South America Travel Diary: Personal Reflections and Conquering Challenges

Every time I come back from a long trip (okay, I’ve only done two in my life, but STILL), I’ve found solo traveling to be a great time for reflection and realizations. Each trip has had its own themes. My first trip to Southeast Asia was all about learning how to live in the moment, accept the present, and have faith that I can make things work (my motto from that trip became: “F*CK IT! Who cares!”).

South America was a very different trip for me, however. Just a year after my last trip to Southeast Asia, I found this trip to be all about becoming a more resilient person. I also learned how to be successful with whatever challenge or hardship that came my way. Traveling’s also great for gaining a better perspective on your own life at home.

Despite all the great, life-changing, and downright AMAZING times that I had during my travels throughout Peru and Bolivia, my trip to South America wasn’t easy at first. NEVER assume that you will have fun. Traveling can be  hard at times. It can get lonely, it can be overwhelming, it can be dangerous – just like anything else you experience in your own life back home. Traveling, however, at best, is all about gaining a better perspective and understanding, and being grounded – in all senses of those words.

South America Travel Diary: “Dangers and Annoyances”

So far, all I’ve written about are all the things that I LOVED about South America. This blog post, however, will be about all the things that travelers can look out for to make sure that everyone has a good time. Like any outsider going to any new place, it’s good to be a bit educated before you visit. There’s a reason why some dangers or social problems exist, and most of the time the root causes of those problems are very complex (for social, political, and economic reasons) – on both a local and global scale. And to be real, some of these problems come as a result of tourism and a strong foreign presence these other countries (becoming cultural and economic exploitation/imperialism in many ways).

Each country and city is different, of course. I know this may seem like a lot, but some things are more common than others. Half of the time it’s about prevention, and half the time it’s just about luck.

The Best of Peru: My Top 10 List

Since I only spent about three weeks in Peru total (including transportation time), these are just a few recommendations that I’ve been able to compile with my limited experiences there (I have a new rule now: minimum 1 month per country. If you haven’t done so before, travel abroad for a month or longer and you’ll see why…!)

In no particular order:

1. El Camino Inka to Machu Picchu

Experience some gorgeous and amazing (4 days of) hiking while learning more about Peru’s Incan history and their temples along the way. Just make sure to respect the environment as much as possible and take it all in as a spiritual journey too. (Warning: All fitness levels are allowed, but not all make it to the end. And altitude sickness is about genetics, not physical fitness!). While it can be tragically way too touristy at the “end”, (AKA Machu Picchu) the history there goes deep. Those stone stairs on the way there are pretty rough, though…

The Peru and Bolivia Travel Diaries: The Logistics

A lot of readers have been asking me specific questions about how to travel about from city to city, what to budget, what to bring, what to expect, etc. I’ll attempt to use my limited traveling experience to give my opinion on some of those questions. But don’t just take my word for it – ask around! And as always, check out the Lonely Planet Thorn Tree forum for all your questions!

Check the exchange rates, but when I was traveling, $1US = $2.5 soles (Peru) and $1US = $7 bolivianos (Bolivia)

Llama llama llama…

BUDGETING

If you’re really on a budget (I mean, REAL cheap), here’s an estimate of what to expect to pay (without tours, which range from $15 a day to $100 a day, depending on how hardcore they are)…IMHO:

PERU: $25-$40US a day (without tours)

• Lodging: as cheap as $35 soles a night (for hostels)
• Food: As cheap as $20 soles a day)
• 1L bottle of Water: $2-3 soles / A soda = $2.5 soles
• Taxi around town: $3 soles to $12 soles
• Bus: $1 sol to $2.5 soles
• Public bathrooms: $1-3 soles (sometimes offer you toilet paper when you pay)

BOLIVIA: $15-$25US (without tours)

• Lodging: as cheap as $20 bolivianos a night (for hostels)
• Food: As cheap as $30 bolivianos a day (usually more)
• 2L bottle of water: $6-10 bolivianos / A soda = $4 bolivianos
• Taxi around town: $3 bolivianos to $12 bolivianos
• Bus: $1.5 bolivianos or more
• Mini-van taxi: $2-4 bolivianos
• Public bathrooms: $1-3 bolivianos (sometimes offer you toilet paper when you pay)

From Lima to San Francisco: Going Back to Cali (and My Minor Lessons Learned)

The night before I took my final flight back home (SO SAD), I went out and decided to eat dinner at a restaurant in the alley near my hostel (there’s a whole bunch of restaurants down there that cater to both locals and tourists). I sat down at one that was playing the Knicks game (I hella missed basketball!) and decided to take a risk and get a caesar salad and a chicken consome soup – I really missed eating fresh raw vegetables. I asked the waiter if the salad was washed in “agua purificado”. He said it was – or, at least, I thought he said yes maybe he didn’t hear me, who knows.

My chicken consome soup

The dinner kinda sucked. Well, the soup was okay and I did appreciate the food; however, it was very expensive (I really don’t like paying US prices for mediocre/bad food). It was also hella hard to overlook the fact that my caesar salad was a salad with a bad cheese sauce and pieces of lunchmeat ham instead of sardines (for the most part, don’t get Italian or American food out here, it’s probably not going to be worth it. Unless it’s a decent pizza joint – or it’s Ekeko’s in Puno, where EVERYTHING is good). To say the least, the salad was not good.

Not a caesar salad

To add insult to injury, I got really sick from the food that night and pretty spent an hour in the bathroom on the toilet (good thing my roommates were either asleep or out!). It was incredibly painful – it felt like I was turning my sphincter inside-out.

