“Living the dream” – Peru

In what is likely my longest blog post yet (hence the delay of 23 years), I live a sample of the life people often dream of, meet two people who later become extremely close friends, learn something valuable about myself, have the worst dream of my life, get told that I should leave my profession and accidentally draw a vagina.

When I talk to friends or strangers about my trip, I often asked some interpretation of “what’s your favourite country, city and experience?”. This is a difficult one to answer, truly. One thing I can say with relative confidence is the month I’m about to story tell was probably one of my favourites of the whole trip.

So the last post left us just before Lima, Peru’s capital city, from where I secured my next volunteering position. A dream.

Often, when I ask people what their dream job would be, something along the lines of the following comes up: “Well I would love to work in a bar on the beach of a hot,  tranquil town, in a country far away.” Okay. So I didn’t live that exact dream, but bloody close enough!

The volunteer position: bartender in one of Peru’s most popular beach towns, Paracas, in the most popular hostel, Kokopelli, directly next to the beach along with seven other volunteer bar staff. I would work five-hour shifts, four or five times per week for three weeks. Now, I’d never worked in a bar before, but it had always been on my list of jobs to experiment with. And what better place?

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This is part of the fun of travelling and volunteering. You can experiment with practically no risk. I’d never planned on becoming a house/dog sitter, a digital marketer, a hostel worker, a (shit) web-developer or a bartender, but now I could experience a sample of these careers with nothing to lose.

Highlights

• Seeing some old faces!
  I always try to stay in touch with friends made on my trip. When I was hanging in Lima, I heard Nienke and Sterre (The Dutch girls whom I met whilst working in the hostel in Guatape, Colombia) were returning to finalise their trip and fly home. Then, in rather coincidental fashion, I saw them on the opposite side of the road. Naturally, I ran over and scared them shitless before we hugged it out. That evening they had been invited to a dinner party by a Peruvian guy, Luis, they met in the park (weird?). I tagged along. Luis made a delicious risotto and provided wine for the evening – I was beginning to like this guy. And, as usual, I also spent a number of days with Ceci 🙂

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• Seeing Ceci AGAIN. Yup, when I arrive in Paracas, Ceci is volunteering in one of the hostels as a freelance artist. Her task was to paint a wall using a design of her choosing. So, naturally, we spent many days and evenings together by the beach, drawing random things (including my accidental vagina), and having adventures in nearby towns!

• Sandboarding and beach-buggying with Ceci – Very close to Paracas is a little gem of a town called Huacachina, which, is famous for it’s lagoon and surrounding dessert. In said dessert, one of the attractions of the town is to tour in a sand-buggy and slide your way down a sand dune on a sand-board. Now, this is super fun until you fall off. The sand is bloody hot, as you can probably imagine.

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• Self discovery – Learning about my need for precise balance between being social and being alone.
  In the last years, I’ve established that I enjoy and need a certain amount of both, though I’ve never known where the line is and how much of a difference it can make. I remember some days after finishing a busy shift at the bar I would feel equal parts proud and socially exhausted. As a result, I would put in my headphones, play some music and go for a walk on the beach where I wouldn’t be disturbed. I know understand my needs much better; during my waking time I would estimate a margin of 65% social interactions and 35% time to myself. This is optimum for me and helps me be my best self with others and still have time to think (drink), reflect (nap) and draw or write (watch football). That is until one day when I was disturbed. One day after work, I followed the exact routine above, only to be poked by a girl just before my walk. When quizzing her, she told me it was because I wasn’t giving her any attention. Kimi is the only girl I ever met who came up to me and, as an introduction, stated she was unhappy that I didn’t talk to her in the handful of opportunities I apparently had. I was both taken aback and impressed with her confidence. We spoke for about an hour and then she had to leave for her bus. She is a blogger and even once published her own book. She was from Buenos Aires, Argentina, somewhere I had planned to go in the coming months, so we exchanged numbers.

• Poor-man’s Galapagos Islands – The quaint little beach town of Paracas has a lovely little ocean treasure. A tiny set of islands (large rocks) named the Ballestas Islands which host a variety of sea life. Taking a tour on a little boat cost me, from memory, around $10. Whilst I was out walking around Paracas one day, I noticed many, many more tourists around than usual, and they weren’t the usual tourist crowd. They were practically all old couples, around 60-80. I got talking to some of them, turns out there is a port nearby and their cruise ship stopped by. We got talking about the islands and I got a massive shock. The cruise ship operator offered the tour of the islands to the guests on board. You couldn’t guess how much they paid for this little trip – around $150! Just shows the margins that can be made if you listen to your trustworthy cruise ship staff.

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• Beach clean – I do my first ever environmentally selfless act. Once per week, our bar would offer free cocktails (okay so not 100% selfless) to any guests who took part in a beach clean. I threw in my hat. Right at the end of the beach, I stumbled across a black lace string with a love-heart shaped metallic piece. Not entirely my style, but I couldn’t pass on the novelty of finding a necklace on a beach. I still wear it.

