Lima, Peru – July 13th – 16th, 2017

After an awkward airport viewing of a Netflix sex scene, we arrived in Lima. It had been an uneventful trip, especially since we decided to catch the Airport Express bus to Miraflores (where the tourists go) rather than fight the taxi’s for a reasonable fare (like last time). We wandered around Miraflores for a solid 20 minutes before finally stumbling upon our unmarked guest house. Our room at the guest house was literally about 8 square feet larger than the size of the bed (clean though, so no complaints).

After an overpriced touristy breakfast at an adorable café, we relaxed a bit before Andy ventured out to get a Peruvian SIM card for the phone. It took a while, but he was eventually successful and came back just in time to partake in a cardio ski workout (in preparation for our… spoiler alert… Chilean ski-cation in August). No kidding the workout, combined with the elevation, almost killed us. For the rest of the day, we mostly killed time walking around and eating at a nearby Indian restaurant, while we waited in anticipation for our friend Matt to arrive. We were pretty stoked to have a friend join us for the next couple weeks. We visited Parque Kennedy, also known as the cat park, where literally hundreds of stray cats have found a home thanks to the cat food and adoption potential provided by a local non-profit. We also walked along the water, enjoyed the sights and enviously watched the paragliders and surfers in action. Matt arrived late in the evening, as expected, and we promptly went to bed… to be fair I may have already been sleeping.

Restaurants and Cat Parks! Not sure how we feel about the combo Starbucks and Chile's.

The coastline of Lima including El Parque Del Amore or Love Park.

We rose fairly early and made breakfast at the guest house before making our way to a Lima walking tour of downtown. The tour met at a bar where there was free beer tasting – a bit early for drinking if you ask me, but… when in Lima. Thanks to the free status of the tour, it ended up being more of a herd than a tour, but well organized nonetheless. We took a bus to downtown Lima and visited a large number of parks, historic buildings, and plazas, learning about the history along the way. We also stopped on several occasions for food and drink tastings – coffee, a potato dish, and lots of different types of pisco. About half way through the lengthy tour I started feeling a bit peaked, but pushed through, hoping my growing stomach discomfort would subside. It didn’t… but eventually the tour ended and we made our way back to Miraflores. If it wasn’t for the friendly local that came to our rescue, we may never have made the return bus trip thanks the confusing ticket turntable.

Downtown Lima Tour.

The sustainability fair in Miraflores! Pretty cool to see them raising awareness on environmental issues. The bottom-right photo shoes the hundreds of surfers taking advantage of the long break - we were wishing for an extra day to surf. 

While I laid in bed clutching my stomach (I blame the eggs from breakfast which came from a random corner store with a stack of room temperature eggs piled about waist high), Andy and Matt ventured out again to visit the Miraflores area and coast. Later, we all grabbed a quick meal before turning in for the night – it was going to be an early morning. Since Matt had just over 2 weeks for the trip, we decided to use Peru Hop for our bus travel from Lima to Lake Titicaca. Peru Hop is a tourist bus company that drives a specific route and lets you hop on and off (hence the name) at different stops along the way. In between major stops, they take side trips to remarkable places en-route that you would normally pass over with a local bus company. The first leg of the trip, from Lima to Paracas, started before the sun the next morning. 

Safely on the luxury bus, stomach ache in toe, we were on our way. Before leaving the city, we stopped at Monumento al Soldado Desconacido. Lima is remarkably clean and beautiful, but it wasn’t until we arrived at the city overlook that we realized that the tourist areas of the city are surrounded by shanty brick buildings housing impoverished people (almost 80% of the city consists of these neighborhoods). There is massive class separation. While in Miraflores we saw catered birthday parties for infants and 5-star restaurants which market to the richest of the rich, yet the perspective from the overlook was quite different. Surprisingly, some of the most desirable locations (in terms of ocean and city views) are occupied by shanty towns. We learned from our bus guide, that this is because Peru has a law that if you can prove that you or your family have lived on a piece of land for over 20 years, the land is legally yours.

Quick stop at the Monumento al Saldado Desconacido before heading towards Paracas.

P.S. Lima is at sea level. 

