Tag: Peru

More Perú Travel Travails

It all works out, and it was a Sunday I’ll never forget.

(Note: To fully appreciate this post, listen to me spin the yarn about my first few highly stressful hours here in Perú. This was done in audio format on my podcast.)

Today should have been a Sunday fun day. The original plan involved sleeping in (which for me means getting out of bed at 8:00 a.m.), going for a hike, taking a nap after the hike, then watching my Broncos defeat the ignominious Patriots.

It didn’t work out that way, but it worked out OK.

Yesterday I realized that I had lost my Fidelity debit card, the one that gives me a full rebate on all ATM fees and cancellation of all foreign transaction charges. I tried my old fallback debit card and discovered that the magnetic strip is shot. Yipes. No access to cash. No bueno.

OK, fine, whatever. Suck it up. Take a deep breath. You’re not gonna starve; you just can’t buy from street vendors. Not a catastrophe.

That’s what I told myself yesterday.

Oh, uh… rewind a bit. Two days ago I set my travel itinerary which involves spending another week here in Cuzco. Now that the altitude doesn’t faze me, It seems like a place that’s worth another week of my life. It’s like no other place I’ve been. Might as well enjoy it. I am, after all, a person who enjoys going places but hates travel. After all the trouble of traveling to this place and the way it has not let me down in terms of “this is why I travel,” it’s worth another week.

So I got up at 7 this morning and booked another week at the hotel where I’ve been.

Sometime after breakfast and my morning walk, everything changed.

Early in the afternoon, I checked my e-mail. Reservation cancelled? Payment not received? WTAF?

OK, dude, relax. Everything will work out. Deep breath. Let’s get to the bottom of this.

That’s what I told myself. First I checked the payment. It had been processed.

Next I went on the app where I had made the reservation, the one that had taken my money, and explained my situation. “Uh, I don’t want to sleep on the streets of Cuzco tonight. WTF, guys?”

While chatting to the app rep, I talked to the manager of the hotel where I have been staying for the past few days and explained the situation. He assured me that I could stay here for the night.

The app’s business office tried to call the hotel but got no answer. I jotted down the number that they were trying to reach.

Went down to the desk and talked to the manager again. “Is this the number?”

“Oh, that’s the number of the office. It’s Sunday, and they’re out until tomorrow.”

That left me in limbo. I had a verbal agreement but nothing official. The app people were like, “Let us find you something else.” They made a few more calls. Same result. It’s Sunday. None of the office people for any of the hotels are working here in Cuzco.

Then it happened, the miracle: I got an email confirming my reservation here at this very hotel. Someone somewhere had done me a solid. It wasn’t the front desk guy, either. He seemed surprised.

After a few hours of stress, wondering where my payment had gone, whether or not I could securely lay my head in this comfy bed another night, having no cash whatsoever… todo bien now. Let’s relax.

Off to the pub we go for some football

It’s a pretty special experience at Paddy’s, highest Irish Pub in the world. The food is decent and atmosphere authentic.

The best chance I had of seeing an NFL game was Paddy’s Irish Pub which I had been meaning to try anyway. By the time I arrived, it was almost halftime, but it didn’t matter. The place was full of Euros and Latinos watching a futból match between Rome and Milan or some euro crap. Paddy’s only had one screen so I had to wait for that match to end.

That match ended in a draw (soccer is so f-ing boring — who wants to watch for 90 minutes and have it end in a 1-1 draw? I seriously don’t get it.). It’s a fun game to play, but watching it? Yeah, not seeing it…

Gimme football, man, Norte Americano-style.

They tuned the TV to the Broncos game after the euros achieved their boring draw. I watched most of the second half. I was the only one in the bar who watched. It was surreal; here’s this huge game — winner goes to the gdmf Super Bowl — and nobody cares in 95% of the world.

The Broncos lost, but at least I have a room until the next leg of this adventure which I will tell you about soon. Feel free to subscribe to this blog’s feed so you don’t miss a single, exciting post.

Looking forward to tomorrow; that’s what it’s all about. If you can look forward to Monday, you’re doing better than most. After a Sunday like this, a nice, normal working Monday sounds pretty nice.

Alpacas are such cool animals, so soft! The fabrics are as fine as any cashmere.

