Back That Month Up | Lima
A December to Remember
On Remote Year, some of the absolute best bonding experiences happen while on side trips with smaller groups of people. The quality time that you spend with the people you’re traveling with on these trips is really hard to replicate in the larger group settings.
This month I was able to go on two long-awaited side trips with two inkredible and different groups of Kaizens, each of which made the trips particularly special for different reasons.
I was in Cape Town for the first part of the month with a group of people that I hadn’t spent much quality time with before. Spending two weeks with these Kaizens turned out to be the highlight of a trip that was full of highlights (seriously, Cape Town is ridic). We’re now over a month removed from the trip and the relationships we made during those two weeks have persisted, and the rest of Month 9 was way better because of it.
Barely a week after the trip to Cape Town, I departed for Cusco with a totally different group of people. Although we didn’t know it when we booked this trip in Month 1, the people in this group were some of my closest friends. Side tripping with people you’re already really close to offers a different kind of awesome — the kind of awesome where you give zero fks and decide to have a dance party to Despacito on the top of a mountain, causing an already difficult breathing situation to be event difficultier.
Two completely different groups of people, two equally unforgettable experiences.
Going forward, my mindset is that I don’t care if I have four months left or four days left — I’m going to continue to reach out and spend time with people that I haven’t spent much time with while also spending time with those I’m already closest to. You don’t have to choose one or the other.
Despite what the increasingly loud timer in the back of our minds tries to tell us with every day that passes, there is still time to do both.
I’d rather find out on our last day that I had a deeper connection with someone than leave and never know it at all.
After all, Kaizen does not end on March 31st.
The People
Like I said, new friendships were forged and existing ones strengthened. Throw in all of the fun and shenans spent around the holidays with the group as a whole, and you’ve got one very jolly Miguel.
The Places
South Africa
CAPE TOWN
A group of Kaizens departed from KL a week early and headed over to Cape Town on our way to South America because we’re obnoxious digital nomads and because #remoteyear.
This side trip was so long that I ended up spending more time in Cape Town than I had in some of the cities on our itinerary. It warranted its own post, so I wrote about it here.
I decided to celebrate the fact that I used my GoPro for the first time in eight months by making a video of the trip, too.
Peru
LIMA
I really enjoyed living in Lima and think that it was a perfect intro into South America. The neighborhood we lived in, Miraflores, is walkable and close to the coast, the parks that run alongside said coast are beautiful and full of people being active at all hours of the day (including me sometimes! 🏅), the Spanish sounded familiar and wasn’t spoken ridiculously fast, and the often-overcast skies by day were contrasted with silly beautiful sunsets by night. Add in the fresh af ceviche and the delicious-yet-dangerous pisco sours, and you’ve got yourself a supremely pleasant, tasty, and tipsy month.
I do feel a little bad for Lima though in terms of it being a Remote Year city. Because it resides in the amazingness that is Peru, it’s a prime location to do side trips from. It’s hard to not side trip from Lima when you’ve got places like Cusco, Machu Picchu, Rainbow Mountain, and Bolivia at your fingertips.
I feel a little guilty that I only had two weeks here because I know there’s more for me to see. I’m sorry, Lima, I still think you’re great, boo ❤️.
CUSCO
In order to do a lot of the big ticket outdoorsy things in Peru, you need to head over to the once-upon-a-time RY city of Cusco. It’s a quaint city with some serious Spanish vibes and some equally serious elevation at 3,400m. Its appearance reminded me of what I had pictured a lot of South America to look like. Throughout the city you will even find these lovely little ladies dressed in bright neon colors and funky hats that let you hold their baby sheep and alpacas if you toss them a couple soles.
We spent several days in Cusco adjusting to the altitude before and in between the three big excursions we did on our side trip: Rainbow Mountain, the Skylodge, and Machu Picchu.
Similar to Cape Town, this trip was so action packed and epic that it will require its own post.
For now, enjoy some pictures and this video.
HUACACHINA
The day before our epically sloshy Christmas Eve celebration, a large group of us went on a day trip to the desert oasis of Huacachina for 12 hours of boats, sea lions, ceviche, Despacito, wine and pisco tasting, dune buggies, sand boarding, more Despacito, and deliciously questionable street food.
The sentiment amongst the group that went was that this was one of the BEST days of the entire year. I’d have to agree.
If you’re ever in Lima, you absolutely have to make time for this trip.
The Things
Más español por favor
I cannot stress enough how big of a difference finally being able to communicate with locals in their native language makes in this experience. (←See, I even bolded this text so that you could understand the gravity of the situation!)
The fact that we have the same language for four months, instead of having to pretend (poorly) to try and learn a new one next month, is an absolute game changer.
While I’m obviously still a tourist, being able to speak another language makes me feel more like a competent traveler than an obnoxious visitor who waltzes off the plane expecting locals bow to my will and speak English.
If there’s one thing that makes me feel inadequate while traveling this long, it’s seeing how many people outside the US speak multiple languages while barely any of us do.
On the other hand, if there’s one thing that is motivating while traveling this long, it’s traveling with people like Valentina, who casually switches between English, Italian, Spanish, French, and even Portuguese like it ain’t no thang.
In Kaizen we are lucky to have a handful of fluent Spanish speakers that are very willing to help the rest of us, regardless of how good we are at it or how many nit picky, annoying questions we (read: Miguel) have for them.
“Remote Christmas”
A lot of people from back home would ask me about my holiday plans and when I would respond that no, I am not going home and no, my family is not coming to visit, they would usually apologize. And I get it. To people removed from the situation, it sounds pretty lonely to spend the holidays in a foreign country alone.
However, although I was certainly in a foreign country, I was most certainly not alone. I was with about 40 friends and had the most entertaining and admittedly sloshy “Remote Christmas” that I could have asked for.
Christmas Eve was spent having a huge potluck dinner with everyone in town at our workspace where things proceeded to go from lighthearted conversation, to feelz-inducing toasts, to me coercing people to drink pisco from the bottle (my b), to heartfelt goodbye-for-nows, to blow up alpacas in compromising situations. Things got weird.
Christmas Day was spent in a little beach condo in Punta Hermosa where the Aperol was flowing as freely as the Christmas carols and hilarious stories that we shared with each other.
’Twas a Christmas that I’ll never forget.
All in all, December is going to go down as one of my absolute favorite months of the entire year. It was non-stop action and funsies that still make me lol to this day.
It was one of those months where you wonder wtf you did to be fortunate enough to deserve it. While I have a hard time answering that question for myself, I’m not going to question it too much. I’m just going to appreciate it, be thankful that I experienced it, and look back on this post whenever I wake up wondering if it all really happened or if I just dreamt it. And then I’m probably going to go get some empanadas while listening to Havana (the remix w/ Daddy Yankee, obv).
SALUD, LIMA!
Before you go, don’t forget to back these months up, too!
- Europe: Split, Prague, Lisbon, Sofia
- Asia: Hanoi, Chiang Mai, Kyoto, Kuala Lumpur
- Latin America: Lima, Medellín, Bogotá, Mexico City
Massive 📸 credit to Liz and Matt for pictures from Cape Town, Alex and Vale for pictures from Cusco, and Zachdad (@zach_boyette) for pictures from Lima!
