I’m just so grateful for my life. It’s been a hard row to hoe to get here, but I really am starting to believe that I have “arrived.”
As the pandemic years began to recede in the rear-view mirror, I settled into my new career and budget, and house projects got completed, I slowly began to feel stuck. I’d expected that well before now, I would have got back into a travelling routine, taking advantage of my new place in the world to explore short-haul inexpensive flights to places I likely would have never considered exploring if I’d continued to live in the Canadian travel hellscape.
In September, I started to plan a November vacation, my second vacation of 2025, so that was already a huge quality of life improvement! The dogs’ dad and I had made an arrangement that when he came back to Mexico, he’d be available to house and cat sit. My original plan was to rent a car and go road tripping, maybe to Palenque. I started to crunch some numbers, and then stopped. It was time to think outside the box. A road trip isn’t a cheap vacation here, especially if you’re renting a car. Maybe instead of one big domestic trip, I could do a few small trips, including an international one! I decided to use Chat GPT as a travel agent and asked it where I could go with the following parametres:
-roughly $1,000USD budget for a week for flights, hotels, and major activities
-no more than two hours time difference
-direct flight of six hours or less from Mérida or Cancún
-destination country having a language of English, French, or Spanish
-primarily a city break, but opportunity for a quick day trip away from the city
-decent safety profile, especially for a solo female traveller
The answers were rather predicable and included CDMX, Guatemala City, San José, Panama City, Cartagena, Havana, Quito, Lima, and even wild cards of Madrid (jet lag) and Montevideo (no direct flights).
Lima immediately stuck out as being the best option — on a different continent (never mind hemisphere!), a culinary destination, a Spanish similar to Mexican, not yet overly touristy (looking at you, Cartagena), and being discoverable in only three days.
I don’t think I’ve ever made a travel decision this fast! I checked dates with my friend, compared flights to the ADO schedule to Cancún, and bought my tickets right then. I’m pretty sure I didn’t even sleep on the decision, that’ s how travel-hungry I was!
October and most of November flew by in a work haze. That’s year end for my industry, and then it’s dead quiet from American Thanksgiving well into January. I was hoping to be on vacation the Friday afternoon before I left on Monday, but didn’t get off until Sunday afternoon. I tried to not be annoyed, knowing that my clients would be off at the same time as me and so I’d enjoy a few days at home before work started to trickle in.
I don’t think I’ve ever been chill about a trip ever. I just did not have time to build up any anxiety about it. My attitude was that I just needed my passport and phone, Peru has stores, and come what may. Very unlike me, but I like it!
Packing was very easy on Sunday since my house is so organised now and I had plenty of spots in the house to set up packing stations for clothes, electronics, snacks, and toiletries. I’ve done a few trips now with this suitcase/purse/backpack combo, and it’s just right for a week-long trip. I picked out the packing cubes that best fill the suitcase and put the rest away for the next longer plane trip where I’d take a larger suitcase.
The weather in Lima promised to be cool by Mérida standards, like our mornings are right now, so I didn’t make any special purchases, just packing lightweight trousers and tee shirts with my favourite cardigan, and that wound up being the perfect outfit. I did add a fleece and two dresses that I didn’t need, but, really, my packing job was stellar.
While the flight from Cancún is short, I had to get to Cancún on ADO’s schedule. So Monday and Friday ended up being very long travel days from home to Peru and vice-versa, but the way they ended up coming together was exactly what I needed to enjoy my three full days in Lima.
I was up at 5:30AM on Monday to be ready for a 6:15AM Uber to take me to Altabrisa, where ADO would take me straight to T2 at Cancún airport, arriving about 11:30AM local time, with my flight not being until almost 6:00. A five-hour flight would have me in Lima by 11:00PM, and I was told to plan at least a full hour if not two for deplaning and transport to my hotel in Miraflores. I’d prebooked airport transfers with Taxidatum, so that definitely reduced a lot of stress.
As expected, I dozed on the ride to Cancún, so the trip flew by. Check-in and security at the airport were fast, and I had a full four hours to spend before boarding would begin. So I splurged on four hours at the MERA Lounge, and this experience was exactly what I needed to get off the adrenaline rush of the previous week of work and into vacation mode! I took full advantage of the free food and drinks, but spent most of the time in a cosy chair catching up on my true crime podcasts while colouring on my iPad.
The afternoon flew by and before I knew it, it was time to go to my gate, where I received a sweet confirmation:
I flew economy and did not want to pay the extra to choose my seat, so I was very grateful to have a window seat at the front of the plane! We were somewhere over Central America when the most amazing (and surprising) smell of buttery pastries starting wafting in from what I thought was premium economy, but the day held one more surprise for me as the attendants began to hand out warm ham and cheese paninis (the source of the smell), drinks, cake, and chocolate to the economy class passengers. I cannot remember the last time, other than, of course, Aeromexico business class, that I got a proper free meal on a plane.
Well fed, I drifted off to sleep shortly after we crossed the boundary between North and South America, to wake up on the other side of the Equator as we began our descent into Lima. What a quick and easy trip!
Arrival in Lima was painless and orderly, such a far cry from Canadian airports. I was processed in Spanish, with the questions being basic — First time in Peru? Where are you coming from and where do you live? How many days are you staying? Where are you staying? Welcome!
It wasn’t until I entered the arrivals hall that I remember to turn off Airplane Mode to find a Whatsapp from my driver. I was very early — I’d booked the car for 11:59PM and it was only about 11:20PM — but he was letting me know he was on site and to give him a heads-up when I was ready for pickup. We met up only a couple minutes later, with the parking being right outside the entrance to arrivals.
The trip to my hotel in Miraflores was very quick, with none of the notorious Lima traffic at that hour. The roads were in impeccable condition, and most of the drive was along the coast, before we climbed high up above the Pacific to the residential zone. You’ll learn more about this road in my next post.
The hotel boasts 24-hour reception, and there was someone waiting at the front desk. Check-in was smooth, and the room waiting for me at the end of such a long day was clean and had a shower with plenty of hot water and good pressure. It took a good couple of hours to wind down enough to finally get some sleep.
What an utterly amazing and perfect travel day!