Chris and Florence's Travels

Author: Florence

  • Arequipa, Peru

    Arequipa, Peru

    Arequipa, the second biggest city in Peru, known as the White City. White for two reasons: because of the sillar stone used for the buildings, and/or because its colonial past gave it one of the whitest populations of Peru.

    It’s a beautiful city, that feels pretty European aside from the three volcanoes that surround it. On our first day we joined a free walking tour, which ended in the main square at sunset. The main square is one of the most beautiful we’ve seen so far, with the cathedral taking up the entire width of one side. The tour also included a trip to Alpaca World (!) where we returned the next day to see the weavers at work and to make a purchase…

    Chris touching things p.1
    Chris touching things p.2

    One morning we took a tour of the monastery – confusingly, in Latin America, monasteries house nuns and convents house monks. It was like a whole little village! Once home to hundreds of nuns, it’s now almost entirely open to the public, save for the private area where the current 16 nuns live.

    Weather:

    Lovely and sunny, chilly at night.

    Where we stayed:

    A great hostel in the old town, in a surprisingly grand room with a high vaulted ceiling and a bath!!

    Best thing we ate:

    We had such a range of food in Arequipa! Our walking tour guide recommended places to get traditional dishes, so we tried rocoto relleno (stuffed spicy red peppers, veggie and alpaca meat versions) and chupe camarones (prawn soup). Both were very tasty!

    There were also some good GF options in Gringas (mainly pizzas again), Crepisimo (don’t think I need to explain what they serve), and Tanta. The latter is a more affordable chain restaurant from Peruvian chef Gastón Acurio, where we went back several times.

    Coolest thing we did:

    While we had a great time exploring the city, our highlight was the day trip we took to Colca Canyon. We ummed and ahhed about whether to do this, mostly because of the 3.30am pick-up time, but we’re so glad we did!

    The trip started so early because the Canyon is a good 3+ hour drive away and the best time to see the Andean condors that live there is between 8-10.30am. We made a quick stop at 6am to see sunrise over many surrounding volcanoes, then had breakfast, then made it to the Canyon. Colca Canyon is twice as deep as the Grand Canyon and is full of impressive farming terraces.

    I went into the trip thinking it would be great to glimpse just one condor, not wanting to be disappointed, but it turns out I needn’t have worried. We started a short walk to the view point and almost instantly saw three in the distance. It then became absolutely ridiculous, with c.15 condors all flying around, above, and overhead. There was even one perched on a rock right by the view point. I never had myself down as a twitcher but it was staggering to see such huge creatures swooping around.

    We made a quick stop to get a better look at the farming terraces (and wear traditional hats, of course). Then it was time for optional activities and we chose the most relaxed: aguas thermales. We had an hour to spend dipping in and out of the hot springs in Yanque before a much needed buffet lunch.

    Bonus:

    Buying my beautiful baby alpaca wool jumper 😍

    We are just back from our trek to Machu Picchu so will be catching up on some posts!

    Hasta pronto,

    Florence & Chris

  • Lima, Peru

    Lima, Peru

    We rearranged some of our plans to spend a bit longer in Lima, which meant a couple of long buses in a row to get there. Fortunately, one of these was a luxurious night bus where the seats felt like little beds – maybe more so for me, being the height of the average Peruvian man (we looked it up), than for Chris, being a little taller…

    We spent a week in Lima using it as an opportunity to rest and recoup a bit as we reached the midpoint of the trip. Lima is a city of districts and we enjoyed exploring a few of them: the central old town, Miraflores, Barranco and a bit of San Isidro.

    Weather:

    Lima has the perfect climate. It barely ever rains and is consistently in the low 20°s.

    Where we stayed:

    We wanted to have the chance to cook more of our own food in Lima, so we found a flat in a modern apartment block that had its own kitchen, living area and little balcony. It was in the Miraflores district, which is the middle/upper class area for locals and one of the main areas tourists stay. We made the most of the rooftop pool too, even though it was chilly!

    It was great to have entirely our own space for a week and to be able to cook (in a kitchen I’m pretty sure had never before been used). The bonus was the big TV screen opposite the bed, so we caught up on some films we’ve been wanting to watch:

    • We Live in Time: went into it expecting a real tear jerker but was somewhat disappointed. Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield were excellent though.
    • A Real Pain: funny, sometimes painful to watch. Really good.
    • Queer: wowza, what a ride.

    Best thing we ate:

    Other than my fantastic cooking, we tried a few different places for lunch and our favourites were La Bodega Verde and Terminal Pesquero, both in the Barranco district.

