Lima, Peru
Next up is South America. Lima (Peru), to be exact. It was my second time there, and I wanted to spend more time exploring and meeting friends. My flight was via Madrid and then directly to Lima. It was smooth, although I don’t like long flights at all. I arrived early in the morning and didn’t experience any jetlag, to my surprise. A local friend came to the airport spontaneously and picked me up. That was a surprise and a great start to the new country.
In Lima, I felt comfortable very quickly and went into a very regular schedule: work, meet, sleep, repeat. Since I knew many people in Lima from my last visit, it was nice to have people to hang out with. I’m generally used to being alone often and don’t have a steady base of friends since I’m always moving. My friends in Lima were happy that I was back and flexible enough to meet after work.
I stayed central in Lima, in a safe area called San Isidro. From there, I could reach two different wework co-workings within walking distance. Also, two friends of mine stayed pretty close to my apartment. That made it very convenient to meet spontaneously. One of my friends had a dog with whom I sometimes walked in the nearby park.
To my surprise, there was also a friend in the city I hadn’t expected. A friend I know from the WordPress conferences and a mutual friend saw on my Instagram story that I’m around and texted me. His wife is Peruvian, so they stayed for a month in Lima. We had to meet up since catching up in Lima was a surprise. We usually only meet at the more prominent WordPress conferences. In Lima, we met once for food in the evening and another time for a tour of the old town of Lima. The wife’s brother did a tour for us, like a real tourist guide. He explained a lot of fascinating facts to us and showed us around. We had to try some food and went to an old and luxurious hotel, one of the best Pisco sours places in the area. We ended the day walking at the park with a water and laser show.
Cusco, Peru
After a couple of weeks in Lima, having a regular schedule, and not doing much exploring overall, it was time to leave for another city. I took a flight and flew into the mountains—Cusco on 3399 m.a.s.l, famous for one of the seven world wonders, Machu Picchu. I booked an Airbnb close to the old centre of Cusco with a friend from Lima. We both stayed there to work and explore on the weekends. That worked well, and I enjoyed it a lot. Just next to the apartment, there was a small market where we could quickly hop over to grab food and be back to productive work. In the evenings we usually went out for proper food. Sadly, just on arrival, I got sick; I think it was because of the altitude. You can really feel it. Coming from Lima on sea level up to over 3000 meters. Just walking up the stairs is exhausting, and the body needs to adjust to that.
Around Cusco, there’s so much to see. The Incas were active and constructed crazy things thousands of years ago. I ended up not going to Machu Picchu after all since tickets were limited, and I didn’t book in advance. Moreover, it’s super touristy, and I’m not into that. Instead, I explored other places that were sometimes more difficult to reach, and I got lost when I tried to reach them like locals do. I missed my stop to hop off the local bus and ended up somewhere in the mountains without a mobile data connection. That was an experience. By the time I managed to get back to the valley, it had already gotten dark, and I had to return to Cusco.
My friend and I had a vacation the last week we stayed in Cusco, so we could explore even more. Vacation also meant moving out of a proper apartment and into backpack-style hostels, which gives me the feeling of vacation. It was a different environment, different standards, something else than usual.
During that week-long vacation, we visited some Inca sightseeing close to the city. We never booked a tourist tour and always went by ourselves the local way. We went to a beautiful valley called Urubamba. On the way there, we passed a big construction site for the upcoming international airport in Cusco. The current airport is small and hard to approach. I think it was one of the craziest landings I’ve ever experienced. The aeroplane has to dive just after a mountain, do a turn, and go straight into landing.
We did Inca sites like Moray, Ollantaytambo, Pisac, Tambomachay or Puka Pukara. There would have been more to see, but we didn’t have enough time. Exploring Cusco for two weeks isn’t an issue; there’s so much to see and many hikes to do.
I ended up doing a single touristy trip, finally. Without a guide, it’s not doable. I booked a day trip to “montaña de siete colores”, the rainbow mountains (Vinicunca). It’s a mountain peak with multiple colours. Other than that, it marks the highest peak I’ve hiked up – 5036 m.a.s.l. While it was possible to drive up by minivan quite far, we had to walk for the last few hundred meters. You could even cheat there and get a quad or a horse. South American people are crazy lazy. I for sure walked, but it was very exhausting. Not because I’m not athletic but because of the height. Even walking slowly, step by step, is so exhausting.
Arequipa, Peru
After exploring Cusco a lot, I also booked another Airbnb in Arequipa to work for 2 weeks. I also heard many good things about Arequipa and wanted to get to know it. People usually fly from Cusco to Arequipa, but it’s below an hour’s flight time, and this goes against my rule – I don’t take aeroplanes if it’s below an hour and doable in another means of transportation. Night buses are operating to Arequipa. They’re standard in Peru, usually have wide seats, and are comfortable. But after sitting for 4-5 hours, even the most comfortable seat isn’t that comfortable anymore. It ends up being uncomfortable, like a long-haul flight. The journey took me 12 hours, and I was pleased when I arrived early in the morning.
During my long bus ride, I tried to reach some local Couchsurfers to show me some places or hang out. I was successful and lucky. A girl who grew up in Arequipa had no plans for the following day and was happy to go around with me and showed me some places like Ruta del Sillar or the Quebrada de Culebrillas. Those things are amazing when locals spontaneously have time and are open to showing their city to strangers. We had a great time exploring and discussing various topics. Later in the evening, we even went with her little sister for dinner, which was fun, too, since we could even speak a bit of English.
I enjoyed Arequipa a lot. It’s way less crowded than other cities in Peru and has a nice vibe. I felt very safe and way less touristy compared to Cusco. The city lies between three different volcanos. The biggest is Misti, which reaches 5822 meters above sea level, while the city is 2335 meters. That’s an impressive difference. The city is also lovely with its old white buildings everywhere made from the local volcanic stones called “Sillar.”
When the weekend was about to end, I moved into my apartment where I’ll work for the next week. It was an apartment in a multistorey house that had just finished construction. Most apartments were still empty or had basic furniture inside. It turned out that I was the only one living in the whole six-floor house. That was weird and a first for me. The following days, I was busy with work. I did home office and left for food or did delivery. I sometimes went out with some more locals in the evening to eat and talk.
I took a “Colca Canyon” tour the weekend between my two work weeks in Arequipa. It’s famous for the hot springs, the deep valley and the condors (birds). Our trip started very early. We had to drive 160km over a mountain pass, the highest point almost 5000 meters with views to different vulcanos of over 6000 masl. After arriving down in the Colca Valley, we grabbed some breakfast; then we continued into an old village and to the valley. The valley is 1200m at its deepest point, which is massive. At the viewpoint, many condors are flying. Those birds are giants, the largest flying land birds, and their wings span 2.7–3.1 metres.
Also, an interesting fact about this valley is that the most significant river on our planet, the Amazonas, starts from this area. The spring is at 5120 meters. Later, we went down the valley to visit a hot spring, where our group enjoyed sunbathing in the hot water. Travelling with such a tourist group is unique in South America. Usually, there are only Latin tourists, so no one speaks English. The guide only has some mid-level knowledge of English. So going on such a trip typically means being alone for the entire day without much communication unless you’re in luck and another traveller with English knowledge joins the tour as well – which wasn’t true in my case. So, I enjoyed a guided tour alone but with people surrounding me.
