Spent the last couple days in Minca and Tayrona. Tayrona is pretty amazing, but logistically a bit difficult b/c it's a bit pricy to enter the park (~$23) and to get to the good beaches you have to hike about 80 minutes. It's a better spot for campers as you have the option to camp there if you want, but I'm not really into that beyond maybe 1 night.

Tomorrow I fly back to Bogotá for 1 day and then head off to Perú. So the Colombia leg of the trip is effectively over. I'd say the big cities range from average to pretty good, but aren't really worth more than a couple days each. Bogotá's kinding boring, Medellín is a solid party spot with near perfect weather, and I really like the historic center of Cartagena, but it's spoiled by being touristy as **** and having sellers bothering you like every 10 feet. My 2 favourite spots were the coffee zone (Eje Cafetero) and Tayrona. When I come back I will for sure revisit them and probably try to hit up some more nature spots like Guajira.

A couple pics of Tayrona. I only saw a handful of beaches and I think there are something like 9-10 total in the park.

Nice pictures Fossil.

Btw i see u playing on chico. Im new to the site, which are the tougher $1/$2 regs u reckon i should avoid?

Best thing you can do is study the bots extensively and take notes on them. You will be playing tons and tons of hands against bots and they all use basically the same strategy profile.

Other than that, there is a rake race leaderboard that you can check for 1/2, and usually the people you see showing up there are also the regs who will be toughest.

Been in Lima a couple days and I quite like it so far. I'm not really a big nightlife guy and prefer ocean views to mountain views so Lima suits me more than the big cities in Colombia. I could see myself living in Miraflores and biking, doing yoga, or playing tennis along the oceanfront during the day and eating delicious food at night. The area around Parque Kennedy seems really nice as well.

As far as girls, Tinder is so easy it's an absolute joke. I got like 500-600 matches in the first few days so even though Peruvian girls are a couple steps down from Colombianas, with those #s you will always be able to find a couple cute girls to go out with. Also, almost no hookers, very few girls with plastic surgery, and no over the top gold diggers looking for green cards/marriage like in Colombia.

I think I'd have a blast posting up here for 3-6 months, but maybe after that it'd get boring if there isn't much outside of Miraflores/Barranco. And also the gray season must be tough to manage.

Did you play any poker in Miraflores?

lima might be my favorite city in S america, for those few months a year when weather isn't horrible. You're there at a great time.

Surprised at your comment of no gold diggers there though, in Peru they even have a special word for them - called bricheras, and I encountered tons more people there seriously looking to get out of the country than in colombia - where people are more interested in money/materialism overall but also love their country and not looking to leave. Overall much more wholesome and down to earth people though, really love it there - have fun! Barranco has some super fun spots, check out ayahuasca (the bar/resto/mansion). Plaza san martin in centro also has great nightlife with not as many tourists - cool rooftop divebars with live music. For high end besides larcomar area, playa asia a bit to the south is where most of the peruvian elite go for nightlife and summertime chilling. Has more of an exclusive hollywood vibe, pretty much opposite of centro. Very likely I head back there next summer, such a great city

Nah, I haven't even looked where it exists. I'm not too much into live poker. Do they have PLO in Miraflores?

The city, at least in Summer, fits my lifestyle pretty perfectly as I enjoy doing stuff outdoors and there are some cool areas along the malecón. It looks like it'd be brutal from June to Oct where you're averaging 2 or less hours of sun per day. Doesn't seem like it ever rains though. So maybe I'd just grind poker way more in the **** months or go visit Colombia/Ecuador for a bit or something to break up the gray monotony.

I think I read on one site that Ayahuasca is the main hangout for bricheras, so that could be why you ran into a bunch.

My experience is mostly on Tinder, and it's just super ****ing annoying in Colombia. There are tons of hookers, some of whom waste your time for awhile before spilling the beans. In Lima Tinder I've seen maybe 2 out of 500 matches. Tons of girls who immediately go into the "amor", "corazón" fake BS routine which just seems like a gimmick to try and butter you up quickly. In Lima, I've been called lindo by a handful of girls, but mostly lower quality ones who seem like they're just looking for sex with a white guy and don't really have any malicious intent (or are craftier about hiding it).

IME, it just seems like it's way easier to find my type of girl on Tinder in Lima, cute, educated, well traveled, healthy lifestyle, etc. In Colombia, after you've weeded through all the garbage, there really isn't much left. It just seems like white guys have a complete **** rep there.

