Peru express
Peru is often called the »Thailand of South America« - it's relatively easy to travel, it's adapted to the western tourists and it's affordable. At the end we stayed longer as we planned (but also because we met some cool guys and we desperately needed a break from the hustle and bustle of big cities).
Lima, the capital
Lima lies at the Pacific Ocean and has some beaches for surfers. We stayed there for a few days, but never had beach weather. The old town is nice and the Plaza del Armas is a huge square with important and beautiful buildings around. If you’re in town on a Saturday, you may see a wedding and usually it’s OK to be in the church at the time of ceremony. We attended two or three.
Minibuses can take you on a northern or southern city tour. It’s cheap – one is 5 and the other 10 soles, but the minibuses are packed and they don’t have many stops. But it’s OK in order to get an overview of the town.
As a big city, you can find many shopping centres and cinemas, western food chains and food markets. But if you intend to do any shopping, wait for
Cusco.
Cusco
What a beautiful city! We really enjoyed our stay here – we had great food (really can recommend the restaurant Salvatore), the main square is one of the most beautiful in South America, they even offer massages (20-30 soles), interesting museums, markets and street gambling. But the main reason, why everybody comes here is because it’s the gateway for
Machu Picchu.
Machu Picchu
The best preserved Inca town high in the mountains attracts thousands of visitors per week. It’s really a magnificent and breath taking view, but to get there is the other side of the medal. You have two choices:
by train or by car. The more expensive one is the train, but it’s a lot more comfortable. We unfortunately took the car and were disappointed – not only that the road is very dangerous (forget the Bolivian death road), you also have to walk 10 kilometres to Aguas Calientes or take the train for 28 us dollars. You can read more on how not to go to Machu Picchu
here.
Nazca
We arrived in
Nazca by night bus and weren’t very fit. We immediately took a taxi directly to the airport and searched for a flight operator there. The prices vary according to the passenger number – in the bigger planes you can get a flight for 70 US dollars, in the smaller ones for 80 US Dollars. But be aware – this is a lot different from the normal passenger planes and if you’re not used to sharp manoeuvres and turns you may get sick. We did. But the view is just thrilling and surreal.
Ica
In Ica we stopped just for one reason – desert and
sandboarding. You have to go to the
oasis Huachachina, from where the desert tours start. First a fun and adrenalin ride with the buggies takes you to the heart of the desert, then you have three stops for sandboarding . The tour ends on a high sand dune from where the sunset can be admired. In our opinion this was one of the best value tours in Peru (35 soles).
Paracas
From Paracas you can visit the Ballestas islands, also called “
the poor man’s Galapagos”. We never saw so many birds in one place. Sea lions and penguins can also be seen. On the Paracas peninsula beautiful beaches and cliffs can be visited and a modern museum about the national park is not far away.
Huanchaco
This is a typical
surfers town: laid back, lots of bars, restaurants and waves. They say it’s the birthplace of surfing, so we decided to try. And it went really well. Hawaii, Australia, Bali, here we come. We also visited interesting ruins from the Chan Chan era, but most of the time we enjoyed our break from the hard life of a traveller.
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