I think I shocked a few of my regular readers when I announced that I’d bought an apartment in Lima Peru. And that Peru was going to be my home base in South America. Most would have guessed Buenos Aires in Argentina or Bogota in Colombia.
Yet, it was for good reasons that I chose to live in Peru over both Argentina and Colombia. Reasons that I hope after this article, most will start to understand.
However, one thing that I should make clear at the outset, is that I’ve got a lot of friends in Peru. And I’ve been coming to Peru for about 20 years. So, I definitely didn’t stumble into Peru and I didn’t randomly decide to stay.
My first year living in Peru as an expat!
Why live in Peru as a digital nomad or expat?
Peru is one of those places that you can keep coming back to, time and time again. And you’ll still never see everything that the country has to offer.
Peru is not just Machu Picchu. And in reality, Machu Picchu is one of the least interesting things to visit. At least for me anyway.
Peru has everything from pyramids through to the world’s largest adobe brick city. It’s got beaches, deserts, rainforest, mountains with glaciers and more. The world’s highest and second highest sand dunes are in Peru. As are the world’s longest left-hand waves.
In Peru, a road trip can take you through grassy hills in the Andes, up and over 5000m high mountains and glaciers, through desert and cloud forest, down into the Amazon rainforest. All in one day. Just like I did with Marco, in early November.
In Peru, you can go fishing in the Amazon jungle for river monsters. You can go fishing in Andean streams and lakes for huge trout. You can go beach fishing along the coast, where the desert meets the sea. And boy oh boy, do I intend to go fishing!
One of my key motivators for choosing Peru over both Argentina and Colombia, is fishing and the fish species native to Peru. I love fishing and also, aquarium keeping. Two things I’ll be doing a lot more of, here in Peru. But I’ll share more about those topics in later posts.
Now, my two key motivators for choosing Peru, were the country’s economic outlook and the quality of life that Peru can provide. You don’t have a lot of the same problems that are associated with Argentina and Colombia, making it a better long term investment.
Peru has one of the most stable currencies in Latin America. It also now has the largest port in South America. And with the extension of the international airport in Lima, Peru is set to become the regional hub for tourists visiting South America.
Why not choose to live in Argentina or Colombia?
Comparing the quality of life here in Peru, with Argentina, Colombia or any of the other typical ‘expat’ destinations in South America, Peru is the better option.
First, the currency is easier to understand and use. You don’t have an ever increasing amount of zeros being added to the bank notes. And prices don’t randomly fluctuate from one day to the next. Plus, it’s just too easy here in Peru, to pay for literally everything with an electronic means of payment.
Unlike investing in Colombia, there’s almost no restrictions on foreigners moving money into and out of Peru. When I decided to buy my apartment here in Peru, I was able to get the authorisation to sign documents and open a bank account, all on the same day.
In Colombia, you need endless reams of paperwork, just to open a bank account. And then much more paperwork, for every international transaction. In Argentina, you’ll be hard pressed to get a bank account. And even if you did get one, you wouldn’t want to use it.
The Argentina government on at least half a dozen occasions in the last 20 years, has raided everyones bank accounts. Taking their dollars and issuing them government debt. Basically, the government of Argentina took all of the dollars that were held in private bank accounts. And in return, it gave all the account holders IOUs that it never intended to pay back.
Living in Peru, I can move my money into and out of Peru instantly. I can do it whenever I want. And I don’t need to provide any paperwork at all. I can also keep my money in any one of five different currencies with internationally competitive interest rates.
Moving beyond the issue of money and the currency woes of it’s regional competitors, Peru wins out again when it comes to food and drinks. Peru has the better cuisine and the greatest number of restaurants and cocktail bars in the world top 50 lists.
If you’re a foodie or a cocktail connoisseur, Peru is the place for you. In Peru you can try so many different varieties of everything, that dining here is an experience. All at prices that are similar to or cheaper, than regional counterparts.
Was it hard to buy a place in Peru?
