Peru – Adventuresbyliv

September 2, 2017 – September 21, 2017

Peru – a country in South America, bordered by Ecuador to the North, Chile to the East and Argentina to the South.

Tourism and agriculture are their money makers, with growing trends like avocado oil, chia and quinoa – Peru is on the up and coming for healthy food exports. Oh and can’t forget about the Peruvian coffee. With the vast differences in climates throughout the country and microclimates along the terraces in the Andes, I’m not sure if there is anything Peru cannot grow…

The stunning natural beauty throughout Peru is mesmerizing. The vast number of activities one can do in this country is truly overwhelming. With the sheer natural beauty around you it is no wonder Peruvians have a strong belief in Pacha Mama (Mother Earth).

The Cordillera Blanca and Negra, the Andes Mountains, Huacachina, Huaraz, Cusco, Arequipa, Machu Picchu, Puerto Maldonado, Puno and Lake Titicaca, Rainbow Mountain, Iquitos and Lima, just to name a few. The list of things to do and places to go is endless. If you had maybe a couple months you could do everything there is to do there… maybe.. maybe not. It’s an outdoorsy person’s dream come true.

Planning for Peru was interesting and challenging. We were going to spend a total of 19 days there, we had to make choices on what we were going to do and omit during this time. Some decisions were made on the fly. Others, required several months of planning ahead.

Tip: Plan Machu Picchu several months ahead… because who really goes to Peru and not plan to see this wonder of the world. Plan what your must-do’s are ahead of time and then decide how you fill up your time as you go. We used outfitters for most of our excursions as it made our trip more efficient and organized. We also chose September because it was the tail end of the high season and the start of the wet season.

Prep: see your travel health clinic to determine what vaccinations you may need and request some diamox for altitude sickness, cipro – for travelers diarrhea , gravol/zofran/dramamine for nausea and car sickness.

Rather than do my usual play-by-play of my trip, I figure I would touch on each of the major highlights of my trip.

Lima

Lima is a sprawled over many Burroughs and inhabited by over 9 million people. The traffic and driving in Lima/Peru deserves a mention: if you get queasy easily maybe shut your eyes and open them when you get there. No jokes. Five lanes of cars for a road marked for 3. The horn and headlights are a form of communication. Honking coming around blind corners. Flashing your headlights when you want to pass someone…oh and speed bumps are the opportunity to pass slower cars…you will see what I mean. Transporter and baby driver got nothing on the craziness happening in Lima. It is truly a life-changing experience and well documented on youtube : https://youtu.be/A4iJ3uhX3xI

Tip: Walking tours are usually “free”, pay with a tip. We took one to the Barranca, a bohemian-inspired Burrough.

Tip: Uber is huge in Peru, I felt safe and even pooled with people, not knowing the language (foolish, looking back). I didn’t know this when I arrived so I paid $60 Soles (~$20 USD) for a taxi from the airport to my hostel.

Another Anthony Bourdain suggestion

As a self-proclaimed foodie. I was excited about coming to Lima as it is a well-known for its growing food scene. Unfortunately in our time frame we were only spending a couple nights (on the tail ends of our trip. The food was so good in Peru that it gets its own section.

Accommodations: Pariwana hostel, Arawi Lima Miraflores

Cusco

A short 1h 20 min flight from Lima, landing at an altitude of 13,000 ft (4,060m). It is the stepping stone to Machu Picchu and a truly wonderful town. Cobblestone roadways and beautiful brick buildings. Many travelers come to Cusco a few days early to acclimate to the altitude. We experienced some mild headaches and slight dizziness initially. We drank a lot of coca tea to counteract it as were not sold on taking the Diamox. Later, we realized the error of our ways and took the drugs to complete Rainbow mountain and our other treks at high altitude.

Tip: If you don’t speak the language I suggest you write down the names and addresses of your hotels so you have something to show the cab drivers.

Accommodations: Hotel Encantada, Hotel Arquelogo

Skylodge Adventure Suites

Another must do for us. This experience was so unique and memorable. I conquered my slight fear of heights for a day. The views were fantastic and the work to get there was worth it. The capsule hotels book out quite early. It was booked for the dates we needed so we chose to do the lunch, via ferrata and zipline experience. Where to book: Skylodge Adventure Suites.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Full transparency: This experience is a little controversial. There is an audience that find these capsules on the side of the Sacred Valley of Cusco an eye-sore and not natural nor a benefit to the beauty that is Peru. You can make your own choice.

