And Now It's Really Over: The Last Post

Well, everyone, we've been home for nearly two weeks now. And it's kinda wild how quickly our trip is receding in the rearview mirror. Last week, we kept marveling: "This time last week we were in Mancora!" "On this day last week, we were in Lima." We reminisced less this week, although we did go out for a chicken dinner last night (our first chicken since our trip ended) -- and we did agree that we like the South American papas fritas (french fries) very much (possibly more so than our American ones...shhhh).

We're back in the thick of things with school and sports and work and appointments and errands and laundry and everything. And it's both wonderful and overwhelming. The laundry especially is excellent; if you ever hear me complain about doing laundry -- in my MACHINES! -- please just slap me.

This post will be our last, and I feel like now the trip is officially over, because we're putting the blog to bed. Clearly, I will have to find something else to blog about soon; I've just had too much fun journaling on this thing since December.

We sat down as a family recently, and everyone shared their reflections from our trip. Check 'em out below:

Wyatt

I've been home for more than a week and I'm thankful because I get to see my friends and play sports. And now I have Roger, my dog. But I'm missing all the interesting animals in the Amazon and all the cool animals -- the blue footed boobies and sea lions and marine iguanas -- in the Galápagos. I wish I was back on the road in Peru and Ecuador. But I'm thankful I'm not eating chicken and rice every day. I hope we have another two-month trip sometime.

Taylor

Now that I've been home, I still love the Amazon and I will remember it for the rest of my life. The animals that we saw, we will probably never see in a zoo. I'm proud of myself for swimming with caimans, and I would swim with them again. I also really appreciated getting to know our Amazon guide, Lander.

Tim

Something that's sticking with me from our trip is the conversation we had with Lander, our Amazon guide, while fishing. I asked Lander if he had ever been to the United States, and he responded, "No, I've never been." And then he shared that he'd never been to Lima. I remember asking Lander if he were interested in going to Lima. Lander told us that he had a brother in Lima but had never visited and wasn't sure if he'd ever go. He was content, he was home in the jungle. He loved life in the Amazon; he loved the simplicity and wildness of it all. And I feel like that's so foreign to me, to us, as Americans. We don't operate that way in this country. We're all about the next thing, we're all about striving, we don't necessarily sit still enough to be content. And so that conversation we had with Lander was eye-opening for me, and it was an amazing reminder that our American culture doesn't have to dominate us.

Sarah

What to say? The whole experience was incredible. I feel stronger for having done it, and I feel that we're closer as a family. I loved the freedom the trip provided, the challenges (hi, zillion Amazon mosquitoes), the learnings, and the overall adventure. Our time in the Amazon was a highlight; that part of the world will always be magical to me. But looking back on all the places we visited -- I loved it all. I think what I will remember most is the people; everyone was happy (well, except the van driver who took us on the Death March to the Nazca Lines) -- even those who had very little appeared happy. I come back here to California, and there is an abundance...of everything. We do not need an abundance to be happy. We need each other. How to bottle this from our trip and apply it back at home? I don't know yet, but I'll be working on it.

*****

So now I will close this blog. Thank you all for reading and for keeping us company during our Andean Adventure. We wish YOU all the life adventure, too. Ciao, ciao! 

Our Trip: By the Numbers

It's Tuesday evening in California, and we've been home now for 72+ hours. Clothes have been washed, groceries have been bought, the dog has been picked up (God bless you forever and ever and ever, Donna and Steve!), children have returned to school, a Target run has been made, and hair has not been cut (but that's a story for another day). 

We're adjusting to "normal" life, marveling at our potable water and the fact that we can place toilet paper in our toilets. Oh, America!

We're missing our breakfasts of bread and fruit and eggs. We're missing hearing Spanish all day, every day. We're missing saying, "Buen dia!" We're missing the frenetic sounds of tuk-tuks and taxis scurrying about. We are not missing all the stray dogs.

By next week, Tim and I anticipate that our family will be clamoring to be back in Ecuador and Peru. The excitement of being home will wear off, and we'll all want to be in South America again, minus the bug situation, of course. 

I promise not to wax poetic here; we'll save that for the family reflection post, which will come in a few more days -- maybe over the weekend.

