On May 1st, we left Yanque, Perú, and headed for Arequipa, the second biggest city in the country. We spent a week in Arequipa before taking an all-day bus ride to Nazca – home of the famous Nazca Lines. After 4 days, we boarded our last cross-country bus in Perú and returned to Lima. In Lima, we met up with some friends from the US who just happened to be visiting Lima at the same time. Then we prepared to leave the country. From Lima, we flew to Paraguay to meet our overlanding friends from Roaming About, Liesbet, Mark, and dog Maya. We spent 3 nights in Asunción, Paraguay, and then bused it to Paraguay’s third largest city, Encarnación, where we met our friends. After 5 days, we bused it to the small town of Areguá, not far from Asunción, where we spent our last 5 days in South America with our friends.
(All pictures are click to enlarge)
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. I am also no longer reporting alcohol expenses. In the past, I reported exactly what came 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.
Flights: $1704.94
Everything Else: $2870.92
The Grand Total: $4,575.86
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Flights
$1,704.94
We took 2 flights in May. One to Paraguay, $595.52, and one from Paraguay to Charlotte, NC via São Paulo, Brazil, and Atlanta, GA, $1109.42. I tried to find a cheaper flight back to the US, but considering how much time I wanted to spend on a plane, this was the best I could find flying out of Asunción. It was a very expensive end to an amazing trip.
Communication
– Phone, $26.26
We spent $26.26 on Greg’s Google Fi plan in May. My Peruvian plan with Claro was paid up until the end of the month, so no extra expense for that. And bonus, my plan included 5 gigs of international data, which meant I didn’t need to get another plan in Paraguay.
Consumables
– Groceries, $376.67
Groceries were just a tad higher than average. We had some nice meals with our friends in Paraguay.
– Medicine Cabinet, $12.87
Eyedrops.
Entertainment
– Drinks and Eating Out, $364.46
Once again, our eating and drinking out expense was high. We found a great vegan restaurant in Arequipa and ate there a couple of times. We had several ice cream lunches. I continued to try new cocktails. We ate out many times in Lima because we saw friends and didn’t want to have leftovers from cooking, since we were boarding a plane and leaving the country. We ate all of our meals out on our last day in Lima, including our last pizza in Perú.
There was eating out for convenience and with friends in Paraguay. I continued to try new cocktails wherever we went. There was airport food on that very last evening we spent in South America.
– Museums/Attractions/Music, $285.90
We spent money on one once-in-a-life-time attraction, a flight over the Nazca Lines. Trust me, I’ll never do it again. I got sick. But actually, despite that, it was $202.08 well spent. We also spent $24.34 to visit, plus $5.41 for a tour of a monastery in Arequipa. This seemed a little pricey, but once inside, we decided it was well worth it. We also spent money to tip on a free walking tour in Arequipa, a trip to the Ruta de Sillar in Arequipa, a planetarium presentation in Nazca, and entrance to some ancient aqueducts in Nazca.
Personal
– Clothes, $18.93
Greg’s Panama hat from Ecuador was falling apart. He bought a new one in Arequipa.
– Gifts/Charity, $72.63
We spent our last day in Lima buying gifts for our family. It was fun visiting all the artisanal shops and seeing crafts from places we had visited all over the country.
– Subscriptions, $44.06
Our subscriptions for April were Adobe Photoshop, Netflix, and Michael Fox’s (A freelance filmmaker, journalist, podcaster, and musician reporting from the road in Latin America) Patreon account.
Traveling Life
– Storage
We pay $88.00 for a storage locker back in the US every month. We will be getting rid of this expense soon, I hope!
– Accommodations, $1,300.48
Accommodations were higher than my original targeted budget. This was due to being in more touristy places, getting pickier about where we stayed, and paying for larger places when we were staying with our friends. But despite all this, we still paid less than April.
Arequipa, Perú
May 1-8, $51.23 per night (7 nights) in a one-bedroom, one-and-a-half-bathroom apartment. (Booked through Airbnb)
Arequipa is a pretty popular tourist destination. I was having trouble finding something in our price range in El Centro, so I started looking in the surrounding area. Our top choice was located in Yanahuara. It was still a little pricey, but it had everything we wanted and wasn’t too far a walk from all the sights in the old part of the city. Yanahuara was actually a tourist destination itself. The Plaza de Yanahuara, with an old church and a view of Misti volcano, was just a couple of blocks from our apartment.
The apartment was well-equipped, modern, and had nice views.
Nazca, Perú
May 8-12, $45.16 per night (4 nights) in a one-bedroom, one-and-a-half-bathroom apartment. (Booked through Airbnb)
Nazca is another popular tourist destination, so once again, it was hard to find anything in our price range. It actually might have been a good destination to stay in a hostel, but we wanted to spend 4 days there. There is lots to see in Nazca. The apartment we found was nice, but dated. Furniture crowded the living room. The location was just a short walk from the bus station, though. And the owner’s mother, who lived downstairs, was very nice.
Lima, Perú
April 12-15, $39 per night (3 nights) in a one-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment. (Booked through Airbnb)
This time around in Lima, we wanted to stay in the artsy Barranco neighborhood. There were many options, but because we were familiar with the neighborhood, we were picky about exactly where we wanted to stay. The apartment we found was modern, comfortable, and in a good location. The biggest dissatisfaction I had about this place is that it is run by a large (international) property management company.
I really like staying in Airbnbs due to convenience, variety, and having our own kitchen and laundry facilities. But I understand how they are taking over neighborhoods and raising prices for locals. The vast majority of the places we stayed in South America were privately owned or owned by people with just a few properties. I felt good about staying in these places. I hate that we supported outside foreign investors. I will try not to do it again.
Storage Locker, Lima, Perú
April 15, $12.60 for 7.5 hours.