Mancora, Peru – July 5th – 13th, 2017

From Cartagena, Colombia, it took us about 36 hours to get to Mancora, Peru, a surf town near the border with Ecuador. We flew from Cartagena to Bogota, had a 3-hour layover, then flew to Lima, where we stayed the night at a nearby guesthouse. Unfortunately, our planning skills fell short of figuring out how to get from the Lima airport to the guesthouse 3 km away (1.85 miles). Apparently, the Lima airport taxi drivers have united and refuse to transport anyone (especially a foreigner) for less than $20, even if the trip will only take 5 minutes! After a half hour of failed bargaining attempts (the lowest price we got was $15), we ended up calling the guesthouse (through the airport wifi) and had them send a car for the bargain price of $10. We were not pleased, especially since the guesthouse cost was $20 for the night and breakfast and we had to be back at the airport in only 6-hours (and to get back we had to pay another $10!). I know I know, $20, no big deal, but $20 is food for 3 days there! Speaking off food, the hotel was nowhere near any food options and the only vegetarian option was to pay $10 for eggs. Frustrating! Speaking of frustrating, due to the persistence of the guesthouse staff, we were picked up at 3am and transported to the airport in order to be 2-hours early for our domestic flight leaving at 5:15am. When we arrived, the Avianca staff decided it was a good time to inform us that the flight was delayed 5-hours. Why they couldn’t they tell us earlier, you ask? Funny, I asked the same question. Well, you see, they didn’t know that the plane that was supposed to arrive the night before didn’t arrive. Wait… they did know that! ARRRGH! Not to worry though, they were comping breakfast, which turned out to be 4 oz. of tea and 2 pieces of white bread. By the time the plane took off at 10:45am, we had spent more time in the Lima airport than the guesthouse. To be fair, the roundtrip flight from Lima to Piura cost only $42, so how much could we really complain.

Now finally in Piura, we still had to make our way to Mancora, 4-ish-hours away. We knew we needed to take a bus, what we didn’t know was which bus to take, how to get to the bus station, and what time the bus to Mancora left (all things that could have been solved with the internet – if only we had a SIM card and the bus companies posted their schedules). Unperturbed, we avoided the crooked taxis by walking to the main street and jumping on a colectivo public bus toward the station on Maps.Me (our trusty offline map app). After an incredibly indirect route through the city and lots of interesting people watching, we paid our 1 sol (30 cents) and hoped off at the first station. Unfortunately, the bus didn’t leave for another 2-hours so we decided to risk it and go to the other bus station (on the other side of town of course). After another 30-minute colectivo ride, we arrived and were pleased to discover that this bus was not only cheaper, but left in 5 minutes! Woohooo! Once on our way, we reflected on how far we’ve come with our traveling skills. Not only did we not yell at anyone all day (including each other), but we went with the flow, were patient, and sure enough, arrived at our destination unscathed. I guess the realization that getting worked up does nothing for you has finally set in.  

Travel days, including comped airlines breakfast and the view in Lima.

After moving around every few days, it was a relief to check into a hotel and stay for an entire week! Much of our time was spent taking surf lessons, attempting to surf on our own, doing yoga, hanging out at the mostly-abandoned hotel/surf camp, fighting off an extraordinarily persistent sinus infection, and catching up on a back-log of travel planning and house rental turnover absurdity. Oh ya, and celebrating our 1-year anniversary!!! I’ll start with the surfing: We’re terrible, the break was tiny, and the instructor got frustrated with us (specifically me), but it was still a lot of fun. The break being tiny was both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, you could circumnavigate the white water, making paddling out a breeze. On the other hand, the break was so small that all the surfers were crammed together making it difficult to catch a wave without running into somebody (the lack of turning skills multiplied the severity of this problem). Also, for a few days in a row, the waves were so pitiful, that after spending an hour sitting on the glassy calm water (think lake not ocean), we were forced to give up and hope for better surf later in the day. In summary, the surf wasn’t very good – even to our standards, but that doesn’t mean that we didn’t enjoy it. To make up for the surf conditions, the yoga was extra difficult. We especially appreciated the laying down (Savasana) pose at the end.

The beach in Mancora and the adorable friendly puppy that turned deranged before out eyes. 

