…and other costs
I mentioned in an earlier blog that we were staying in a small, very modest, and semi-clean apartment that costs us only 250 soles (about US$100) per month. I guess we wanted to get the full Peace Corps Volunteer experience, although we're not in the Peace Corps. I also said that next time we'd probably opt for something more luxurious – maybe something in the US$200/month range. Well, our landlady, Doña Socorro is very sweet and has two very friendly, if somewhat neurotic schnauzers. Plus, the apartment is away from the street and looks out onto a nice little courtyard. We thought, why not just convert this place into a US$200/month pad?
It all began while reading in bed, idly glancing at the ugly, dirty, blue and white paint job, and wondering how much it would cost us to repaint it. And if we even wanted to get started on such a ridiculous project for an apartment, would it be worth it since we'd only be here for a couple of months? But first, the place really needed a decent table and chair. We'd passed a few shops that sold simple, decent-looking furniture, and one day we decided to stop and ask about prices. We found a good-looking table with a fake-marble melamine top, and a sturdy matching chair priced at 200 soles (about US$70) for the two. We decided to go for it, since it would make the apartment so much more usable. And when we left, it would be our gift to the universe, or at least the next tenant.
We liked the table and chair and we had exactly 200 soles with us, but we needed to get it back to the apartment. We asked the shop owner about delivery, and he told us we just needed to flag down a taxi and tie it to the roof. That's how things are delivered in Ayacucho. A taxi would only cost us 5 soles. But we didn't have 5 more soles with us. The owner was unwilling to let us out of his sight to go find more money, so he quickly lowered the price to 195 soles and flagged down the next taxi. Off we went with our new furniture, through the back streets of town to our door, where Carolyn and I maneuvered them through the twisting alley that leads back to our place.
We decided to buy a couple more pillows to augment the two older ones in the apartment, a couple more towels, and a brighter, warm-white light bulb for the overhead fixture to replace the former dim, harsh, bluish-light bulb (which, of course, made the ugly paint job more apparent). We also bought a hot plate and a pan to cook in, a cutting board, a couple of bowls, some plates and silverware, and two plastic storage boxes, so we could enjoy some of that delicious fresh food we'd seen in the mercado. Now, with a place to cook, a table for the computer and a few other things, life was getting much better.
We still needed someplace to put our things in the bathroom. There had been an old chair by the toilet, but we grabbed it for the room because there was no place to sit except on the beds. Another chair appeared in the bathroom, and we grabbed it too, so we'd each have a place to sit beside the little 'kitchenette' table that came with the room. By now we figured Doña Socorro's son would probably stop putting chairs in the bathroom, since they kept disappearing and we were only paying 100 bucks a month. So we bought a little plastic three-shelf unit that held our stuff a lot better than a chair, and we were happy.
Well, mostly. The place still badly needed painting. But it was such a ridiculous idea. Were we really going to paint the place? We'd be gone soon enough. What difference would it make if we just left well enough alone, anyway?
OK, we figured we should at least ask how much paint costs around here. Just a couple of blocks from the Plaza there's a street full of shops selling paint. We guess-timated about four gallons of paint would do the job, and we found out it costs 10 soles (around US$3) per gallon. We looked at each other, took a breath, and made the leap. Various tools (brushes, rollers, etc.) added another 50 soles to the tab. Before it's done, we'd buy two more gallons of paint, including a bucket of nice-looking Lucuma trim paint (a reddish-brown named for a Peruvian tree) for a total cost of 522 soles (US$186.43).
The lighting in the apartment was somewhat 'severe' when we arrived, but we hung a paper Chinese shade that we bought in Lima over the new warm-white bulb, and things looked much better. We decided not to mess with anything else in the 220 volt (!) system after Carolyn absently plugged in her 110 volt hair curler one day and watched it proceed to melt. Luckily, a 220 volt replacement was cheap – costing about US$6.
So we got a much nicer apartment to stay in and, when we averaged it out over a two and a half month period, it means our Ayacucho digs only cost us US$174.57 per month. So that means that over a 2 1/2 month period, we saved a total of US$63.57! Well, you know, it kind of depends on how you look at it. The whole experience gave us another chance to see how daily life works for the people who live here. We also got a chance to burn off what most people might consider a bit of excess energy. And the end result makes the apartment a whole lot more livable. The final touch was a doormat reading Hogar Dulce Hogar (Home Sweet Home) to replace the tattered old one with a fish on it. We'll certainly are enjoying our last two weeks in Ayacucho living in a bright, clean, and well-furnished apartment, and we can feel proud of what we leave behind.