Puno – Lake Titicaca

From Cusco: we chose to take a bus to Puno. These buses were affordable and spacious. Nothing like the greyhound buses that travel across North America. I guess they were more like luxury buses. We paid $70 Soles (or $21) using Turismo Mer. You can pre-book your seat so we chose the very front so we could take it all in.

We did two day tours: Sillustani and the Isla de los Uros – Taquile. We had planned an overnight stay but had to switch up our plans due to some food poisoning. The floating islands were the most interesting. These islands are man made out of several stacks of reeds. These reeds are also edible and play a major role in the lives not only as a source of food and shelter.

Accommodations: Mirador del Titikaka

Huaraz – Cordillera Blanca

We had decisions to make regarding the rest of our trip. We wanted to do more hiking so we decided to take a bus from Cusco to Huaraz. We had researched other hikes we could do and saw some amazing pictures of beautiful blue lakes up in the Cordillera Blanca region and we were sold. We navigated this part of the trip on the fly. We used the hotel wifi and our phones to book our bus and hotel. We researched tour guides in this area and decided on a little local outfitter: Inkaland Treks. We booked two day hikes and had such a great experience we booked a third. The views were breathtaking.

Laguna Paron

Easy hike. We drove for 3 hours on a rocky windy road, then hiked 1.5 miles up to the view point. We also walked down and around for several views of this beautiful cerulean blue lake at 4200m/13,780ft above sea level.

Laguna Llaca

Another rather easy hike. Only 1.5 hour car ride this time, with the little hiccup of getting stuck on the rocky road and having to push the van out. Basically we were off roading in a van.. We went with a lovely couple from Germany. The lunch with a view was a great touch. Laguna Llaca is at 4474m/14,678ft elevation and located at the base of Ranralpalca glacier. I would describe it as more of a light turquoise color, absolutely breathtaking. A little bit sad, to see the receding glacier and the obvious effects of climate change right before your eyes.

Laguna 69

This one was my personal favorite of the three lake hikes we did. I would rate this hike as moderate – 8.5 miles up and back and up to an elevation of 4600m/15,092ft. This lake is a brilliant lake was more of a shade of capri blue.

Accommodations: El Tumi Hotel

Rainbow Mountain

Vinicunca is it’s real name. This was on our must do list – so I pre-booked this excursion through Flashpacker Connect. Later to find out while walking around town that it is much cheaper to book with an outfitter in town, so if you want to save some cash that’s an option. I can’t speak for the experience from other vendors, but I will recommend our experience with Flashpackers Connect – it was organized and the timeline was such that we avoided that crowds. Also, they only book small groups so the experience is that much more personal. It started early and we got to the top with just a few others there, making for some great pictures.

Machu Picchu

Plan ahead: if you want to do a trek to Machu Picchu then definitely look at least 6 months ahead of time. We planned 5 months ahead and all the passes for Machu Picchu were sold out for September already. Only 500 passes a day for the Inca Trail are allowed daily and that includes guides and porters. We lucked out and ended up choosing the Salkantay Trek 5D/4N – which was a memorable experience for us. Check out the personal blog on it. Here : https://adventuresbyliv.com/2020/12/12/salkantay-trek-to-machu-picchu/

Peruvian Cuisine

Lima – is a world renowned food mecca. If we had more time I would have loved to try a few more of the restaurants.

La Sagucheria – thin cuts of beef in a sandwich with avocado, tomato and onions. Great first meal. I believe Anthony Bourdain ate here.
Canta Rana – A cute hole in the wall restaurant with loads of different options for seafood. We had fine flounder ceviche, Parmesan scallops and fish in a delicious mushroom sauce.
Cosme – trip advisor hipster, classy restaurant. Loved the decor, multicolored ceiling decor made out of plastic water bottles.

La Mar – OMG the ceviche taster…to die for. Fave was the tuna in shoyu, of course. Schooled on the proper way to eat ceviche. Those spicy corn nuts they give you as snacks like peanuts are supposed to be used with your ceviche. It should be eaten with a spoon and corn nuts applied as such. Amazing.

Cuy – delicacy apparently in this country, just couldn’t get past the whole body serving…including face, claws…the whole shebang.

Alpaca – gamey and kinda chewy – did not taste like chicken to me.

Ceviche – delicious, so many different kinds tried flounder and trout ceviche.

Soups were our favorite – criollo, quinoa, gallina de pollo