Buuuuut, we do want to deliver on our promise to write up our 'by the numbers' piece. So, without further ado, and in no particular order, here are the final stats from our trip:

Number of days traveled: 55

Number of places visited: 18

Number of flights: 16

Number of guides: 9

Number of bus rides: 3

Number of van rides: 4

Number of train rides: 2

Number of tuk-tuk rides: 22

Number of dune buggy rides: 1

Number of female taxi drivers: 1 (and we took a lot of taxis)

Number of female tuk-tuk drivers: 0 (although we saw two)

Number of police bribes: 1

Number of jugos naturales (natural juice) imbibed: Too many to count, and you'd better believe we'll be making these at our house from here on out

Number of alpaca dinners: 2

Number of piranhas eaten: 8

Number of Amazon grubs eaten: 1 (by Tim)

Number of Amazon jungle candies eaten: 2 (by Wyatt)

Number of times we spotted an animal in the Amazon that the guide missed: 3

Best customer service in hotels, restaurants, etc.: Machu Picchu Town

Number of days Tim surfed: 11

Number of days Sarah ran: 37

Number of upset stomachs: 4

Number of hospital visits: 1

Number of hours kids spent on the iPad: 0 (and we probably watched 27 minutes of TV the entire trip)

Number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites visited: 5 (Quito, Cuenca, Lima, Nazca Lines, Machu Picchu)

Number of times we saw fellow guests from the Secret Garden in Cotopaxi outside Cotopaxi: 2 (we saw two fellow travelers in Montañita and two on San Cristóbal Island in the Galápagos...how wild is that?!) 

Number of times we ate chicken and rice: Easily 537

Number of nights (streak) in the same hotel, excluding the Galápagos and Amazon: 5 (we stayed at the Wyndham Lima Airport and at Casa Barco in Mancora, both for 5 nights)

Number of hostels we stayed in: 1

Number of hotels we stayed in: 13, excluding the Galápagos and Amazon

Number of mosquito bites collected: 1,372,984 (ok, maybe I'm slightly exaggerating here -- but only slightly!)

*****

And now I just want to go back! [Frantically searches flights to Santiago. Cruises Amazon (the other one) for DEET repellent spray. Gathers passports...]

Pisco Sorrows

Today is Friday, February 25. As I write this post, it's about 5pm in Peru. We're at the Wyndham, just steps away from the Lima airport. We've gotten to know this hotel pretty well, as we've made it our home base for all those flights in and out of Lima. I'm sitting by the hotel pool, which is indoors and the size of a postage stamp, while Taylor and Wyatt burn some energy swimming. And I'm so sad!

Tomorrow, we head home. It's a long travel day: A 7+ hour flight to Dallas followed by ~3 hour flight to Orange County. I've been feeling lots of feelings these past couple days, and I'm guessing I'll be feeling it all tomorrow.

*****

Yesterday, we said our goodbyes to Felix and Casa Barco about 9am and hopped in a taxi for Talara. We flew on our last LatAm flight back to Lima. (We were on the tarmac extra long in Talara for a 'technical problem' with the plane, which seemed like it was built in 1970. Thank goodness and then some that the technical problem got resolved. Tim and I didn't care to think about a worse-case scenario in Talara.)

Talara airport: Gotta pay for that surfboard bag one more time.

When we arrived in Lima, we headed for Miraflores, a popular district in Lima. We walked around a bit to stretch our legs, then drove into Barranco (the neighborhood next to Miraflores) for more walking around and dinner.

This morning, we enjoyed croissants and coffee for breakfast, then had our COVID tests done. The results: Negative. We high-fived each other and felt our test worry melt away. After the tests, we walked through a few Miraflores parks; the parks, which overlook the ocean and are incredibly well-maintained, are just beautiful. When the kids had had enough walking, we returned to our hotel, packed up our bags yet again, and checked out. We headed for Larcomar, the most incredible shopping mall we've ever seen!, for lunch and to pick up a couple souvenirs.

It's COVID test time!

Wyatt went first. Note the socks with sandals; it's a new look for him. And yes, that Eagles sweatshirt will be the first thing I wash when we get home.

Here goes Taylor.

Taking a walk (or a sit) in Miraflores' Love Park.

It's no treadmill, but it's the next best thing.

As promised, I threw out my horribly foul-smelling running clothes. That tank top and those shorts are really no bueno.

Around 3pm, we said goodbye to Miraflores and took a taxi to the Wyndham. And so here I am, at the tiny pool, writing.

*****

This trip has been superb. I remember thinking at the beginning, "How are we going to make it two months? That's such a long time. Maybe we should have planned for a shorter duration." And now, on the other side, I find myself wondering if we could have done three months. The kids are definitely ready to go home; they miss our dog and their friends and recess and Heinz ketchup. Tim and I have mixed feelings; we're both excited and sad to be going home.

