The first full five days of November were spent at our house sit in Cuenca, Ecuador. It was a bit of a hectic last week as we got ready to hit the road again and spent time enjoying the Fiestas de Cuenca, Cuenca’s Independence festival. We were surprised to learn that unlike the US which has one big independence day celebration for the whole country, Eucador has a festival to commemorate the independence of individual cities.
By the time we left Cuenca, our three months in Ecuador were running out. It was time to start heading to our next country, Perú. After some research, we decided that the most interesting way to cross the border would be to head straight south and cross into the northern highlands of Perú. We had a couple of weeks to get there and planned three stops on the way.
Our first stop was in a tiny community called Gera. Gera is just up the road about 6 miles from a small city called Saraguro. We did a homestay in Gera with an Indigenous woman named Rosa. From Gera, we continued south to the city of Loja where we happened upon our third festival in Ecuador. Our last stop before crossing the border was the small expat, artsy town of Vilcabamba.
On November 22, we crossed into our third country in South America, Perú. Our bus stopped at the border and everyone got off. Those that were continuing on and needed to go through customs headed to a small yellow two story building to check out of the country. Everything went smoothly except for being accused of over staying. I handed the Ecuadorian border official my passport and he said that I owed a “multa” for overstaying our 90 days. Shocked that he was trying to fine us I told him in Spanish that we arrived on August 28. He looked again and allowed us to pass over the border with no fine.
We walked across a bridge and we were in Perú. There we went to another office to check into Perú. This customs guy was much friendlier. In Spanish, he me asked how many days we wanted to stay in Perú I said, “180.” Although 180 days are allowed, people don’t usually get that many days. Greg and I had previously talked about what we would say to convince them to give us 180. I thought it would be best for Greg to ask because he can be so charming. But now I was on the spot. The custom agent didn’t miss a beat and said, of course!
Our first stop in Perú was an overnight stay in the hectic city of Jaén. The next day we headed on to a small town named Churuja for another homestay. Our last stop of November was in the small city of Chacahpoyas.
Expenses
* A few notes about these expenses. Because Spanish classes are not a “normal” travel expense, I am presenting this expense separately from the total of everything else. In the past, I report exactly what actually comes out of my bank account each month, but since we may book one or two months of accommodations, transportation, or Spanish classes ahead of time, I’m now reporting not when I spent the money but what month the money was spent on.
Learning Spanish: $0
Everything Else: $2153.90
The Grand Total: $2153.90
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I’m pleased that our expenses have come down these past few months. We can afford to spend more but the more we save, the more we can splurge.
Learning Spanish
We didn’t spend any money on learning Spanish in November. We still did our Duoling practice daily, but we hardly used any of those programs we bought back in September. But what we did do was engage with a lot of Spanish-speaking people. We only spoke Spanish with our hosts at our homestays in Gera and Churuja and the manager of the hotel in Jaén. We used our Spanish buying groceries, locating the bus stations, taking to the customs officials, and chatting with taxi drivers. We took a long collective ride from Jaén to Churuja with children who wanted to engage with us in Spanish. We took a tour in Spanish and English and got to listen to the tour guide in each language. Cross-country buses show movies in Spanish, and we try our best to watch and understand them. Pretty much everything we do these days is a lesson in Spanish.
Communication
Our phone bill ($47.17) for November included Greg’s US phone plan for calls and text only, $27.76 (base rate $20, 5 minutes of phone calls at .20¢ a minute, and taxes). And my 4-country (Colombia, Ecuador, Perú, and Bolivia) phone and data plan, $16.01, which we purchased in Ecuador. We were super pleased that my plan worked when we crossed the border into Perú!
Consumables
We spent $303.60 on groceries and $7.00 on a bottle of Ibuprofen in November. We will no longer be reporting our spending on Alcohol (even though it was still pretty low).