January 26, 2026
Cuzco is cool… literally

The high life… literally

Almost exactly 24 hours have passed since the wheels touched down, and I felt light and dizzy the minute I stepped out of the little old-fashioned airport. Having spent my formative years in Colorado, I’m no stranger to high altitude, but this place is twice as high as Denver, the Mile High City, and a thousand feet higher than Leadville, the Two Mile High Town.

I have climbed eight or nine 14,000-foot peaks in my life. In that case, you’re just kind of up and down in a gradual way. Since you probably live in Denver or Boulder at 5,260 feet above sea level, camp the night before at 11,000 feet before the final ascent and only spend a few minutes at the peak, it’s really no big deal.

Going directly from sea level to 11,000+ feet is a different experience. Fortunately, they have herbs and plants here which they happily offer upon your statement of being mareada (which I was). These herbs and plants actually help… and why wouldn’t they? The earth gives us what we need, when and where we need it. Peaches in the Georgia summer (peaches tangibly lower body temperature and provide electrolytes specifically lost by summer sweat) oranges and other citrus in the winter when the body craves vitamin C to fight off the winter colds. And so on… literally hundreds of thousands of examples of safe and effective natural remedies, but go ahead and ask your doctor about that toxic chemical they’re advertising on TV.

(Sorry-not-sorry for kicking a bit of truth. Now let’s get back on topic.)

After just 24 hours, I’m no longer huffing and puffing after walking a couple blocks. So that’s good. Impressive, too, considering I’m an overweight smoker of 40 years.

The taxi driver from the airport told me as if he were stating a mathematical law that “la comida es mejor aquí” when I mentioned my wonderful gastronomical experience in Lima. He also suggested maté de coca and Agua de Flórida for altitude sickness. More on the latter later…

He may or may not be right… but the food here is at least as good as it was in Lima. It’s different, though. Lima has great seafood and tropical fruits. Here they have a thousand types of quinoa and pretty little tasty flowers and alpaca and guinea pigs and all kinds of stuff that grows within 4000 vertical feet of here.

I think I figured out why the food is so exceptional in Perú: This is basically California on steroids. It has a large north-south latitude range and a very large vertical range (0-22,000ft — Second only to India, a much larger country) that produces a vast array of fresh ingredients for well trained chefs. Indian food is wonderful too, but Peru is a lot cleaner — Japan levels of clean and tidy. It’s more comparable to California than India, but this place puts California, USA to shame in terms of its culinary universe, and that’s saying a lot. No shade on California (especially after the fires).

Anyway, back to my first impression of Cuzco…

It’s interesting that somehow the natives here remind me of Colorado “high country” people. Mountain folk just have a certain aura about them, a mellowness. Here it is amplified (“amplified mellowness” — there may be a lyric in there somewhere). I’ve encountered many people — including the taxi driver mentioned above and shop girl to be mentioned below — who just have a glow. Words do not capture this, but if you’re a high viber, you know how it is to be able to read people’s etheric bodies. It protects you from bad people, but it reveals the beauty of good people too. What can I say? I’m a hippy-dippy aura reader. 👽*shrug* If you don’t like it, move along; I probably don’t want to exchange energy and time with you anyway.

The weirdest experience I’ve had here so far was wandering into a little knick-knack shop to buy Agua de Flórida, a fragrant herbal concoction to relieve altitude sickness. The bored-looking (and very pretty) shop girl offered me a massage when I paid. I didn’t take her up on it. I don’t think I could satisfy her with my current cardiovascular deficiency at this altitude anyway. It was strange; flattering, but strange. She intimated that this is not something she does normally, usually it’s busier, etc. … must have been ovulating or whatever. Women are weird. South America is weird.

Another thing that was otherworldly was last night at 10:00 pm. This whole city went dead silent at the stroke of 10. I mean, it was so soundless that when I turned out the lights to go to sleep, slipping into slumber — seldom and issue for me — challenged me just because it was soooo eerily quiet!

I slept like a log once the silence became comfortable, and a single little birdy woke me up well before I had to log in for work.

After work, I ate alpaca meat and bright-pink organic quinoa for the first time and went for a walk (and encountered the horny shop girl, among other things). Composing this post, I watch the intense clouds change colors over the enormous mountains in the moments when I need to collect my thoughts between sentences or words.

