Tag: tips

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Choquequirao, Peru

How much does it cost to travel in Peru? Our budget and tips

Peru is a country of contradictions so also the spendings are extreme from really cheap dorms to expensive restaurants. In Peru we really wanted to do everything possible just because for us it wasn't a country that we would LOVE to come back to. Let's say people over there were not our favorite part of Peru. And so we stayed for 70 days spending a total 5227 euro so 37 euro per day per person. That includes fancy dining and also a new laptop and some clothes:)

Where did we go?

In Peru we saw a bit of everything. We started around Lake Titicaca which we didn't like at all so we moved quite fast to Cusco. There we stayed for a long time to explore all the surrounding ruins. When all the Inca constructions and mummies started to look alike we hit the road again to get to Lima. The city itself didn't take our breath away (not even with the amount of pollution in the air) so we left it after a few days to see a bit of Peruvian coast. And so we ended up in Huanchaco, a tiny town on the coast. From there we went for the adventure- The Amazon, visiting Tarapoto, Yurimaguas, Lagunas and Samiria- Pacaya National Park. Afterwards on the way out of Peru we passed by Chachapoyas.

How did we travel?

By kayak, by local buses, on foot:) spending 458 euros on transport (including bus to Guayaquil in Ecuador)
Example of bus ride: Bus from Lima to Trujillo was 75 soles (around 21 euro) and it took around 20 hours.

Where did we stay?

In tents, on the floor in the jungle, in dorms and sometimes in private rooms.

On accommodation we spend 828 euro spending 21 days in private rooms and the rest in dormitories, tents and on the floor. Generally the prices in dormitories didn't vary that much per city but the private rooms were a different story. In cities they were way more expensive than in the Amazon or close to Lake Titicaca.

Examples: a bed in dorm in Cusco was a cost of around 6-9 euro. Going to the Amazon for 15 euros we already had a private room with private bathroom.

What did we eat?

From shitty imitation Chinese food to high quality food in fancy restaurants- in Peru we wanted to try everything, it's highest and it's lowest just because it seems to have the best food of South America (Peruvian dreamers even say world's best). We did have some amazing food but as a cuisine I wouldn't say it was anywhere near Asian, French , Italian or even Spanish.

We spend 538 euros cooking on our own. Buying ingredients without saving in the supermarkets  and local markets (no dry rice or instant noodles unless on a hike). 1039 euros was invested in various eating out experiences, some fancy and some on the edge of poisonous (our dinning experiences in Lima)

How expensive are museums, tours etc?

On tourism we spent 1722 euro  of which around 843 dollars went for a 5 day Salkantay trek to Macchu Picchu (for the two of us). The rest went for different hikes that we did (Choquequirao trek), excursion through the Amazon, entrances to museums and ruins.

What else did we spend our "soles" on?

In Peru we finally bought a laptop- tired of trying to post and write and do everything with a smartphone. We also bought some clothes. All of that falls into the category "equipment" which cost us 393 euros.

In miscellaneous (249 euros) we placed hairdresser failures, liters of mosquito repellent, washing our clothes etc.

Our tips to save money in Peru:

  1. Hike on your own, renting equipment and buying food is way cheaper than going with an agency and the exact routes can be found online
  2. To avoid spending money on withdrawing cash just send money to yourself via Azimo. You can send up to 800 euros in local currency or in dollars and you pay only up to 3 euros for the transfer
  3. Always check buses before buying, the price varies insanely depending on the company, comfort of the seat and time.
  4. On short distances try to use local buses
  5. If Machu Picchu is too expensive, think of an alternative trek. For example Choquequirao- cheaper, more adventurous and less crowded
  6. Don't go to Iquitos or Manu for a jungle experience, those are already pretty touristic so prices are already adjusted to heavy wallets. Choose mostly skipped Lagunas from where a local guide and a whole excursion will cost you veryyyyy little

P.S. Exchange rate used 1 EUR = 3.56 PEN

If you have any questions or you would like to take a look at our spreadsheet, let us know:)