Three Hot Days in Nazca

After a day and a half in Lima, I was pretty much over it. Since I didn’t have anyone else to hang out with for the rest of my days there, I decided on a whim to make a short trip to Nazca to see the infamous Nazca lines. If I had time, I also wanted to hit up Ica/Huacachina to go sandboarding, but I wasn’t going to push it. Didn’t want to miss my expensive flight back to San Francisco in four days!

No Man’s Land: On the way to Nazca

I took a Cruz del Sur bus (the most reliable bus in Peru, so I’ve heard) past a few tourist cities (like Ica) and finally ended up in Nazca at about 9 pm at night. The trip down there however was kinda nuts. It looked like Mad Max land out there! Nothing but desert and brush with some homes (and sometimes in villages) out on the plain by themselves. Very end-of-the-world-ish-looking.

When I got in, the Nazca Inn hotel owner was waiting near the bus station to bring guests to his hostel. He was really welcoming and friendly – a local Nazcan who went to school in England for a little bit to learn business, who then returned to his hometown to run his family’s hostel. We spoke back and forth in Spanish and English, which made communication easy and fun. He took me on a short tour around the main strip and dropped me off at the hostel. Which, by the way, is AWESOME!

Hallway at the Nazca Inn

Later that night me and the hostel owner got drinks on the main drag…however, after getting completely drunk after one drink, I had to go out to get a burger so that I wouldn’t be completely embarrassing. I ate in his car while we drove around town and met his friends…

Yeah, I can be a bit of a sloppy drunk. So sue me.

What’s Good In Lima?

I asked my cyber Facebook friends about what I should do in Lima. The responses:

“Not much”

“Manorca Beach in the north!”

“Hang out in the Barranco District at night”

“Museo Larco!”

I have to say that my first impression of Lima was not the most positive – only because perhaps I expected Lima to look more like the rest of Peru and less like Los Angeles (I have very mixed feelings about the city of LA). But with 8 million people, what can one expect. At least the weather was sunny and humid – I missed that feeling! Beats being around cold rainy mountains with low levels of oxygen.

Kennedy Park in Miraflores

Despite many technical difficulties (including not knowing how to make international calls from my Peruvian cell phone), I finally met up with Angela and one of her travel crew friends, Mel. I couldn’t believe we finally connected (first through this blog, and later in person)! Despite the fact that the restaurant that we were going to eat at was closed (Punto Azul is supposed to have EXCELLENT ceviche, but doesn’t open on Mondays), we quickly found a bus and made our way back to central Miraflores to find a place to have lunch. It was pretty hard. It’s hella touristy out here. There aren’t many good food options – and they’re all kinda expensive.

After making a huge circle around town, we finally settled on a chain restaurant called Rustica near my hostel. It was pretty good…

Mel, Angela and me

From Bolivia to Peru: The Journey Back to Lima

As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve cyber-met a handful of other travelers (through conversations on this blog!) who have also been planning their trip to South America and wanted some travel advice. One such traveler mentioned that she would be in Lima on the 17th of February, so I said that I’d try and see if we could meet up on that day.

Best hot dog ever (with mashed potatoes) at my stopover in Cochabamba

Since the buses out have been such a crap shoot, I was pretty tired of attempting to take the long (and dangerous) overnight buses. Barely missing a deadly bus accident by a day on my way to Tupiza was enough for me. I took a TAM flight from Sucre to La Paz and spent the day trying to recover from a really bad flu or cold – or whatever. It was so bad that my coughs were non-stop and guttural, as if my body was trying to turn my lungs inside-out each time I coughed. I almost lost my voice completely. While I had high hopes of doing the “World’s Most Dangerous Road” trip through the gorgeous Yungas, I knew that I had to take care of my health if I wanted to enjoy the rest of my trip in South America.

Shopping all day in Las Brujas, La Paz

I spent most of my day in La Paz buying gorgeous scarves, hats, jewelry, and other Bolivian goods for all my friends back at home. At night I attempted yet again to try the Asian food out here and settled on a sushi joint on Sagarnaga St. (it was “Valentines Day”, why not?) It was HORRIBLE.

Travel Diaries: The Top 10 Bad @ss Things About Bolivia

Before I made my plans to go to South America, I told my friend Darrell that I was planning to go to Peru, and then fly to Argentina to see Patagonia. I had no other plans to visit any other countries, because I only had two months.

“You have to do Bolivia”, he told me.

“Why?”

“Just because – it’s awesome.”

Yeah, Bolivia was AMAZING. I want to go back. I didn’t even make it to Argentina on this trip because I spent so much time there.

ANALOG GIRLS’ TOP 10 THINGS TO DO/SEE IN BOLIVIA: (Dedicated to all my good folks out there right now)

Ahhhhhhhhhh…Sucre!

After Uyuni, I decided to travel up to the lovely city of Sucre since my plans to go to Argentina had fallen apart by then (there just wasn’t enough time to go. New rule: 1 country per month! At least 3 weeks…there’s just so much to do!).

I had heard a lot of good things about the “White City” – a traveler I met in Cochabamba said that it was one of his favorite cities in the world (I guess it depends on what you like though. While Sucre wasn’t my favorite city in the world, it was indeed very nice).

Catedral

This trip also didn’t start out very well – due to the buses, yet again. I have no idea what happened, actually. All that I know is that I boarded an Emperador bus at Uyuni and took it for about four hours until its stop at the famous mining town of Potosi. The bus company originally told me that I would have to change buses in Potosi, but that didn’t quite happen. When I asked the bus driver where to go for my connecting bus to Sucre, he just handed me 20 bolivianos and told me to go upstairs. Somewhere. What?

So I went upstairs to find – something. I tried to go to the Emperador bus office, but it was closed. Another agency down the hall said that I had to go to the NEW bus station down the street. Whatthhell. Why are there two bus stations. That is so confusing.