That's just my limited experience though b/c I use Tinder to do most of my heavy lifting. Guys who are hitting up different nightlife spots around the city will probably have a different experience.

I did go out with a cute 29 year old last night and it went amazingly well, probably my best first date ever. Surprisingly expensive though, I spent 105 (~$32) soles for 5 craft beers near Parque Kennedy. We're seeing each other tomorrow afternoon and if it goes really well the next few dates I could see myself wanting to spend a lot more time here.

Great thread...I have been lurking in here for quiet some time. I have lived in different cities in South America (Buenos Aires, Medellin, Santiago and Lima) and Lima is also my favorite. I was actually expecting you to like this city
I found there is a huge difference between upper class in Colombia and Peru. In Colombia I had the feeling they were not very open to foreigners. So that makes it obviously very hard to find well travelled and well educated women. Whereas in Lima I had no problems dating these girls and breaking into higher social circles. It's the same for Mexico as far as I can tell although I only went there for a few weeks.
Most guys complain about average quality of girls in Lima and yes, it's obviously higher in Colombia, but I actually don't really care about the average, I care about the quality I can get.

I would be surprised to find many bricheras at Ayahuasca, but things might have changed. Anyway it's a great bar to hang out. Most bricheras you will find around Parque Kennedy.
San Isidro also has some nice bars and restaurants.

I will probably go back to Lima in March, haven't been there for a couple of years.

Damn, I'm jealous. Along with Rio I'd say those are the main cities in South America I'd be interested in living in. Where are you now and why did you leave SA (if you did leave)?

Re: Lima, yah I was expecting much worse b/c it seems to have a meh reputation, but in Summer it's a very nice spot to be.

You basically summed it up perfectly.

In México for example, where I have the most experience, most of the girls I'm meeting are upper class and live close to me (Roma, Condesa, Polanco, etc.), it's not like I'm ever meeting a girl from Tepito or Doctores. Seems like the same thing in Lima so far. The main girls I'm talking to have IG accounts with photos of travels in Europe and live close to Miraflores. In Colombia it's much harder to get in touch with that type of girl.

I suppose the lower class girls will be the same anywhere, they'll just have different methods of trying to find a foreigner, but are probably more driven by a desire to adopt his lifestyle and less by a genuine interest in the guy himself.

In Lima I'd say there are still tons of cute girls walking around (6s or 7s), just pretty rare to find many drop dead gorgeous girls. Stark contrast to Colombia, Brazil, or Argentina, but if you're coming from a place not noted for gorgeous women, then Lima won't seem too bad.

Any yes, for me it's the same, I care about the quality I can actually get with more than the quality I see walking in the streets, and for me it's much higher in Lima or CDMX than anywhere in Colombia.

The last thing I forgot to mention is flake ratio. It's just absurd in Colombia. I think by the end I'd met maybe a dozen girls and had 15+ flakes. So you're just as likely to be flaked on than actually meet up. In Mexico I've met 20 girls with like 2 flakes.

Outside of Miraflores, Barranco, and El Centro where do you recommend next? I'm guessing San Isidro, Lince, San Borja. I heard there's one small area of Callao that's cool, but that's a bit far. Maybe I'll try to venture out to one of the decent beaches.

I checked back on the link where I found the info on Ayahuasca and it said Wednesday is "brichera night". Probably it's perfectly fine any other night, and no harm either in meeting the occasional brichera I suppose.

Unfortunately I had to return to Europe for a while for personal reasons, but I am looking to move back for good soon. I might try out CDMX for 1-2 months and then decide, but till now Lima is my favorite.

I think you are talking about La Punta in Callao. Yeah, you should definitely go there. They refurbished the whole area from what I have heard. Some parts of Callao can be sketchy though.
San Isidro has a very nice upscale residential area, I could see myself living there if I wanted something more relaxed than Miraflores, but then Miraflores has it all
I recommend Punto Azul in Miraflores for lunch, that was my favorite seafood restaurant. Very good for a casual date during daytime.

When I was there only NLH was running at the Majestic. Look into Trujillo as well, about an hour flight from Lima. Good city, beaches, food and Huacas de moche.

I spent 2 month in playa del carmen and I liked people, food. Also dating was super easy (most of mexican girls are not hot but pretty cute and easy going)

I'm thinking about my next destination.
Planning to go to either Lima or Santa Marta in March for a month. To play poker, learn Spanish, meet girls and go to the beach.
How cold is the ocean in Lima this time?

Since I can't play online in Colombia I'm leaning more towards Lima.
But Colombian girls are sooo hot

What would be your suggestions guys?

