The Amazon With Kids

Cayman catching in the Amazon! 

The Amazon is made for kids! Full of adventure at every turn. It's a whole new culture and way of life. Our guide told my 14 year old son when he was 14, he had already caught his first 6 foot Cayman. That says it all right there.
There are various ways to tour the Amazon, stay in a lodge, on a small boat, on a tour boat or camp. We chose a lodge almost 2 hours by boat from Nauta, a small town 2 hours by car from Iquitos. It's a haul to get there so I recommend staying for at least 4 nights to make it worth it.
We chose the lodge because we want a more intimate experience than what we thought we could have on a big boat, we wanted nicer accommodations than what we thought we could find on a small boat and camping was out of the question.

Hiking through the jungle

 Each day, the guide would ask us what we would like to do. Choices included Monkey Island, Jungle Hikes, Fishing for piranha, Cayman catching, swimming with pink dolphins, walking in the village, Giant Lilly Pads, holding a sloth, bird watching, medicine walk and more.

Sunset over the Amazon River

 The food is mostly from the jungle and all organic. It's a pretty basic menu, but very good. I asked where all the fish came from and the guide told me his cousin caught it overnight.

Snakes, monkeys, sloths, spiders, oh my!

The beds were comfortable with mosquito netting around them, the room and then again around the lodge. We still got bit though. The Amazon is an adventure at every turn and worth every penny to see and enjoy. 

Though I paid full price in cash for the lodge, we used points for the airfare from Lima to Iquitos and back. Hotels in Iquitos are cheap plus I booked through a site that gave me 10% cash back. 

Earn An Easy 1,000 United Miles

Earn an easy 1,000 United miles 

As you know if you follow my blog, I am saving for a family trip to Europe next summer. We plan to fly United and right now, I have enough miles for 2 round trip tickets. But we are a family of 5. So we recently applied for 2 American Express Premier Gold credit cards with bonuses of 40,000 each plus $2,000 minimum spend. I'll explain in an upcoming post how I will use these miles.
However, I have a United account with 15,000 miles in it so I'm going to jump on this Wall Street Journal deal to build up miles in that account. I may not use those miles for Europe, but I'll use them someday.
If you subscribe to the Wall Street Journal through the United Shopping Portal by September 19th, you will earn 1,000 United miles. Easy and way better deal than buying them. So if you have an account you need to top off or you need United miles for an upcoming trip, you will want to jump on it. Just be sure to cancel the subscription after 45 days, but before 60 days or you will be charged $32.99.
To subscribe, go to the United Shopping Portal

Woohoo....IHG Awards A FREE 1000 Points!

Here's an easy way to score an extra 1000 IHG points. When you sign up for their free program and complete your first survey, they will deposit 1000 IHG points into your account. I am not a huge fan of the IHG brand which includes Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, Candlewood Suites, Intercontinental and Hotel Indigo. But sometimes you can find a gem or take advantage of the point break promotion the brand offers during the year.
I had a few thousand IHG points so this award brings me close to 5000 points which may come in handy one day.

Get a free $10 from VISA checkout

My $10 eGift from Visa Checkout!

Starbucks and Visa Checkout have teamed up for a promotion. 
If you buy a $10 Starbucks gift card you can receive a $10 bonus card. 
Here’s how the promotion works:

1. Download the Starbucks app and create an account
2. Load $10 to the Starbucks app with Visa Checkout 
3. Receive your $10 eGift within 5 days courtesy of Visa Checkout

The promotion is valid through September 30, 2016, or “while supplies last.” Unfortunately since you only get the $10 bonus card after the fact (within five days of your purchase), you won’t know for sure at the time of purchase whether you qualify.

But I did it and my husband did it and sure enough, a few days later we both received emails with an eGift from Starbucks. If it doesn't work, you would probably spend $10 at Starbucks one day anyway. 

Huacachina with kids

The secret to travelling with kids is to find interesting and exciting things to do. You can always mix in a few churches and museums, but the kids want adventure! When you travel for almost free, money well spent is on experiences.

Peruhop is a hop on, hop off discount bus/tour service. We chose a 2 day/1 night tour. The company gave us a group discount (family of 5) and a second discount because we chose to book our own hotel in Paracas. We had enough Hilton points to book a room at the Doubletree Paracas. It is a suite style hotel and even though they would only allow me to book a room for 4, we could easily accommodate our family of 5 in the room. The hotel even gave us welcome drinks and cookies for FREE.
The tour included the bus, guide, stops at Cristo de Pacifico vista near Lima, breakfast stop, Chincha slave tunnels, sandboarding in Huacachina, Ballestas Islands boat tour and Inca ruins. A true bargain!
The tour is low key, the people were all young tourists and families, the bus very comfortable and safe. The vista was informative with lots of history. The breakfast stop is in the middle of nowhere and has the most amazing bread I've ever eaten.

The slave tunnels were educational and prompted lots of questions from the kids. More on sandboarding and the islands later. The Inca ruins were the weakest stop, but that being said if you actually toured the ruins it would cost you $25 per person. The bus stops near a wall so you can peek over for free.
Bottom line, this is a great way to get from here to there and see some things along the way.
It took several hours to reach Paracas, a small beach town. If you stay at the Hilton, you need to take a taxi to and from the hotel.