In general, we like to do our grocery shopping at major supermarkets. But once we left Loja, there were no more big grocery stores to shop in. This meant we had to go to lots of corner stores and mercados to search for what we needed. In Vilcabamba we found a good corner store with a very good selection of beer. We went to several stores in Jaén to find supplies because we knew our shopping options would be very limited in Churuja (and they were). But because of our long trip and warm temperatures on our trip to Churuja all of sliced cheese melted into a big blob. We had more options in Chachapoyas but still found ourselves going to different stores for bread, vegetables, and cheese. I don’t think we ever found mushrooms and all of the all the onions we’ve found in Perú were red until we got to the big cities. Occasionally I think we were sold plantains instead of bananas, which is not quite the same food. Feeding ourselves has been a bit of a challenge (especially since we are vegetarians) but we keep adapting and figuring out meals we can make with whatever we find at the markets.
Entertainment
Our eating out total has come down a bit from previous months to $455.15. Since leaving Ecuador, it has been harder to find vegetarian food. But what we have found has been so good! The variety of beer in Perú is not as good as what we saw in Ecuador but we have found one we like, Cusqueña Negra, which is served in most restaurants. We have also been trying more fresh juices when we go out to eat.
– Drinks and Eating Out
– Museums/Attractions/Music
In November, we spent money on visiting waterfalls, tips, a bird refuge, and a tour to visit some ruins and a cave. Out of our monthly total of $105.95, $65.57 was spent on our tour to the ruins and cave. This included our transportation and lunch. We probably could have visited these places on our own for cheaper but we would have had to coordinate taxis and collectives and wouldn’t have know the best place for lunch.
Personal
– Clothes
Greg bought a t-shirt and I got some new socks, $19.19.
– Gear
Due to staying in so many places with dull kitchen knives, we bought one to carry with us, $12.79. And due to overdoing it on hikes we bought an ice pack, $4.24, which now doubles to keep our food chilled when we travel.
– Subscriptions
We subscribe to Netflix, Abode Photoshop, The New York Times, and Michael Fox’s (A freelance filmmaker, journalist, podcaster, and musician reporting from the road in Latin America) Patreon account. ($59.41)
Traveling Life
– Storage
We pay $76 for a storage locker back in the US.
– Accommodations
Our total for November, $945.69, includes our annual fee of $129 for Trusted House Sitters. In 2024 we spent 135 nights house sitting – free accommodations for taking care of some lovely pets. So we really only paid $816.69 for accommodations in November. And that $129 comes out to $3.40 a day for our upcoming 5-week house sit in Lima, Perú.
We spent the first 5 days of November in Cuenca pet sitting. See our previous Expense Report for detail about that. Read on to learn about the rest of the month’s accommodations.
Gera, Ecuador
November 6-11, $31.95 per night (5 nights) room in a house with shared spaces and bathroom/shower outside of the room. (Booked through Airbnb)
Since we have decided not to take any more Spanish classes, I have started looking for more immersive experiences. Along with looking for anywhere off the beaten path, I found a place called Taski Wasi in Gera, Ecuador. The owner of Taski Wasi, Rosa, an ingenious woman who only spoke Quechua and Spanish, was an absolute joy. There will be a whole post about this experience. We had a basic room with a bed and some hooks and shelves for our stuff. The bathroom was located outside the room, but since there were no other guests we didn’t have to share it. There was hot water on demand for the shower. Outside the bathroom door there was a switch that had to be flipped to turn the hot water on – and turned off when you were finished (this is fairly common in many of the places we have stayed at). The view was incredible!
Loja, Ecuador
November 11-16, $41.77 per night (5 nights) three-bedroom, three-bathroom apartment. (Booked through Airbnb)
I had a hard time finding accommodations in our price range that I like in Loja. We finally decided to spend a little extra money and booked a 2-story 3-bedroom, 3-bath apartment right outside of Centro Histórico and super close to the main plaza. The place was huge and super clean! The only thing I didn’t like was the lack of windows that opened up to the outside. Many of the apartments we have stayed in in South America have windows that open to light tunnels that run up through the building. There is no view. Only one bedroom had a window to the outside. It was the smallest bedroom and the view wasn’t great, but it was the one we chose to sleep in.