• “Your cocktails are the worst I’ve ever tasted.”
  Genuine story. There is a twist here though. Fast forward a few days and I’m working a shift on the bar. What started out to be a bit of banter from a backpacker, ended up turning into one of the best friendships of my whole trip. Jade is an Australian backpacker – and I can confidently say one of the funniest people I ever met. I was amazed by her ability to consistently and immediately come out with the funniest one-liners I ever heard. But yes, after trying my drinks, her opening line was the above statement. Expect to hear about her in future posts. I thought my Pizco sours were delcioso.

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• A few more days in Lima – After living the beach-bar type dream for three weeks, it was time to move on. And despite the novelty and superb people I had met, I was more than ready to leave. Paracas was superb, but it made me realise I just wasn’t capable of staying, let along living, in such a small place. It reaffirmed by belief that I needed to be in a city or large town. Somewhere there were options. People options, food options, activity options, coffee options, all of the things. I didn’t plan on going back to Lima. After bonding in Paracas, Jade and I decided to hang out for a few days in Lima before we took our separate paths. We had a great few days, showing each other our favourite parts of the city and generally, within a few days, consuming more units of wine and sangria than is about normal in a month.

• The famous Machu Pichu – Many people visit South America just to see Machu Pichu. So, as it was on my way southwards – I had to see it, right? I headed to Cusco for a few days to work out the logistics.
  Cusco is extremely touristic because it’s the closest big city to Machu Pichu and other attractions, but still it holds some authenticity and has character. After about 3 days of being completely lazy and partying in hostels. I finally decided to inquire about the options for visiting Machu Pichu. Naturally, I made an instinctive decision when I walked into my hostel one day and saw an attractive girl sat at the tourism desk. I approached. She gave me a very odd look indeed, and, eventually said: “Heyyyy! Great to see you again!”. I was confused. It was another of those moments where I semi-recognized someone but could not recollect where from. She explained that we met when I was working at the hostel in Paracas. Turns out she didn’t even work at the hostel I was staying in, she was just using the PC at the tourist desk. We made plans to go out that evening and ended up partying and playing drinking games at another party hostel. After discussing our plans to go to Machu Pichu, we decided to do it together. The evening before it was about to begin, we booked the Salkantay trek. A 5 day trek toward Machu Pichu which would take a group of around 15 people through parts of the Inca trail and other jungle-like trails. I remember the cost being around 150 euros, which, when you consider the cost of 5 days of accommodation, food, drink activities etc. wasn’t much more than what I would spend in five days hanging around Cusco. We would camp in the evenings and eat around fires at altitudes of up to around 10,000 feet. On the final day, we would rise at 4am to walk to Machu Pichu itself. It certainly was stunning and the history intriguing. But for me, the 4 days prior were the most special. Creating connections with like-minded people and walking for 5-8 hours per day in beautiful nature, seeing incredible cliff-drop views and mountains. And, of course, chewing on coca leaves.

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• The Nazca lines –
  “The Nazca Lines in southern Peru are a group of pre-Columbian geoglyphs etched into desert sands. Covering an area of nearly 1,000 sq. kilometers, there are about 300 different figures, including animals and plants. Composed of over 10,000 lines, some of which measure 30 meters wide and stretch more than 9 kilometers, the figures are most visible from the air or nearby hilltops. The combined length of all the lines is over 1,300 km (808 mi), and the group cover an area of about 50 sq km (19 sq mi).” Obviously, I had to see them!

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• Treking the Colca Canyon – Shortly after returning to Cusco I headed for another city in South Peru, Arequipa. Arequipa is probably the whitest, most beautifully architectured city I’ve been to. I felt very happy there. It had much less tourism compared to Cusco, making the local culture more transparent.
  Every city in Peru seems to have a lot of options when it comes to adventure tours. One on offer in Arequipa is the Colca Canyon, one of the deepest canyones in the world. The tour I took was pretty simple. You start early one day and walk down to the bottom of the canyon, where there is a small village to eat, chill-out and sleep. The following morning, set your alarm for 4am and start the trek back up. When I write it like that, it sounds like a terrible idea. But if you check out the pictures, you’ll soon see why people do this.
  I met some cool people on the trek, which once again throws you in a group with a bunch of strangers, this time for around 48 hours. One of those was Elaine, a Canadian girl. We chatted for hours, exchanged music suggestions and she helped me with practicing Spanish. We still keep in touch every few months which is lovely. I also met a guy called Ron, who was the only person I met (to date) who decided to move from Europe to Brazil.

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• Getting the best tan of my actual life.

• Eating so much Chifa (Peruvian-Chinese fusion food), Criolla and Ceviche that I started to look like a Tequeño. “Peru is without a doubt a world leader in fusion food, mixing traditional Peruvian styles with the culinary styles and traditions of the immigrants who have found themselves on Peru’s shores.”

