Life and Travel of an Expat in Lima

This was the beach in winter, picture taken from a bus window.

The beach off the coast of Lima, unfortunately is very polluted - but it's still packed with surfers when the waves are good. However, if you head south or north of the city, there are some really great beaches to be found. Peru is well known for it's surfing, and one of the world's top female surfers, Sofia Mulanovich, is from just south of Lima. The beach where she grew up is called Cerro Azul, and it's so well know it was mentioned in the Beach Boy's song "Surfin' Safari".

They're anglin' in Laguna, in Cerro Azul
They're kicking out in Dohini too
I tell you surfing's mighty wild
It's getting bigger every day
From Hawaii to the shores of Peru

There are a lot of different lifestyles for expats that live in Peru. Some people come here with income from their home country, and live much better than they could back home - nice house, nice car, maid, lots of eating out. Others come with not much more than they can carry in their pocket, and try to make it living the 'Peruvian way'. And, there are many varying shades between the two extremes. I have a little money from home that allows us to live better than we would if we only had our Peruvian income, but we're far from "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous"!

Rent and food tend to be the two biggest expenditures. If you have children and want to put them in a decent school, that can take a big chunk of change, too. I was surprised when we put our children in private school that we were given a list of cleaning supplies that we had to buy - floor wax, toilet paper, lysol etc. Also, about every week, we got a note asking for a couple dollars for photocopies, art supplies or a birthday gift for a teacher. And that's on top of the monthly tuition!!

For a good idea on how much it can cost you to live in Lima, I really recommend my article, Expat Tips: The Cost of Living in Lima, Peru. It's chock full of the costs you can expect for apartments, food, health care and more. And of course, if you ever have a question, feel free to ask me! I love talking about my decision to live in Lima, Peru.

I climbed that thing!

On January 1st of 2008, my family and I were at the gates of Machu Picchu as the sun rose up over the mountain peaks. It was a beautiful and amazing sight, and something I'd dreamed of since the first time I heard of Machu Picchu - over 25 years ago.

The peak in the background of this picture is called Huayna Picchu. If you look at the picture sideways, you can see how it sort of looks like a face, with Huayna Picchu as the nose - Peruvians say it's the face of an Inca warrior. My family and I climbed to the top of Huayna Picchu that day. It was one of the most physically challenging things I've ever done, and I'm so proud of myself for doing it!

Here we are playing in the river during our stay at Manu National Park. We had a great time! While we were there, we took several hikes, and saw monkeys (including a mother carrying a baby as she swung through the trees!), leaf-cutter ants and the Peruvian national bird, the Cock of the Rock. It was an amazing experience, and I look forward to making another jungle excursion soon.

The guy with his back to us in the picture is Saturnino, he was our guide at the lodge. Because we were there during the off season, we were actually the only people staying at the lodge, so we got a lot of attention from him. He really did a great job, and taught us a lot about the plant and animal life in the area. He is a married man, with children, but lives at the lodge for months at a time, while his family lives in another part of Peru. He receives a very small amount of pay for his work - about $200 US a month, and since he lives and eats in the lodge, he sends all his money home to support his family. This is a very typical situation in Peru.

This snail was crossing the road as we hiked through the rain forest.

But this wasn't all we saw... there were monkeys, birds, moths, leaf-cutter ants... it was so awesome!

One of our friends who went with us is a biologist who specializes in moths and butterflies. So once it got dark in the jungle, we set out spot lights to attract the moths - it didn't take long before we were surrounded! The diversity was really amazing.