Vilcabamba, Ecuador
November 16-22, $25.68 per night (6 nights) one-bed, one-bathroom studio in a house. (Booked through Airbnb)
Generally, we like to stay close to the central downtown area of the places we visit, but I was really attracted to this apartment about a mile and a half (30 minute walk) from the center of Vilcabamba. It was an open studio layout and was absolutely lovely. The owners, an American woman, and an Ecuadorian man, lived upstairs. They were super nice and helpful. They picked us up at the bus station in town and drove us around to get groceries before we headed on to the apartment. The space was originally an arts studio for local kids and adults before they converted it into an Airbnb. There were art supplies and musical instruments. The bathroom had a sauna and a really, really nice washer and dryer (having a drier is not common).
Jaén, Perú
November 22-23, $21.03 per night (1 night) hotel room with private bathroom. (Booked through Airbnb)
Our stay in Jaén was just an overnight stop. We booked a hotel room. Just a bed and a bathroom. We arrived late and were welcomed warmly, and given the key to the front door so we didn’t have to wait for someone to let us in and out. In the morning we met the manager who I had read many good things about in reviews. He was just as nice and helpful as everyone reported. Upon leaving he made sure our water bottles were filled with fresh filtered water and gave us some papayas.
Churuja, Perú
November 23-27, $34.54 per night (4 nights) homestay, bedroom with a private bathroom. (Booked through Airbnb)
Churuja was another homestay. The very small town of Churuja sits along either side of a stretch of the highway. There wasn’t much to it at all, but there were many enjoyable attractions nearby. Our Spanish-speaking host was nice, but we didn’t interact with her nearly as much as we did with Rosa in Gera. She and her two dogs were waiting for us when our very late bus dropped us off literally on the side of the road in the dark. Luckily, her house was on the other side of the road. We found a pineapple in our room to welcome us.
Our room was cute and had an ensuite bathroom. Once again we had to flip a switch to get hot water for the shower. Unfortunately, there was a very bad flying bug problem. On the first night they were attracted to our tablet screen while we were watching a show. We figured out how to close up the mosquito netting and turned on the light in the bathroom to attract them in there. In the morning the bathroom was covered with bug wings.
Chachapoyas, Perú
November 27-30, $33.71 per night (3 nights in November) One bedroom, one bathroom apartment. (Booked through Airbnb)
Chachapoyas was another hard place to find an apartment we liked in our price range. We finally settled on one I knew wouldn’t be everything we wanted. Unfortunately, it turned out to be even less than we wanted. There was only one small window. The apartment was cute but super small. There was no living room. The best thing about it was its proximity to the plaza – just a 2 1/2 block walk. The worst thing about it was the poorly equipped kitchen and the host’s attitude. There was only one small frying pan – big enough to cook one egg.
The host acted very accommodating and told us to let her know if we needed anything. But when I asked if it was possible to get a bigger frying pan and a pot she told me that we had everything we needed and were asking for something extra. She also seemed to get a little snippy when we didn’t understand how to turn on the hot water for the shower (because she had already shown us when we had arrived).
The host’s mother ended up bringing us a bigger pan and a pot and showing us how to operate the shower again.
The day after we left she wrote us wanting to know what she could do to get us to rate her 5 stars. I told her that we had already left the review and that she could leave us a review to see hers right away or wait the 14 days to see it. She never left us a review.
– Transportation
We spent $117.67 on transportation in November.
We traveled in buses, taxis, colectivos, turnos, and mototaxis for approximately 515 miles.
Based on an average price of gas in Novmeber in Ecuador of $2.73 per gallon and in Peru of $4.13 of per gallon, if we had been driving our van (which got approximately 15 miles to the gallon) we would have spent about $107.32.
Transportation is an adventure in itself.
In Gera, we rode in Turnos, collective truck taxis with a covered truck bed, with our host Rosa. Rosa always insisted that we sit in the back seat of the truck and not in the bed. But on our last trip to town when we were leaving, the truck filled up, so we smashed into the crowded back with all of our luggage piled on our laps.