It was so easy to buy an apartment in Peru, that it made the other key destinations for digital nomads and expats look ridiculous. In a single day, I was able to apply for the permission to sign documents, open a bank account and enter into a contract to buy an apartment.
I’ve covered it in more detail on this website, but as long as you have a local lawyer to check over all of your paperwork before signing with a realtor, you can buy any piece of property you want. Your only limitation is the funds you have available. As you can’t take out a loan in Peru until you have a credit history.
Here’s the kicker though, after 2 years in the country, if you can demonstrate that you’re proficient in Spanish and that you have a demonstrable connection to the country, like a piece of property, you can get permanent residency or citizenship. After owning this place in Lima Peru for 2 years, I’m eligible for Peruvian citizenship and a Peruvian passport.
What’s my typical day look like in Peru as a nomad or expat?
Well, I live in Pueblo Libre in Lima. It’s the second most historically significant suburb in the city and one that most of the travel websites don’t know anything about. So, my typical day doesn’t involve paying inflated prices (gringo prices) for everything and running into foreign tourist groups all day!
I typically start my day with breakfast in a cafe, looking out over a park or plaza. For $7-$10USD I can have breakfast in an amazing cafe with bacon, eggs, beans, juice and a couple of coffees. I then go home and work online until around 3pm. Before going out again for afternoon drinks followed by dinner.
Or, if I don’t feel like working at home, I go to a different cafe. Usually a cafe on a different plaza that gets a lot of visitors, like Plaza Bolivar. And there I work online while I’m people watching until about 3pm. Yet, no matter what I choose, I don’t spend more than $50USD per day.
For less than $50 per day, I can go from one historic venue to another, in the Lima neighborhood known for having the most parks and green spaces. I can say hello to my neighbors. Or I can just stop and chat with random people I meet along my way.
I particularly enjoy my chats with the random old ladies that I run into while walking around my neighborhood. They’re amazing and they often offer to teach me how to cook Peruvian food or introduce me to their granddaughters.
You see, unlike Colombia, I can walk anywhere I want at anytime of day. Getting robbed is extremely rare in the better suburbs of Lima. And in Pueblo Libre where I live, it basically never happens. Plus, unlike Colombia the express kidnappings and drugging of foreigners are so rare that if it happens at all anywhere in Peru, even once, it makes national news!
Unlike all those foreign expats paying several times as much for their apartments in Colombia, along with several times as much for their living costs, I can walk wherever I want at any time of day. I can even rent my apartment on Airbnb if I want, as a daily rental. Which is yet another thing, that those people paying rediculous prices in Medellin can’t do.
Heck, I can even jump on a dating app and get myself a dinner date right now with no risk at all. Unlike all of those expats, digital nomads and ‘passport bros’ in Colombia! You see, Peru is much more social and much less dangerous than Colombia.
What are the downsides to living in Peru?
The downsides to living in Peru are different for every city. But, as an example with Lima where I live, there’s almost no rain. It’s been a bit of a Christmas miracle this year, it rained 4 times. With actual rain drops. But those ‘rain storms’ only added less than 8mm (0.315inches) of precipitation.
Before global warming, it never rained in Lima. And Lima actually has no stormwater system at all. That’s how infrequently it rained before global warming. And when it did rain this year, all the little kids came out on their balconies to stare at it. Becasue they’d never seen rain before!
If you don’t like rain, Lima is the city in Peru for you. Yet, I love rain in moderation. I love the smell of rain and I love how after it rains everything outside is washed clean. That doesn’t happen here in Lima. And most things outside on the street have a permanent coating of dust.
The other thing I would list as a downside about living in Lima is the traffic and well, Peruvian drivers. Peruvians are listed as the worlds second worst drivers and they’re always honking. Day or night, they’re always beeping their car horns at each other. And this is one reason you need to be careful about the suburb you choose to live in.
Where I live in Lima, they get fined for honking and making noise. But I’m also in a quiet street that’s away from the main roads. When I lived on a main road in Barranco, the constant road noise at all hours of the day used to drive me bonkers.