Our adventure has tested and pushed us all. Tim and I see growth in Taylor and Wyatt; in the early days, they'd say things like, "This is weird" about something new or different. We haven't heard them say that in a long, long time. I hope the kids are more resilient; I think they are. I hope the kids are more flexible; I think they are. 

We've had this protected time, just the four of us, to talk and wonder and learn about each other. We've had this special time to explore and observe and gain new perspectives. We've also just generally had a lot of time together, so on the plus side, going home will allow for more space. 👍

Personally, I've loved getting to know Ecuador and Peru. I have a slight bias toward Ecuador (#amalavidaEcuador), but both countries are beautiful and much more biodiverse than I ever imagined. My one regret is that I didn't learn enough Spanish to really converse well, although I've decided to stick with Duolingo and keep working on my Spanish skills once we're home. 

I wonder what our re-entry will look like. Will I feel overwhelmed during my first trip to the grocery store? (Do we seriously need 30 types of bread on the shelves?) Will I have newfound appreciation for toilets in which I can throw toilet paper? (Affirmative.) Can I get by on less clothes? Can we keep playing cards? Do I still need to subscribe to all those email news-y newsletters? Can I have more passion fruit in my life? And that's just the beginning.

We asked ourselves today: "What are you proudest of from this trip?" I loved hearing our answers and I loved remembering. We looked at pictures from our first week; we were so green...and our hair was so short and our clothes were clean.

Before we left home, we said, "Ahh, it'll be the trip of a lifetime!" And now, we'd like permission to edit those words. This is not the trip of a lifetime. This is a trip -- a most dazzling adventure in 2022. It's been wild, it's been marvelous, and we are immensely grateful. But we have many more trips to take, and who knows what those trips will hold. True, our future trips may not look like this one; we may have more responsibilities to work around from here on out. But we will pursue adventure, we will pursue this exciting world -- with backpacks, two kids, and lots of bug spray.

And though our Andean adventure may be coming to an end, we're not yet ready to button up this blog. We've got some more posts coming, including a 'by the numbers' listicle and a family reflection piece. (So please stay tuned!)

Dear Reader, we thank you for coming along on this journey with us. We thank you for the comments and prayers and texts and good vibes -- we heard and felt it all, and loved it. 

To Sachamama and Pachamama, we thank you for this wide world and for showing us such beauty over the past two months. May we all do our part to make our world last forever and ever.

To Tim, thank you for all the hours you put in planning and plotting. Thank you for all the LatAm wrestling matches and for the many internet searches to find just the right hotel. Thank you for making us laugh and for talking me off a ledge about rabies, Zika, and so much more. It should be known that Tim engineered 99% of this trip, and deserves all the kudos for making it exquisite. From Indonesia in 2008 to the Amazon in 2022, I'm glad this guy's my travel partner.

And to Taylor and Wyatt, thank you for being such fabulous children. May you love nature and animals always, may you seek creativity always, may you wear sunscreen always, may you adventure always. Daddy and I love you, and wouldn't want to swim with sea turtles or caimans with anyone else.

Tonight, Pisco Sorrows Sours. Tomorrow, a plane ride home.

The Third Bone: A Post by Wyatt

On Wednesday, we were at the beach again. We walked down to a place with no rocks and swam for a little bit. Sometimes my dad would body surf over to us, pick me up, then throw me into a wave. That was really fun. When we got out of the water, we started heading to the pools to see if my dad and I could cave surf. 

We could cave surf because the tide was just right. I couldn't see over the cave, so my dad told me when to duck under the cave. The waves were really big, so whenever a wave came, it got dark. We did that for about 15 minutes, then got out and started walking down the beach to rocks. 

When we got there, there was a mound of sand that was like a little island because there was a little pool surrounding it. I walked through the pool and got on the island. I found a really cool shell for Taylor. I handed it to her, then I looked down for more shells and I saw a bone wedged into a rock. So I grabbed the bone and wiggled it so it could come loose. Finally, it came out. I held it up by the middle and yelled, "A bone!"

My dad laughed and so did my mom, but my mom laughed more. On the walk home, I asked, "What kind of bone do you think this is?" My mom said, "I think it's a rib bone." 

I want to bring all these bones back to California with me.

Me holding the bone.

A close-up of the bone.

Mancora

On Friday night in Lima, we thought we had a problem. We had arrived in Lima from Cusco mid-afternoon, and since checking into our hotel, Tim had been using the top-notch wifi to search for a place to stay in Mancora -- a beach town in northwestern Peru. Mancora would be our final stop before returning to Lima and flying back to the States.

