Compass by Hacklock, on Flickr via Creative Commons

Bom Dia! This is @AikoAesop, previously known as @BouncyMcTigger. As a dedicated reader of MonkeyBrewster.com, you may already know that Cornelius and I got married on St. Patrick’s Day 2011, and we are now at the beginning of our RTW Adventure in South America.

I wanted to share with you a short story about one of our first adventures in Peru. As a native of Peru, Cornelius has been relying on me as both a translator and tour guide. Which, the latter wouldn’t be a problem if it wasn’t for the fact that it has been 10 years since I’ve lived at home. (more…)

Type: Beer – Pale Lager
Name: Cusqueña – Regular
Price: S. 16 for a six pack
Made: Arequipa, Peru
Alc/Vol: 5%

Cusqueña, my first of many pale lager beers that I expect to enjoy while traveling through South America. It seems that this style of beer seems to be more abundant than most, the variety of beers tends to be limited. Although, there are a few other Cusqueña styles that I’ve enjoyed, their red lager, de trigo, and malta, these tend to be more of a novelty than the norm. My brother and sister-in-law would much rather drink a Corona, though I can’t understand why.

Cusquena, I guess you can call it regular but it is simply the standard one, has a sweet light scent about it. It pours a gold color with no head, except for a slight ring that laces the glass. The taste is light and carbonated as it tinges on the tongue. The flavor is that of a typical lager, malts come through but nothing overly special. This would be hard to distinguish from other lager beers, even though this is labeled “cerveza premium.”

It has drinkability, they are easy to go down, which if you think the total cost is about $6.25 for a six pack it isn’t that bad. However, as one of the only Peruvian beer exports I’m not sure I would pay an import price on this one. I give it 2.5 out of 5 bananas. It is middle of the road, and on a hot day is enjoyable but nothing more than that.

If there is one thing I’ve learned about Peru it is that Peruvians love Ceviche. In Mexico, and those states in the US close to Mexico or with a larger Mexican population like Chicago, you will find a taquería - a place that specializes in serving tacos. In Peru you will find a cevicheria, and for good reason. (more…)

A year in boarding passes 5/13/07 by kjd, on Flickr via Creative Commons

Everyone, and I mean everyone has their own suggestion of where you should go, what you must see, what needs to be packed, and yadda yadda. Trying to narrow down everything is like finding, for lack of a better phrase, a needle in a haystack. Although, if it were a banana or beer that would be more tempting. While it seems like we have plenty of time, I know time is ticking away. Sometimes it seems like we are on fast forward other times like we are on pause. One makes me feel like I don’t have enough time the other makes me realize how much there is left to do. (more…)

We did it, we finally did it. After 2+ years of blogging and some last minute interruptions we finally took a stand and said, “Yes I’ll have the one way ticket to South America please and thank you. No, our multiple destination flight stops after Rio de Janeiro, there is no return flight“. Oh that feels good, so good.

We are leaving December 4th through Detroit, MI to my wife’s hometown of Lima, Peru. We will spend xmas there as well as celebrate her 10 year high school reunion. On December 27th we fly to Rio de Janeiro for New Years where I plan on meeting up with friends I made while student teaching in 2008.

That is about it as far as solid plans, we figured we would visit Sao Paulo where my wife has family then to Iguazu Falls (Foz do Iguaçu), Brazil. After that Argentina, most likely Buenos Aires and possibly Patagonia. Then we considered Santiago, Chile and possibly the coast like Valparaíso. We discussed WOOFING in Chile or Argentina, especially since these are two of the more expensive countries in South America. After Chile and Argentina possible begin to work our way north towards Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia (the salt flats). Once we make our way back to Peru, visit locations such as Arequipa and Cuzco before heading back to Lima.

To be honest we don’t know the time frame we are looking for to travel or if we will have enough money saved up to last us throughout our journey but as a best guess we figure 3 months and $25,000. I can’t tell you where I came up with those figures but it is a starting ground and well the time is flexible at least. Part of my rational is that other travels have shared what their total budget was such as Adam’s Budget from Europe, Chris’ Budget from Europe,  I know this is Europe and there are some for South America but I haven’t had the opportunity to really check around yet. As for while we are here in the US we’ve are living modestly and try and put away as much as possible into our savings before we ever see it – which at times can be hard since combined my wife and I make probably about as much as some individuals make. Also living with my in-laws helped as we could split the bills.

We will rely on friends and family in Brazil to make our experience less costly and the WOOFING in Argentina/Chile to help us spread out our finances there. Additionally, I will continue to blog and have a few ideas for trying to make money while traveling.

Once we get back to Lima I will look for a job and work there for a couple months before our next adventure – which I hope is landing a teaching job in Asia. Then ultimately possibly working on my PhD in Ireland. Everything is very fluid at this point except for our first two stops and after years of reading travel blogs I hope I can live simple enough to stretch out this experience from a vacation into a lifetime honeymoon.

I would love to hear your feedback on places to visit, share your tips or links to past posts below. Especially for Paraguay and Uruguay since I know very little about those two countries. Will you be in South America traveling about? Look for a blogging monkey, it may just be me. If he is sitting at the bar or at the beach with a beer in hand it probably is me.

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