Living in Peru : your everyday companion

Through the detailed travelogue Audre and Dimitri are keeping of their trip to Peru, we experienced their exciting and interesting visit to Arequipa and then joined them on their wonderful time in Lima.  In this next travelogue, they have invited us to join them on their continued journey through Peru. Accompany Audre and Dimitri as they travel through Peru's Amazon and then return to Lima. If you missed out on the first or second part of their trip, click here for part I and here for part II.

The cruise on the Delfín was perfect. Our cabin #7 was snug but comfortable (although the matrimonial bed has a large column in the middle, which effectively separated the 2 sides of the bed). There was no seating but enough shelves for our stuff and our computer (so we could listen to our computer music). There were 2 decks of cabins, with the dining room on the second deck. On the third deck there was a large sitting area with a library and TV (with a DVD player and DVDs) at one end and a bar at the other.

The food was individually prepared, delicious and plentiful. Delfín serves local fruit and fish, prepared in creative ways. Usiel, our guide showed us the fruit on our excursions and then at meals we could taste it. We were very impressed with that aspect and also that the individually prepared meals were served by waiters in white gloves. The tables were artistically decorated by Lissy Macchiavello (one of the owners) of the Delfín and Amazon Horizons. We have really good photos of the dining room and the artistic presentations.

Usiel was a great and enthusiastic guide and teacher. The itinerary of the ship was interesting and varied. The ship's library is well-stocked with interesting books about the Amazon. We completely enjoyed the trip. Both Lissy and Aldo Macchiavello were on the cruise. They are charming and attentive hosts. That made the trip very special. We had long talks about living in Perú with Lissy and what it was like to raise a family there versus the US where they also lived. We learned of the danger of kidnappings and why people are so concerned with safety. The other guests were delightful and we had interesting conversations with them too.

One day Lissy said that while she knew that Dimitri and I were two different people, she perceived a unique fusion of the two of us into a magical unit. She said that she had even had a conversation about us with some of the other women on the cruise and they had agreed with her. What a wonderful thing to say and, if true, what an achievement! Since Dimitri and I met in ’89 he has been saying that we should think as a couple, not as individuals. It appears we’re making progress.

On the Delfín, there were many treats for the guests. There was night "turn-down" service in our cabin and a "sweet dreams" chocolate for us (even though there was so much delicious food, we couldn’t possibly have eaten more before bed). At the end of the trip, each woman on the cruise received a gift of a locally-made necklace. That was another of many nice touches.

Our trip on the Delfín was 7 days/6 nights and that allowed us to travel deep up the Amazon. Probably a shorter cruise would provide enough of an Amazon experience for most people. And, at US$550 a day for the two of us, enough of an expense.

Typically we had two excursions in the launch boat a day. Each of the two boats accommodated 8 people. There were only five of us in our launch boat because the rest of the guests were working biologists and photographers creating material for Amazon Horizons. One day we saw the launch boat of another top end cruise provider. The boat had at least 20 people on it packed like sardines. We liked the smallness of the Delfín. It only rained during one of our excursions—not bad for a rainforest.

The "luxury" lodge, Ceiba Tops, wasn't luxurious, especially at the price they charged (about US$280 per day for the 2 of us). On the Explorama website, it mentions that some rooms have an Amazon River view. Our room (#303) was supposed to have a river view. However, because of the thick jungle in front of the rooms, there wasn't even a glimpse of the river. Ceiba Tops is not well-maintained and looks old and run-down although it isn’t. The room was basic, not luxurious, and had no comfortable chairs in it (although they brought us some chairs from the common sitting area at our request). The standard furniture is a table and 2 straight-backed chairs. There is Internet Wi-Fi available in the common area of Ceiba Tops so we were able to download our e-mail.

All of the meals at Ceiba Tops were buffet and the food was never hot. The vegetables and fruit were not interesting or special. The meat, chicken and fish were uninspired and not at all creative. The owner of Explorama, Peter Jensen, was at the buffet table at meals but never spoke to the individual guests. Instead he "spoke to the room in general" in a loud voice. He makes it a point that the meals are exactly the same at all the Explorama lodges; so we were paying "luxury" prices and getting the same meals as those paying "basic" prices at the other Explorama lodges.

Our guide at Ceiba Tops was bored and not talkative. We heard other guests also complaining that their guides had to be encouraged to give information. We talked to other guests around the swimming pool and in the common sitting area before dinner. Although there was entertainment in the evening, we didn’t stay for it. Instead we watched our DVDs in our room on our computer, sitting the in the comfortable chairs we had brought to the room.

In summary, even though the Delfín cruise was more than twice the cost of Ceiba Tops, we felt we received value for our money. We would highly recommend the Delfín cruise for 5days/4 nights. Ceiba Tops was over priced and we would not recommend it at all. We are very glad we went to the Amazon Jungle in Perú. It is unique and an exceptionally interesting experience. Our pictures tell the story of our delight with what we saw!

Part V: Lima Again

After our 10-day Amazon Jungle experience, we returned to Lima for a few days. During our first and second Lima stays, Audre had been using the Living in Peru website and contributing to the restaurant list by providing our restaurant reviews in the comment section. We also subscribed to the weekly Living in Peru Newsletter that is sent by e-mail. Attached as Appendix I is our entire list of Lima restaurant reviews.

One day we received an e-mail message from Millie Coquis of the Living in Peru staff thanking us for our contributions to the site. Over the weeks that we were outside of Lima we continued to correspond. Our lifestyle has fascinated Millie and she has set up a dinner with herself, her boss, Carsten Korch, and a reporter from the El Comercio, Milagros Leiva Gálvez. It was really fun to meet the people behind the Living in Peru website and share a meal.

Mily Leiva writes the “ContraCorriente” column for El Comercio. We’re flattered that people are interested in us! Mily Leiva interviewed us for her column and her colleague took a great picture of us for the newspaper article. Here's the link to the article she wrote:

Article by Mily Leiva

As we were planning our trip to Northern Perú, we considered going as far as the beaches almost at the Ecuadorian border. We know that we only like tropical beaches and very warm water so the Peruvian beaches would be “iffy”. We were also thinking of going to Ayacucho. It is supposed to be very ethnic, colorful and interesting. However, we were nearing Easter. Semana Santa, the week before Easter, is one of the major festivals in Ayacucho. It draws crowds from everywhere. Not only would it be impossible to negotiate a good hotel rate, we might not be able to find a good hotel room at all.

In the end, we decided to drive to Trujillo and visit the archeological sites around there during Semana Santa. During our stay in Lima, we had our Pentax digital camera repaired at a shop on 28 Julio because it had gotten wet inside during our Ceiba Tops stay. It started working again but Carlos, the owner, said that there was something wrong with the on/off button too. He wasn’t sure how long it would work. We always say we will never spend the time or money to repair electronics. So why do we?

We put off our departure from Lima for a day when it looked like a sore on the bottom of Audre’s foot that had started hurting while we were still in the jungle was getting infected. Dimitri asked about a clinic at the front desk of the Sol de Oro and they said that paramedics would come to our hotel. It turned out to be a small infection that was cleaned out right in our hotel room by paramedics. We had seen on many hotels' lists of amenities that "medical services" were listed. We wondered about that. It turns out that the hotels have an insurance contract with an ambulance service. The ambulance comes fully equipped and the paramedics bring what they need to the room. There was no charge. Pretty cool.