One last thing: if you come to Cuzco, bring a warmish jacket and hat. It gets pretty chilly at night. Hotel rooms have heaters, not air conditioners here. Cuzco is cool, year-round. The sidewalks are lovely too. Considering the terrain, that is miraculous.

My mind has been racing like it hasn’t in many years. Maybe it’s the maté coca. I have a lot more to say. These are just my first impressions. Thanks for reading, and check back soon.

Peace, love and all the good stuff,

Chuck

Alpaca meat in a wild mushroom sauce with organic pink quinoa, garnished with fresh veggies, herbs and even a flower

January 23, 2026
Lima, Peru Is Full of Surprises (Good Ones!)

For one thing, how do they keep the sidewalks so perfect?

This isn’t even unusual, just the way the light hit it…

Another example of a perfect Lima sidewalk

Damn good Lima sidewalk in a busy area

The book 1491 by Charles Mann explores what pre-Colombian America, north and south, was really like. It uses first-hand accounts written by the earliest explorers. It will make you question what you were taught about indigenous cultures.

What I remember about the Andean chapter is that the early explorers, most notably Pizzaro, wrote not of dirty savages but of — among other things — fantastic roads, perfect roads through incredibly rough terrain, the high and steep Andes. The food blew Pizzaro’s mind too; remember, they didn’t even have potatoes, tomatoes, or corn in Europe at that time.

I haven’t experienced the Andes yet. Tomorrow I’ll go there.

But one thing that totally impresses me about Lima, one thing that sets it apart from almost every other city I’ve visited, is how smooth, clean and perfect are its sidewalks. In Mexico or Colombia or even in New York, sidewalks represent as dirty, treacherous ankle sprainers. Here I don’t feel like I have to watch my step any more than I do in my own kitchen.

Sidewalks as smooth as an ice rink after the Zamboni does its thing? It’s delightfully absurd that this impresses me, but it does. I’m sure there are neighborhoods where the sidewalks are uneven and dirty, but I haven’t found one.

It’s just something I’ve noticed, something interesting in light of the gushing, over-the-top firsthand accounts of perfect roads through the Andes 500 years ago.

Another surprise: the food

I had no idea just how good the food is here, on par with France or Italy in terms of the quality of ingredients and expertise of preparation. Refreshingly, they don’t serve it to you here with European snootiness; good food just comes with the territory.

Of course I’ve eaten at Peruvian restaurants in NYC. In Medellín I found a pretty good one(affordable too — like $10 USD for a filling dinner, maybe $15 with a couple beers) and ate there several times. I thought I had some idea, but I had no idea.

By no means have I become an expert on Peruvian cuisine, but just walking the streets you can see and smell the rich array of options available. Yesterday I treated myself to a more expensive meal than I usually would, a “fine dining” experience. I ordered a dish with which I am familiar — lomo saltado (beef tenderloin stir fry — which I believe is prepared in a wok).

It was espectacular! It ruined Peruvian food for me outside of Peru. I think the quality of ingredients makes prepared food so good here, not to dab on the chefs in any way, mind you. They cultivate 300 different types of potatoes in Peru. Many dishes feature potatoes which taste very “potatoey.” It’s hard to explain, but it’s like eating a real potato after a lifetime of eating genetically modified fakes.

I also tried a grilled octopus dish (forgot what it’s called, “[something] pulpo,” obviously), served in a creamy potato sauce. The textures and flavors were sublime. Octopus is a guilty pleasure for me; I don’t like eating a creature that may well be more intelligent than I. When I eat it, I feel super bad if it’s just grilled chewy protein, like a high consciousness being was sacrificed for nothing. I didn’t feel bad about eating the octopus I ate yesterday, it was a singular culinary experience; I hope that some creature dines on my corpse and enjoys it as much as I enjoyed that octopus… not any time soon, of course.

The “chifa” (Peruvian-style Chinese food… or is it Chinese-style Peruvian food?) remains on the yet-to-try list. Those restaurants are everywhere so I’ll just wander into one some afternoon when I’m hungry, perhaps today.

I’m not yet qualified to talk intelligently about Peruvian food. Options abound, and I only know a few. I will do a more extensive post on food at a later date. Suffice to say, it’s yummy, nourishing and satisfying.

