Queventure.com

Family of Five Traveling the World

Diego Quevedo

Peru – Home of the Inca

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The Spanish conquistadors “found” everything. Except for a handful of countries, all of the Americas were at one point under Spanish rule. Beginning with Cristopher Columbus and continuing for over three centuries, the Spanish Empire would expand across the Caribbean Islands, most of South and Central America and much of North America.

Today, many of the historically indigenous communities show the effects of the Spanish crusades. You can see the effects by the number of Catholic churches in even the most of rural indigenous communities.

In the small Mexican town of San Juan Chamula, you can experience first hand a modern day hybrid of indigenous ritual and Christianity.

The effects of the Spanish Crown on the Western Hemisphere can not be underestimated. They ‘discovered’ everything. Well, almost everything. They never found one place:

Machu Picchu

After a fun week through Uruguay, it was time to get into some serious adventuring. We left Punta del Este and headed back to the Carrasco International Airport in the Uruguayan capital of Montevideo. We caught our 5-hour flight to Lima, Peru and we were on our way. After a short layover in Lima, we took another plane to Cusco. Cusco serves as the starting point for most tourist looking to venture into Machupicchu. It’s the closes airport and biggest city before embarking. Surprisingly though, although it is the ‘closest’, it is still pretty far. We’ll get to how to get there in a moment.

But first, let’s talk about Cusco for a bit…

Scoping out the local Cusqueñan artisanal work.

Cusco

Cusco was a welcomed change of pace from the large metropolitan cities of Montevideo and Buenos Aires. 

In planning for our trip to Machupicchu, we read up on tips for a successful trip. One of the tips that came up over and over again was to arrive at least a couple of days ahead of your Machupicchu visit to get acclimated to the high elevation.

I’m glad we listened.

Cusco is situated at 11,152 feet (3,399 meters) above sea level. Our bodies took notice within a few hours of landing. By the following day, I was nursing a mild headache and our kids were nauseous. Fortunately it wasn’t too bad but the possible effects should not be taken lightly.

We spent the next three days exploring the town, eating absolutely delicious Peruvian cuisine, Lomo Saltado anyone? We even got a chance to watch Peru’s third and final World Cup game at a local restaurant. The pride the country felt for their team was palpable. After 36 years of not qualifying for the World Cup, they did so this year!

  • Saltado de Pollo
  • His fave!
  • You want to be loved the way he loves this desert.
  • Ceviche is Peru’s specialty.
  • Local beer!

How to Get to Machu Picchu

One thing that no matter how many different sites and blogs we visited, still left us a bit confused was how exactly do you get to Machu Picchu. The reason it’s so confusing, we found out first hand, is there are quite a number of ways to get there. The easiest, most straight forward way is to buy an ‘All Inclusive’ tour package. However, that can get costly real quick. I write ‘all inclusive’ because it really isn’t. The entrance tickets to Macchu Picchu are sold only by a couple of government offices in Cusco and at the actual entrance.

We decided to break up the cost and purchase everything as we went. Here in detail, is exactly how we did it with a few notable alternatives.

They don’t stir your drinks here, the train rattles everything and does it for you.

Costs, Fees and Waiting

*You should buy your Maccupichu entrance tickets ahead of time. We bought them in Cusco a few days before we visited MP.

We booked a Cusco AirBnB for 7 nights.

  • On day 4, we took the ‘Machupicchu By Car’ option
    • 7am shuttle on a 6hr. drive takes you to ‘Hydroelectric Station’ ($120 roundtrip for the 5 of us, just the minibus)
      • Alternatively, you can purchase PeruRail tickets directly from Cusco to Machupicchu Town (~$150 per person roundtrip but only 3hrs each way)
    • At Hydroelectric Station, we purchased train tickets to get to Machupicchu Town ($210 roundtrip for 5 of us, this is a 25 minute train ride)
      • Alternatively, you can hike along the train tracks for about 2.5hrs. You see many backpackers doing it. No cost.
    • We stayed the night in a hotel ($90 for two rooms)
      • Arranged at Hotel guide for following morning. $30 for the 5 of us as part of a 15 person group (you MUST enter with a tour guide)
        • Alternatively, you can get a private tour guide for about $25 per person
    • This same day, we bought roundtrip bus tickets from Aguascalientes to the entrance of MP (~$100 for all five of us)
  • The next morning
    • Met with tour group at 5:45am
    • With bus tickets purchased the night before, we got in line at 6:15a
    • Hopped on bus and by 7:30a were at the entrance to MP
      • Alternatively, you can take a 2hrs hike up to the entrance. Many people do this to be the first ones in the park.
    • Spent the first hour with the tour guide and then about 2 hrs. exploring the site
    • At about 12p, took the bus back down Aguascalientes (about a 30min ride)
    • Had lunch and walked about the souvenir shops
    • 1:30p took the PeruRail train back to ‘Hydroelectric Station’
    • 2:30p left Hydroelectric Station back to Cusco on minibus
    • 9pm arrived in Cusco and back to our AirBnB
    • *phew!*
Still with energy but you should’ve seen us on the way back!

