The Time We Got Stuck in Peru

Back in February, I lost my keys in the snow. One morning, it started snowing in New Jersey, so I walked Bailey up to the beach. We frolicked around the sand dunes, walked to the bay, and then went back to the house. Throughout the day, it snowed and sleeted about 12 inches, covering the roads in layers of wet snow and crunchy ice. Later that day, I reached into my coat pocket for my car keys, but they weren’t there.

I looked in all my pockets, my purse, the garage, the laundry basket, but they were nowhere to be found. At that point, I was pretty sure they’d fallen out of my pocket into the snow, and since a foot of snow and ice had dumped on top, there was no way to check. On top of that, I wasn’t exactly sure where they’d fallen out. I only knew they had to be somewhere in the .1 mile stretch between the bay and the ocean. I walked back and forth down the lane in the spitting snow, half-heartedly hoping to find them. I kept looking around the house, knowing full well they probably weren’t anywhere in there. My neighbor even kindly helped me shovel and check the driveway around my car. But still, no luck.

Oh, I should probably mention that I don’t have a spare key. My car never came with one. Of course, when I told my family members and neighbors that the keys were lost, they asked if I had a spare. Nope. Just the one, buried in the snow.

Over the next few days, the temperatures stayed below freezing. Our street turned to a thick sheet of ice. I slipped, skated, and crunched back and forth, searching for the keys. I started to give up the little bit of hope I had of finding them before spring, so I made some calls to explore my options. AAA wouldn’t come because of the wintry weather. The local locksmith couldn’t make a copy of the master key without reprogramming the system in the car. I finally called Toyota and learned it would be around $800-900 to reset the car and get a new master key. Yikes (my car is a 2016 Corolla)! My job is fully remote, and I didn’t feel compelled to drive around town on the ice rink, so I decided to wait and hope for a thaw.

The thaw never came, but my trip to South America was quickly approaching. I (maybe irresponsibly) decided to abandon the keys and the car for almost a month. I got a ride off the island and eventually to the airport, leaving all my troubles behind.

I already wrote about our stay in São Paulo in my last post so in this post, I’ll only talk about where we went after that… Peru!

Landing in Lima

We flew from São Paolo into Lima for a quick stop. I had visited the city about 10 years ago, and I was excited to return. It’s such a pretty city with amazing food and relaxing coastal paths.

We stayed in the Barranco neighborhood, with cliffs overlooking the ocean and a walkway for easy access down to the beach.

We ate at La Bodega Verde cafe multiple times for perfect patio seating and healthy breakfasts.

We went on an awesome food tour, where we learned about the history of the city and tasted local delicacies: tamales, pork sandwiches, yellow potatoes, tropical fruits, donuts, and the best, ceviche! Our arrival coincided with National Pisco Sour Day, so we celebrated that, too.

Apart from all the eating, we toured the city:

And took a day trip to the Palomino Islands to swim with sea lions:

I really recommend the visit to the Palomino Islands. The water is very cold due to the Humboldt current, but it was worth it to be so close to the sea lions. These particular sea lions are friendly and playful, so they come right up to you. You also get to see lots of little Humboldt penguins.

After our two lovely days in Lima (including watching the Super Bowl and seeing the Bad Bunny halftime show with lots of fans!), we flew to Trujillo and traveled on to Chicama. I will write about that part in my next post, because it was a separate surf trip, so stay tuned for that. The Lima airport has gotten an upgrade since the last time I was there:

Back to Lima

We spent four days in Huanchaco and Chicama, and then returned to Lima. It was Valentine’s Day, and we had the not-so-original idea to visit Love Park with just about every other person in the city! It was felt special though, with live music and dancing.

This time we stayed in the Miraflores neighborhood, which feels a little more central, but is also a high tourist area like Barranco. We stayed in a nice guesthouse that was off the beaten path and had a quiet patio for breakfast:

While we were staying at that guest house, I received some amazing news… my neighbor had found my car keys in the sand dunes during her beach walk! It felt like a miracle. That was a big weight lifted off my shoulders for when I returned home.

Punta Hermosa

Our next stop was a beach town about an hour south of Lima called Punta Hermosa. We spent the week working, surfing, and checking out the town. The weather was a little foggy, but it usually cleared up later in the day.

I almost don’t want to tell anyone where we stayed because I want to keep it a secret all to ourselves, but I will share because the hosts were so kind and helpful: Chino Surf House. It was simple, peaceful, and very close to the beach. I hope to return someday!

We got to hang out with Lua, the best house dog:

Back to Lima

After our week in Punta Hermosa, it was time to head back to Lima. This is when the trip started to get interesting (wink, wink). We were at a cooking class on Sunday, my “last day”, when I got a text from United that my flight had been canceled. I set my stress aside just long enough to make this delicious ceviche:

Later I found out that, due to all the snow back in New Jersey, I wouldn’t be able to leave until Friday. To be honest, I wasn’t heartbroken. That just meant more sunsets and more ceviche! Lima is pretty inexpensive when it comes to accommodation (we also had travel insurance to help with some of the costs), and I didn’t have anything important to hurry back for.

San Bartolo

The next day, Bryan’s flight also ended up getting canceled and rescheduled, so we added another stop to our itinerary. We opted to check out San Bartolo, another beach town that is just a little past Punta Hermosa. We weren’t as lucky with surfing as we were in Punta Hermosa. We didn’t bring our own boards to Peru, and we couldn’t find anywhere close enough to rent them (we didn’t have a rental car).

We stayed at Kauhuhu Casa Hotel, which was really nice, and we dined out at lots of outdoor restaurants all over town. Overall, the town was much quieter than Punta Hermosa with not as much going on at night, but I’m glad we stayed there for the experience.

