Traveling to Peru

Traveling to Peru

Traveling to Peru, Machu Picchu, Lima, Cusco

Traveling to Peru, Machu Picchu, Lima, Cusco

Have you ever wanted to just book a flight to a random destination and have the time of your life even if you’re solo?  There is a huge freedom in knowing you can go anywhere and make friends without having the need to wait on people you know to plan on a trip.  With everyone having busy schedules these days, time flies by and by waiting, you may miss out on opportunities to go to places you always wanted to go to.

For me, I was lucky to get 2 weeks off doing any bootcamps in Vegas and I knew it was time to squeeze in a trip.  Between 20 days of bootcamp, I really had no time to prep for this trip.  I bought a Lonely Planet Peru book, a hiking backpack, about 3 days worth of clothes, and a round trip to and from Peru.  The idea was simple, I’m not going to die and just figure it out when I get there.  Throw yourself into it and you are put in a situation where you have to figure things out.  Even if there are hiccups along the way, they are learning experiences.

 

DSC03430   DSC02947  Astrid-y-Gaston-Food

The first hiccup was the language barrier.  Only a small percentage of people spoke English and at this point, I wished that I learned Spanish instead of Japanese back in high school.  I certainly bump into far more Spanish speaking people in California and Vegas than Japanese.  The first day was essentially me running around looking for Peru mobile stores in Miraflores.  Claro and Movistar where the two biggest.  After spending hours explaining what I wanted to do.  I realized that my phone was locked.  I spent another few hours finding a place that would unlock my phone and finally I got data on my phone.  With Google Translate and Google Maps, I could do anything.  Phone apps like Easy Taxi made it easy for me to find legit taxi cabs.

 

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When it comes to traveling, you have to ask yourself how you want to prioritize your time spent.  If you’re there for a short time, spending it all doing cold approach pickup is probably not the best idea because you’re trying to maximize as much NEW EXPERIENCES as possible.  They’re things that you can carry with you when you come back such as visiting new sites, trying new food, meeting the local people.   I would say if you’re in a city for a week or longer, then sure, go ahead and check out some of the clubs or bars on the weekends and do some cold approach.  However, if you’re in a city for only 2-3 days, check out what that city has to offer first before burning additional time to cold approach.  Online dating is very handy and is optimized for trips like this.  You can hit up girls BEFORE you arrive or you can start messaging them when you are stuck at airports or in transit.  Sites that have worked for me in Peru were:

Latinamericancupid.com

Tinder.com

Okcupid.com

Meeting them up late at night for a few drinks has a fairly minimal impact on your overall plans since most of the things you’re going to do are during the day time.

With access to the internet, there really isn’t much else you need.  The only other site that I found very useful is Bookings.com.  It seems to be pretty popular in South America.   Last thing I would recommend is to pick up photography.  It just synergizes so well with travel and pickup.  Its a great way to capture the experiences that you had and also its great for showing girls all the places you’ve been to.  It shows you’re a cool guy and it builds comfort.  By telling girls where you have been to, she gets to know you better.  My camera set up for this trip were as follows.  You really only need two lenses.  A 50mm prime lens for people and objects and a wide angle lens for scenic landscapes.  This covers roughly 95% of everything you might want to take.

Sony A6000

50mm Lens

16mm Pancake Lens

Manfrotto Video Fluid Monopod

 

Pickup is fun but being able to do it while traveling to a new place is ten times more fun.  When you go to a new destination, everything is outside of your comfort zone and routine and therefore you are greatly accelerating new experiences resulting in a bigger repertoire of stories to tell.  This is what learning pickup is all about.  If doing something like this is too much outside of your reality, then maybe taking a bootcamp is a great option to start since its in a controlled environment.  For more information, check out the coaching section.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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