Our first big lesson from Leg 14 is to write down a few lessons as soon as we get home from each leg in case months pass before I make this post! But after brainstorming and reminiscing with Chad, we managed to come up with a few relevant lessons specific to Leg 14.

Weather Really Makes an Impact

Our time in certain parts of Peru (Arequipa and Cusco) overlapped with the latter part of the rainy season in those places. We knew that would be the case but also weren’t prepared for most of the nice weather to occur in the mornings. 

In Arequipa, the rain really started to get to us. Most mornings were pretty lovely, but that is our prime working time so we weren’t usually able to get out in the morning. Many afternoons brought rain right around the time we were ready to go out for a walk or to pick up groceries. The evenings were often drizzly too. The same was true in Cusco, though we managed a few picnics there that were pretty nice. 

Since our schedules aren’t super-adaptable, we’ll pay more attention in the future not just to how much it rains each day but also the timing. One of the reasons we love our travel lifestyle is being able to have good weather most of the time because we both love being outside. That needs to be a priority for us. 

Group Tours Aren’t So Bad

We’ve always mostly avoided group tours in the past because we don’t love being herded around and it’s usually more cost effective to get around on our own. But there were a couple of places in Peru, starting with Colca Canyon, that it just wasn’t practical to do on our own due to lack of public transportation. 

We ended up really enjoying the tour and even made friends with a fellow American we met. It was nice to be a little bit social and the tour guide provided some good practical advice (concerning the altitude), information, and context that was interesting. We liked the experience so much that we chose the group tour option over a private tour for seeing the Sacred Valley sights from Cusco. That one wasn’t quite as great an experience, but still positive overall. I think we’ll be much more likely to taking group tours in the future.

Food Can Still Surprise Us

We always enjoy trying the local cuisine everywhere we go, but the Peruvian food was a real revelation. From unique ingredients to interesting preparations to the creative fusions, we deeply enjoyed trying all sorts of dishes in Peru. You don’t see a lot of Peruvian restaurants around the world. The Peruvians who we asked about this suspected it is because the key ingredients (like their yellow pepper, aji amarillo) don’t grow well elsewhere in the world, so it is hard to recreate in other places. Of course, we knew about ceviche, but that is sort of the exception to being reliant on local spices and produce. 

Discovering Peruvian food now makes me hopeful that there are all sorts of other interesting cuisines I just haven’t interacted with yet. We actually learned this lesson a bit in Japan when we found their food contained so much beyond sushi and ramen. I’m eager to learn more about what Vietnam has to teach us on our next leg.

Summary

As far as I can recall, we didn’t come home with a lot of lessons from South America, but we continue to learn more with each leg.