

1. Pre-Columbian Inca site located 2,400 meters (7,875 feet) above sea level. It is situated on a mountain ridge above the Urubamba Valley in Peru, which is 80 km (50 miles) northwest of Cusco and through which the Urubamba River flows. The river is a partially navigable headwater of the Amazon River.
2. • Often referred to as "The Lost City of the Incas", Machu Picchu probably is the most familiar symbol of the Inca Empire.
3. • It is also one of the New Seven Wonders of the World.
4. • It was built around the year 1460, but abandoned as an official site for the Inca rulers a hundred years later, at the time of the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire.
5. • Machu Picchu was declared a Peruvian Historical Sanctuary in 1981.