    The first was a cute cafe that served sandwiches and salads and crucially had gluten free bread! At the end of our first visit we were greeted by a gorgeous cat who came and sat on our laps and made it very difficult to leave.

    The Terminal Pesquero was a suggestion from a Peruvian friend and we are so glad we made it on our last day! We had the recommended ceviche norteño which was delicious (and huge) and I also had their own homemade beer.

    Coolest thing we did:

    We’ve picked our top 3 things for this, because it’s hard to choose!

    Changing of the Guard: not something I thought I’d say! We happened to be in the main square not long before the changing of the guard was due to kick off at 11.45, so we thought why not. It turned out to be a full musical performance, with marching band, shouting, high-kicks and various sword movements. There must have been over 70 people involved in the 45 minute display. Incredibly well choreographed, until the end when a few of them seemed to have a debate about who was actually on guard duty next.

    Museum of Contemporary Art Lima: there are a couple of art museums around Lima, but this one was just a short walk down from where we were staying towards Barranco. It had a lovely setting and while I wandered around, Chris stayed in the gardens reading. There were a couple of artist-specific exhibitions, Moico Yaker and Rafael Pascuale, as well as a larger, longer term display of Peruvian art.

    Cycling up the coast path: on our last day we decided to rent the city bikes and cycle up and down the path that ran alongside the coast. Lima is up on the cliffs, so we never actually went down to the beach, but the views along this road are amazing. The dedicated cycle path meant it felt safe and thankfully it was pretty flat!

    Bonus:

    In the Parque Kennedy in Miraflores, they have a very sweet resident cat population. You can adopt un gatito, which I assume pays for the little cat houses, food and water that’s left out for them. Less endearing was the resident Michael Jackson dance impersonator who drew surprisingly large crowds for his underwhelming skills…

    Next up is a quick night in a desert oasis for some fun activities… stay tuned 👀

    Besos,

    Florence and Chris

  • Cuenca, Ecuador

    Cuenca, Ecuador

    We arrived in Cuenca after a night bus and made our way to the hostel, after realising I’d booked a different one that what we’d thought. We freshened up a bit and then I realised that we must’ve been robbed on the bus, because my cameras, kindle, headtorch, swimming goggles (?!) as well as Chris’s fleece had been taken from inside my bag. We’d heard about theft on buses in Ecuador, so it wasn’t the most shocking, but always strange to think someone was rifling through your bag just over your head as you slept!

    This did however lead to some fun quests in Cuenca: searching for a fleece for Chris and a kindle for me, as well as some little padlocks to keep our bags zipped together in future. We were often led from one shop to another, with shopkeepers saying so and so on the corner will have it, only to be led on again… but all quests were eventually successful!

    Weather:

    Similar to everywhere else in Ecuador, not too cold but pretty rainy!

    Where we stayed:

    Despite booking a different hostel to the one we had agreed on (oops), it turned out well! Conveniently opposite some museums and only a short walk into town. There was plenty of space to relax and also a decent kitchen to cook in.

    We’ve had lots of maracuyá juice (south american passion fruit) this trip!

    Best thing we ate:

    In our three days in Cuenca, we became regulars at the Ñucallacta Café for breakfast. They had great GF labelling (win) and we tried a range of traditional breakfasts between us. It was really tasty and filling and the main man was very friendly, indulging us in speaking Spanish even though I overheard him speaking perfect English on the last day.

    Honorary mention to a delicious Mexican restaurant we ate in on our first night – great food and a very pretty roof terrace!

    Coolest thing we did:

    There was no one thing in Cuenca – we had a great time walking around the city, visiting a few museums and ascending the church tower.

    The town:

    On the first day – post night bus, post thievery – we pushed ourselves and dove straight into a walking tour. The group was us and a Canadian couple and we were led by a funny Law student around the city. We learnt how Cuencans traditionally love Europe, are quite conservative, and are proud of their very pretty city. We saw traditional food markets and the famous flower market where they sell Pitimas water – a bright red drink that will take away all your troubles.

    The main square, Plaza Calderon, was beautiful and had both the original small old cathedral and the newer, grand one. The red marble and blue domes make it different to most churches we’ve seen and climbing up the tower wasn’t too scary – although we also learned the cathedral is technically incomplete due to structural unsoundness and large cracks appearing….

    The museums:

    On our museum day, we just nipped over the road. We were aiming for the Pumapungo museum, but first were drawn into the money museum by an enthusiastic security guard. I took some photos of the old sucres for Dad and then the best bit was obviously the make your own bank note station. We weren’t great at following the instructions, however, so not our best work.

