One of the many questions we regularly get is “How do you guys spend your day while travelling?”.
It’s a reasonable question as most adults only have a few hours of free time each day outside the typical working hours. When they are faced with the prospect of an unstructured day, some people do tend to second-guess whether it’s something they would like to do, especially since weekends are spent mostly bumming resting from the working week. The fear is that all that free time in (mini) retirement is wasted bingeing on Netflix in bed (in the longer term, really letting life go by completely wasted!) 😀
For the SippingCoconuts, we try to maintain some structure to our day rather than winging it because yes, IT IS easy to fall into the trap of bumming about unless you’ve got a system. (Pro-tip: Having systems always trumps wishful goals or plans)
Therefore, let’s take how Mr.C and the CocoJrs spent their day in Cusco last Wednesday (while Ms.K was trekking up to Machu Picchu) as an illustration of an average day in our mini-retirement life.
Our typical day in Cusco
7.00 a.m – Pretty much everyone gets up this early. It helps that sunrise is at 5 a.m. and we get an early night’s rest every night.
7.30-8.30 a.m. – We prepare breakfast in our rented hillside apartment which has glorious views of Cusco valley (the feature pic of this post was taken from our bedroom, cloudy weather incoming when this pic was taken). Recently our breakfast menu has been eggs, bread with jam/butter or avocados, and milk with some Milo! YES, we can get Milo here!
8.30-9.00 a.m. – CocoJr#1 has some spelling lessons.
9.00-10.00 a.m – It’s play time! Go-go-Power Rangers wrestling with the Jrs in bed! Doubles up as exercise too as we throw in some sit-ups and push-ups and yoga stretches!
10.00-11.30 a.m. – Mr.C needed some time to do investment research today, so he did that while the kids self-entertained with crayons, pen and paper.
11.30 a.m.-12.00 p.m. – Visit to the Cusco Regional Museum using our 10 day tourist pass. Mr.C also set up lunch plans with some friends we made on the road.
12.00-1.30 p.m. – Had a special meal today, chinese food! Peru has something called Chifa restaurants which serve chinese food. Mr.C ordered a large plate of stir fried beef kuey teow. Oh the taste of home!
1.30-3.00 p.m. – Went to the local San Pedro market for some awesome fresh juice. We had mango+passion fruit+milk. 7 Soles for a blender full of juice that fills up 3 glasses, total win! Yum! Then we also went to a supermarket for some groceries.
3.00-4.30 p.m. – Back to our apartment. Played and ran around in the garden of our compound. Tea time was hot drink and biscuits. A protip every parent knows is to ALWAYS factor in running around time for the kids for a peaceful day in general.
4.30-5.00 p.m. – Shower time for everyone before the temperature drops. Cusco’s temperature ranges around mid-teens in the day and starts to drop in the evening to around 5 degrees Celsius at night.
5.00-5.30 p.m – More play time with the CocoJrs. Power Rangers wrestling appears to be the current favourite.
5.30-6.30 p.m. – Free time for everyone. Mr.C spent more time reading up on current news and some travel research. Kids play among themselves or with paper and crayons.
6.30-7.30 p.m. – Dinner preparation.
7.30-8.30 p.m – Dinner time! We had quinoa soup with vegetables and soy sauce chicken (aka ayam kicap). We’re quite happy to be able to find some familiar ingredients in the local supermarket. Not all locations are like this unfortunately. Followed by washing up of dishes.
8.30-9.00 p.m. – Brush teeth and story time before tucking into bed.
So that’s an average SippingCoconuts day on the road. Some days are rest days so it is more chilled while some days are full on with activities if we have any tours or travel/exploration scheduled.
Having been on the road for close to 3 months now (whoa!), we’ve learnt and are happy to share that our top tips for long term travel with kids:
- Set a structure to the day.
- Don’t feel guilty if you don’t follow your structured plan 100% because….life. 🙂
- It also helps to have free time scheduled for the adults to indulge in their pursuits to keep the mind active.
- Set aside days when you just relax. Life on the road is still normal life right? So we need those “weekends”.