During the last year, I’ve lived in Miraflores, Barranco and Lince. And I’d never choose to live in any of those Lima neighborhoods again.
I also strongly recommend to friends and family visiting Peru, that they avoid those neighborhoods. All of them have a traffic problem. And on top of the traffic they’re all filled with drug dealers, pimps and hookers. Plus, everything is ridiculously overpriced when compared to other suburbs in Lima. And that’s another thing I hate about living in Peru.
The other big gripe I have about living in Peru, is the misinformation. Every schmuck with a travel blog or acting as a destination expert on a forum, comes to Peru for 2 weeks or less. And often, it’s been years since they were actually in Peru!
These experts who are providing advice to tourists, often know nothing about the destination they’re providing advice about! And on top of that, in Lima at least, the tourist attractions they’re listing as tourists attractions, aren’t even tourist attractions. They’re just random places near their accommodation.
These same experts also play up the Inca angle. For the same reason the spanish conquistadores did when they returned home. It’s because it’s the only thing they’ve seen. You see, Peru has a history that’s over 14,000 years. There has been 7 great ‘Peruvian Epochs’ of which the Inca empire were the last.
Lasting no more that 330 years and only ruling for less than 100, the Inca were a tiny blip at the end of a very long timeline. But the travel bloggers don’t know that, becasue they see basically nothing while they’re here in Peru.
When was the last time you read a travel blog talking about the pyramids all over Peru? Or Caral near Huacho which is over 5000 years old? Yeah, hence my gripe!
What did I do in Peru this year?
Well, my year started off with a cheap flight from Bogota to Lima. I caught up with an old friend Diego and we went out to explore Lima. Once the month long hangover began to wear off, I started looking around at Lima’s different neighborhoods and I began exploring each one on my own.
I started by living in and exploring the more well known touristic suburbs like Barranco, Lince, Miraflores and San Isidro. And what I discovered is that I really don’t like those neighborhoods. And I definitely wouldn’t want to live in them.
It was when I began exploring less well known neighborhoods like Jesus Maria, Magdalena del Mar, Pueblo Libre and San Borja that I really began to like Lima. And these four suburbs really opened my eyes to the possibility of living in Peru full time.
Sometime around late April or early May, I decided that I was indeed going to buy a place in Lima. And after a chat with a trusted local lawyer, I spent the next few weeks looking at dozens of apartments everyday.
I walked through the apartments, went to building open days, conventions and I even flew my drone over and around them to see what they looked like from all angles. In the end, it came down to 2 different apartments in 2 different neighborhoods. It was a choice between San Borja and Pueblo Libre.
I spent days in each neighborhood just wandering around at all hours of the day and night with a beer in hand, exploring each suburb. But in the end, it was Pueblo Libre that won me over. And Pueblo Libre won me over not just because of the apartment, but because of what the suburb was, is and could be again.
You see, before the internet really became the go to place for tourist information and booking holidays, Pueblo Libre was one of the top choices for travelers. It was filled with tourists.
Then the internet came along. And with Miraflores and Barranco being the neighborhoods with the greatest number of cheap hostels and every travel blogger and youtube vlogger not making much money, they stayed in those cheap hostels. Making content about Miraflores and Barranco.
In those early days of the internet, Pueblo Libre didn’t get much coverage. And then Pueblo Libre became a forgotten neighborhood in Lima.
As a travel blogger living in Pueblo Libre and having friends living here too that are also now travel bloggers, we can put this place back on the map. So, I grabbed my lawyer and I went and bought my apartment in Pueblo Libre.
I then had to wait almost 2 months for the apartment to be ready for delivery. So, I kept exploring Lima. I took different city tours, I ate at different restaurants and I tried to no avail to get my head around the different styles of cuisine on offer in Peru.
There’s so many different types and styles of cuisine available in Peru that it’s hard to know what to expect when you go from one restaurant within a city or from one region in the country, to another. It’s almost always fabulous, but so very different from one place to the next.
