Obviously Machu Picchu (probably towards the end of the trip, so something to really look forward to).
Nazca Lines
Lake Titicaca
Maybe some Amazonian Jungle.
Colca Canyon
Any other suggestions?
Did you feel particularly safe there? My sister married a man from Peru, and wants to hike to Machu Picchu with a group. She invited us but while I think I would be safe in Lima, I’m not so sure about a 9 day hike.
Hmm, my experience was the reverse, I felt much safer on the Inca Trail than I did in Lima.
Brings back some very fond memories. Thanks for posting these.
Co-incidentally, we just got back from our second trip to Peru.
Like Diosa said, you really don’t want to rent a car in Peru–the roads expectations are completely different. Frex: suppose you’re on a six-lane road and want to turn right. Which lane should you be in? If you said “the right lane,” you’re not ready to drive in Peru. If you said, “it doesn’t matter,” then you’re ready.
As for car and driver, I’m not sure. We met a woman in Lima who had a hired car, but she was only staying in Lima, so her driver was just going home for the night. She was paying like $100 a day, although she though she could have gotten a better price than that with some bargaining.
So probably planes or busses. The busses aren’t terribly expensive, and there are quality bus companies that go everywhere you want to go. Plane fares can vary, and we’ve gotten much better prices from TACA and Star Peru than the more well-known LAN.
We like to travel to a limited number of places, so we can spend more in-depth time in one place and spend less time travelling from place to place. It sounds like you might want to see more things in more places. In that case, consider as a baseline doing a tourist loop via bus along the southern coast, through Nazca to Arepquipa, then to Lake Titicaca and on to Cusco and the Sacred Valley. At the end, fly back to Lima.
My boss is a big South American traveller, and he does like travelling to a lot of different places. He suggests travelling the southern tourist loop I described above. In particular, here are his comments:
-There are some interesting things near Pisco / Ica that are worth stopping for a day or so (the Huacachina Oasis and Paracas come to mind).
-Nazca is most impressive from the air. If you want to rent a plane, it’s worth a lengthy stop, but otherwise just stop for a moment on your way through.
-Arequipa is a beautiful city, and worth stopping for a few days. It’s also the base from which to take a trip to Colca Canyon.
-Lake Titicaca is a must-see, particularly visiting the some of the islands in the lake.
-There are a lot of things in the Sacred Valley that are well worth seeing, in addition to Machu Picchu, the village of Ollantaytambo in particular. If you want to spend more time in the Sacred Valley, we’ve got more suggestions, as we just spent a couple weeks there.
-If you have some extra time, the central-Peru Andean towns of Huancayo and Ayacucho are worth visiting.
Thought I’d bump this thread since we just got back.
First off, thanks for all of the advice and tips, we built a lot of the trip around them. But…
For some reason when we got to Lima’s airport after a red eye flight, stupidity sank in and we decided to rent a car instead of taking a bus through the country. Not just any car or a smart one like a 4x4, we rented a Fiat Uno for the five of us with our luggage. It was the only manual transmission available and with a rate of $180 a week, we thought it was a deal. We added a rental Garmin GPS to the mix at $10 a day and after taxes and airport fees at the end of the trip, the rental was over $800 for two weeks.
Leaving Lima immediately, the GPS directed us out to the desert countryside and to our first destination a couple hours away, Pisco. After the first hour, a road stop by a fast talking group of police officers asked us where we were headed. We steadied our wallets as we had heard about bribery, but maybe since we had two young kids in the back, we were given a free pass every time we got stopped. We checked out a couple hotels and hostales (which in Peru are just small hotels) and were accosted by people trying to sell us a tour to the Ballestas Islands at 80 soles a piece. We decided to head further down the coast a bit and got to the adorable city of Paracas. A hotel a block from the Malecon which had views of the bay became our home for the night. We parked the car on the street and got two rooms for 140 soles (about $50) which included a rooftop breakfast. The room was alright and we made the bad decision of choosing cool night air and leaving the balcony door open while the kids left theirs shut and stayed in the non-airconditioned/fanned room. They slept better since they weren’t infested with mosquitoes. Dinner was at a place called Las Brisas where I enjoyed my first Peruvian dish, lomo saltado, which is pretty much salted beef and veggies, but still quite delicious. The next morning, the hotel sold us a trip to the Ballestas islands for 40 soles a person. The kids loved seeing the sea lions and humboldt penguins. We had left at 8am for the trip and were back by 10am, which was way too long to go without sunscreen.