Choquequirao, Peru

Trek to Choquequirao

Going to Choquequirao, the Inca city, I was expecting amazing nature. At least tarantulas around me, condors above me and cacao trees next to me. Big nothing when it comes to that. The nature was not getting more exotic than horses passing us by. But reaching the first campsite at least I got an exotic "toilet", no words can explain how "different" the toilet was, only a picture (posted under). And the way to it was also an adventure on it's own.... The woman from the campsite wanted us to take a shower as well... It was a bucket of water and walls could be made with foil stretched between a few sticks... The funniest part was that the shower was just under the campsite so that you could see the person showering from your own tent... Free show. Obviously we passed on that entertainment.Choquequirao, Peru
Further trek was rather disappointing until we reached the check point in Choquequirao. Immediately we saw the ruins scattered on the mountains and we went flying to the campsite closeby to build our tent and start exploring. Firstly we went to extensive terraces and water temple just next to us. By far more impressive than Machu Picchu. Choquequirao has been known since at least the 17th century by the Spaniards and it has been mentioned many times. Also Bingham visited it before he discovered Machu Picchu and still the site was not excavated until the 1970s. Now only 30-40% has been excavated and that is already bigger than Machu Picchu. And we felt like in an Indiana Jones movie, all alone on the ruins and on each terrace we could see further buildings and terraces overgrown by vegetation. Incredible!!! Super excited we barely could sleep waiting for the next day to come to explore the ruins up on the mountain above us. And so on the next day we were busy exploring temples, squares, priest houses, workshops and most impressive: hugeeeee terraces with figures of llamas on them. On few terraces there were small llamas with mama llamas. All of it just partially uncovered.... No wonder Peru wants to build a cable car as an alternative to a two day trek to attract more tourists and more dollars... Making it a new Machu Picchu. Now it is only visited by few, maybe 20-30 people a day. Choquequirao was everything for us that Machu Picchu wasn't: mystical, without people trying to sell you cheesy gifts, big Americans with their huge cameras and fat wallets. Simple, beautiful and unforgettable.
And so was our trek back... We needed to go exactly the same way as we came and waking up early we already started walking back at 5.30 a.m. At around 10 a.m. we were already what seemed to be half way. There cheered by a local guide we decided to walk up the mountain to do the whole route in one day. According to him we would be done within 4 hours leaving him our big backpacks that he would take up by horse... After 4 hours we were nowhere near the end. We were almost in tears, covered in sweat and bites in full son walking up a mountain... Ready to give up... After 7 hours we finally reached the top and promised ourself never to trust Peruvian time estimations...Choquequirao, Peru

Mini guide for those who would like to do the trek:
1. The whole trek cost us a total of 658 soles so around 189 euro for two of us for 4 days. Most of it we spend on:
-250 soles (around 68 euros) on transportation to the view point from Cusco and back (on the way back we overpaid to get to Cusco faster which cost us around 50-60 soles more)
-135 soles (around 37 euros) on food - nuts, noodles, milk in powder, pasta etc.
-190 soles (around 52 euros) Renting equipment- tent for two people, two sleeping bags, sleeping pads, little kitchen with utensils, walking sticks
-56 soles (around 15 euros) on entrance ticket to the ruins (37 normal ticket, 19 with student discount)

2. First day we left Cusco at 5 a.m. and we arrived to the viewpoint at 10 a.m. (first taking a bus to Curawasi, then shared taxi to Ramal, then private taxi to the viewpoint). From there we walked to Playa Rosalina in 3.5 hours and then 2.5 hours to Santa Rosa Baja where we stayed for the night. Second day we started walking around 6 a.m. and it took us 2.5 hours uphill to get to Marampata. From there it was an easy 1.5 hour walk to the Choquequirao campsite where we stayed one and a half day. The forth day we left the camp at 5.30 a.m. and walked to Playa Rosalina (4.5 hours) and then we walked all the way to the view point (6.5 hours) without our big backpacks. Not recommended to do that in one day. We were destroyed in the end of it.