I’ve since given up and I’ve passed the foodie content to Diego to produce. I’ll be skipping making any food based content in Peru. I’m too easy to please. I like everything I’ve tried so far. The food in Peru is all so difficult to explain as a foreigner living in Peru, that I believe it’s better done by a Peruvian.
After my 2 months of visiting basically everything and eating anything I could find to try, it was key day at my apartment. It was time to collect the keys and move in. The only glitch was that I didn’t yet have any furniture.
I didn’t know the exact measurements of each space, so I hadn’t bought any furniture in advance. Meaning I had to spend the first couple of nights in the apartment, sleeping on the floor with my suitcase as a pillow. Not a fun experience but one I quickly fixed.
Between late July and late October, I was basically fixing up my apartment. Buying furniture and having things installed. That’s why I sort of neglected this website and my social media accounts. I was busy shopping, chasing contractors and having all the different services connected.
For those who don’t know, there’s real time and then there’s what the locals call ‘la hora Peruano’ or, the ‘Peruvian hour’. When the sales people, delivery guys or contractors tell you it will be 5 minutes, that means it could be 5 minutes, 5 hours, 5 days or even 5 weeks.
The ‘Peruvian hour’ is frustrating, even for the locals. Yet, when they’re late, they’re proud of it. But when someones late for them, they’re annoyed by it. It’s both frustrating and kind of amusing to watch.
I had a gas guy take over 6 weeks to do the work he said would take 5 minutes. So, when he sent me a request for payment not knowing I’d already paid, I waited 6 weeks to point out that I had already paid.
I let him chase his tail like he did to me, for the same amount of time. He would message and call every day and I’d just ignore him. I’d leave his whatsapp messages on read with no response.
It really was quite fun to give him back the same level of service that he’d given me. And quite cathartic. I’d highly recommend giving back to the locals what they give to you. Sharing is caring, after all.
While all the house stuff was getting organised I was fixing up my friend Marco’s tourism website, and planning a fishing trip in Tambopata. In late October, I flew up to Cusco to hangout with Marco, film some stuff for him and to then drive from Cusco to Puerto Maldonado for the fishing trip.
I spent the last week of October in Cusco. I filmed Marco’s tourism stuff, and I even filmed halloween in Cusco’s Plaza de Armas from the air with the drone. After finishing in Cusco, we then took the most epic road trip from Cusco to Puerto Maldonado, over Ausangate. A road I’d say everyone needs to experience at least once in their life!
Arriving in Puerto Maldonado we had opportunity to visit Lago Yacumama for a sunrise canoe ride and a spot of pirahna fishing. Lago Yacumama was a fantastic cheap and easy alternative to Lake Sandoval. And if you’re in Puerto Maldonado, I’d definitely suggest you visit Lake Yacumama.
After our canoe ride, Marco and I went back to Puerto Maldonado, met up with Diego and then got everything ready to go fishing in the Madre de Dios river and into Bolivia. Marco stored his car away with a friend while the rest of us got the food and beer for our 5 day trip from the local market. And along the way, we picked up Canadian Dave from the airport.
Once all was prepared, bought, loaded on the boat and everyone had arrived, we were off for 5 days of fishing along the Madre de Dios and into Bolivia. It’s a trip I’m doing again in January and there’ll be more on this website about it soon.
We fished everywhere along that river. And we caught everything from Gilded catfish and Ripsaw catfish, through to Bagre catfish, Acestrorhynchus and electric eels. It really was an adventure. And it made me glad that as a fishing fanatic, I’d chosen Peru as my home in South America.
Arriving back into Puerto Maldonado after 5 days of fishing, we bid farewell to Percy and his crew. And the following day, we took that epic road trip once more. Driving from Puerto Maldonado back to Cusco over Ausangate. We went from sea level in the Amazon back up and over 5000m and down to 3600m in Cusco.