The car was loaded up again for the next city, Ica, we stopped for gasoline as we had heard about the infrequency of gas stations and the car had a sticker on it stating “ONLY 97 GASOLINE”. We wanted to heed the notice, but in the weeks we drove through Peru, we only saw two stations that had it.
The traffic was bad when we got to Ica and dodging cars, tuktuks, pedestrians, and wheel-swallowing potholes kept us on our toes. But we had seen traffic in Shanghai, Delhi, Cairo, and had driven through Jamaica, so we were actually pretty ok with it at this point. After looking for a place to stay, we talked with a local about where to go for lunch and she suggested going out of the city a couple minutes to Lago Huacachina. Ica’s a bustling city and leaving it to the Huacachina immediately submersed us into the desert environs. Huge sand dunes encircled the lake (which was more of a large pond) surrounded by palm trees and restaurants. The little town was filled with hippy sand surfers and two hotels with pools, we picked the first one we saw and for another 150 sole night, we slept with the windows shut.
The next day, after a morning swim and a visit to the Ica museum with its mummies, we piled into the car again and headed down to Nazca (or Nasca). The Pan-American highway surprisingly cuts right across part of the Nazca lines and as the clock read 4:30 pm, we decided to try the airport first to see if we could get a flight in before they were closed for the day. After some bargaining between several airlines, we loaded up in a tiny 8 seater plane and took off. The one thing I hadn’t read before was how the planes see the lines. It’s…nauseating. Here’s this little plane and there’s the monkey on the ground. The plane with tilt at a 45 degree angle so those on the right get a good view. Then the plane does a horizontal loop and banks the other way so the other side of the plane gets their chance. Repeat 20-30 times. My partner had turned completely green and sweaty and vowed never to do that again.
We headed into the city of Nazca and checked into our hotel, the first one we actually had a reservation for, called Casa Andina. It’s a chain that we actually grew to love. They were extremely accommodating, helpful when we had change plans/get info and had a good breakfast buffet. Their locations were also in the “good” parts of town and usually near the Plaza de Armas or a landmark. The night was beautiful and a block away from the hotel were a bunch of restaurants that served classic Peruvian fare and some pizzas and cheeseburgers too.
After breakfast, we loaded up the car for the long drive from Nazca to Arequipa. And what a long drive that was. If you look at the map, as we had, you’ll see the coastal highway goes all they way down to a city called Camana’ and then heads inland to Arequipa. What the map doesn’t really show is the start of driving along high cliffs without guardrails and passing semis that can’t quite make it up the hills. Road signage was mostly “DANGEROUS CURVES AHEAD” and while some parts had it that didn’t need it, some were the opposite. We got to Camana’ at about 6pm, the sun was beginning to set as we ate dinner and we wondered if we should go a couple more hours at night to Arequipa or bed down here.
The road at night to Arequipa was tense. The nice part was a lot of it was surprisingly flat straight driving, just outside of Arequipa was when we would start the hairpin turns and the even slower semi trucks that we had to pass. My hands grew sore and tired from gripping tightly onto nearby objects and my toes curled onto the imaginary passenger side brakes as another curve made the car hug the side of the road as someone wasn’t fast enough to pass coming the other way. We parked the car inside the garage at the Casa Andina and went straight to bed. The next morning, two of the kids threw up from the altitude sickness. I popped my first Diamox the night before and I didn’t have any problems for the rest of the trip.