Would We Do It Again?

All things considered, it took us approximately 40 hours to get to Machupicchu and back – all for just under three hours at the actual site. And you know what? IT WAS MORE THAN WORTH IT.

  • Their first look
  • Making dreams come true
  • Beauty at every turn
  • Queventure!

When our family first decided to sell everything we owned and go on this wild adventure, these types of experiences are  exactly what we had in mind. It was truly a spectacular place. From a ‘making-dreams-come-true’ standpoint, it doesn’t get much better than this.

Uruguay – How’d We Get Here?

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Historic Colonia del Sacramento Lighthouse

The thing is, even with the best intentions, life finds a way to intervene.

I recently heard an episode of The Art of Manliness podcast that had Bernie Roth on as a guest. Mr. Roth is the co-founder of the Stanford Design School. He spoke about many things but one that caught my attention was his view that humans ‘can’t really plan long term.’ His philosophy is basically to take care of the day-to-day things and the big picture items will take care of themselves.

What does this have to do with travel? Well, as much as we planned a year-long, country by country itinerary, sometimes the day-to-day took us elsewhere. Sometimes we got lost.

Enter Uruguay

We wrote about our Paraguayan ordeal. While stuck at the smallest ‘international’ airport ever, we were lost. But we found a way. We had to take a different path than what we had originally planned. We ended up in Buenos Aires, Argentina. From BA, the ultimate destination was to reach Machupicchu in Peru but in order to get there, we had to figure out how to cross approximately 2,400 miles and at least three countries.

We do watch our budget and so my wife began to do her travel planning wizardry. (On a side note, Irene is actually incredibly good at travel planning. She routinely saves us 25-40% off our flights/buses/AirBnBs, etc. When you’re traveling with a small army of 5, the total savings really add up.)

Irene figured out we could take the scenic route and spread our travel time to Machupicchu over the course of a week, for less than what it would cost to fly directly from Buenos Aires.

Colonia Express

We’ve crossed borders with cars, ‘combis’, buses and planes. What a treat it was to cross between Argentina and Uruguay via a boat! The trip took about an hour, the boat was comfortable and the kids loved the unique experience. Once we arrived at the ferry terminal, we got a local taxi to take us to our AirBnB and then back into the beautiful, quaint town of ‘Colonia.’

By the way, this was the day Mexico beat Germany in the opening round of this year’s World Cup. We actually ended up having lunch next to another American family. They were cheering Mexico on as well!

Colonia del Sacramento

We’ve mentioned, ‘We could live here!’ many times on this blog but really, we could live here! And we really could but with one caveat: once we ‘retire’ or in the later part of our lives. Colonia is a small town. We spent the afternoon walking around its leafless trees and brick roads and without even knowing it, we visited the top 6 Trip Advisor Things-to-Do. What Colonia lacks in size, it more than makes up for in charm. It reminds me of a smaller, still rustic Santa Barbara, California.

We rented an electric golf cart and off to the races we were. We explored all along the coast and even got to drive around an old bull ring.

We spent two days there and then it was off to Montevideo…

Uruguay’s capitol city: Montevideo

Montevideo

In Montevideo, we rented a charming loft AirBnB right in the center of the coastal neighborhood of Punta Carretas. As an aside, ‘charming loft’ is not very conducive to mommy/daddy time, if you can pick up what I’m putting down. It was a tough few days in that regard but otherwise, I really enjoyed the place!

We ended our three-stop Uruguayan adventure in the ‘Hamptons of South America’, Punta del Este. And gorgeous it was! The sunsets alone were worth the price of admission. We were there during the offseason and so it was cooold but this same coldness let us explore the area calmly without the crowds. Many Latin American countries have ‘enpanadas’ but we must say the most delicious ones we tasted, and we tasted quite a number of them, were here in Punta del Este.