Back to Lima (last stop!)

Would you believe we went back to Lima one more time? It really is a very easy and livable city. I was sad to leave and return back to winter, but I knew it wouldn’t be too long until the next adventure.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading! Know that the moral of this story is to leave all your troubles behind and get to South America… everything else will work itself out as you go! And yes, we did eventually make it home and my car keys still worked—even the buttons.

**It’s a privilege getting to surf in other countries. I make sure I’m covered with affordable and reliable travel medical insurance in case anything goes wrong. I choose SafetyWing because their Nomad Insurance policy covers activities, including surfing, in 185+ countries. To sign up, visit this link.

Staying in São Paulo

At the end of January, we took a trip to São Paulo, Brazil. There’s something special about Brazil and Brazilians, for me. I could feel it even before we boarded the plane from the US. Everyone is so warm, friendly, and talkative. I think I made four new friends before we left the ground.

I hadn’t been back to Brazil since a study abroad trip in 2009, but I dusted off my rusty Portuguese and managed to get around and even had a few fun conversations.

This was a trip for Bryan’s work, so it was a little out of the ordinary in that we got to stay in a fancy hotel we normally wouldn’t stay at, and I spent more hotel time than usual. But it was also the time right before Carnaval, so one of Bryan’s colleagues took us to the pre-Carnaval rehearsals, and it was so amazing to see it all in action!

São Paulo is a big sprawling city. Some say it’s not the prettiest:

But the JW Marriott is always pretty! We were there during rainy season, but we did catch a few moments of sun:

And you can’t go on a trip to Brazil without talking about the food. First, there was the hotel breakfast buffet featuring every fruit imaginable:

My other favorite Brazilian foods are feijoada (a black bean and meat stew), moqueca (a fish stew with coconut milk), and rodizio (an eating extravaganza with every type and cut of meat— we tried a new one called Assador and it was really good).

We visited Bolinha for a classic feijoada lunch:

The Japanese food is also incredible, because Brazil has the largest Japanese population outside of Japan. We had the best sushi meal at MAK.Okuwa, but I forgot to take a photo!

The pre-Carnaval party was definitely my favorite part. It felt like a bucket list travel experience. The samba schools go through all of their routines in the Sambadrome. There’s music, confetti, and incredible costumes, almost like the real deal.

The next day, on a Sunday, we visited Paulista Avenue. They close the street to cars and there are lots of shops, museums, and markets to stop in. We got there and had brunch at mug.sp just before a huge thunderstorm, so we ran into the MASP art museum just in time.

There are a lot of great museums in São Paulo. I also visited the Afro Brazil Museum where they showcase inspiring Afro Brazilian art from throughout history. My only warning is that all the signs are in Portuguese, so it takes a bit of effort or a lot of Google Translate.

São Paulo also has a famous area for street art, called Beco do Batman or Batman’s Alley. This artist was my favorite:

And, of course, Batman himself:

At first glance, São Paulo is mostly buildings. And it is… at second glance and at third glance, too. But there are a few parks, especially Ibirapuera Park. It’s almost 400 acres of trails, lakes, and green space that offers a nice escape in the middle of the city. After being mostly indoors all week, walking through it on my last day was truly a breath of fresh air:

And that was our week in São Paulo! It probably won’t go on my list of favorite cities, but Brazil is still one of my favorite countries, and I hope to someday get back to see more of it! Tchau for now!

A Week in Cartagena, Colombia

When our trip to Ecuador fell through, we ended up making a visit to Cartagena. I’m so glad we did (though I still hope to get to Ecuador someday)!

Cartagena is a beautiful city for eating and enjoying life. The walled Old City takes you back in time, with uneven stone streets and historic squares. Colorful buildings and art give it a contemporary vibe.

You probably need three days to get a solid feel for the city and four days to really enjoy. We were fortunate to have nine days total for our trip. We stayed in different parts of the city and took a boat to the Rosario Islands for a couple nights.

Our visit started in the center of the city in the historic district. We enjoyed walking the walls for sunset views over the ocean. We went on a street food tour and got our bearings, learning how to order all the local dishes from street vendors.

The chicken empanada above was my favorite, and arepas de choclo were the most appealing local specialty:

I loved getting to try so many local fruits. The Colombian plums are the best – much smaller and sweeter than in the U.S.

It was easy to get around using a mix of Uber and our feet. The weather was warm, and we were happy to have AC and a pool at our AirBnb. It was a bit too windy and choppy to surf, but we checked out the nearby beaches.

After three nights in the city, it was time for an escape. We took a boat to the Rosario Islands–we chose a tiny island called Coralina and splurged a little to stay at a secluded resort. It was Bryan’s 40th birthday celebration, after all!

We enjoyed a couple of quiet days with that gorgeous view, excellent food, and plenty of time to swim in the turquoise blue waters. It was like living inside a postcard.

When we headed back to the city, we wanted to try a new neighborhood, so we booked an AirBnb in a part of town called Marbella. It’s right on the water, just outside the Old City–too far to walk but only a short Uber ride away.

The view from our window:

We kept ourselves busy, so we didn’t get to spend much time in the apartment. But we had a market tour, a cooking class, and other super-tourist activities to attend to.

Here’s what we made in cooking class. Red snapper with coconut rice and patacones:

For our final nights, we returned close to the city center and stayed in the Getsemaní neighborhood. This part is known for its colorful houses and streets filled with paintings. Bryan found us the perfect artsy Airbnb studio on the most vibrant street:

We were right in the middle of it all, and it was the perfect place to finish off our trip. Bonus that we were one of the only houses on the street with a balcony.

If you’re a traveler and a foodie, I would highly recommend a trip to Cartagena. I can’t wait to return and see more of Colombia.

Cheers!