Surfing and wiping out surfing. Yes, the waves are super small, thanks for noticing.

When we weren’t doing yoga or surfing, we could be found at the surf camp hanging out in the hammocks or talking to the owner or one other guest. Yup, you read that right, one other guest (luckily, she was awesome and we enjoyed her company)! Fair to say that it was not peak tourist season in Mancora. A side-effect to it being off-season was that many of the restaurants were closed. This still left a fairly decent selection of touristy restaurants, but we found none that were good enough to write home about… with the exception of our surf camp hotel which had the most incredible fresh breakfast and a dessert cart which supplied us with cheap incredible pies and cakes each night! With crepes, fresh bread, fresh fruit, smoothies, French press coffee, and more, breakfast became, by far our favorite time of the day. After several days of unenthused eating (except breakfast and dessert of course), I ventured into the local side streets and after quizzing every local I could find (in broken Spanish), eventually made it to the market street where I was greeted with curiosity and bewilderment – apparently not many tourists go to the local market. Undeterred, I bought enough sandwich fixin’s for the rest of the week, thereby solving the “sick of eating out” crises. A side-effect to my shopping adventure was that I realized just how much I relied on Andy to share the responsibility of asking questions, understanding what they said, counting money, and making sure we weren’t being ripped off. It was very overwhelming to do on my own.   

Laguna surf camp.

Day trip to nearby Los Organos.

Unfortunately, it was not all fun and games in Mancora. After almost 3-weeks of attempting to ignore a sinus headache and runny nose, I finally broke down and went to the pharmacy. As I’ve mentioned before, it is incredibly easy and affordable to get basic medical care in many parts of the developing world. Even with the language barrier, it took only a few minutes to explain my symptoms, convince the pharmacist that the typical medications were not helping, and pay the $3 for a course of amoxicillin. As expected, the sinus infection cleared within the week. Not sure why it took me 3-weeks to deal with it – stubbornness I suppose. Also, on one of our evening trips to the dessert cart, a local kid with a stroller erratically steered his baby sister’s stroller directly into my toe, likely breaking it. It turned a vibrant purple color and swelled like an over-stuffed snausage. Not cool kid. Lastly, although most of the locals were pleasant and friendly, the laundry guy was not. After dropping our clothes off with him, we began to question the “accuracy” of his handheld scale (which he purposely kept hidden when weighing the clothes). Tired of being ripped off, we decided to go back and confront him. We asked if he could please weight the clothes again, this time, while showing us the scale. Turns out that we were right, he had overcharged us significantly! He seemed a little sheepish, but did not apologize, simply changed the amount due and went about his day. We were lucky all the clothes came back.      

   

The highlight to our week in Mancora was definitely our wedding anniversary! Andy had booked a couple’s spa experience at one of the fancy places nearby… you know, the ones we can’t afford to stay at. It was ridiculous!!! The private spa was on the roof of the hotel, overlooking an expansive abandoned beach. After the steam room, we indulged in a 90-minute massage, followed by an hour to relax in the private jacuzzi while drinking complimentary champagne and watching the sun set over the ocean. It was definitely a surreal, pinch-me moment! After the spa, we walked about a mile down the beach to our dinner reservation – also at a fancy hotel that we couldn’t afford to stay at. The meal was also incredible: pineapple/cucumber/mint juice, pumpkin/parmesan/pecan ravioli, zucchini carpaccio, and Andean wheat! Fair to say it’s going to be hard to beat our first year of marriage!

Anniversary evening! Also, I finally captured the nasty long fingernail that we'd been seeing all over the world on men's pinky fingers... apparently it's a thing. It's in the bottom-right photo.

Anniversary spa experience!

Our artwork was washed away by a wave about 5 seconds after finishing.

After a week of shear bliss, we were hesitant to leave Mancora to re-enter the hustle of fast-paced travel. As consolation, our friend Matt was joining us for the next leg of the journey!       