One last (financial) note on Uruguay

It was surprisingly expensive. We had just come from Buenos Aires which many have heard is an ‘expensive’ city in South America. However Uruguay surpassed, at least to us, Buenos Aires’ cost of living. We had an ok dinner in Montevideo, in a restaurant similar to any beach-side cafe… and we spent over $100 USD. I don’t mind spending that on a dinner that’s worth it but at this restaurant we simply ordered burgers and a meatless pasta. Many restaurants, in both Argentina and here had a ‘cubiertos’ fee. When I asked what a ‘cubiertos’ (‘utensils’ in english) charge was for, I was told it was for the use of the table and time at the restaurant. Huh?!?! Anyways, this charge is on a per person basis so for the five of us, it easily added $20 USD to the meal and this is NOT the tip. We rented a sedan, filled half the tank back up – $50.

In summary, our initial plans never included Uruguay. We only got there through being ‘lost’ and in doing so, we discovered a beautiful country with warm people and gorgeous beaches.

Gracias Uruguay!

Top 5 Things to Consider Before Homeschooling

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Considering homeschooling your kids?

It’s a hot mess! Don’t do it! Just kidding, read on!

Some time ago, my family and I decided to go on a small adventure. Our kids’ education has always been very important to us so we had to think long and hard about how traveling would affect their schooling. What should a traveling, world-schooling, location-independent family do? How to make sure our Kindergartner, 2nd Grader and 6th Grader don’t fall behind?

In all honesty, I was worried about how this would play out. On the outside I said, “2nd grade math, I got this!” But internally I definitely had my concerns.

Here’s the good news: there’s lots of information online to guide you. The bad news: there’s LOTS OF INFORMATION online to guide you. Quite frankly, it was a bit overwhelming when we first looked into it. After hours of research sometimes I would feel even more confused than when I started.

So without further ado, here’s our list of the top 5 things to consider before homeschooling your kids:

1. Your personal level of involvement.

Are you considering being the primary teaching source? If so, will you require lesson plans and teacher guides? Or do you plan on outsourcing most of the “teaching” via online courses and/or even online tutors and virtual classrooms? The gift and the curse of homeschooling is, well, you’re in charge. Which is very empowering but at the same time the added responsibility can be daunting.

We have about an 80/20 split with us doing most of the presswork and teaching. But we do use Khan Academy and other self-guided tools to help with the process.

2. How formal will your “teaching” be?

Do you intend to essentially duplicate a traditional class and grade curriculum? Or will you fully go the “unschooling” route? There’s a sense of structure following the traditional method. Many online curriculums basically follow whatever the government’s requirements are. Unschooling completely is very liberating and allows kids to develop a sense of control for their own education. It allows the child to learn at their own pace, many times this leads to a child who’s more interested in the material. (By the way, make sure you check with your State’s/Country’s legal requirements for withdrawing your child(ren) out of a formal school. In our State of California, the requirements are not very stringent and there’s plenty of advice on how to make sure you’re doing it right.)

Our family is at about a 50/50 split. We’re aware of the curriculum requirements as defined by the California Board of Education and make sure they are at least up to par on the core competencies for their grades. However, instead of learning about the Boston Tea Party, our oldest chose to learn about the history of the Mayan civilization. Further, he learned not through a text book but by visiting actual Mayan ruins. No big deal!

3. Your financial commitment.

As mentioned earlier, there are A LOT of options and styles for homeschooling out there. Are you looking to invest a few thousand dollars in your child’s homeschool curriculum? You can find that. Are you more comfortable starting out with a bunch of free printables? You can find that as well. The reality is there is a financial component to homeschooling your kid(s), even if it’s just to print material out. Understanding your finances and approach will help you avoid wasting time/money on resources that are just not what you’re looking for.

We have spent about $800 on basic school textbooks/supplies and online services. We have spent a significant amount more on Tours/Travel/Museums/Diving and “world schooling.”

4. Your level of patience.

These kids will DRIVE YOU UP THE WALL. I have a new found appreciation for the patience teachers exhibit, God bless them. Even with the best laid out plans, kids have a way of turning everything upside down, of being dismissive or just not focusing. All things that can really irate us as parents in general but become even more magnified when you’re trying to teach them how to add double digits. (REGROUP THE TENS, SOFIA! REGROUP THE TENS!!!…oh, sorry about that.)