The next morning we got up, had a quick breakfast, and wandered the streets of Arequipa to see the mummy and the monastery. The mummy was being touched up but the monastery was very cool to explore. After that, a bit of shopping in a gift shop just outside of the Plaza de Armas where we got the best deals than anywhere else in Peru. We decided that we were going to head to Chivay after lunch. We had received recommendations of a restaurant called Los Guisos Arequpenos on the outskirts of town that served cuy (guinea pig). Without a car or a long taxi ride with the taxi waiting for you after you were done, this place would be a bit on the obtainable side. It was worth it though. It was definitely a fancy joint by Peruvian standards and we all ordered a regular dish and then one cuy. Luckily, the cuy came to the table last, its teeth and claws still intact as it laid spread on a dish with veggies. My partner peeled the skin off of the rodent’s back and revealed a dark chicken meat like quality. A couple pictures and a small bite and the rest stayed on the table.
Stomachs full, we left the restaurant and on towards Chivay, a small base town for those going to Colca Canyon. This is where 4 out of 5 of us emptied our stomachs ('cept me who was taking the Diamox). We drove up into the clouds and on the high planes, we saw the vicunas (or alpacas) roaming around. We left the main road and followed a dirt road for 30 minutes as night began to descend and return into a paved winding road that led us down to the Casa Andina in Chivay.
We were told by the rental car company that we could not take the car to Colca Canyon. For $80 US we got the security guard at the hotel to take us there in his station wagon the next morning. Well, after the altitude sickness was over at least. The road, or more accurately trail, to the canyon was really rough and was one lane wide most of the way. We got to the busy condor pass and apparently it’s a quiet place, no talking-only whispering, or you will be shushed. Oddly enough, the condors really showed up more when people started talking and ignoring the shushers. It was definitely a worthwhile trip to see this huge birds soar around and above us. On the way back down the mountain, we heard a loud hsssssssssss and the driver got out of his car to find a flat tire. Somehow, we managed to escape them with the Fiat, but his 4x4 station wagon didn’t.
We ended up spending two nights in Chivay since we didn’t want to get in the little car again for a bit and maybe acclimatize some more before heading on to Puno. Just outside of the city were the hot spring pools. The hottest one, at 39 degrees Celsius, felt so warm and inviting.
The next day, was a surprisingly pleasant drive to Puno. The landscape was gorgeous and we stopped and had a picnic at a random lake and the scenery reminded us of Scotland. Driving through the congested and confusing streets of Juliaca and we arrived in Puno at the Casa Andina Private Collection. This one boasted of having oxygen in every room and being the only hotel on Lake Titicaca that had it so we paid the extra bucks to stay here. Unfortunately, what they meant was that if you wanted it in your room, they’d bring the machine to you and the first 15 minutes were free. We all tried it out and those feeling altitude sickness felt a bit better.
The hotel hooked us up with a 1/2 day private tour to the Uros floating islands. Which were cool/disappointing. Of course, with any touristy place, the locals were hawking their wares. These were tapestries allegedly designed by the island inhabitants and sewn right there. (We did see the same tschotschkes in Cuzco and everywhere else later). The reed huts were cool and we got to step inside and see the solar powered TV basking two children in its blue glow as they watched a cartoon Easter special. Behind another hut was the floating island’s plastic recycling pile and what originally felt anthropological lost a bit of its mystique. It’s obvious that modern technology and culture are going to catch up with everyone, it’s just a bit sad to see it when you don’t expect it.