We spent the rest of the day relaxing at the pool at the hotel. Nice break from travelling and a good chance for the kids to unwind. For dinner, I recommend heading back into town and there are a number of great inexpensive restaurants lining the beach. We ate dinner and breakfast at El Arizal because the woman working there was so friendly. The food was very good! One tip, there are limited ATMS in Paracas and a lot of restaurants only take cash.

The next morning, we met our Peruhop guide at a hostel. The hostel stored our luggage for the day and our guide walked us to the Ballestas island boat tour. The Ballestas islands are the poor man's Gallapagos. You do get to see the Nasca lines from the boat which is a bonus plus a variety of birds, sea lions and penquins. It's cold on the boat so dress accordingly.

After the island tour, you have the option to take a 1 hour tour of the Paracas Natural Reserve. It's a quick bus tour with stops at a few vistas and the museum. 

Then we hop back on the bus for a few hours to go to Huacachina. I highly recommend visiting Huacachina for several reasons. One, it's perfect for kids. My 10 year old loved it, my 17 year old loved it, my husband loved it. It's crazy and it's unlike anything you have ever done before. Definitely a highlight of the trip. 

The company puts 12 people in a dune buggy type of car, straps you in and then the driver takes you as fast as he can over huge sand dunes. Crazy! Check out the video at the top of this post! They make 3 stops along the way so you can sandboard down the dunes which increase in elevation with every stop ending with the giant 200 meter hill. I tried the first one and then decided to ride the buggy the rest of the way which I enjoyed. So no worries if you are not a fan of this activity.

The tour takes about 2 hours and then you are returned to the hostel and bus to return to Lima. We had a great experience with Peruhop and met people who were taking the bus for as long as 10 days.

Next post: The Amazon

#peruhop #almostfreefamilytravel

Save $10 on your next Ryan Air flight!

Ryan Air is offering a promotion to save $10 when you sign up for a FREE account. Since most flights on Ryan Air are super cheap anyways, it can make some flights almost FREE. Ryan Air is a low cost carrier with flights across Europe. Remember to check the fine print since the airline will nickel and dime you for checked luggage, printing boarding passes etc.

Lima, Peru With Kids

View from Larcomar in Lima Peru

Lima, Peru is a big city! I'm not talking New York or Los Angeles big, I'm talking 20 million people big. Think New York on steroids! That being said it is manageable, fun with kids and budget friendly. Sometime during your trip to Peru, you will fly through Lima. You may even fly through Lima a few times so it is worth spending a few days here.
Expect to pay 50-60 soles to travel from the airport to Miraflores.
Here's what we did. First, we used airbnb.com for accommodations. As you know, we are a party of 5. In South America, we found many of the chain hotels would not allow 5 in a room. And we prefer to use points or miles which for 2 rooms starts to get expensive. Airbnb.com offered lots of inexpensive options in the upscale neighborhood of Miraflores. We settled on a 3 bedroom/2 bath apartment with laundry facilities. It was nice to have the kitchen, laundry and extra bathroom.

We were actually staying in Lima for 3 nights, but we chose to break up our stay with trip down the coast. The Airbnb agreed to let us pay for 3 nights and store our luggage at the apartment for the 4th night while we were travelling for free. Awesome!

Skulls and bones arranged in a design in the catacombs

While in Lima, we checked out the catacombs at La Iglesia de San Francisco. Not as creepy as they seem on Yelp and really interesting and unusual for the whole family. Cost 10 soles per adult, 5 soles per student and 1 soles for my 10 year old. Be sure to get to the cathedral by noon so you can check it out, but the real highlight here is definitely the catacombs and tour of the convent.Near the church and the Plaza Mayor, there are dozens of small restaurants serving a typical Peruvian lunch for cheap approximately 10-15 soles. I highly recommend eating at one of these just to experience the culture and typical foods.
Another must see sight with the kids is Kennedy Park or "cat park". This park is filled with cats. Locals hang out at the park just to cuddle and pet the cats. At first, I was hesitant to let the kids cuddle the cats, but the cats are very friendly and seem well taken care of. I did hose them off with sanitizer when we left though.

Hundreds of cats in Kennedy Park in Lima 

If you forgot to buy any souvenirs in Cuzco, there is an Artisan market near the park with decent prices. Another must see in Lima is the "Magical Water Show" at Parque de la Reserva.



We took the metro (it's actually an express bus) to the catacombs for 2.50 soles per person each way and then a taxi to water show park. Always negotiate a rate with the taxi before you get in the car.
The Water show costs 4 soles per person for a laser fountain show that rivals Disneyland. Shows are at 7:15pm, 8:15pm and 9:30pm. Leave some time to walk around as well.

Fountain next to the laser water show

Another tip to help make Lima affordable, the big grocery stores have a hot food counter, ceviche and salad bar. Decent prices and the food is pretty good. We found that we would eat a big breakfast and lunch and then just pick up empanadas and fruit for dinner. Another place to visit in Lima is the big shopping center built into the side of a cliff, Larcomar in Miraflores. There is a food court here so if your family is anything like ours and can't agree on one type of food. There is also a Pardos Chicken which has about the best roasted chicken I have ever eaten and it's totally reasonable.

Next post: Sandboarding in Huacachina, Peru