    The Pumapungo museum next door had a range of historic and modern Ecuadorean art, and I could mostly follow along the information until all the descriptions that were first in Spanish and English became Spanish and Portuguese – that got a bit trickier.

    Then, last but not least, the hat museum! Chris was keen to see how the Panama hat is made – you might think that’s an activity to do in Panama, but you’d be wrong because they’re actually from Ecuador. We saw weaving and hat presses and to be honest there’s not a huge amount more to it, but it was a fun little museum with, you guessed it, a huge hat shop.

    Bonus:

    Discovering just about every shop in Cuenca that looked like it might sell a fleece, a kindle, or padlocks. A great way to learn some new Spanish vocab too!

    Next up we cross the border into Peru – thank you Ecuador!

    Besos,

    Florence and Chris

  • Quito, Ecuador

    Quito, Ecuador

    To get to Quito, the capital of Ecuador, we cheated and took a nice and easy flight from Santa Marta.

    We had four nights here to re-acclimatise to the high altitude and have a relaxed time exploring the city. We stayed just outside the old town but also ventured north to the more modern city centre.

    Weather:

    We were so relieved to be out of the heat and into a familiar 20°C with rain.

    Where we stayed:

    We stayed at The Secret Garden Quito, which has variously been named the best hostel in Ecuador and all of South America. It had a roof terrace where all food and drink is 50% off for guests as well as an in-house ‘travel agency’ which organised day tours and trips.

    It had a fun, social vibe and felt like it was half outdoors with the central staircase open-air and filled with plants. All fun and games until you’re brushing your teeth in the rain… Fortunately, they had classic Ecuadorean ponchos (with hoods) hung up around the place that you could put on as soon as you got cold. Overall we can very much see why it has been so highly rated! Our room was comfy and came with plenty of hooks – fast becoming an essential feature of a good room.

    Best thing we ate:

    With the discount on food in the hostel, we did mostly eat there, but the best thing we ate came from a restaurant a couple of doors down called Convergencia alimento de todos los tiempos – not the catchiest! We had a big salad and a pizza each, so not the most Ecuadorean, but brownie points for the good gluten free pizza base made of yuca and corn.

    Coolest thing we did:

    The coolest thing we did actually in Quito was the free walking tour on our first day. It set off from the hostel at 9.30am and went for a good few hours. We got a great sense of the history of the old town, as well as getting to taste Ecuadorean chocolate, eat humitas (yet another form of corn and cheese) and try the local spirit. Chris enjoyed being volunteered as an example of what the indigenous people expected a god to look like (only due to his being a lot taller than the indigenous population, but his ego hasn’t accepted that yet).

    The tour included more dancing than expected, with some classic salsa and, more amusingly, when several tour groups came together in a souvenir shop to put on traditional masks and stomp around a bit. It goes without saying they got us to do this after giving us a shot of alcohol.

    Bonus:

    Quito is a great jumping off point for lots of cool nature and with the hostel offering easy day trips, we decided to make the most of it. We booked onto the Quilotoa Lake tour, which involved going to a local food market, a traditional indigenous home and finally the Quilotoa Lake, a huge crater lake formed by the collapse of a volcano.

    We thought this day trip would be an easier option than the three day trek around the rim of the crater. While it was definitely quicker, it was still pretty difficult due to how steep the walk down and back up was. Still, the views were amazing in both directions, so we could just pretend we were admiring those rather than gasping for breath every 10 steps.

    Once we reached the lake, we kayaked around it and warmed ourselves up with a hot drink after. It obviously started raining as we began our ascent, but we stoically resisted getting a horse ride.

    The real bonus here is that we made it home safe after the bus got a teensy bit stuck in a mudslide on the way home. These are (luckily?) quite common in the highlands so there was a truck thing there ready to give us a tow and get us moving again.

    Our next stop is the sister hostel to The Secret Garden Quito in Cotopaxi, so a nice easy shuttle bus transfer awaits!

    Besos,

    Florence & Chris

  • Santa Marta, Colombia

    Santa Marta, Colombia

    Our final stop in Colombia: Santa Marta! And a super easy journey to get there as we just took a 45min taxi from Minca.

    We only briefly explored the town, but Parque de los Novios was lovely and we saw the oldest cathedral in Colombia, which I could’ve sworn one evening was playing Happy Birthday…

    Weather:

    Unsurprisingly being on the Caribbean Coast, Santa Marta was hot! Felt like being back in Cartagena.