We stayed in Puno two nights and then headed on to 4 nights in Cusco. Halfway through the drive it became almost a stream of towns. Most of the trip involved long empty stretches, so this was a bit reassuring. Cusco’s one way cobblestone streets near the Plaza de Armas proved too much for our GPS and we ended up parking 2 blocks from the hotel and walking there. The city is definitely a foodie’s town with many great restaurants to try out. For the kids, however, it was the first city we had been in that had a McDonald’s. After that, the kids went to their room while we scoped out our way to get to Machu Picchu. It had been just re-opened for 4 days after the devastating flooding and all of the tour operators were scrambling. The first two we went to were sold out for the days we were there. The third one explained the whole thing and said they could get us tickets.
To get to Machu Picchu:
- You need to get a train ticket from kilometer 82 to Aguas Calientes. The flood waters had washed out a portion of the track so train travel from Cusco was no longer possible. Kilometer 82 was a train station in a very tiny town called Piscocucho.
- You then need to take the train tickets and bring them somewhere to Cusco to get the entrance tickets to Machu Picchu
- Then you need to arrange transportation to Piscocucho
- You can choose to walk 1.5 hours up the mountain from Aguas Calientes or take a 30 minutes bus up the mountain (roundtrip $14 US a person).
The agent we chose in Cusco said that they’d get the train tickets and to come back the next day at 3pm to go with them to get the entrance tickets. So we did that and around 4pm we were told that they were unable to get the train tickets. Umm, poop. So we wandered the city asking other vendors and found a company that could drive to Machu Picchu the back way and it would be longer but cheaper. We plunked down our money and heard from them later that night. “Sorry, there has been a lot of rain up there and a mudslide has made that road impassable.” Umm, poop again. The owner had some connections and diligently tried and was finally able to score us some train tickets for the last day we were in Cusco. That night, at an Aussie owned restaurant called Two Nations, we celebrated over what turned out to be the best meal we had in Peru.
The next day was white water rafting (or more specifically, brown water rafting) and the following was a visit to Sacsayhuaman where we took a taxi up to the site and then walked all the down to the city. After that, we packed up all of our stuff as we were going to be gone the whole next day to Machu Picchu and then making a huge drive the following day.
Our driver picked us up from the hotel in a spacious (at least to us after driving in the Fiat Uno) van that drove us 2 hours up to the city of Ollantaytambo. At that city, we got out of the van and Peru Rail had small buses that took us 30 minutes to Piscocucho. We then waited at the train station where there were vendors selling Snicker bars for 10 soles ($3 US) and “handmade wares” that we saw in Puno. The train took us slowly to Aguas Calientes and in some spots, we could see the twisted train tracks peeking out of the rapids of the river.
To be fair, we only tried 3 restaurants in the city. However, all three were overpriced and rather horrible. Most folks say to bring your own food there and that’s some good advice. After lunch, we hopped up on the bus to the citadel. The single lane winding route zeed back and forth and managed to let the opposing buses pass somehow as we went higher and higher. The view is spectacular and a bit frightening, I could really appreciate not only the work it took to make it, but the work it took to re-discover it.
We had only a couple hours with the tour guide who showed us some novel parts, but it was hard for anyone in the group we were in to focus on him as it seemed to distract from taking it all in. At one point, a huge millipede (or something like it) crawled onto the scene and was more engaging than anything else. After the wonderful experience, we braced ourselves as we went back down the mountain and into town.
The trip back to Cusco by the modes of transportation got us to the hotel at 2am. Five hours of sleep, a quick breakfast, and we were back on the road. This was going to be the hard part as we heard 3 conflicting stories from different people about the route. The road leading from Cusco to Lima via Nazca was apparently flooded and under re-construction. Only one of the stories was right and it was the first one who told us that in a small city called Limatambo the road was closed in the morning and reopened for a very short window at noon. We got to that city at 10:15 in the morning and were told by the police officers to wait because of the dynamite blasting. We asked if there were any other routes and were told that this was the only one. So we waited and had an early lunch. At 11:40am, we queued up to make sure that we would get through and were 6th in line when we did so. At exactly 12, the roads were opened up and it was like a Cannonball Run to get to the otherside. What we didn’t know was that this was not the only bit of construction on the highway for our trip. We stopped 8 more times ranging from 5 minutes to 20 minutes as we tried to get to Nazca. Unfortunately, the roads grew a bit too much for us and with three hours more to go, we stopped in a small town called Puquio.
