First stop: A month in Peru.
Our only stop in South America, Peru gave us so much, as we knew it would. In Peru, everything of ours was tested, including our luggage, stamina, tempers, and our health insurance.
We stayed at 11 places in 8 cities (Lima, Paracas, Nazca, Huacachina, Arequipa, Chivay, Cusco, and Aguas Calientes) and spent 60+ hours riding buses.
Moving around a lot and staying a whole month gave us the opportunity to see a LOT of Peru. The desert was vast (Peru is mostly desert?!?), the volcanoes were high (altitude sickness!), and there was so much color everywhere.
By far the most challenging was when, on an overnight excursion to the amazing Colca Canyon, Josh’s left-eye vision went black. His retina had detached. The tour guide helped us book a 3-hour, direct taxi for Josh back to Arequipa and from there our first medical emergency began.
Three days later, on September 21st, 14 days into our trip, Josh had a vitrectomy. The use of silicone oil aided the reattachment of the retina, but that meant 7 days of face-down, and a follow-up surgery in 3-6 months to remove the oil.
For lots of reasons, Peru was a helluva way to kick off our trip.
Desert windstorm
Nazca desert