This facial hair thing is apparently no joke. The stuff just grows, I guess. Who knew?

So, I let my beard grow out quite long when I was in Patagonia. Not only did it keep my face warm in the cold and windy wilderness, I was quite enjoying the whole “mountain man” vibe.

But… would you trust this guy?

So when I arrived in Tarapoto, north of Lima in the jungles of Peru, I figured not only would my face not need the warmth anymore, I should probbbbably try a look more like I’d seen a warm bed and a shower sometime this century…. or at least not that I’m trying to start my own bean-to-bar chocolate company in Brooklyn.

So with the help of my valiant $30 Norelco beard trimmer and about 45 minutes of patiently attacking the intense shag carpet that had grown beneath my chin (seriously, it was a jungle down there)…

I emerged victorious! And looking relatively like a civilized human again.

Relatively. 😉