peru-me II
After getting out of the wilderness from our trek, we decided we needed to take Jaker’s into the hospital as he was still feeling pretty crappy. Instead of spending the day working as planned, we ended up dabbling with the Peruvian medical system. Our experience was actually pretty decent - quickly seen, some English was spoken, appropriate labs ordered, etc. Basically, we were pretty sure after 5+ days of symptoms, he had a bacteria or some kind of parasite & needed to take a stool sample to figure out what extra drugs were needed. Lab techs brought in their briefcases of supplies (instead of having tools like a blood pressure monitor in the room, a technician or nurse literally carries around a bin from room to room for patients. Same was for the bloodwork and other labs - they come to you with their plastic bin of tools. I kinda liked it aside from it looking like something you’d keep your scrap-booking supplier in)
Anyways, the visit was quick, pretty painless, and after a couple hours awaiting results, we learned Jake had picked up e.coli somewhere along the way. He got prescribed a gamete of drugs, the main one being antibiotics to get his system to kick this bug. By the next day, he was already feeling much better!
SO CUSCO…
We spent a few more days in Cucso before dodging the city for good. Although work and recovery consumed most of our time, we did decide to dabble in cooking a bit, in an attempt to help the guts find comfort a bit quicker. Some pretty bad fried rice later, our stomachs were still thanking us. It felt nice to control the vegetable to rice ratio again, even for just a day or two #halleluliah We did have some time to bounce to another Inka site in Cusco - the name of it sounds like “Sexy Woman”, so we were brining it! Also, more llamas <3
After Cusco, we had a night bus to Arequipa planned! A confused taxi driver later (first time someone tried to really rip us off AND drop us off at the wrong location), we were back on Jake & Jen’s Amazing Race; we found our bus station and tucked in for a 10 hour ride. For some reason, I remember being able to actually sleep on night buses…Idk if it’s age catching up with me (I am THIRTY now) or if the set-up wasn’t great, but literally 0 minutes of sleep were recorded on my smart-ring. So we were quite sleepy getting out of the bus at 6AM.
STOP 3) AREQUIPA:
Being tired and also having been on the road for a while, we started feeling pretty travel fatigued arriving in Arequipa. Every closed restaurant, wrong address, and belly ache later, the travel fatigue only increased. Peru really was not that nice to our bellies. Even things that would seems just fine like gyozas from a Vegan restaurant left me double-overed for a few hours. But it was also Easter weekend when we got to Arequipa! With Peru being majority Catholic, we witnessed an interesting Easter parade around the main city square that lasted some hours.
But after this long day spent in Arequipa, we new what we had to do: get out of the city and into nature. So, we planned a very well-known trek “in the area” to Colca Canyon. This is a trek I would NOT recommend a guide on; unless you are looking to make friends, it is a very simple trail to follow & a guide is very much not needed. But to get there, you have to take a bus or two or transportation as it’s still SIX hours away! So we naturally got picked up at 3AM (also common for Peru tours because everything is so far away!!) In Peru, things are very spaced out & even though Arequipa is known as the “home to Colca Canyon”, it is still SIX hours away!!! That’s like saying “go to Minneapolis and visit Chicago while you’re there”…It was worth it, though. We loved our quick 2-day adventure in the canyon! A quick tip we learned (especially if you get carsick) is to request or ask the van driver if you can sit in the front seat with him. The roads are windy, filled with speed bumps, and go through some gnarly elevation.
One of my favorite things was our accommodation for the evening - Colca gets HOT when the sun is shining on it. So arriving to an oasis with a beautiful garden and pool to chill at for the latter half of the day was just perfect. Tasty food, good vibes, a little girl and her puppy followers, and our cozy bungalow made for the perfect unwind to prep us for the 3,000 ft climb in the morning.
favorite things in Arequipa:
Colca Canyon - we saw lots of active condors flying around too!
Oasis in Colca Canyon: we stayed at the most simple, but peaceful lodges in the middle of the canyon. So much green and such a beautiful space to relax and unwind after a day of exhausting hiking.
Los Andes B&B - although we only stayed one night, I wish we discovered this gem for the first stay in Arequipa. HUGE kitchen, lots of shared community space, cheap, and less than a block from the main square!
San Pedro’s market - great spot to watch some butchers do their magic, get some fresh fruit, or just sit and watch the madness around you.
STOP 4) PARACAS:
Paracas was really our last city to visit on our Peruvian adventure. It’s on the coast which means sea level YAY!) and is more of a quiet, “beach town”, so it seemed like a good last stop! To get here was a process however - it resulted in essentially a full day of traveling due to some decisions we made with transportation.
Cab to airport —> flight to Lima —> cab to bus station —> 5 hour bus to Paracas —> walk from bus station to town
If we did this again, we would probably take a bus to Paracas, even though it’s not a direct bus. But it saves the trip to Lima and horrible Lima traffic to the bus station. ANYWAYS, we made it to this sleepy town on the coast for a couple days to chill out. One of the main attractions in Paracas is the Ballestas Island (known as the poor man’s Galapagos) and cheap, boat tours are offered daily. So of course we started the day with a boat tour and ended it with a dune buggy in the National Reserve! It was nice, but if you are envisioning Florida beaches, think again :) It’s essentially a desert, situated on the coast. I don’t advise staying more than a day or two unless you are looking to really just chill at a pool.
It was nice to walk the beach in the AM (we saw dolphins one morning) and watch pretty sunsets in the PM. The hostel we stayed at had hammocks, free kayak rentals, a pool and a very chill scene (until nighttime) to just hang during the day. It would have been a great work spot if it wasn’t for the town losing power :P
favorite things in Paracas:
PENGUINS at Ballestas Island - so neat to see penguins in the wild, even from afar!
Dune buggy’ing the National Reserve - although I wish we could have just rented the buggy and gone without a guide, it was still a fun way to whip around. If we had longer, I would have definitely rented a bike to get around!
Fresh fish! As Paracas is buzzing with ocean life, fishing is a huge part of the community and business here. Thus, you find fish everywhere! It’s the freshest it gets!
Chaufa - silly thing to have loved, but everytime we ordered fried rice or (“chaufa” in Peru - similar dish), it was served differently. But the chaufa we ordered in Paracas at this tiny corner restaurant was just what we were looking for!
We were exhausted after Paracas, especially with the long bus back to Lima again. We had one final evening to spend in Lima (which basically meant getting dinner) and then were heading out the next day.
We found a delicious sushi restaurant and cheers’ed with a final pisco sour to say adios to our Peruvian adventure!
A quick Dunkin Donuts for Jakers in the AM and third wave coffee shop for Jen and it was time to start trekking to the airport! Unfortunately, no markets were open before 9AM on that Friday morning, so our final sweep of Peruvian gems was limited. Sorry friends that were looking forward to a little junky! ;) Some photos will have to do - MUAH!
All in all, here was our route - complete with 4 major city stops, with a good chunk of our time in Cusco. MANY hours in transportation - whether it was by taxi, bus, or plane. But we loved it! Being back on the road and carrying everything on our backs’ - the lack of control - the exhaustion with English not being the main language - the growth - the learning - the WHAT-THEs everywhere you look - it’s all beautiful and frustrating and really makes me appreciate going home. My bed, peanut butter, having a car to take me places, credit cards, sea level, a kitchen. Be grounded in your wild ways. <3
Peace, love, and chow chow,
yo’ girl Jen