    Where we stayed:

    We stayed at a hostel that felt more like a hotel – with a really nice room and most importantly a beautiful courtyard area with a little pool. There was also a semi-outdoor kitchen that we used each night to cook dinner. The ‘reception desk’ was all remote/virtual and we didn’t see any other guests, so it pretty much felt like we had the place to ourselves! I found this slightly weird at first, but it did feel like we’d paid hostel prices for our own private villa so we can’t complain!

    Best thing we ate:

    As I said, we cooked dinner most nights so didn’t have any especially Colombian meals to rave about, but my tomato aubergine pasta was *very* good. On our final day we went to a cafe around the corner that had delicious GF banana bread and a very tasty tabbouleh salad.

    Coolest thing we did:

    When reading about Santa Marta, it is mostly pitched as a jumping off point to go to other destinations. One of these is Tayrona National Park, which was the main thing we wanted to do here.

    The national park is home to some beautiful beaches, the only catch is a 2 hour walk to reach them! Once we’d taken a couple of buses, we set off on the wooden walkway and pretty quickly saw some Mico Titi monkeys. The scenery and wildlife was pretty amazing and fortunately we were protected from the sun for most of the trail. For any fans of the leaf cutter ants in the previous post, we saw many, many more here. How many leaf cutter ants does one man need to film? No comment.

    We fiiiinally arrived at the beaches and we decided to stay put at La Piscina rather than continue walking to the popular Cabo San Juan. La Piscina is named as such due to its calm, deep waters that are great for safe swimming. It almost looked like a tidal pool, with rocks in the distance that broke the waves before they came to the shore, making it much nicer to swim.

    However, before any swimming could happen, Chris had to get to work. No beach area is complete without a little engineering work – how else would we demarcate our space? After dragging dead palm leaves and branches over and essentially enclosing me within them, he felt he had achieved his goal. I can’t say I’m 100% sure on what that goal was, but he seemed happy and then we could safely leave our stuff and get into the sea.

    We had a lovely few hours of beach time before we needed to start the 2hr walk to make it back before the park closed. On our return journey we saw more, different monkeys. These were bigger and more orange. Just call me David Attenborough!

    Funny sign, 15 metres after a man selling bananas

    Despite bug spray and 80 SPF, we came home burnt and bitten and feeling decidedly British.

    Bonus:

    Our lovely little friend: the hostel cat. She was a real sweetie and keen for some attention.

    Our last day in Colombia involved a lot of rest, dips in the pool, tending to burnt feet and a big load of laundry. We were relieved to see that the weather in Quito, Ecuador – our next destination – is ~20°C and rainy, a bit of home from home.

    Besos,

    Florence & Chris

  • Cartagena, Colombia

    Cartagena, Colombia

    Our journey to Cartagena involved a shorter bus from Guatapé back to Medellín and then a night bus. We knew there was a chance traffic could be bad in the early evening, but our contingency time didn’t account for a road incident which led to us arriving into Medellín minutes after our night bus was due to depart. Fortunately, we vaguely knew the station and Chris broke into a run to take us to the bus bay where they knew exactly who we were. We were the last ones on and so relieved to have made it. We were also very pleasantly surprised by the huge reclining seats and both managed a good 6+ hours of sleep.

    Getting off the bus in Cartagena was like hitting a wall of heat. Given the temperatures, we took our days slowly and with well-timed aircon breaks. We enjoyed seeing the colourful architecture of the old colonial city, walking the walls, Colombian dance performances, and slightly strange but quite nice religious projections on churches in celebration of Santa Semana.

    Weather:

    When we were in Medellín, our tour guide said wow it’s hot it’s like being in Cartagena – he was not wrong. The city is hot hot hot, reaching temps of 37°C in the day and dropping to a not so cool 27°C overnight.

    Where we stayed:

    We stayed in a hostel that was nothing to write home about. It was quite hard to find reasonably priced accommodation here, probably thanks to it being so popular with Americans 😉

    The Getsemaní neighbourhood where we stayed, just outside the city walls, was great though. Full of street art and colourful buildings, it was a lively and fun place to be.

    Best thing we ate:

    Cartagena seems to have lots of tasty restaurants, one being Doña Lola, which was a bit of a treat. It’s a Caribbean restaurant and we both chose to make the most of being by the sea: Florence had the fish of the day (a white fish, we’re not quite sure which) and Chris had the grilled octopus. They also happened to make it pretty fancy cocktails which we enjoyed to start. We topped it off with a tiramisu for Florence (unsurprisingly) and a carajillo for Chris. 10/10 would recommend.