Once in Cusco, everyone else went to bed. But Canadian Dave and I stayed up all night. We dropped off some laundry at a 24 hour place we found, and then went out for drinks. Eventually getting invited to an after party rave in the Sacred Valley which, sadly, we didn’t have time for. Because we had a flight to catch!
We flew that morning back to Lima from Cusco. And then, after fixing a few phone related issues thanks to Marco’s non-waterproof, waterproof bag, Dave and I hopped a bus to Huacho.
Huacho is the beach town frequented by locals of Lima. It’s 2.5 hours north of the city of Lima, but it’s still in ‘Lima’. It’s a beautiful beach town with an 8 beach circuit. And it’s also where you can visit Caral!
After Huacho, we went to Huarmey. We had to take a bus from Huarmey to Barranca (not to be confused with Barranco) and then a collectivo from Barranca to Huarmey. Huarmey is roughly 5 hours north of Lima. And it has some of the best surf beaches and rocky bays or coves close to Lima.
Huarmey is beautiful. And it was like they’d never seen a foreign tourist before. It’s definitely a place I’ll visit again. And it’s one place in Peru that’s close to Lima, where I definitely want to go fishing again!
After Huarmey, Dave and I continued on. I managed to secure us two seats on a bus to Trujillo from the local bus station in Huarmey (pictured above). No more collectivos or tiny minivans. We were on our next 5 hour leg up the coast in a proper ‘semi-cama’ bus.
We arrived in Trujillo after 5 hours, going by way of Chimbote. Now, Chimbote gets recommended as a place to visit, so I will visit Chimbote sometime in 2025. But we simply didn’t have time this trip because we needed to see Trujillo, Punta Huanchaco and Dave needed to get a flight home from Lima afterwards.
So, we skipped Chimbote. We both loved Trujillo and particularly Punta Huanchaco. Which is a surfing mecca in Peru. Punta Huanchaco is definitely a beach town to visit in Peru in the middle of summer when it’s packed. And it’s particularly good if you’re looking for somewhere to learn to surf in Peru.
While in Trujillo, we visited Huaca del Sol and Huaca de la Luna. They’re the Moche pyramids dedicated to sun and moon. And they’re spectacular to visit. Yet, we also visited Chan Chan, the worlds largest adobe brick city. Chan Chan was a neglected garbage dump full of recreations and not worth visiting.
If you’re going to visit Trujillo, put the Huacas on your to do list. But forget about Chan Chan. Until the government of Trujillo stops people dumping garbage on Chan Chan and then cleans it up, it’s not worth visiting.
After flying back to Lima from Trujillo, I took Canadian Dave on the usual tourist circuit that I recommend to all my friends and family visiting Lima.
I took Dave to the National Museum of the Archaeology, Anthropology, and History of Peru (NMAAHP) and the Magdalena Palace, both in Pueblo Libre. And then into the Museo del Convento de San Francisco y Catacumbas for Lima’s catacombs.
He got to see the famous 2500 year old Tumi (ceremonial knife) and the 2000+ year old Paracas shrouds. I even took him on a bit of a street art tour in Pueblo Libre and to La Chacalea, also in Pueblo Libre. At the secret ‘speak-easy’ style bar he got to see period era costumes worn by staff and he got a different history of the district.
Since the trip ended in late November, I’ve just been working at home. And I’ve been getting ready for my first Christmas in my new place. It’s not my first Christmas or New Years in Peru. But it is my first Christmas and New Years in my own place in South America.
So, I’ve been shopping lots and learning to cook Peruvian food. And I’ve been trying every Peruvian Christmas food I can find. No matter how random that food might be.
For Christmas and New Years I’ll stay home in Pueblo Libre. And I’ll enjoy my own neighborhood. Which has an ongoing informal Christmas light competition.
You see, I’m foreign and they won’t let a foreigner beat them. So, I put up xmas lights and then they put up even more lights. And then I double down and so do the neighbors. By the time Christmas eve comes around, you’ll be able to see this Lima neighborhood from the moon!
Merry xmas and safe travels!
