This series will go country by country through my two-year trip. I plan on sharing some experiences, thoughts, and photos of each country that I visited.

Country by Country 24: Peru (part 2 of 2)

After a few weeks in Cusco, I decided to go out an explore more of Peru. My first stop was Arequipa which is a large city in a desert. In the city is a walled nunnery that was a lot of fun to explore. I also went on a short mountain biking trip and was reminded of why I don't usually go mountain biking.

Here are some of my Arequipa photos.

I don't like including bad photos in my posts, and this one is terrible. I wanted to show off the busses in Peru. I've ridden buses all over the world and Peru's buses are, hands down, the best. Just look! Full recliners, private entertainment systems with tons of movies, privacy curtains, more legroom than even I could use. The Peruvian buses are glorious! If you're in Peru, pay the 2-5 dollars extra and get a VIP bus, it will be some of the best money you ever spend.

Unfortunately, the majority of buses are night buses. That's great for most people, but I can't sleep in moving vehicles and I love looking out of the windows. At night, there's nothing to see outside of the windows. My bus arrived in Arequipa early in the morning and I had to kill a few hours before my hotel opened for business. I took this photo while waiting for my hotel to open.

Plaza de Armas in Arequipa.

A roof-top view of some of Arequipa's roof-tops.

I spotted a parade when I was wandering around.

There was an ice cream festival happening when I was in Arequipa. It tasted different and great.

Here are some of my photos of Santa Catalina Monastery.

Beautiful buildings, lovely arches, bold colors. This was a great place for taking photos.

A roof-top view of the city within a city.

Lastly are these "tools" of one of the most revered women of this institution. On the right is a metal shirt with nails pointing inwards. On the left is a whip made up of razor blades that have been serrated to inflict more pain. The woman would use these tools on herself and that was/is considered a good thing! Holy shit! People in this city used to send their children here to be educated and "spiritually guided" by people who took pride in how brutal that could be to themselves. If you don't see anything disturbing with that, I think you're letting ideology override your sense of decency and truth.

While in Arequipa, I booked a short mountain biking trip. A van picked me up from my hotel and drove a group of us up to the top of a mountain. We then rode bicycles down the mountain. It was a fairly uncomfortable experience, but I managed to get a few photos out of it.

My phone didn't focus on what I wanted it to, but you can still see these plants. To me, they looked like octopus legs coming out of the ground.

These are basically Arquipa suburbs.

I left Arequipa after a week or two. I took an overnight bus to Lima where I spent about a month. Lima was a nice and fun city to spend time in. At first, I stayed in the Miraflores neighborhood, then I spent a few weeks in the Barranco neighborhood.

Lima!

I took this photo for my Vietnamese friends. "Chifa" is a common food in Peru, it's basically Chinese-style fried rice (Com Rang in north Vietnam, Com Chien in the south). This restaurant is "Chifa Vietnam" and it appeared to be exactly the same as the other Chifa places. I think the business owner is probably Vietnamese. I moved to a room on this street a few days after taking this photo.

I'm pretty sure this photo was taken from inside of the Chifa Vietnam restaurant. Look at that car! It gives me Cuba vibes, even though I've never been to Cuba.

I believe this building was abandoned or unoccupied. It seemed like an ideal place for urban exploration.

Some of the buildings in Peru have this incredible and unique style. The lines, arches, simplistic and bold colors, the flourishes... I love this style!

Lima also has awesome artwork all over the place.

This mural blows my mind. The only words that come to my mind are "fucking badass!".

These cards show off the fruits in Peru. I found these cards in the house in Barranco. I wish I had a deck of them for myself.

Lima is a cool place to see, but the reason why I loved it so much, and why I hope to return, is because of the friends that I made there. One night I was hanging out in front of a burger stand that was close to where my room in Barranco was. I was killing time, talking to the guy who worked at the burger place. A couple walked up and I heard them discussing whether or not to get a burger there. Since I hadn't heard much English being spoken, I butted into their conversation and gave my opinion of the burgers (they were great).

We all started talking and pretty quickly became friends. The couple invited me and another guy over to their house so we went to hang out. Later, they told me that I should never get into a stranger's car in Lima, and I should definitely never go to a stranger's house. Luckily, I hadn't heard those rules yet.

The couple (Jean and Mari) were awesome! They ended up hosting a kick-ass BBQ with beer pong at their house. We also met up a couple of times and they showed off parts of their city to me. When it was time to leave Lima, all of the buses were night buses, so I would have had to kill a bunch of time on the streets. Jean and Mari let me spend the night at their place and they took me to the bus station. They were excellent hosts and will be my number one reason for returning to Lima if I'm able to return. Thanks, guys!

Hangin' out at Jean and Mari's.

Our team was pretty serious about beer pong.

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Playing some beer pong.

I wasn't sure what to make for the BBQ, so I went with my old stand-by. I made the deviled eggs. The pan in the lower right is full of tiny potatoes. The other food is meat, veggies, bread, and rice.

These are ingredients that were used for burgers. There isn't anything too special about them other than the peppers. In Peru, they're called "pinguita de mono". That translates to "monkey dick". 2 years later and I still can't stop laughing about it.

These are the burgers. Jean don't mess around in the kitchen!

They also have a two-seater bicycle. We went for a short ride around town.

After a month or so in Lima, it was time to move on. I said my goodbyes and took a bus north to Huanchaco which is a coastal town with a chill, surfer vibe. The tourists here are generally Peruvian tourists and hippy backpacker-types. There are several surfing schools that international tourists volunteer at in exchange for a room and food.

Here are a few photos of Trujillo which is the city next to Huanchaco.

The Plaza de Armas in Trujillo.

I can't get over the style of these buildings.

Lovely!

Here are some of the photos of Huanchaco that I took.

The beach!

A football area next to the ocean.

Locals playing some footbal at sunset.

Election season in Peru is almost as funny as election season in America. I'd vote for this guy (he's holding a pug)!

A cool mural.

After some time in Huanchaco, I continued north to Mancora to ride out the remainder of my visa. Mancora was a relaxed place with not a lot to do. I particularly enjoyed the birds and dogs in the area. I love birds, especially herons, storks and other long-legged varieties. Unfortunately, my phone isn't very good at taking photos of them. The dogs in the area were mostly hairless.

You can almost see the birds in this photo.

A building that has seen better days.

A vulture on a light pole at the end of a lonely road. This is the road that my hotel was located on.

This big, bald dog lived at the hotel that I stayed in. He was very friendly and wanted attention, but petting it always left your hands covered with black skin flakes.

This little guy lived at a hostel down the road from my place. I went here a lot because it had a bar, served food, and was within walking distance.

And that concludes my tour of Peru. My visa expired and I went north. I had a great time in Peru and hope to return.

Stay tuned for the final country of my trip, and the final post of this series, Ecuador!