Travel Tip 157
How to beat the heat
Looks like it’a a hot summer this year up in the northern hemisphere.
Heat waves in Europe and North America seems to get worse every year and what I’ve seen in the news this past week is wild. Honestly, it makes me feel better about the winter cold here in Cusco. I won’t complain about having to use a space heater or sleep with a hot water bottle.
Here are my top five tips for traveling to escape the heat.
June is winter in Peru and last week you can see I was somewhere very cold - it even snowed that night!
1. Go up in elevation or down in latitude
If you are near any mountains, get as high up there as you can. Is there somewhere that’s a higher elevation where you can drive up to cooler weather? If you can’t go up, can you go down south? Remember, summer in the northern hemisphere is winter here in the south. It’s also the low season in Patagonia, so flights, hotels and tours have significant discounts.
When I visited Salvador, Bahía in Brazil afternoons were always hot and lots of people just sat in the ocean.
2. Focus on the water
Traveling or not, plan your day around getting wet. If you’re stuck in a city, go to a swimming pool or if all else fails, find a yard with sprinklers. You don’t have to run around like a 6-year-old, though that’s a lot of fun. Just get a lawn chair and sit in the shade with the sprinkler keeping your shirt damp. My favorite is to find a lake or river I can jump in, but if the ocean is more your thing go to the Pacific Northwest. The Oregon and Washington state coasts have deliciously cold water. Alaska has even colder water.
Another thing I loved about Salvador, Bahía was the nightlife. Lots of people slept in the afternoon and went out at night.
3. Plan morning and evening activities
When I lived in Morocco, summer heat was unbearable. I remember a couple weeks when it got up to 48C (118F) in the day and cooled down to 40C (104F) at night. People got up early and stayed up late, but took a significant siesta during the heat of the day. I worked from 8am-noon and then from 4-8pm, giving me a 4-hour lunch break. If you’re on vacation, consider taking a very long time for lunch somewhere cool and try taking a siesta. Naps aren’t just for kids. Sleep through the afternoon and do outdoor activities after the sun goes down.
I spent a wonderful day with Ikam Expeditions, sitting in the shade and photographing birds.
4. Chill out
I don’t mean you have to put a freezer gel pack in your bra, though that does feel wonderful on a hot day. I mean go for low-effort activities. Go birding, i.e. sit in the shade and don’t move while you watch birds. Go to a cave that has a lower temperature than outside and just hang out where it’s cooler.
If you don’t want air conditioning, can you find somewhere cool like Cenote Dos Ojos? Cenotes were my favorite part of my trip to the Yucatán with my mom in 2017.
5. Retreat to air conditioning
This is a last-ditch option for me, since I love being outside almost as much as I hate 100ºF weather. It’s a tough call, but if your choices are outside and hot or inside and cool, go for the A/C. Try the movies, library, mall or anywhere that’s indoors and has something to do. The first time I went to Iquitos I’ll admit the heat got to me. I was supposed to interview some biologists one afternoon but rescheduled the interview and instead went to a museum with A/C.
And if none of those tips work for you, just come to Peru.
I’m typing this wearing sheepskin slippers, wool socks, jeans and a thick alpaca sweater. Winter in Cusco, at over 11,000 feet above sea level, will be a sweet relief for anybody coming from Europe.
This was one of those trips that changes how you see the mountains.
Did you see how much I loved my trip to Huaraz?
Here’s two blogs from my amazing trip with the Adventure Travel Association.
Like so many great hikes in Peru, this goes to high altitude but it totally worth it!
New blog post: Laguna 69
This was my second time hiking up to Laguna/Lake 69 and it was even better than the first, through the weather was worse. Here’s everything you need to know for the hike.
Chavín is full of trippy images of beings that blend features of humans, jaguars, snakes and eagles or condors.
New blog post: Chavín
Chavín is one of the oldest cultures in the world and, I argue, by far the trippiest. This was also my second time at Chavín and also much better than the first. Here’s why you should go see this ancient city and how to do.