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Lowlights:

• The worst dream of my life to date – Have you ever had one of those dreams where, not only when you wake, but throughout the rest of the day and following days and weeks, you can still remember the dream vividly. A dream so realistic, that you reflect on it for hours and hours on end. I’ve always been interested in the science behind dreams, or perhaps dream interpretation. What is it that leads us to invent such realistic stories and how are the subjects of our dreams determined. Including this one, I’ve only ever had three dreams which I can clearly remember and re-live since waking from them. Two sad, one happy. This one was was perhaps the most powerful. I remember waking at 5am with actual tears, this is rare (only wasted beer and chick flicks can make me cry). I immediately took my laptop and found a table at the bar so I could write down exactly what I remember. I felt I needed to get it off my chest. I actually cried as I wrote it down. I could write a whole blog post on the dream but its far too depressing to mention.

• Another sleepless night – Once again, due to fellow roommates being busy at 2am. This happens every now and again. I mean, people need sex, sure. But people could be more creative than sticking to the bed. After all, we were eight volunteers in an intimately small room. Rant over.

• One of the hardest goodbyes yet – This month was filled with special people. One of those I had to say goodbye to, this time for the last time in South America was Ceci. We had some amazing adventures together. Ceci painted me a self-portrait and at the bottom, wrote all the places we had spent time together: The Ecuadorian border – where we met, Quito hostel – where we bumped into each other in the same dorm, a second hostel in Quito – the third time we accidentally met and subsequently decided to hang out. Everything after that was arranged; Montanita beach town, Banos, Cuenca, Chiclayo – Peru, Lima and finally here in Paracas. A total of nine different places! Here in Paracas we spent our days on the beach, drawing whilst drinking hot chocolate and mostly, eating sweet things. Before we said our final goodbye, she gave me a letter she told me I had to read once she had left.
  This is the superb thing about travelling as a backpacker. You can meet people and spend either just a few hours, or in some cases weeks or months with someone, and you have a new friend for life, a new country you’re welcome to explore and be shown around by the local knowledge of a friend, rather than TripAdvisor.

Random titbits:

• Getting my first ever tip – 4 soles (approx. 50p) and then forgetting to take it when my shift ended 😦

• Becoming too confident for my own good (high alcohol influence) showing off my salsa moves, and dropping Tavia, a fellow volunteer on her back. It was like one of those romantic moments in movies where we fall down together, laugh and kiss. Only without the laughing or kissing and instead she banged her head on the concrete floor and ended up going to bed early. She didn’t forgive for the rest of my volunteering but we remain good friends to this day.

• Offering my number to a Peruvian who was studying English 1-2-1 with her teacher, only for the teacher to show me around Arequiqa, invite me to breakfast with her family and let me drive her 1970’s VW Beetle! Wonderful!

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• Meeting Luis for beers.
  Remember when I went to a random house dinner in Lima to meet up with old friends Nienke and Sterre from Guatape? Luis was the host that night and I got along well with him and we stayed in touch. He actually lives in Arequipa, so when I was there some weeks alter I messaged him and we went for beers. Little things like this remind me how incredible it is to be a travelling free soul.

• Actually falling ill. I always imagined I would catch a few stomach bugs here and there on my trip. But until Lima, I never did – my stomach and immune system seemed to accommodate all of the weird and wonderful things I was digesting. The morning after the delicious risotto and wine night, I felt a bit off. What developed from there was one of the only times I can remember being bed-bound. And a hostel isn’t a place you want to have fever, sickness and diarrhoea – trust me. I spent days laid out on the rooftop hammock, drawing random shit and drinking tea. In some ways, it was the best possible place to be ill – no stress about taking time off work, just a few days of endless sleeping (and shitting).

• Trying paddle boarding for the first time. Each morning I’m awake in time, I see Emma from work take a huge paddle board to the sea. It looks very peaceful. I like the idea of being able to stand on the sea and take in my surroundings, without distraction and noise from the beach. So, one day, I give it a go. I’m told to hit the coast at around 7am, before other boats start to disturb the calmness. Off I go. I struggle. Navigating a board of this size is harder than it looks! Every time I paddle to the left or the right, even if a gentle stroke, I seem to move a mile. For a period, I even had to get on my knees to ensure I didn’t lose my balance and go over. I thought it would be a good idea to bring out my phone so I could take pictures. So falling off simply wasn’t an option. After about 30 minutes of struggling and a few near misses, I headed back to the beach. How did people enjoy this? Even on a calm morning this thing is almost impossible to steer. Sometimes it got so bad that I would do a 360 and there was nothing I could do to stop it! Only when I got off the board did I make a rather significant discovery. Any guesses? I had the board the wrong way around. The little underside-fin which helps with navigation was wrongly at the front of the board instead of the back. Wow, not my brightest moment.

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• Getting a message on Facebook from someone I had previously met who discovered my blog accidentally. Luciana was one of my students that time I ran an English language lesson in Chiclayo, Peru. Turns out she was doing some research about Colombia and found my blog. Only when she saw the pictures did she realise it was mine. It was strange but kinda nice to hear about this – a small claim to fame.

• Finding strangely named products in Peruvian shops. Too good to be true?

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