In Vilcabamba, we caught a bus that took us all the way to Jaén Perú. In my original research about how to get to Perú I was only finding information about a route that included a bus, a ranchero (open sided bus), a taxi, and a colectivo to get to Jaén. So finding one bus that took us the whole way was wonderful. The trip meandered through a beautiful landscape. But it was curvy, and bumpy and I got motion sickness. Luckily each seat had a nice little white trash bag available.
In Jaén we took our first ride in a mototaxi. A mototaxi is like a Tuk Tuk but has a canvas cover over the passenger area instead of a hard shell. It looks like an Amish horse and buggy from the back. There were thousands of mototaxis on the streets of Jaén and they all zipped along without any regard for normal traffic laws.
We took a colectivo to Churuja and sat next to a super friendly family and conversed with them in Spanish. We spent 2 or 3 hours sitting on the side of the road when we ran into road construction.
And for our final leg in November we did like the locals and stood alongside the road with all of our luggage and waved down a colectivo to Chachapoyas.
Right Now
We are enjoying an amazing apartment on an island off the coast of Peru. We are looking forward to our 5-week house sit coming up in Lima in a beautiful nicely appointed apartment, in a big city with tons of options, and two cute doggy companions. We will have 3 1/2 more months to explore Perú after our house sit ends. We plan on going back to the mountains, exploring more ruins, discovering the fantastic natural life Perú has to offer, using our Spanish, figuring out how to get to places, trying more Peruvian drinks and food, and hopefully writing more blogs.
Happy New Years, everyone! I hope that 2025 brings you adventures of your own and new things to learn wherever you are, even if you just stay home.
¡Feliz año nuevo a todos! Espero que el 2025 les traiga sus propias aventuras y cosas nuevas que aprender donde quiera que estén, incluso si se quedan en casa.
To see all of our expense reports, click here.
If you are interested in reading other expense reports from nomads who really know how to live cheaply while still having a good time, check out the blog from our friends Mark, Liesbet, and Maya who are traveling in their truck camper in South America at Roaming About.
If you are interested in becoming a Trusted Housesitter or having a Trusted Housesitter take care of your pet, use our link for 25% off!
Looks like great travels. So impressed with the residences where you stay. Glad you are having a good time!
Thanks, Brenda! We are having a good time. I spend a lot of time searching for places to stay. I’m pleased that we have been able to find so many nice places in our budget.
Happy New Year to you also. Enjoy your travels.
Happy 2025 to you too, John!
Wow, you two have been traveling and doing a lot. Your place in Vilcabamba looks wonderful. How did you feel about that (expat) town?
Yeah, northern Peru was hard for us to find fresh produce and feed ourselves as well. Very third world, plus no grocery stores. And getting around with public transportation doesn’t seem the easiest either. I am curious about that island off the Peruvian coast, though…
You had a decent expense month, especially considering the price of accommodation. Well done! Of course I’m curious about why you’re not reporting alcohol expenses anymore. 🙂
We liked Vilcabamba. We probably would have experienced more of it if we had stayed in town. It didn’t seem overly ex-patty, but definitely had an ex-pat influence. We did a huge hike and the views were pretty nice.
Things seemed cheap in Northern Peru, but we missed having a real grocery store to shop it. It forced us to shop in the produce mercados – which is a good thing because we tend to just do one-stop shopping at big grocery stores. Maybe this is why that Airbnb in Chachapoyos didn’t have a very well equipped kitchen – there are few options for food to cook for anyway.
The problem we are having with getting around with public transportation is that we don’t have the local knowledge. You can get anywhere – it’s just knowing what bus will take you there and where to find that bus. And sometimes it takes a lot of different types of transportation to get from A to B. We are getting better at it. And, of course, if I was just content to follow the same routes that everyone else does, it would be so much easier.
Hola, mis amigos. You two are my gypsy heroes. You’ve experienced 5 of my lifetimes. Love your stories. Keep going!
Ahhh… You’ve had a few adventures too. But, yes, I think this is our biggest adventure so far. Something new every day.