Brandon and Erin's South American Adventure
We spent our last few days in Peru checking out Arequipa, a town in the south that we hadn’t visited before. The town was cute with some colonial buildings and a few huge monasteries. My favorite part of the town was looking off into the distance and seeing some cool mountains and a huge volcano. Here are a few shots from around town.
Brandon and I fast tracked through Peru, only spending a little over a week in the country. We sped through because we had already visited Peru in 2012 and spent 2 weeks exploring. Here are a few highlights from our trip in 2012.
After a long and stressful 20 hour bus ride from Mancora, Brandon and I were really excited to get to Lima. We spent a few days in Lima 2 years ago when we did our Incan Trail trip, so we knew exactly what to expect and where we wanted to stay. We rented a room on Airbnb in the neighborhood of Miraflores, which is the nicest neighborhood in Lima (maybe all of Peru?). It is on a cliff that looks right over the ocean, so the views are beautiful!
Miraflores has all the comforts of Chicago, so we made sure to take advantage of them since we are about to travel into Bolivia, where there will be few. We declared an “American Day” when we got there and headed over to Larcomar, a shopping mall built into the side of a cliff. The mall is exactly like any that you would go to in the U.S. – complete with Gap, Banana Republic, North Face and many other American stores, as well as restaurants. We had burgers and fries at Chili’s (where they even had American ketchup!) and returned to the mall later to watch a movie in English and have giant sodas and popcorn.
One thing that I had been looking forward to doing in Lima was running. Between high altitudes, travel and packed schedules, I hadn’t run more than 2 or 3 miles at a time since getting to South America. Lima has awesome paths that overlook the ocean so I made sure to pound out a few 4-mile runs – man, were my legs sore!
There are tons of parks along the path that Brandon and I explored. One of the more famous ones is Love Park – it has a giant statue of a couple making out. Right after we snapped a picture next to it, we remembered that we did the same thing in 2012 – so here the pictures are for a comparison (first is now, second 2012). The weather wasn’t as nice as the last time we were here – but I can handle a winter that means highs in the upper 60’s and overcast skies more than Chicago’s brutal weather.
Besides Chili’s, we had a few other food cravings that we wanted to fulfill. We grabbed sushi one night and then the next day went to a different neighborhood called Barranco to try a place called Burrito Bar. Those who know Brandon know that he LOVES Chipotle – as in probably ate there at least once a week in Chicago – so I did a search to see what Lima had to offer by way of burritos. Although you ordered at the table and not at the counter, this place was pretty spot on. Barbacoa, carnitas or chicken burritos, tacos or salads with cilantro lime rice and different beans, toppings, and salsas to choose from. The burritos even came wrapped in tinfoil!
We explored the rest of the neighborhood a bit too. There were some really nice parks and even a Chocolate Museum – those who know me know that we obviously went in for a tour!
I love Lima! Out of all the places that we’ve visited so far, Lima is the place that I could stay the longest. It has all the amenities that I like – diverse food, good shopping, lots of beautiful parks – and awesome bike lanes! Check these out – there are even bike specific traffic lights! Chicago’s got a lot of catching up to do…
After spending a day busing from Banos to Guayaquil and another day busing from Guayaquil across the border into Peru, we knew that we would need a couple days to stretch our legs so we booked a few nights in Mancora, Peru. Mancora is in the north of Peru and has about 9,000 inhabitants. Although it is a beach and surfing destination, we didn’t go swimming because it is winter here so mostly overcast and the highs were only low 70’s.
We stayed at a pretty bare bones “tiki” hostel at the top of the hill overlooking the town. It had a great common area (and decent internet!) so it was a good place to relax. I wouldn’t have wanted to spend more than 2 nights in Mancora, though. The town just felt a little dirty and there were way too many stray dogs for my liking. But it was nice to eat seafood on the beach and to recharge before our 20 hours bus ride to Lima!
We stayed in Guayaquil 3 separate times, usually while on our way to another place in Ecuador, so it is worth mentioning briefly… Guayaquil is Ecuador’s largest city and its main port. It’s a bit of a transportation hub for the country given its location, so it was a natural place to stay while on our way to other places.
We weren’t terribly adventurous in Guayaquil, with the main purpose of our visits to recharge our batteries before heading onward. Most of our time was spent exploring the area surrounding Malecon 2000 which runs along the Rio Guayas and checking out the colorful Las Penas neighborhood. Outside of that, we laid pretty low.