But Tim wasn't finding any available hotel rooms in Mancora. So many hotels were sold out, and he was getting nervous. He submitted several inquiries, and we hoped for the best.

Saturday morning, Tim woke up to emails from two hotels stating they had room for us. He confirmed with one place -- Hotel Casa Barco (https://casa-barco-mancora.hotelmix.es/) -- and we headed for the Lima airport. 

After a nearly two-hour flight, we arrived in Talara, the town with the airport nearest to Mancora. To us, Talara looked like remote Afghanistan; driving through, we felt like we were in a war zone. We drove for an hour before we had our first sighting of the ocean. In all, it took us about 75 minutes to reach Mancora. Once in Mancora, we turned off the main road onto a dusty, bumpy, half-dirt, half-paved road, and a handful of minutes later, reached Casa Barco. On the way into Mancora, I remember thinking to myself, "Where the heck are we?" It just felt so different from any other beach town I've visited. (We did not pick this town randomly; it had been and is billed as a resort town.)

Welcome to Mancora.

We climbed out of the car and rang the bell at Casa Barco. Felix, the hotel's owner, let us in and showed us our room. In his 70s, Felix has been running hotels (he's got one more in Lima) for 28 years. He was a great help while we stayed in Mancora, pointing us to restaurants and surf spot service. One of the main reasons we came to this beach town was because of its surf (for the surfer in our family).

We spent Saturday afternoon playing at the beach, swimming in the Casa Barco pool, and getting a feel for Mancora. We walked 40 minutes into town (it's a mile and a half away) and marveled at/questioned the commotion there. Felix had let us know that we were visiting during Peru's summer, and so things were generally busy. But on a Saturday, town seemed kind of crazy. Tim and I could not figure out the draw to this place; we settled on warm water. The Pacific Ocean is about 75 degrees Fahrenheit here -- Mancora has the warmest water in all of Peru. But the town is gritty and, at times, outright depressing.

We've witnessed poverty during this trip, but it's a different kind of poverty here at the beach, perhaps because you can see it more easily. Sadly, we've come across a handful of homeless families during our visits to town. I was gutted seeing these families. I've got one father's haunting eyes burned into my mind; and the kids are so little. We watched as a couple of the parents panhandled in the middle of the Panamerican Highway, which cuts through Mancora. You just wonder how these families can be helped...

On Sunday, Tim and I debated leaving Mancora early. Being here felt stultifying, and we knew we wouldn't be spending much time in town. But the cost to change our flight amounted to more than $400...and the kids were having a ton of fun.* So we let the idea of leaving early go, and we embraced the upcoming days of total downtime. And now, as I write this post on our last night in Mancora, I'm so thankful we stayed here and didn't try to return to Lima early. Taylor and Wyatt absolutely loved swimming in the ocean, splashing in the pool, hanging out in the sun, walking on the beach -- and turns out, Tim and I did, too. We've had some extra quality family time over the past five days. Here's what else has been going on:

1). I got to do laundry! In the ocean! It's been a couple weeks since we've been able to visit a lavanderia, and it was high time for clothes to get washed. I managed to wash some of my clothes in the hotel shower, but I packed a bag with a few of Taylor's and Wyatt's most desperate clothing items and washed 'em all in the ocean. It kind of worked.

2). Mosquitoes are here, gosh darn it. We tossed our bug spray back in Iquitos; I thought we wouldn't come across another mosquito after leaving the Amazon. But I was wrong. Mosquitoes are in Mancora and they got my legs, like, big-time. You'd better believe I bought a can of bug spray at the local mini-market. I also spent way too much time googling Zika virus, because I'm fairly certain it's here as well. 

3). I've been able to run in Mancora -- not on the beach, but on the dusty, bumpy, half-dirt, half-paved road right behind our hotel. And wouldn't you know it, but one morning I ran into two dogs, one of which started to chase me. Flashbacks to Montañita came fast, and I started yelling at the dogs and slowly walking backwards away from them. Eventually, they gave up and left me alone.

Don't let their size fool you.

4). So this road...as I've shared, it's bumpy and dusty and can get crowded. Most everyone gets around Mancora in tuk-tuks. We've been doing the same, and let me just say, I'm quite thankful for my mask; it cuts down on some of the massive dust intake to and from town.

Don't mind us. We're just outside our hotel, hoping to flag down an empty tuk-tuk.
Check out the video below and join us on a tuk-tuk ride.