I suppose it depends on where your priorities lie. The beaches near Lima are not great and I'm told the water is always cold. However the weather will be great in March and it's one of the best places to learn Spanish, very neutral accent. Like Mexico, you will easily be able to meet tons of cute girls, but it lacks the super hot girls like Colombia.

Santa Marta itself doesn't have great beaches, but there are some epic ones just down the road in Tayrona. It's not a great place to learn Spanish b/c the costeño accent is super annoying and I feel like my Spanish sucks there b/c I can barely understand most people. Whereas in Lima I can understand everyone.

Regarding girls, even though Colombian girls are super hot, I'd say dating in Lima is way easier. Sounds like you don't have advanced Spanish, so unless you're a great dancer or super handsome, you'll probably be going out with hotter girls in Lima anyway.

Finally, Santa Marta feels pretty small and Lima is obviously a massive city, so it depends also how big a city you prefer.

fwiw, I think that's specific to Medellín, and it's for all outsiders whether foreigners or other Colombians. The paisa culture is very insular. People in Bogota are extremely friendly.

I think he's talking specifically about upper class women and being able to date them. In Colombia it seems way more difficult to make any headway whereas in Peru or Mexico, it's pretty easy to date those types of girls in abundance.

If we're talking about friendliness in general, then yes, people all over Colombia are very helpful and friendly.

My time in Lima is coming to an end tomorrow. I quite enjoyed the city, the weather was great during this part of the year, Miraflores and Parque Kennedy are nice the malecón is beautiful and a couple other parts aren't too bad (Barranco, el centro, I liked the fountains, etc.).

I met 3 girls off Tinder, 1 of whom I grew to like a lot and we saw each other 5x, ended up banging the last 2 nights. Briefly considered coming back to Lima and staying an extra couple of weeks to be with her and see more of Lima, but in the end decided I'd rather just get back to CDMX on Feb. 21. One of the girls was basically a lay up. She heavily pursued me, wanted to meet up at 10PM in the park, we had a drink in the bar, and then she was back to my place pretty quickly. Nice body, but so so face. The girl I saw a lot was one of the cuter girls in Lima (not saying a ton, probably a 7), but body wasn't quite as good as I thought once I got her naked. Super nice girl though and would probably be an amazing girlfriend, but logistically CDMX is way easier, and I like CDMX better anywhere. I'd rather live in Lima than anywhere in Colombia though, although maybe I'd change my opinion if I had to go through Lima's gray period.

I arrive in Cuzco tomorrow and the plan is as follows:

Tuesday - arrive at 3PM, just chill and check out the city
Wednesday - head to Pisac for a little while, meet with this Australian yoga chick from Tinder, head back to Cuzco
Thursday - Machu Picchu and then return to Olly and spend the night there
Friday - Back to Cuzco, maybe check out some of the ruins around the city
Saturday - Get up super early to do a Rainbow Mountain tour and return to Cuzco at like 8PM
Sunday - Take a touristic bus out of Cuzco that stops at 5 sites along the way to Puno.

I've been feeling like crap the last 2 weeks. Had a bug bite that's been bothering the hell out of me with pain and swelling, finally got it under control with anti-histamine cream. Got a cough 2 days ago that's still pretty bad now. Hopefully none of this hampers my experience in Cuzco. The Rainbow Mtn. trip is probably the only day where I'll be physically taxed.

Just a quick summary of the last 10 days:

Spent 6 of them in Cusco and it felt like it wasn't nearly enough. I love that area and I'm sure I'll be back soon, hopefully when the weather's a bit better. Went to Puno for 2 days and the city is pretty trashy. Luckily, 1 of the days was spent on Lake Titicaca, which was kinda cool, but nothing great, at least on the Peru side. I would have liked to cross over into Bolivia, but it costs $160 for the visa (for Americans) and I didn't think it was worth it.

Got to Arequipa yesterday and quite like it. The central plaza is really cool and there's quite a bit of solid historical architecture. However, seems like it could get boring kinda fast if you're more into bigger cities. I'm chilling here for 5 days mostly b/c I just want to relax and grind poker. I've worn myself down trying to fit a ton of stuff into the last 10-14 days and need a break. I couldn't even be arsed to go out on a Tinder date today even though there are a couple interesting girls. Just doesn't seem worth it when I'm leaving in a couple days.

