travel

Peru – Home of the Inca

August 9, 2018 by Diego Quevedo

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.

Bienvenidos a Buenos Aires, Argentina

July 3, 2018 by Irene Quevedo

South America just keeps getting better.

Full disclosure getting to Argentina was the craziest travel day we’d experienced to date. In order to save a buck our research told us to fly into Argentina via Paraguay… thought we could cross the border cheaply by land.

Happy go lucky we landed well after 9pm from Medellín only to learn Paraguay was charging Americans $160 each for on-the-spot entrance visas. No exceptions! Then they wanted to charge a huge surplus for folks not using cash. All in all, we would have paid $1,000 additional dollars for 3-4 days in Paraguay. Just like that we refused and instead booked a flight out of the airport to our next planned destination: Argentina. After spending a long night in the Paraguayan International airport (sorry, but literally the worst airport ever based on zero dining options, cash-only policies, and horrible wifi) we were back on schedule and headed to beautiful Buenos Aires.

Buenos Aires hit us with the biggest jolt. After more than 10 months of perfect summer weather we were now south of the equator in freezing cold weather. On average it was 40 degrees but it often felt colder. We’re Californias true and true so 40 degrees was freezing to us. We quickly bundled up and called this walkable city home for three unbelievable weeks.

Argentina gave us new weather, new accents, new architecture… and a whole new city vibe we all loved. Especially Diego and Isaiah who are huge Messi/Argentina soccer fans. In Argentina the world cup soccer craze began and so we did what many Argentines do… we watched great games while enjoying great wine, amazing steak, and Argentinian deep dish pizza. Pizza in Argentina rivals that of Italy, New York, and Chicago.

Every week in Argentina we stayed in a different home and neighborhood. I highly recommend this for those looking for variance in any one city. First up was the eclectic and bohemian vibes of San Thelmo, full of tango in the streets, great flea market finds, and all the dulce the leche (milky caramel) any sweet tooth could muster. Sunday nights meant wild music in the streets and dancing. Sunday mornings were meant for shopping. Our place was right smack in the middle of all the action. The comfy old-timey apartment was similar to a European apartment from the 1920’s. Finally, we got to use the outlet adaptors we’d carried for months. Felt good to be prepared.

The following town was Retiro right next to upscale Recoleta and close enough to get us to the best hotels, malls, and restaurants in town. We walked everywhere and loved it. Even pulled off a fun date night at one of my favorite international hotel chains: the Four Seasons Hotel, Buenos Aires.

Thereafter, we decided to feel out the suburbs of Buenos Aires and stayed in Colegials. There we ate the best burgers in #BA and got a true feel for the everyday life of regular citizens away from the usual tourist sites. Our apartment was homey and here Diego mastered his fried rice recipe which we proceeded to eat about 5 times the following weeks. I love when we settle into a great place with a family feel and fully equipped kitchen. Argentina will forever be credited with the town where our kiddos learned to appreciate fine meats and cheeses… we ate until our hearts content for many, many Argentine nights abroad. Our children’s expanding palettes makes this momma very, very happy.

The highlight of our time in Argentina was scratching off a major bucket list destination and I don’t just mean Buenos Aires. We finally were close enough to the Brazil and Argentina border to fly over to Puerto Iguazú and visit Iguazú Falls or Paradise Falls as it’s referred to in the movie Up. These falls are so much more than anything I could write about here. They felt majestic, powerful, and huge — this coming from a family that’s seen many, many waterfalls this last year.

Iguazú Falls is a natural wonder that truly takes your breath away, plus, our trip there was the smoothest we’d had for a quick flight. All of us were so excited to be there and the seamless travel made being there feel easy. We also loved the super small town feel in Iguazú and our amazingly sweet airbnb host who drove us around all weekend. We will forever cherish this destination as a top 3 site seen during our beautiful #queventure year abroad. We recommend it to all families especially those hoping to knock out a visit to the three borders: Paraguay, Argentina, and Brazil…

But don’t get me started on the fun-loving Brazilian side full of great food (picaña steak), ambiance, and all the romantic Portuguese lingo a girl could swoon over.

We could have lived in Medellin, Colombia…

July 2, 2018 by Irene Quevedo

After a whirlwind two-month stay in Cartagena, Colombia we moved to a totally different region of Colombia. This region known as the “Land of Eternal Spring” was once the crime capitol of the world. Sadly, that stereotype still lingers and though Medellín, Colombia recently received the honor of being coined the “most innovative city in the world” people all too often still ask about its drug-trafficking past.

If this trip taught us one thing above all others that was to look beyond preconceived notions. The number of people who shared fears about our traveling to Colombia is astounding, and I am so glad we didn’t listen to one critic. We would have missed out on so much had we been led by fear.

In fact, at the point that we are now while writing this, we’ve been to almost 15 counties and never once have we felt unsafe or threatened. We haven’t been robbed or cheated. Neighbors weren’t sketchy and tour guides weren’t out to rip us off. This isn’t to say we visited crime-free countries, of course not. Per usual, we exercised caution, researched a lot to determine housing and travel comforts, and most critically, never decided on the path of least resistance: which would have been not venturing outside of the U.S. at all!