3. We didn't buy water, we had purifying pills but if you want there are plenty of places selling water (2.5 ltr water bottle for 12 soles, so around 3 euros)

4. From the viewpoint you can rent horses for the whole way, we didn't, we walked with our backpacks except for half a day, the last day, when we paid 20 soles (around 5 euro) for bringing our bags to the viewpoint

5. For navigation we used Maps.Me and GPS in our smartphones

6. We had plenty of bug spray which didn't help us but we are afraid to think how we would look like if we didn't have it

7. On all of the campsites you can buy water, inka cola, cola and snacks and often also cooked meals. Only on the Choquequirao site there was nothing to buy

8. To camp on most of the sites you need to pay 5 soles (a bit more than 1 euro) per tent, except in the Choquequirao campsite where it's free. The campsites are Chiquisca, Playa Rosalina, Santa Rosa baja, Santa Rosa alta, Marampata and Choquequirao so plenty to choose from.

9. You really need at least one day to explore the ruins because they are huge and quite far away from each other

If anyone would like to do it and something is not clear or there are unanswered questions, let us know:)

You can download the map here Choquequirao.kml or here Choquequirao.kmz.
You can use Maps.Me to open the files on your smartphone or google my maps on your PC.

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How much does it cost to travel in Argentina? Our budget and tips

Short answer would be: a lot more than you think! Somehow we tend to think that the whole South America is cheap. Unfortunately it's not. Countries like Uruguay, Chile and Argentina are as expensive as for example Holland.
During our 99 days in Argentina we spend a total of 6827.52 euro which means that our budget per day was 34.48 euro per person.

Where did we go?
Our trip like many others started in Buenos Aires where we stayed for two weeks than we went close to Mar del Plata, here we stayed for a month volunteering. Afterwards we hit budget-breaking South of Argentina (Bariloche, El Bolson, Calafate, El Chalten). Even though out of season it was really expensive. We have also visited Iguazu Falls and the North of Argentina from Salta up to the border with Bolivia.

How did we travel?
The most expensive part of our budget was transportation (2735 euro) which includes our flight from Calafate to Montevideo. But the real budget breakers were the buses which are extremely expensive. There is no way to get a better deal when booking beforehand or just a promotion like in Europe. The buses are organised in classes depending on the service and chair that you choose. So you can decide to just sit and starve or to have a chair that will lean almost like a bed and have all the meals (don't expect anything delicious, they are worse than on the plane). Unfortunately on long distances it's impossible to find only sitting seats so you are forced to travel "business class ".
Example: Bus from Mar del Plata to Bariloche was 1298 pesos (around 131.29 euro)

Where did we stay?
On accommodation we spend 1659 euro spending 37 days in private rooms, one month in our wwoofing and the rest in dormitories. Definitely the most expensive region was Patagonia where for example in a dorm in Calafate (out of season) we paid 18.34 euro per person per night. To compare for 30 euro per night we had a double room with private bathroom in Cafayate in the North of Argentina.

What did we eat?
We spend 1362 euro on food, mainly cooking ourselves but we were not really saving on ingredients and we ate a lot of Argentinian meat:) we also didn't deny ourselves wine:) especially in Cafayate where we bought a bottle of wine every day.
Good bottle of wine: around 7-10 euro.

What else did we spend our pesitos on?
1071 euro went for entrances to national parks, wine tasting, tours (for example to see glaciers by boat in Calafate we paid 130 euro per person).

P.S. Exchange rate used 1 EUR = 9.887 ARS

Our tips:
1. Transportation is just insanely expensive so it's a good option to hitchhike! Just don't forget that Argentina is huge and it takes hours to travel through it.
2. Take as many US dollars as you can- exchanging dollars on the blue market will save you a lot of money. When the official dollar is around 8-9 pesos on blue market you can get even around 13 pesos. Euros are also ok.
3. When taking dollars is not an option transfer money to yourself using Azimo. It's a bank which charges you 2.99 euro to send money and you can send up to 800 euro. It gives you a very good exchange rate which is in between the official and the blue one. It's a big game changer especially because we couldn't withdraw more than 150 euro per time and the Argentinian banks were charging 55 pesos per transaction.
If you have time, volunteer. We did it for a month and during that month we almost didn't spend any money and it was a lot of fun. We learnt a lot about the culture and the country. We used WWOOF Argentina but you can also try HelpX or Workaway. The advantage of the last two is that you can create a couple account and pay less then for two individual ones and that you pay for two years and it's for the whole world. With WWOOFing the rules differ per country.

If you have any questions or you would like to take a look at our spreadsheet, let us know:)

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