I thought I was a patient person prior to homeschooling. But now, let’s just say I’ve taken up meditation. I say this with more truth than as joke. Your patience will be tested and it’s a good idea to start thinking about that now. How do you handle it? Can you start working on increasing it now?

Not a good sign

5. Internet Access.

This is a subtle but important consideration. I wrote here on some of the major decisions we reversed while traveling. While traveling the world is incredible, we’ve visited many places where the internet connection is poor at best and nonexistent at worst, in spite of “wifi” being part of the reason we stayed at a particular location. You have to consider how reliant you will be on being connected in order to teach your child.

Our original plan was to be as close to 100% paperless as possible. That changed and now we carry textbooks.

You may have noticed these five considerations don’t function in a vacuum. If you’ve settled one item, it doesn’t mean you’ll never have to address it again. On the contrary, all five things work in a sort of dynamic harmony. The more you give in one regard may require you to take from another. Low patience may mean you need to spend more money on virtual tutors. Going 100% traditional curriculum may save you lots of time in figuring things out. You may be able to solve the internet problem by paying for satellite internet access but your financial investment will be higher.

The sweet spot is where you will be most comfortable from a teacher perspective, financial commitment, time devotion and internet connectivity.

The Bottom Line

Do not let not having it all worked out stop you from doing it. Invest as much time as you’d like and then push forward. Hopefully this post helps with, at the very least, settling some of the anxiousness when starting your research. What you will learn by actually doing it, not to mention the direct feedback from your kids, will be as valuable if not more than all the research and preparation in the world.

Keep it as simple as possible and then build up! Get a generic “Nth grade curriculum” list from online and get the minimal amount of materials. And then build up from there.
Lastly, know that many parents have done this before with great success. You can too and we’re here to help!

The Subtle Benefits of Life Abroad

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One purpose of documenting our adventures through this blog is to hopefully inspire you. Not necessarily to sell all of your belongings, quit your job and travel the world (although that’s an excellent idea if you’re considering it) but to inspire you to take action on your own BIG dreams. We hope that by you being part of our journey, you will set off on one of your own.
That’s the general idea, adventuring, dream chasing and reaching, of the blog. This post however, has a very specific purpose and that is to highlight why you should definitely plan and travel long-term with your family!
First, let’s address the obvious benefits of travel: you get to visit some awesome locations, take in incredible sights and don’t forget the food, fun and drinks! You also get to momentarily leave the “real world” behind and escape, at least for a couple of weeks, the same-everyday-ness of our usual lives. Your IG feed goes bananas! You get much needed time to de-stress. Good times all around!
I don’t think there’s much convincing needed to encourage travel. But have you ever considered long-term living abroad? If you haven’t or even if you have and just need that last bit of affirmation, keep reading! Outside of the obvious joys, here are four subtle but life-changing benefits:

…but first, coffee

I was so used to turning on the Keurig while brushing my teeth while looking for my tie that I almost forgot how to truly enjoy a cup of coffee. Traveling has exposed me to some of the best coffee in the world (volcanic soil anyone?) but even more importantly, it’s re-taught me to be calm, be present and enjoy a hot cup joe. It was coffee for me but it may be reading, writing, bird-watching or just breathing. Long-term will provide you with the time to appreciate every moment.

Get Rid of Distractions/Excuses

Long-term travel will get rid of distractions and excuses. I used to get home stressed from work and from my commute. I would justify being a grouch because of this. It’s “been a tough day” was code for, “family, leave me alone.” I always felt guilty about this but, again, would feel justified because of the day I had. While this helped me deal with the guilt, it didn’t remove the negative impact on my family, on my relationships with my wife and kids.
Prolonged travel abroad, while not stress-free, removes some of the biggest excuses we use to check out, to not be fully there. It provides ample time for reflection and introspection. If I’m being a grouch, I have nothing but myself to blame (as was always the case). Long-term travel will give you the ample time to take inventory of yourself to be the best for your loved ones.

Just Living

Extended travel allows you to experience a different way of life not just because you visited a specific location but because you will actually live there. There is a huge difference between vacationing and just living. It’s more than possible to visit a beautiful country and not experience the local culture one bit. This is not necessarily a bad thing but the two experiences are very different.
We have met wonderful neighbors, kind strangers, gregarious kids and local families all by being part of a community. There’s a certain bond that forms with familiarity and it’s been an incredible experience for our family to build these bonds in many different towns.