Puquio was not in any of our 9 Peru guidebooks except a brief sentence in one that said it was a city between Nazca and Cusco. That was it. This was a town that didn’t see any tourism most likely, the folks were friendly but tended to do a double take when they saw us. We found a chicken restaurant that had a hotel (hostal) above it with rooms to rent. As we ate our chicken and fries (potatoes were served almost everywhere we went and with everything), some children were looking in the window at us. We invited them into the restaurant and they ate with us as we had ordered enough for two meals. After dinner, they brought my SO to a place where he could lock the car up for the night off of the streets and I checked out the hotel. The first thing I noticed was the prostitute working out of the room next to the front desk. According to the police officer we spoke with, this was the nicest accommodations in town, so we figured that it could only get worse. We got two rooms for 55 soles ($18 US) and for the first time, split up the kids and adults as we didn’t feel exactly safe in this town.
We left the next morning, skipping breakfast, and headed for Nazca. We welcomed back our old friend Casa Andina for the night and enjoyed the air conditioner as we forgot how hot the desert coast can be. Somewhere along the line, however, someone tried to break into our car rendering the passenger door, the driver’s door, and the trunk unopenable by key. The rear window was cracked just enough to squeeze an arm with pliers in there and undo the lock and we were happy that the locked gas cap and ignition still worked.
With a budget of 6 hours from Nazca to Lima, we left at 10:30 am for our 11:45 pm flight thinking we had plenty of time. We stopped for a leisurely lunch back in Paracas and then hit the road and encountered the fabled Lima mist that we hadn’t seen before. The fog hung thick over the highway which slowed down traffic. We got to Lima at 6:30pm and because I’m horribly paranoid, I suggested that we find the airport before having dinner. Two and a half hours later, we get to the airport and realized that time schedules need to always be stretched.
So that was pretty much the whole journey and I hope that this too might help the next doper travelling down there.
I cannot believe you drove in Peru. I mean, I have nothing but respect for your ability to do so, but I would have probably peed myself. Hell, I almost peed myself just sitting in the back of the cabs we took :eek:
Great pics and a great thread. My barber is going next month, and he’s really jazzed. I hope to go next year, but it may have to wait until right before the world ends in 2012.
I would dearly love to go to Machu Picchu, one day…
Hi StPauler, I’m getting ready to head down next Friday to Cuzco do hike the Inca Trail. While you were down there did you talk to anyone or hear anything about the trail conditions? After the flooding we heard all kinds of conflicting reports about how things were running down that way.
Can’t wait to get down there!
I did have a brief conversation with a couple hikers at the Piscocucho train station who were doing the hike. They were on their way back from Machu Picchu and said that hiking the trail made it definitely worthwhile. Unfortunately, I didn’t hear about the trail conditions (but they didn’t look exceptionally muddy, if that helps :))
Hiking the trail, if you’re up to it, is definitely worth it. You will get to see ruins that are only accessible to those who walk. And they are some truly awesome ruins. In addition, you see them in their overgrown, wild, natural state. No other tourists but yourselves on the site. That always adds something to the experience for me.
It’s not easy but it’s worth it. When you camp for the night, there is no light or sound for miles, it’s an awesome thing truly.
Happy you came and enjoyed my country. Once you see Machu Picchu, you can shoot yourself because there ain’t nothing better.
Driving in Peru is always tricky.
I’m sad you thought Lima is run down. It’s a gazillion times better than 20 years ago. Police with riot gear and dogs are par for the course in Lima. Political demonstrations are vey common right down Abancay Ave. (in front of the Congress and two clock for the Government Palace) and they can be a bit “too lively”.
To each his/her own, however and glad you liked it.
Come back soon.