While we're on the subject of costs, and because we're near the mid-point of our six-month trip, a review of our daily costs in South America might interest some readers. Also, it may be handy to think of our trip as consisting of three distinct segments, with different costs attached to each. We began with 16 days on a cruise ship out of San Diego, a leisurely and somewhat luxurious way to go south. Then we rented a cheap apartment for two months in Ayacucho, an indigenous and inexpensive city in the Andes. Our next segment, through Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay, will entail considerably more travel, more hotel rooms, more dinners out, and the higher costs associated with that lifestyle.
First it must be said that we chose to take an extended trip to South America for several reasons other than the fact that it's a really interesting place, and we had a connection here that would allow us more of an 'insiders look' than most people might get. An important consideration was that the US dollar, which has been losing ground against various world currencies, has been generally holding its own in South America, where the local monetary gnomes work to keep their currencies competitive in order to maintain their US markets. A quick look at European prices made countries like Peru, Chile, and Argentina look very attractive.
The high costs of travel to a distant country were another important reason we decided to turn it into a six-month trip. Plus, retirement meant we had no jobs or other reasons to return quickly, and expensively. It's the older people, and the wonderfully footloose young who can take such long trips. In our case, it was time to really make the most of the benefits of retirement. And we'd be able to average-out our long-distance travel costs (like airfare) over the whole six-month period. While we were in our destination countries, we'd travel like the locals do – mostly by inexpensive and comfortable long-distance buses.
If you want to save money in foreign lands, living like the locals is the obvious way to do it. And it's usually a lot more interesting. But there can be big differences in costs between living in small Andean cities, and trying to make it in world-class cities like Lima. Spending most of our time in the highlands, besides being more interesting than big-city life, did much to help our budget.
We won't include the cost of the cruise ship that got us here, because that can depend a lot on how much you want to drink and carouse, and plenty of other factors. Not that we're opposed to carousing, but you can go online, pick out a cruise, and figure that part out for yourself. We'll begin with our expenses since leaving the ship in Lima.
So, how much has our land travel, and living in the Andes, cost us so far?
We started our time in Peru by staying at a way-too-expensive Ramada Hotel at the airport and then flying to Ayacucho. Those were a couple of expensive moves that we wouldn't repeat next time. Even with that included, our total costs in-country for the past two months have averaged out to be US$62 per day -- that's for both of us, or $31/each. That works out to about US$2000 per month – even including a week in a very nice hotel in the Miraflores area when we went to Lima for the holidays. During that time we ate all our meals out, including a delicious but extravagant US$100 dinner on New Year's Eve. The costs for our Lima stay averaged US$150 per day.
Meanwhile, back in Ayacucho, where we go out for dinner with drinks and a decent glass of wine at very good places anytime we choose, but also enjoy simple dinners in the apartment, our costs have amounted to a modest US$51 per day, or US$1581 per month. That amount includes all of the money we've spent here, even including the painting and repair work on the apartment, plus a bit of new furniture we'll leave behind. While we carefully record everything we spend we believe in living a rich and full life. Luckily, we don't tend to gravitate toward frivolous, expensive gadgets and the like, but we also don't worry about spending a bit of money if it makes sense. It's nice to hear the little shop ladies say, "Gracias, Papi." when I buy something from them.
So, in effect, we've found out something important on this trip that we think will be applicable to future travels in other places. Two people can live a very good life here in the Peruvian highlands, volunteer to help out at one of the many worthy programs operating here (Finca, the orphanage, various schools), learn a bit of Spanish along the way, and enjoy some travel time to see other parts of the country, all for about US$1500 to US$2000 per month. For anyone willing to enjoy living like the locals (and even likely at a bit higher level), this is a lesson that is probably applicable to many other countries. And that seems like a good deal to us.
A footnote: I got an intestinal parasite of some kind (the locals say, 'Don't worry. It happens to all of us.'), and went to a local Clí nica recommended by our friends here. For 35 soles (US$12.50) the Doctor gave me a checkup and wrote out the lab work required. The Lab cost me 32 soles (US$11.43), and the results came back with a positive for intestinal parasites. The Doctor reviewed the Lab results and gave me a prescription for a two-day treatment of Secnidasol 1g., which cost 62 soles (US$22.15). Total medical costs during our time in Ayacucho: US$46.08.
See more pictures of the apartment project in the Photo Album, S. American Odyssey: The $100 Apartment