Become a Time Traveler

Well, not really a time traveler per se but more like a time slower-downer. Days are longer, nights are warmer, kids’ laughs are louder and the coffee’s (coffee again!) deeper. One of the biggest concerns we share as parents is coming to terms with how time flies. Before we know it, our little babies are graduating high school – all in a matter of what felt like a few weeks. It’s crazy and scary at the same time.
Long-term travel allows you to slow down this hyper speed aging of our little ones. While we can’t completely stop time, a sunset walk while the kids merrily splash along the shore allows us to feel it just a bit more. Homeschooling our kids means a guaranteed few hours of undivided attention on them – something that used to be hard to come by. The pace of life is just slower and for that I am eternally grateful.

Family Meals

We always made an effort to have family dinners. Often though, these dinners were late and everyone was already exhausted from a long day, kids and parents alike. Now we have two-hour lunches. Long term travel affords us the time to have “cooking class” on a random Wednesday afternoon. The amount of genuine moments really compound and over time these moments become anchors in our families history.

If you’re considering it, please take this as confirmation that extended travel abroad is well worth it. While not always easy, the subtle but impactful benefits cannot be understated. Do it for your family, they’re worth it! 

When an entire life fits into less than 10 boxes.

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It was about five months ago when I looked around our empty house and felt so free in all that emptiness. We had lived in that home for seven years, raising three children, and accumulated so many, many things. Everything was suddenly gone and we were down to about 8 boxes. All we truly wanted to hang on to in this life fit into less than 10 boxes and something about that felt good, so good.   
In these boxes, we compiled mostly books, photographs, legal docs., and other personal mementos. After all that online shopping, nothing much was left. We now carry only essentials to make it through our travels. We have the same clothes in rotation. We have passports, cameras, toiletries, books, and other must-haves such as anti-diarrhea meds. and bug spray. These items combined with those 8 boxes in the U.S. make up my almost 37 years of my life.

Today, I sure as heck can’t be defined by what I own. I am car-less, “homeless,” and own less than I did when I lived an a 125 sq. foot dorm room my first year in college. Today, I feel so wonderfully fulfilled and none of this feeling is fueled by stuff. Sometimes we work so hard for an entire lifetime to accumulate things. Sometimes we hoard so many of those things all over our home, closets, and garage. My garage was a breeding ground for junk, where once-prized possessions went to die, collecting dust, never to be used again. 
However, there was a time in my life when I felt oddly uneasy about what I had to have. That new TV, a set of curtains, a top of the line crockpot, it had to be mine – ha! All those things didn’t make it into the 8 boxes. I needed a home with just another bathroom or just another bedroom. We wanted yet another pair of shoes, a bigger yard, the bunkbeds. All these things didn’t make it into the 8 boxes. We wanted the expensive workout equipment, the fancy 8 piece luggage set, the custom made 100% real wood dinning room table. All those things, while great, didn’t make it into the 8 boxes.  
If I am being completely honest, the things I accumulated weren’t even for me in a lot of ways. I wanted to sometimes have what others had or I wanted to make someone else proud of me. I couldn’t not have what I was “expected” to or could I? Part of this maybe unconsciously, but like so many struggling to keep up with appearances, I couldn’t be a minimalist in a materialistic world. Or could I?
The only question I really had to ask myself was, “did I want this stuff really or was I collecting things for someone else’s approval, society’s acceptance, or to somehow match up to others?” In the bestselling book, “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up” the author challenges its readers to think about the joy items bring to a person. Joy: what a great emotion! In essence, the author asks us to think about items and the joy they bring, or in many instances, don’t bring. And if that is the case then why do we hang on to them?
When I reflect on my real wants, I know what brings me the greatest joy… my family, my internal qualities and quirks, and TRAVEL – it’s always been TRAVEL.

Ultimately, the 8 boxes at home could burn to the ground tomorrow, and I’d still be filled with joy! I am spending a magical time abroad, not tied to a mortgage or car payment, by choice. My work office is located where I want to be located anywhere across the globe. Presently that home office happens to be in a country estate full of really cool stuff! I get to use top of line home appliances after all. Yet when I am done playing house and want to see another part of the world, I get to kiss this cozy, fully-equipped home good-bye, and venture into a new home, use someone else’s cool stuff, and truly hang on to my most precious, joy-inducing items: memories, family, and travel.