Europe
Europe
Peru is a a beautiful and mystical country in South America, holding some very rich natural resources, and home to some of the worlds most fascinating cultures. Peru has a diverse climate, way of life and culinary suprises - like roasted guinea pigs. While Peru thrives in some aspects, it remains a very poor country and the main cities are very dense areas. However Peru loves their tourists and they make the country a very pleasant and friendly time. The people are some of the kindest and most creative I've ever met, and yes! They do have those snuggly Peru sweaters you keep seeing around!
Suggested daily budget – 100-170 PEN / $30-50 USD
Climate: Peru can be visited all year round and the country experiences two main seasons. The dry season between May and October sees sunny days and is a wonderful time to visit. However this means also being there at peak season which means you need to plan booking in advance (at least to some degree). Between November and March, visitors will notice more rain, with January and February are the wettest months to visit. Travel during this time however does offer the advantage of fewer visitors, greener scenery and some lower rates for flights and hotels. Although the Amazon also experiences more rain between November and March, this should not deter you from visiting - the flora and fauna will still be abundant and there are always breaks in the showers.
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Cusco
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This destination is true magic, and there is so much to do! I stayed in the Dragonfly hostel and loved it. I would highly recommend taking a few days to get used to the heights due to altitude change and getting acclaimed. Cusco is so different and special; this location is jaw dropping.
Activities:
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I loved and recommend: Paragliding at the Sacred Valley, going up to the Macchu Piccu, doing ATV tours (go somewhere that will give you a helmet and seat belt), dancing in Mama Africa salsa, practicing yoga in the Yoga Room and eating in front of it at Green Point. Many of the hostels recommend and even organize tours for popular hikes like Laguna 69, Rainbow Mountain and more.
Sight Seeing:
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Free Walking Tour.
The Morray Ruins (can get a voucher to enter the Morray, Marras and Salt Mines).
Wild Animal Shelters.
Check out the Lagunas tour on ATV, hiking or horses.
ATV Tours.
Museums.
Treks:
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The best way to do the Machu Picchu in my opinion, is to organize a group of friends and drive up. This way you see the great sites on the way like the Murray Ruins and you can go before the crowds at dawn if you park somewhere near for the night and hike up around 4:30. You may need a permit in advance though, because I hear they are limiting accessibility more and more these days because of the site sinking. Keep in mind there are many hostels and tour companies that offer all year round arrangements to see Macchu Piccu, but you could really just go and eavesdrop on groups for free now and then. If you do want to book a tour or travel up there with a booked group, wait til you land in Custco to do it, this way you'll know how to choose a group you love and that suits your price range.
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Rainbow Mountain.
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Salkantay.
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Humantay Laguna and 69.
Food
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Green Point – All Vegan and amazing!! If you're solo traveling or just friendly the communal tables are really fun.
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Allenby – For delicious Mediterranean food.
Stay clear of:
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Ripoffs and Scams.
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Food Poisoning by soup not boiled properly, tap water and ice cubes.
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Local Massages (they do more harm then good).
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Buying souvenirs in stores and not the cheap local markets.
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Lima
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Lima is a very touristic city and crowded with locals as well. You can have a nice time strolling near the beachfront (Lima is also a surf capital), shopping, gambling, eating, eating — did I mention eating? Lima is a good in-between stop. If this is your first stop in a third world country, it’s a good place to take everything in and adapt. However, it’s not worth to stay for more than 2-3 days. But god please, eat when you are there. It's so freakin good.
From Lima you could continue to fantastic destinations like Lake Titicaca, Amazon, Mancora, Huaraz or Cusco. In Lima I would recommend a day trip to the Ica sand dunes which are these cool sand dunes you can snowboard down in the middle of nowhere next to an oasis like looking lake. You can grab a bus to get there. Check out the parks, plazas, parties, markets and plan out the next real stop.
Food:
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I highly recommend the Tarboosh, and all restaurants in the mall are excellent. Do a chocolate tour, or maybe even a cooking class!
Keep in mind!
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-There are a lot of ripoffs in Peru, so check the real fares and go with taxis you can trust. Also, many taxi drivers have no idea where they are going and simply want you to pay, so download MapsMe (no internet needed) and follow the route to see if the direction the driver is going makes sense.
-Pull money only from ATMs that look legit.
-In Cusco nearly everyone gets sick because of the heights (about 3,400 m) and lack of hygiene. So be prepared and have altitude pills (dexamethasone, a steroid) just in case you go trekking.
