South America is a magical place that continues to be underrated. The people/politics/culture are crazy, but with such a diverse continent there's a ton to offer. It was an interesting time where I went to Peru despite honestly not enjoying it that much the first time. Granted I got really sick the first time which might have soured my taste. This trip it was one of the best times I've ever had. Probably a good example of giving everyone and everything a second chance.
Peru and our friends taught me the power of hospitality. In a long story, two of my good friends were coming to visit. One of the friends, Joey, had a good friend Giancarlo that is from Peru and was looking forward to showing us around. Well Joey's passport was expired and got stuck in Miami causing him to not make the trip down to Peru. We had a full week planned with Giancarlo and our relation to him and his family was no longer there. Honestly I fully expected him to not show us around since we were complete strangers to us. In an incredible gesture, he took us in and had my friends over to his family's house to stay the night on the beach in Asia, Peru (we had 8 people!). An incredible experience and we even went to a local fiesta that was difficult to get tickets with him and his friends. The graciousness could not be overstated. Him and his family welcomed us into his family with open arms for an almost entire week. We then became such good friends we went back to his beach house and glad to call him a friend for life now. A good reminder to reach out to strangers and foreign places and will try my best to pay it forward.
Machu Picchu was quite the trip. The weather was bad with rain so I wasn't able to do the Inca Trail, or at least it was ill advised. Instead I ventured on the train to Machu Picchu and we did several trips around the area. This time I focused more in the Sacred Valley, which honestly was almost a better experience than Machu Picchu. Machu Picchu in all its glory unfortunately has become overrun with tourists. It's good early in the morning, but once it gets past a certain time you can barely walk around without running into someone. Unfortunate, but it's starting to happen for many top areas around the world of overcrowding tourist destinations. I brought it up to several people and it was an interesting discussion. One option is a "tourist tax" but that brings in inequality. I'm not sure the right way to go about it, but many popular destinations will have to deal with this and it's only going to get worse. With the social media generation many popular picture areas have lines behind them just to take a photo and then leave. Fortunately I think I did a good job of being present and enjoying the moment, but hard to not be concerned.
Overall Machu Picchu lived up to its hype. My favorite part was the hike of the mountain behind Machu Picchu. I've noticed I'm starting to enjoy more the journey of getting places rather than the actual destination. I think it's a good sign I'm becoming more content with the process than the outcome. The hike was strenuous with a lot of heights, but we made it. We were one of the few of our friends to do it and enjoyed ourselves.
A fantastic side trip we did was "Rainbow Mountain," which I had not heard of. Apparently it was "new" in the past 5 years. So a glacier in the mountains had melted and underneath is a bunch of minerals that had been built up. The minerals produced this wild striped color look where it looks like a literal rainbow. One of the crazier hikes I've done where the altitude is 17k feet! I'll be honest it gets pretty dicey at the top. We had to shuffle our feet and you really start to test your breath. It took a long time to go a few hundred feet at the end and we had to stop on several occasions. Some people took horses up there. Another highlight of the trip was the top where we got some amazing photos with our Llama and Alpaca friends. We had to get on a bus at 3 AM for this trip which was well worth it and glad we did it!
The dessert continued to be a surprise love of the entire trip. We went to Huacachina, which I had never heard of. It's literally a dessert oasis in the middle of nowhere. Why this isn't a bigger deal I don't know. But it was one of the more wild places I'd ever been. We did a sand buggy tour and it was one of the more surreal experiences I'd ever had. The buggies were fast and could take on the dunes in easy fashion. With the tour just before sunset it made for some incredible scenes. An amazing part was "sandboarding" where you take a snowboard and race down the sand dunes. Just a little bit of sand in the pants, but actually got some great speed. We had to wear bandanna's over our faces the entire time from the sand storms and buggy, but one of the highlights of the trip. The hostels we stayed in the oasis were so fun with backpackers from across the world.
One other interesting side trip we did was to Lake Titicaca where we explored the floating islands. It's still inhabited by indigenous people of Peru called the Uros. There is a type of straw/reed that grows in the lake and simply the village continues to build out islands with like ~1,200 people on ~60-something islands there. The reeds rot away so the villagers have to constantly replace them. They have built some boats to go from island to island and we took some rides. They've been there for 4,000 years. We flew into Puno, that is at 12,500 ft and took a ton of acclimation. We also went to Arequipa that is a gorgeous mountain town. I had no idea Peru was so diverse and incredibly has 3 different climate zones despite a moderate sized country.
Colombia was a hoot and still to this day one of my favorite countries. The people are wild and can feel the energy everywhere you go. It was an interesting month where I needed some time to rest and recoup. Everyday I took Spanish lessons for 4-5 hours where I would go to a language school. I met some great people and teachers and enjoyed the experience. My Spanish still isn't where I want it to be, but I'm still working on it. I then would take Salsa lessons a couple times a week. Salsa is a must down in Colombia, and I'm still terrible at it. I don't think I have the hips, but maybe one day it will come.
Medellin is an incredible city with an interesting history. Most know it from "Narcos" fame with Pablo Escobar with the history of running cocaine through the city. It's assumed it's still a very dangerous place. I almost don't want to tell people about the city for fear of it becoming overrun. It's such a great city. The atmosphere is bustling with a ton of energy and so many unique pockets around the city. Comuna 13 is the barrio that was associated with Pablo Escobar and very poor. They've completely reinvigorated that part of the city with a ton of amazing art. It's transformed areas of the city. A new mayor had come in years ago and done wonders. They are planning to get completely green/clean energy in a few years. It's interesting to hear how they did all this. One of the key factors was public transportation. Many of the poor people lived on the outskirts of Medellin and simply couldn't afford to get anywhere for jobs. The new government made sure it was easy and economical for anyone to travel in public transit. This allowed poor people to find jobs they previously couldn't get. This brought up the entire city and now the city is prospering. It's a digital nomad paradise where you can live very well on $20k a year. El Poblado is where we stayed with a lot of expats that enjoy the low cost of living, good food, and year-around great weather. It's in the mountains so in the 70 degrees and low humidity everyday. I'll definitely be coming back here.
We also went to Guatape, which is a few hours outside Medellin and branches of rivers/lakes that is beautiful. We did a great trip with a tour guide that took us in vans down to the river and we stayed at his house and cooked pizza. We then took the boat out the next day and wake boarded. Was quite the experience. A bit of personal growth where I used to never be able to get up on wake boards and stopped trying a long long time ago. I wasn't going to do it, but felt the urge. I figured I wouldn't be able to get up, but actually got up the first try. Hey, it shows you to keep trying!
Colombia has so much other things to offer and we made the trek to Cartagena and San Andres. Cartagena is an old Spanish fort town that has the "old town" from the 1400's. The castle walls against the beach is a site to behold. I was looking forward to Cartagena, but was a bit crazy how touristy it was. We actually met some Americans that knew my family which was a bit wild. We had a great snorkel trip on a sailboat in Cartagena and then was off to San Andres. I still haven't completely figured out how they still have the island, but San Andres is actually off of Nicaragua. We were out there for sure. The island had a ton of sand bars where we would boat too and what seemed almost like entire villages on the water. I don't think we saw another American there and a pretty interesting destination. We didn't have a ton of time there, but enjoyed our fair share of the beach.
Quite the journey and the trip unfortunately has come to an end. Once-in-a-lifetime.
Comments