I've quite liked Peru and Colombia. I was expecting to really love Colombia, but it didn't quite live up to my expectations, and Peru was a bit better than expected, but probably doesn't have as much to offer overall. Above all, this trip has driven home how much I miss Mexico. I'm super excited to go back, even after 8 months there, the love affair hasn't worn off. I'm more of a city guy, into historical architecture, than natural stuff, and Mexico completely blows away Peru or Colombia in that regard. For me, the cities are way better.

The good thing is that it's quite cheap and easy to visit LatAm from CDMX. I think next I'd like to check out Costa Rica and Ecuador. Although eventually I'd like to visit every country in S. America (barring those 3 random ones) and maybe even C. America too.

Not surprised to learn that you liked the "Cusco/Pisac/Sacred Valley area"...what was your opinion of Machu Picchu? Did it live up to the hype? Also why no pics from your Peruvian travels?

I'm somewhat surprised that Cusco seemingly isn't on the radar of most Americans (grinders, retirees, etc.) who are looking for a place to live outside of USA; imo Cusco has a lot to offer. Got an opinion on that?

How are you getting back to Lima--by bus or flight, and are you headed to Lima directly from Arequipa or do you go back to Cusco first? I thought Arequipa was a nice enough, though if you've got five more days I'd probably prefer to return to Cusco a few days early.

If you do stay in Arequipa the entire time and can summon the interest & energy, Colca Canyon is worth checking out. Even if it's cloudy and you don't get to see the condors, it's still pretty impressive (for perspective, it's twice as deep as the Grand Canyon). I toured it by motorcycle, however, so not sure how interesting the chartered bus / minibus tours are.

How are you finding the food in Peru? Had any great meals? Have you tried the guinea pig?

Machu Picchu is something I think should be mandatory for everyone to see once. I'd say it's probably my new favorite thing I've seen, but that could be recency bias. I thought it might be a letdown, but for me it was just incredible.

I probably put up my favorite pics from Peru in the next week or 2.

AFAICT, the vast majority of Americans are pretty bad at travel, or just don't do it. Some random anecdotes on who seemed to be doing most of the traveling:

1. In my Tayrona hostal, there was a big notebook that listed every visitor's country. I had 30 minutes to kill while waiting for a taxi one day so I flipped through many pages. I'd estimate there were 5x as many UKs and USAs.

2. Took 2 bus tours, Cusco-Puno and Puno-Arequipa, out of about 16 people on each one, I didn't run into 1 other American. Healthy mix of Canadians, Spaniards, French, British, etc.

3. I heard a ridiculous amount of French at Monserrate in Bogota, more than either Spanish or English. Also ran into a lot of French wandering around Peru. This makes me happy as I hadn't spoken French in 2 years and it was fun to practice. I can still understand very well, but have trouble speaking.

You are right though, Cusco/Sacred Valley makes a ton of sense for grinders/retirees and I really have no idea why it's not more on the radar.

I fly to Lima on the 19th, then to CDMX on the 21st.

TBH, I've just been grinding a lot here in Arequipa the last couple days, while occasionally going out to see a girl from Tinder. I set a personal goal of 100 hours of poker each month in 2019 to keep me motivated, b/c I slacked off quite a bit in 2018. I hit my goal in January (just barely at 100.4 hours) and probably need another 3-4 days of full grinding to get me back on track for February.

That being said, I'm debating just doing a 1-day Colca Canyon tour to bus in and out and check it out a bit. Would've liked to do the whole 2 day hike, but probably don't have the energy/time.

Seeing Cusco has motivated me to get my act back together in terms of yoga and meditation. I've completely lost both practices, but want to be more consistent and return to Cusco when I'm in a better spot to take part in the spiritual aspects and ceremonies. This will be my main priority once I return to stability in CDMX next week.

The food in Peru is incredible. For me Peru and Mexico are neck and neck, my personal preference is Mexican, only because I grew up in Nebraska and am not as much of a seafood guy, so Mexican hits my palette a bit better. But I have had a couple incredible ceviches, and some solid lomo saltado and alpaca. Cuy (guinea pig) was interesting to try once, and it was ok, but probably not something I'd try again.

I'd say I have more desire to revisit Peru than Colombia and for my next trip I might try to do Ecuador/Peru or Peru/Bolivia/Chile, something like that. I really like the 6-7 hour bus trips between cities with quick stop offs to see interesting stuff. Provided the bus is comfortable (in Peru this is usually the case), it's a great way to travel.