    On the liquid side of things (Chris’s wording), we went to the no.8 bar in the world. Chris had an intriguingly dark goats cheese cocktail, but other than that we were not amazed by the drinks. The atmosphere and vibe was pretty cool though.

    Coolest thing we did:

    Following on from our treat of a dinner, we decided to continue the theme. When in the Caribbean, how could we not go to an island for a beach day? After much research online (thanks to Chris) we landed on Isla del Pirata. Whilst we may have spent as much time getting there and back as we did on the island itself, it was pretty special. We bagged ourselves a beach bed – yes, a four poster – and set about reading, swimming, and drinking Caipirinhas. Do you hate us yet?

    The water was as promised, blue and clear, and somehow we managed not to get too burnt despite the extreme UV. Chris even spotted some cool fish and a colourful crab without paying extra to rent the snorkels.

    The only downside was that we had to be back on the boat to return at 2pm because the Caribbean Sea gets choppy. However, the return journey included a ride along a river lined with reeds, grasses, bright green palm trees, and even an iguana perching on a branch.

    Bonus:

    We had been saying for a while that while in Colombia we should do a dance class. On a whim one evening Chris booked us a salsa class for the next day. After a bit of a false start (being sent to the wrong location an hour early), we learnt the salsa basics: marching on the spot, side to side, forward and back, you get the picture. There was one other couple there and while it wasn’t a competition, Chris was quite pleased with himself and Florence was chosen to be the demo partner to the teacher. We have no video evidence of this so you’ll just have to take our word for it.

    Bonus bonus:

    We saw a sloth in a tree in a park.

    Next up is a trip into the rainforest, hasta luego!

    Besos,

    Florence and Chris

  • Medellín, Colombia

    Medellín, Colombia

    We arrived on a 8 hour day bus from Salento, and settled in for a five night stay. Compared to previous destinations, what we saw of Medellín felt like more of the real city (even if we did mainly do touristy things). This meant seeing more plainly the substantial inequality present in Colombia, seeing both rich areas and real poverty. In our stay we got to learn some of the history of the city and the transformation it’s had in recent years.

    We enjoyed visiting the botanic gardens, the Museum of Antioquia (more Botero) and playing cards in cafes around El Poblado, the neighbourhood where we stayed.

    Weather:

    It was hot and sunny, but it still rained most days given April makes the start of the wet season in Colombia.

    Where we stayed:

    We opted for a hostel that promised to be ‘quieter’ and more chill than some of the party hostels nearby, what we didn’t know was it would mean our room was tucked behind the cleaning cupboard. Whilst not as quiet as we’d hoped, we had a great time exploring the Manila neighbourhood and El Poblado, and came to love our basic room.

    Best thing we ate:

    Mexican food seems to be popular at least in El Poblado and some tacos and quesadillas from the Criminal Taquería near our hostel were probably our best meal there after a long tour in the sun. However, the only photos of food we have are from our meal at the vegetarian restaurant Guvindas in the centre which was good humble menu del día.

    Coolest thing we did:

    One of the main tourist activities I knew about before coming to Medellín was visiting Comuna 13. Medellín is a city that’s had a pretty big turnaround, from being Pablo Escobar’s stomping group to becoming a popular backpacker destination. Comuna 13 is one of the neighbourhoods that epitomises this transformation, having once been the centre of violence between guerrillas, paramilitary and the military to now welcoming thousands of tourists every day.

    We booked a tour that happened to be with Sergio, a man who grew up in Comuna 13 in the nineties and now runs the Insider Foundation to support local kids to develop their hobbies and be occupied rather than in gangs. He gave a brilliant tour, explaining to us the context and history, as well as his personal story, before we walked around the community. The area of Comuna 13 that tourists now visit feels like it is all put on especially for us with street art, street performance and street food all in abundance. Sergio was keen to balance this by showing us the ‘normal’ parts of Comuna 13, including where he grew up and where his dad still lives.

    The tour gave such important context to the place that we’d have entirely missed if we’d visited on our own, and it made me enjoy visiting much more because I can understand why it is the way it is. It’s easy to think that tourism can ruin a place, and gentrification as a result of tourism is and will be a real problem in Comuna 13, but it’s equally undeniable the benefits it brings, with Sergio suggesting that if tourism went away, then the violence would likely return.

    Bonus:

    Medellín’s wonderful public transport. The metro was lovely and wide and clean and occasionally had enough air con it felt cool. Even better, cable cars form part of the same system so you can hop on and get a great view of the city on the same ticket.

    Our next stop is a quick hop over to Guatapé for a couple of nights lakeside 😎

    Besos,

    Florence & Chris