This was just an accommodation for our luggage for the day. Since our flight to Paraguay was in the evening and we had to either check out of our Airbnb in the morning or pay for another day, we decided to check out in the morning.
We used a service called Bounce to find a business that would store our bags while we went shopping for souvenirs until it was time to go to the airport.
Asunción, Paraguay
May 16-19, $6.61 per night (3 nights) in a one-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment in a hotel. (Booked through Airbnb)
Ok, this place cost us $39.94 per night, but we had a $100 coupon due to something that Airbnb ticked us off about.
As always, we wanted to stay in the downtown area. There weren’t many choices, but this apartment hotel looked nice. We had a hard time getting a room because although there are about half a dozen short-term rentals in this hotel listed on Airbnb, apparently people rent them and then decide to stay longer. Twice, I picked apartments only for the manager to write me to say that he thought the current occupant would be staying for another month. We were pretty happy with the one we ended up with. Although I had to complain to get an extra roll of toilet paper.
Encarnación, Paraguay
May 19-24, $50.00 per night (5 nights) in a two-bedroom, one-and-a-half-bathroom house. (Booked through Airbnb)
In Paraguay, we rented two Airbnbs for our friends, Mark, Liesbet, the dog Maya, and us to stay in. Because we miss our friends who travel on a tight budget and because the expense wasn’t that much more than we might normally spend, we paid for both places.
Because our friends travel with a dog and a big ol’ truck camper, we had more considerations than we usually did in finding a place – a secure place that could accommodate a large camper and one that would take dogs. This put us outside the city center, but because our friends were able to take the camper off their truck, we had convenient transportation.
Our house in Encarnación was big and roomy. There was a washing machine that we all made good use of. The kitchen was fairly well equipped – and if anything was lacking, Mark and Liesbet had it in their camper.
Areguá, Paraguay
May 24-29, $74.88 per night (5 nights) in a two-bedroom, one-bathroom house. (Booked through Airbnb)
This was the second place we stayed with our friends. Honestly, it was hard finding a place that fit all our needs within a budget. But then I had a crappy day and decided not to care about a budget and to just find a place where we would all be comfortable. I was pretty happy with where we ended up.
We meant to find another place in Asunción since our friends hadn’t explored there yet. What we found was a lovely place on a lake, a short drive (or bus) from Asunción. The house was very private. It was great for socializing inside and out. It had a huge backyard with a pool. We could walk to the lake and to the road where there were some stands and shops. We had fun birding in the backyard.
– Transportation, $268.07
In May, we traveled in 1 taxi, 5 Ubers/rideshare apps, 1 combi/minivan, 4 cross-country buses, 5 city buses, and took multiple rides in our friend’s truck. We traversed over 801 miles.
Based on an average gas price of $4.09 per gallon in Perú and $2.76 per gallon in Paraguay in May, if we had been driving our van (which got approximately 15 miles to the gallon), we would have spent about $298.75 in gas.
Compared to past months, transportation was pretty uneventful in May. We had our first experience riding on the second floor of a double-decker bus. And Cruz del Sur, one of the most popular bus lines in Perú, once again cancelled our bus. But this time, unlike when we were trying to get to Aguas Calientes from Abancay, we weren’t on a timeline and just waited around for the next one.
In the end, I got really tired of riding on buses. Even the most comfortable buses made me feel a little nauseous. Our last bus ride was a local bus from our Airbnb in Areguá, Paraguay, to the airport. I had not been feeling great for over a week, and a crowded bus that was constantly stopping just made me feel worse. I finally told Greg I needed to get off. I sat on the sidewalk and recovered, and then we called an Uber.
Hopefully, we won’t take another bus for a very long time. We will see.
FREE transportation!
Besides all the wheeled transportation, one of our main forms of transportation was our feet. We walked 252,316 steps and 192.75 miles!
Right Now
We are in Greenville, SC. I have been working on designing our new van, Periplo, and Greg has been busy working on all the things in the van that are independent of the design. Unlike our last van, Ballena Blanca, Periplo is being planned out very carefully. We are adding significant upgrades that will impact the design of the space. We need to make sure everything will fit. We expect Periplo to be our home for at least the next 10 years.
Starting August 30, we have 6 house sits lined up until March 31, 2026. We will be working on Periplo in between dog walks, kitty cuddles.
This is my last monthly expense post about our travels in South America. I hope to eventually write an expense summary of our year of backpacking around the continent. And since I don’t believe our expense house sitting in the US is all that interesting, I will be suspending our monthly daily living expense report. Instead, I will be writing a recap of our house sitting travels and tallying the expenses of upfitting Periplo. I will begin this next month with a 3-month recap and Periplo’s expenses so far.
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!
I love all those Airbnbs you stayed in. They look comfortable. Thanks again for treating us to the ones in Paraguay. It was such a nice splurge and an awesome, well-needed break from the road. We really enjoyed seeing you both and, who knows, maybe we will travel together again in our campers on one of the continents!
Success with the van build! It’ll be so nice to have it designed and outfitted the way you want it for a very long time. We are conspiring building one out now as well.
Yes, comfort became really important to us. We enjoyed seeing you guys! Yes, perhaps we will travel together in another country on another continent. It may take us a while to get to another continent, though.
This van is going to be exactly what we want. The design is coming along, but all the details and working out how we are going to build things is taking time. I’m anxious to have the design finalized. There is going to be some custom stuff!
So cool you are thinking about building your own rig. You will know it will be done right.
Thank you as always for taking us along on your journeys. It’s good to know you’re close to home for a bit but I’m looking forward to your next chapters! Ennis kitty thanks you again for your good company.
You are welcome! Ennis was good company too. Thank you for trusting us with his care! Looking forward to hanging with him again in November and December.