-No drinking tap water... or find out the hard way.
PERU
Panama
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Panama is my absolute favorite country to travel. It’s cheap, tropical, and it's filled with untouched nature landscapes. The tropics, the sun and every view being more beautiful than the last, it's unimaginably beautiful. It's such an underrated destination and that's great because that's what keeps it so special. Additionally it's fun to note that the vibe here is a very tropical surfer vagabond traveler culture.
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Playa Venao
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Pedasi Los Santos Province Pacific side
Playa Venao takes place on a private sliver of a beach owned by hostel owners. From there you can do a day trip to Isla Iguana (by complete chance a Venezuelan family invited us to go with them and we found out about this paradise). Isla Iguanas is similar to San Blas; but only 10% of the price and where locals go. You can rent a boat driver who will take you there and pick you up when you tell him. It was such an amazing experience to meet a legit Venezuelan family and hang out with them and your friends on a secluded island (and yes, iguanas too!). While there, a friend brought an inflatable Sup board. After maybe 30 minutes of paddling and admiring the island, a boat approached me, carrying on it my friend and two police officers. They first spoke very angry Spanish, and then my friend translated, "you've crossed a border silly". The next half an hour I felt like I was a released prisoner coming back from captivity. Chanting, smiles, waving from a distant shore. If only people were always as this cheerful to see you, even when you don't nearly end up in prison. Oh well.
Venao is also near Isla Grande and Contadora Island. As far as planning a trip to Venao it all comes down to how much you like chilling while reading, surfing, and doing yoga. Some people can't handle being far away from everything, others yearn for it. So by knowing yourself you can more or less tell how long you’d like to stay (a lifetime maybe?).
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I stayed at several hostels so I can confidently say there are two good ones.
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The Cove – More quiet. I don’t know why every single one of the people that stays there looks like a super model but they sure do. They have a food truck with fresh fruits and vegetables that comes twice a week and you can eat from that or walk 30 min to the nearest grocery store and restaurant in the Selina. Here you can go on the beach and not see anyone for hours and then go back to the hostels and find out your bunkmates saved you some freshly caught fish. It's pretty remarkable.
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The Selina – When I imagining heaven, I think of this place. 7 AM yoga, followed by surfing, then a delicious breakfast and for a snack you can get a pineapple filled with fresh papaya, strawberries and pina. Magnificent living. They get pretty full on weekends since they hold the only parties in the area. From the Selina you can catch a shuttle bus to the next Selina in Bocas Del Toro (the Caribbean side of Panama).
Bocas Del Toro – Isla Colon in the Caribbean
Starfish Beach, Filthy Friday Island hopping parties. Reefs, surf and pool side days. This place is so perfect for tourists, really. And again I don’t know why, the backpackers all look like supermodels. I would recommend staying a week in Venao and 5 days in Bocas including the weekend. I can’t imagine a more chill location. Take a day trip to The Red Frog on the island and see some vast wildlife. Take a yoga class and have a mango smoothie laughing with friends under the sun. We saw loads of sloths chilling on the trees when walking to the beach from arriving in the dock which was so cool. The boat tours off to nearby islands are awesome as well!
Panama City
Is pretty boring, not worth more than a day. They do have some nice luxurious hotels if that's what your feeling like for a getaway. Have a look at the Panama canal with the view of the city at Cerro Ancon, and see some friendly sloths. Keep in mind though that a taxi shouldn’t cost you cross city more than $5.
Mexico
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A fascinating country laying between the United States, Guatemala & Belize. The extensive coast lines of over 10,000 KM include the gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean sea in the east side, and on the west the Pacific. Mexico has warm weather, unique food, archaeology, pyramids, museums and fiestas! I have yet to go back to this location to experience it fully. I encountered only the very touristic side of Mexico unfortunately. Although I had a great time doing it, it’s not authentic Mexico, and I hope to see more of real Mexico next time.
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Isla Mujeres:
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Lots of cheap places to stay on this secluded yet touristic island. You can get there by a ferry that runs very often until around 6 PM. On the Island you have great food, special street snacks, awesome beaches and weather. We had a good time going to the Dolphin Discovery area; however, we all got the vibes that these dolphins are not treated well. Therefore, I would recommend going in to the lounge area (which is awesome) but not to partake in the dolphin activities, especially if you empathise with animals greatly. Also, needless to say, much of the touristic reality of Mexico (and poor countries in general) is iffy. No price is a set price, you are nearly always being scammed as a supposed “gringo”. So don’t feel bad about bargaining! It gets fun! And they pretty much expect this. Plus, it's a great skill to learn.