Been back in CDMX for 2 days and finally had a moment to put together a collection of pics from Perú. Having spent 2 months in Colombia and 1 in Perú, I'd probably choose to live in Lima or Cusco over comparatively sized cities in Colombia, but I get the impression that on the whole Colombia offers a lot more to see than Perú. I really enjoyed both countries though and would like to come back. I would probably head to Cusco, Tayrona, and Eje Cafetero first if I were going to repeat places I've seen.

Lima:

I'm more of a seafront guy than mountains, and Lima has a boardwalk that's like 10 km long and the weather is incredible in February, so I really enjoyed it. Miraflores is gringo central, but with a nice park, so much amazing food, and proximity to the ocean, it's a place I could see myself living. El centro also had a surprising array of cool architecture, although it's a bit of a jaunt from Miraflores.







My lady friend in Lima. We matched on Tinder, met 5 times and hooked up the last 3. As has been well documented, girls in Perú are a huge step down from Colombia. I'd say there's a decent amount of "cute" girls, but almost none I'd say are "hot". The difference though is that on Tinder you will get a ****ton of matches and will be able to meet and date some of the upper echelon girls. In Colombia, after weeding through hookers and obvious gold diggers, the selection is suprisingly dire.

I briefly thought about extending my stay in Lima for another week+ just to hang out with the girl and see if maybe there was a future in Lima with her, but it's stupid easy to match with girls of her caliber in CDMX, so I figure it wasn't worth the risk, and so far CDMX is by far my favorite city in LatAm (out of Mexico/Perú/Colombia), so I just wanted to get home.

Unfortunately, as is often the case with Latinas, she fell pretty hard after we slept together and then was pretty angry when she realized I wasn't staying in Lima. I was 100% upfront and honest with her the whole way, making no promises and keeping her in the loop with my plans, but it wasn't enough. Maybe with time we can at least salvage a friendship.



Cusco:

I'll just lump all my pics from the Cusco area into this section. I had 5 days here and I'll say this is the main place I wish I had way more time to explore. It seems like there's so much to see here and I barely scratched the surface. The center of Cusco itself is pretty cool, but it gets old being asked if I want a massage every 10 steps.

The small towns in the Sacred Valley like Pisac, Ollantaytambo, and Urubamba are really cool and Pisac has some ruins which are somewhat comparable to Machu Picchu with almost no crowds that I enjoyed.

Finally, Machu Picchu is freakin epic. Yah there are tourists everywhere (less so in February and I lucked out with the weather), but there is a reason. It's one of the few places I've been that I would say is mandatory that everyone see once in their life.













Arequipa:

Not much to say about Arequipa. The architecture is really solid for Perú or Colombia, but México has 10-15 cities with cooler architecture if that's your thing. Might be a decent place to live if you like medium sized cities and milder temps.

I could have gone to Colca Canyon, which is supposedly pretty epic, but I pussed out because I was feeling really ****ty the last 10 days of my trip.




Lake Titicaca:

I could only visit the Perú side of Lake Titicaca, and it's not as good as the Bolivian side, but I did enjoy the Uros Islands, even though they're super touristy. Basically these people made these islands out of tightly wound reeds, and now they live 15 people on 1 floating island.




So that's the trip. I thoroughly enjoyed it, met tons of great people and girls, and I'll definitely return someday although I'd like to hit up some nearby places like Ecuador and possibly Bolivia. And of course I need to hit up Argentina, Chile, and Brazil as well. So I'd say I know México, Perú, and Bolivia fairly well having spent 1-8 months in each, but there's still so much more to see in Latin America and as CDMX will probably be my base for the foreseeable future, I should have plenty of time to explore.

Just binge read the thread FK93, great stories and adventure. The Colombian weed/dramamine trip out sounded pretty crazy, and getting your brains ****ed out by a hot 19 year old sounds like the nuts.

I honeymooned in Peru in 2014, took a lot of the same photos. The fifth picture down in the Cusco pics is Ollantaytambo, no?

How long are you planning on spending in CDMX again?

Yah, you've got a good eye. That's Ollantaytambo. Apparently if you keep trekking up the mountain you get way more epic views, but I didn't know that at the time.

Right now I'm planning on making CDMX my permanent home. From a travel perspective it's perfect to visit family in USA or travel to LatAm or Europe quickly and cheaply. And I fell in love with the city and still love it even after 8 months. I wanted to check out a couple cities in South America that I thought I'd like too, but it confirmed that CDMX is probably the place for me. So I'll be looking to start planting some roots here and maybe get into a LTR with a cute mexicana soon.

Glad you enjoyed them! I hope they don't make you too excited though.