One of the amazing perks at Duolingo is a paid sabbatical to celebrate ten years with the company. I knew exactly what I wanted to do with mine: go to Peru and New Zealand, both places that have been on my bucket list for years. They are also far away enough that regular vacation wouldn’t give me enough time to explore them as fully as I’d like. Thanks to the sabbatical, I was able to spend two weeks in Peru, six weeks in New Zealand, and still have some time to laze around at home and complete some projects. In Peru, we did the Salkantay trek with Mountain Lodges of Peru (highly recommended if you prefer trekking in comfort like me). We hiked to Humantay Lake, crossed over the Salkantay pass, descended down into the cloud forest and along the Santa Teresa river valley before ending at Machu Picchu. In the afternoons, we lounged around, soaking in the hot tub with views of the mountains and sipping on pisco sours. In New Zealand, we traveled across both North Island and South Island.…