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Playa Del Carmen:
Great for shopping, an awesome stop for a resort style vacation. Different parts of Central America have way nicer beaches, since these are filled with seaweed. If you like trance parties try to find yourself a Finka, otherwise the parties are honestly not better than in most other countries. Playa is overrated if your not into shopping and pools. Not to mention they have pretty scary crime rates.
Day Trips & Activities: Drive to Cozumel, Tulum, Chichen Itza Mayan Pyramids, Xplor Adventure Park the beautiful Cenote.
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My Honest Shocking Experience with Mexico
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The only unsafe experience I had was solo traveling was while I was leaving Island Mujeres. After traveling for a couple of weeks with my two friends, I left to the ferry and rushed realising it was the last one for the day. After sweating and running in my sandals with my two big bags, I get there to find maybe a 100 people in line. With the lines in central America being as they are, I got really bored and roamed my phone til it was down to 20%. When I got off the ferry for some reason I had trouble finding a cab that wouldn’t multiply the set price by 5. I was about to go to the highway and stop a cab, when a driver approached me and said the normal price. He claimed he knew where I needed to go and pretty forcefully took my backpack (Greg) and put it in the back.
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I wasn’t too startled and he reassured me he knew where he was going (a total lie), when the tv in the front seat started playing. Your probably asking yourself, why a TV instead of a radio? Well the answer is, for watching porn... While driving!
I was absolute mortified. Being a Jewish Israeli I have sadly received bad responses to presenting my nationality, so when he asked where I'm from I said my birth country, Belgium. I decided I needed to do something and I called my dad, speaking in half Hebrew half French pretending it’s my boyfriend who I’m meeting at the location were going. I heard my phone make a noise, now the battery was down to 10 percent. It had already been pitch black out and I realized from the map we are not on route at all. I told my dad to contact the Air Bnb near the airport (where I was heading), and when I hung up the driver yelled at me “You lied to me! You not Belgica! You Israeli!”. I told him to calm down that I study in Israel and my boyfriends Israeli. He got more angry and I had realised he has long fingernails (funny story – this is a way to recognise cab drivers that do/sell cocaine). I wanted to cry. I’m in a taxi alone, with seconds left of communication, he is yelling, there is porn, I don’t know what to do.
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For the first time solo traveling, this felt REALLY unsafe.
The taxi driver started yelling frustrated “Where the hell is this location, this isn’t real, you're making me late missy this will cost you”.
He then decided to triple the price, which I couldn’t even respond to, scared of his response.
The Air bnb man called, great! Finally! The man told him in Spanish where to go and the driver refused. The driver literally put me in front of a motel, which was basically a brothel on a freeway, and told me to get off. The man on the phone told me cab drivers do this there all the time, and not to argue and get out at an obvious well lit place we can meet. I saw a Dominos on the way to this charming brothel and told the cab to drop me off there. I had faked so much confidence as if this Air bnb man was with my pissed off boyfriend who was just waiting to kill them. This was my last percent and my phone turned off.
We pulled up next to Dominos, I didn’t take out a penny before getting out my backpack from the trunk. I handed him the notes all wrinkled up so it would take him time to count and walked away (more like waddled – I had two huge backpacks). He started walking after me “This isn’t the price!! You owe me money!!”
There are somethings in life that don’t really make sense and shouldn’t be advised, but I literally just kept waddling with my bags away not willing to pay more. He was about 10 steps away from me when he gave up. No more yelling no more anything. He started cursing and mumbling under his breathe. I was almost fully safe by this point. And that’s how I was left with no battery, some money and a heartbeat the highest it’s ever been on a highway at 11 PM in Mexico.
A couple of minutes later a car stopped in front of me, I was so freaked out, when I realised it was Airbnb dude! I hugged him, I cried, he calmed me down. And in the morning we went out for breakfast tacos. Ariva!
Needless to say this Airbnb was phenomenal. Not only is he an angel, he is highly talented. He build the entire compound in such a beautiful original way, like a tree house made only with wood and an untypical shape. He is a man of many skills that after the age of 50 drove from Mexico to the North Pole in a caravan with his dog! When I find his name I will include it, because really he was such a hero and sweet man.