The weather — not brutally hot?

Having spent a couple weeks in El Salvador in the middle of their winter and sweating like a pig the whole time, I braced myself for serious heat here in Lima, especially since it’s the middle of summer here. Lima is not much further from the equator than is San Salvador. It’s at sea level. It should be similarly hot, right?

It’s not. It’s the middle of summer, and the high temperatures have been around 80F/27C. I was in the park yesterday afternoon, and it was beautiful not just because of the sea views and flora but because of the kids getting lessons of various kinds: There were kids on the tennis courts being coached, kids roller blading between cones as their coach cheered them on, kids in boxing gloves sparring gently — all kinds of learning and physical activity going on.

Lessons galore…

I found out that this phenomenon in the park is called “summer school” because it’s summer vacation so apparently kids learn these various things instead of sitting around scrolling their phones all day (or whatever USA kids do these days). How could they do that if the weather were too hot or too rainy or whatever?

There are also various classes and lessons available to us older folks every single day. Apparently, they have a big salsa lesson/party in Pueblo Libre every single night. Cost: $10 SOL (around $3 USD). There’s also a cooking school near where I’m staying in Miraflores. When I come back, I will definitely be taking full advantage of that.

Surprisingly tall and fashionable people…

This is the only place I’ve ever been in Latin America where they don’t clock me as a gringo right off the bat. In fact, I haven’t even heard the word “gringo” here; apparently it’s regarded as a rude slur.

Not to say that gringos are tall and fashionable, mind you, just that we tend to stand out down here. Even if you’re short and pudgy and wearing a wife-beater muscle shirt, you’re going to be identified as a gringo instantly in CDMX or San Salvador.

I expected to find diminutive, sun-weathered mountain people, indigenous folks blowing happily on zampoñas. Instead, I meet tall, good looking, well groomed, well educated people.

(I realize that this section might offend some people, but please don’t be offended. In a way, I take pleasure in sticking out like a sore thumb as a gringo even while admiring the luminous beauty of mestizo Latinos. Just saying that I don’t feel like I’m sticking out here. This is also not racially based — black gringos stand out vs. black Mexicans or Colombians or Dominicans.)

Bicycles and safe bike lanes everywhere!

This I did not expect, and it absolutely delights me! Those of you who know me know that I’m allergic to gyms, preferring to get my exercise in the fresh air. I love hiking, swimming, sailing, and especially bicycling. One thing I love about La Paz, Mexico, is that it’s easy to get around, at least in el centro, on a bicycle. The same is true here. There are bike lanes everywhere, and what’s cool is that they are largely on parkways, safely separate from cars. Even where there are no bike lanes, the roads seem fairly safe.

The roads and bike lanes are just as nice as the sidewalks mentioned above, and given the comfortable climate, this city strikes me as a cyclist’s dream. I’m actually a cycling zealot and firmly believe that the world would be a better place if more people could take advantage of this wonderful, healthy form of transportation on a more regular basis.

Lots and lots to do!

I only have a few days here before going to Cuzco. One of those was Martin Luther King Day, a day off for me. As I looked for things to do and explore, the options overwhelmed me a bit. There are artsy districts like Barranco, beautiful parks with cool sculptures and gardens (I especially enjoyed “Parque del Amor”), tons of museums, historical and even archaeological sites right inside the city!

Obviamente, I didn’t see it all in my one day off, but I will be coming back to this unexpectedly (especially in light of the first impression) beautiful and cosmopolitan city. Even as a New Yorker, I feel like a bit of a hayseed here, I guess because I’m still a newbie finding my way around instead of the grizzled NYC veteran that I am when home.

At least I don’t have to worry about spraining my ankle because of a crappy sidewalk. 😉 It’s easier to find your way around when your eyes aren’t on the ground constantly.

I really like this place. It’s easy to believe that pre-Colombian civilization was a lot more advanced than we were led to believe. It’s probably related to earth energy.

Fancy restaurant at Pucllana archaelogical site in Lima — recommended

(Click images to enlarge)

Mosaic bench with love-related quote. There were about 50 of them but most were occupied by lovers. 🙂

Historic lighthouse and whatnot

Staging area for hang gliders — jumping off a 200m cliff with the city’s permission… imagine that!

Zoom in and read the quote

January 20, 2026