Cartagena (round 2), Colombia – July 4th – 5th, 2017

Strangely, the public bus from Palomino went out of the way to drop us off at a private bus station outside of town. From there, we paid the inflated rate from Santa Marta back to Cartagena, because, well… it was a Monday and according to the bus office staff the rates are higher on Mondays and Tuesdays (obviously). The first thing we did after checking into our hotel in Cartagena, was go back to our favorite gelato place and indulge in the silky sweet goodness of ice cream! Then we took a salsa class, something we’ve been wanting to do since arriving in Colombia over 1 month earlier. It was so much fun and we had a good laugh over how terrible we are at dancing sexy. All three of us solidified the accuracy of the stereotype that white nerdy people have no dancing skills whatsoever. It was still a blast though! After salsa, we did some last minute souvenir shopping, ate a delicious meal of potato soup, and returned to the hotel to pack, shower, and sleep. With over 3-weeks without hot water, it was not surprisingly that we did not break our cold shower streak in Cartagena. You’d think you would get used to it, but you don’t, especially not in an air-conditioned room. Yup, riddle me that, AC, but no hot water.

Saying goodbye to Colombia. Mom's sad face is not intended to imitate Elvis... or Trump. 

After a pleasant breakfast at the hotel, we caught a taxi to the airport, checked in, and soaked up our last few minutes with Mom. Eventually, it was time to say “Hasta luego momacita!” It had been an incredible trip and even though there were some serious hiccups along the way, Colombia was of our favorite countries so far. We absolutely loved the scenery and genuine energetic people – we can’t wait to come back!        

Palomino, Colombia – July 2nd – 4th, 2017

After the hellish experience we had just endured, we were all ready for some downtime. In Palomino, a small touristy town on the coast, we sprung for a nice guesthouse in Palomino ($30/night for a triple room – big spenders!). Ironically, Chez Oliv (our guesthouse) was owned by a French ex-pat high-school teacher. He and my mom, also a French-born high-school teacher, enjoyed talking about the school system in Colombia (in French). While it was a relief for her to be able to speak and understand the language, it confused me. I understood the French, but kept accidentally responding in an awkward Spanish / French / English mashup: "Si. Oui. NO Si!? Ahhh sorry!"

Chez Oliv in Palomino. Still no hot water showers, but that's standard.

Although a tourist town has its downsides, the accessibility to comfort food and western hospitality more than makes up for it… especially after spending the last week sleeping in hammocks and eating strictly arepas, queso, and pasta without sauce (aka plain boiled noodles). In an outdoor restaurant with live acoustic music, we enjoyed pizza, lasagna (with sauce), and a veggie sandwich with a large side of brownie and ice cream! The next day, we chowed on banana pancakes, fresh fruit juice (the fruit in Colombia is unmatched by the way), and more pizza. Fair to say, we did not go hungry during our short stay.  

Food and lazy cats in Palomino. There was even a Vegan Burger bike vendor!

Apart from sleeping and lounging around at the guesthouse, we also walked the beach and went tubing down the nearby jungle clad river. To get to the river, we each hired a motor-taxi which transported us and the inner-tube to the drop off location. Quite obviously, the safest way to achieve this was to place both people in the inner-tube hole, that way if you fall off on the single-track dirt path through the jungle, you’ll fall together and have a nice donut around your torso to cushion the fall. The river float was a lot of fun, except for the fact that my tube seemed to have a magnetic attraction to the foliage, giving me plenty of opportunities to make friends with spiders and miscellaneous bugs. The river ended at the ocean, where we dropped the tubes off with the tube collecting child and walked back to Chez Oliv.

The views around Palomino. 

We got up early the next morning, had a traditional breakfast of arepas, eggs, and tinto (the “coffee” drank by locals that essentially consists of the reject beans that the rest of the world won’t import), and hopped on the first bus we found heading to Santa Marta. After stowing our luggage under the bus, we realized that it was not a tourist bus, but the local bus. Taking the local bus is really no big deal (it is, after all, very budget friendly), but the downside is that you are crammed in like sardines and worse than that, the bus literally stops every 3 feet to let someone on or drop someone off. In hindsight, it should have been obvious that it was a local bus based on the interior, which resembled a run-down school bus with handles for standing passengers. A second give-away could easily have been the deluxe charter buses that passed us on the road while we waited for the bus to fill up. The 50-mile journey ended up taking over two and a half hours. Oops.