Now, back to Medellín…

Its innovation mixed with the Colombian small-Pueblo-vibe made us feel so at home. People in Medellin clearly have high expectations and pride in their town! Their standards for eco-friendly living and healthy lifestyle choices was apparent at every turn. This city is majorly walkable, marathons are a plenty (my hubby ran one) and biking is king! There were so many wonderful healthy dinning options, too. I’ll surely miss my favorite vegan falafel & hummus salad from Vin&Gretta.

That and all of the following reasons made Medellín one of our favorite stops and a town we called home for over a month (we were offered a six-week housing deal we couldn’t resist):

1. Great public transport (we loved the cheap and easy access and the city had one of the cleanest and safest metros we’ve ever used). This including the amazing cable metro which had us “flying” high above the sites! Our kiddos loved using the Medellín MetroCable.

2. Amazing and varied nightlife venues that opened well into the morning hours (+a bonus Mexican stand with authentic “al pastor” pork tacos).

3. Developed restaurant and shopping delivery services similar to Uber eats (+ crazy cheap Uber all over the city).

4. Beautiful greenery, parks, museums and other public spaces for interactive family time (fully equipped with city WiFi and charging stations).

5. Access to truly scenic day trips (Guatepé specifically was gorgeously scenic).

6. Opportunities to volunteer… There’s no shortage of ways to be in service globally and when we found a program dedicated to enriching the lives of women and children in the most impoverished areas of Medellín we jumped at the chance. We will forever cherish the smiles on those children’s face – the children of Bello, Colombia.

In the end, Medellín was the first place that felt like home especially since friends and family visited us there. If we could take our extended tribes with us all over the world that’s exactly where home would be… time and time again.

Thank you, Medellín.

Top 5 Things to Consider Before Homeschooling

March 1, 2018 by Diego Quevedo

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?

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!

It’s the Return of Queventure.com

February 26, 2018 by Irene Quevedo

Not that we ever went anywhere, and yet it feels like we’ve been everywhere. To be exact, since our last blog post, we’ve traveled to six countries and embarked on eight travel days. That equates to roughly nine bedroom changes in nine weeks. And still, we remain as excited as we were on day one. Okay, sometimes we are also annoyed and tired, and yet always excited.

Our whirlwind traveling over these last 2+ months included the end of our Central American travels (more on Panama in a future post), a surprise trip home to California, a magical cruise through the Eastern Caribbean, ‘Getting the Love That You Want’ in Orlando, and the beginning of a newly settled life in beautiful Cartagena, Colombia.

Welcome to South America, Queventurers.

by thedavefoster.

From Visually.

I still can’t believe our last blog post was published in 20-freaking-17. At that point, home was a four bedroom ranch estate in Liberia, Costa Rica. It was home through the holidays and overall a truly magical destination. Shout out to La Familia Santos. This family entrusted us with their home for six weeks. It was our longest slated stop to-date and it literally became home for the holidays. The estate’s pets became our pets, the pool our daily ritual, and the view from the kitchen window – possibly the only place on earth I didn’t mind doing dishes. Who knew scenic sunsets and scrubbing suds could be so soothing?

If you followed along @queventure.abroad on Instagram you saw us tackle a solo Thanksgiving dinner for the first-time in our 36 years of life. I made a full spread – cornbread stuffing and all. Diego experienced his first-ever turkey day not spent with his immediate family.

It was a warm and quiet Thanksgiving as was Christmas. Somehow we managed to pull-off a truly practical Santa Claus visit, which consisted of small gifts the kids could easily fit into their 12 by 16 backpacks one week later. If nothing else, we realized then, our children were turning out pretty good if coloring books, new goggles, and a couple of 99 cent travel puzzles brought joy to their first Christmas abroad.

Our home in Liberia came with maid services 24 hours each week. Yes, three 8-hour days of what turned into one of our favorite aspects of the ‘Pura Vida’ life. However, it wasn’t the clean sheets, perfectly tidied kitchen, or constantly stocked supply of fresh drinking water that made all the difference. The difference was Ms. G. In those weekly visits she became like a third parent to the kiddos and a companion for two adults who usually only have each other.

We’ve lost count of the number of times one of us have joked about missing Miss G and hoping she could pop in one last time for a chat or a bashful hug. This woman was incredibly humble and a breathe of fresh air in a world that moves a gazillion miles a minute. Thank you, G. Thank you Costa Rica, and thank you to everyone reading this post who decided to come back for a read after several weeks off for this travel-obsessed family.

I will forever remember that ranch estate in Liberia, Costa Rica which was more like a wellness retreat destination. There we could bask in the absolutely nature-filled scenery of Costa Rica, and by night, escape the noise of this busy world. We lived surrounded by remote darkness lit only by a sometimes full moon and a sky full of the most beautiful stars. Liberia, I will always remember your stars – oh the many, many stars.

By now, you’ve hopefully noticed the redesign of our new page. A page we continue to craft with love so you’ll come back for more, because at this point, we have so many crazy adventures, recaps, surprises, and tips to share.

There’s lots to catch up on Queventurers…

Don’t Miss These Upcoming Posts:

“Homeschooling ‘Bout To Be A Breeze…”

“Panama & Scary Marriage Ups and Downs.”

“A New Year Full of Surprises.”