5). Thanks to Felix, Tim got connected to another surfer named Harold who drove Tim south along the coast on Tuesday in search of good surf. While they drove around, Tim asked Harold some burning questions about things we'd seen in Mancora. For starters, we'd seen sailboats out on the ocean, and it appeared like perhaps these were fishing boats. Harold confirmed that, yes, these were fishing sailboats and there's just one fisherman on board each boat. He said these boats set out in the morning, fish all day, and then in the evening, hope the wind is such to push them back into Mancora's port. Generally, this plan works, but at times, some of the Mancora fishermen sail instead to the Galápagos Islands (!). We'd also seen people, including families, sitting atop of cargo carried on large commercial trucks. When asked, Harold said it's probably Peruvians just hitching a ride around, but that Peru has seen an influx of migrants from Venezuela -- and these people and families literally jump onto the backs of large trucks barreling south down highways; they are beyond desperate to get out of Venezuela.

And that's what we've been doing in Mancora.

Our time in Mancora has afforded us space to reflect and reminisce on the past two months. We've rehashed funny moments and talked all about our favorites (favorite town/city, favorite meal, favorite activity, etc.). Interestingly enough, we've spent dinners here explaining what's happening in Venezuela and Russia and China, and the kids are hungry for more information; evidently talk of despots is enthralling to the upper elementary crowd.

Tomorrow, we fly back to Lima and really start to wind down this adventure. (I'm not ready!)

*Our initial reaction to this beach town is clearly a result of our still-intact Western biases. Sure, Mancora may not be the beach scene we're used to, but we also have to check our privilege. This place is wonderful for so many who flock here.

Our favorite meal of the day: Breakfast at Casa Barco.

The beach at the center of town.

Shaka, brah! And oh my word, Wyatt needs a haircut.

Another Bone: A Post by Wyatt

My dad, my mom, my sister, and I wanted to take a walk on the beach. My dad, sister, and I started walking, but my mom came later. My sister didn't want to walk anymore, so she started walking back with my mom. So my dad and I started walking. I found two shells for Taylor. I washed them off then I started hurrying back to catch up with my dad. And when I got there, my dad picked up the bone and showed it to me. I asked him, "Is that another bone?" He said, "No, I think it's a piece of coral. Actually, I think it's a bone." We know it's a flipper bone of a sea lion. 

So my dad and I started walking to the pools. When we got there, the waves were really big, bigger than yesterday. My dad jumped in one of the pools, went under the cave, and started cave surfing. He said, "Come on and come cave surf with me." I jumped in and swam to my dad. Since I couldn't see over the cave, my dad told me if a wave was coming. 

When the first wave came, it was huge. There was so much water going over us, it got dark in there. We did a couple more, then started walking back to our hotel where we saw Taylor and my mom collecting shells. I gave Taylor the shells that I found, then held up the bone. My mom started laughing for some reason, then we walked back to the hotel and Taylor and I jumped in the pool. 

A close-up.

Me holding the flipper bone.

Sick Dogs?: A Post by Taylor

While we were in and nearby Machu Picchu, we saw a new species of dog. The first time we saw one was at an alpaca place in Cusco. At first, we thought they were sick, and we felt badly. But then we realized they're supposed to be that way. That breed we saw was called Peruvian Hairless Dogs. Yep, totally hairless except hair on the tip of their tail, their head, and their feet. The hair on their head looks like a sweet mohawk. 

We got this photo off the internet. This is what a Peruvian Hairless Dog looks like.

Over the course of the time, we saw five Peruvian Hairless Dogs. The next time we saw them was at a market in Machu Picchu Town. There was a little clearing and we saw a stray Peruvian Hairless Dog who looked like she had a lot of babies, and she was standing next to a Peruvian Hairless Dog who was wearing overalls. Right near them was a very tiny baby Peruvian Hairless Dog dressed in clothes as well. He was going up to the stray Hairless Dog and jumping around her and playing with her. She laid down and they were snuggling for a little bit. 

The Hairless Dog in overalls who was hanging around the stray.

The stray and the baby.

The last time we encountered a Peruvian Hairless Dog was in Cusco again. That dog was owned and his name was Francis. He was also wearing a jacket and overalls. Francis probably had the sweetest of mohawks. Francis was very nice and let us pet him. 

This is us with Francis. See that sweet mohawk?

Peruvian Hairless Dogs are very short and almost look like wiener dogs, just hairless. They feel like really smooth, soft human skin. They are very, very sweet and love people. Most Peruvian Hairless Dogs wear clothes because they always get cold.