It’s a wrap
Some reflected thoughts / helpful hints on our travels in Peru…
Planning/booking
All very easy - everywhere has a website, English versions widely available, any queries answered quickly etc. Some hotels we booked direct, some via booking.com, all on rates which were cancellable up until generally a few days (at worst, 3weeks) beforehand. The Andean Explorer was the exception - this we had to commit to. Similarly, we chose air fares which allowed for cancellations/changes to avoid the uncertainties of trying to claim on insurance. Easy to arrange ‘extras’ via the hotels in advance, whether tours/trips or onward transfer to the next destination.
Flights
We don’t like connecting flights and try to avoid them if we can, but on this occasion we couldn’t as there are no direct flights to Peru from the UK. We opted for Iberia via Madrid and it was excellent. A couple of hours layover in Madrid outbound and on the return and a really easy connection within the same terminal and with just one hand luggage security check to negotiate. Hold baggage checked through to the final destination each way.
Internal flights were with LATAM and Sky. LATAM good, Sky average but fine.
All flights on time, no luggage lost!
Hotels
All hotels good. Decent sized rooms, comfortable beds, nice bed linen etc. Wouldn’t have changed any of them, as they suited us, but other great options are available. Hotels happy to provide box breakfast/lunch in the event of early starts/transfers.
Time zone
We never bothered fully adjusting to the time change (5 hrs from GMT or 6 hrs from BST). When we were there, sunrise was 05.30 and sunset c12 hours later. Presume it doesn’t change much given proximity to the equator. A lot of activities start early and we were often required to be on parade around sunrise, so we operated on roughly a 05.30-06.00 start and a 21.00-21.30 bedtime. Effectively adjusting around 4 hours from BST rather than 6. Worked for us!
Safety / reliability
We had no issues with safety. The locals appeared friendly and pleased to see us. Tourism is still well down on pre-Covid levels, not helped by political unrest early in the year, and they are keen to welcome people to their country. When we were at Lake Titicaca, we were warned by some Lima residents who were staying in the same hotel that Lima was unsafe and we should be wary walking about on our own, as we could easily stray into the wrong areas. We were more cautious there, but encountered no problems. The city is very spread out anyway, so whilst we did a lot of walking grabbing a taxi is essential from time to time. We used Uber without any issues - very helpful not to have to faff about with cash or try to work out whether you were/weren’t paying the right amount.
Everything we had organised worked seamlessly - eg drivers, guides etc all turned up on time. Whatever planning goes into things, you can always be let down on the day - this simply didn’t happen in Peru. Maybe we got lucky, but they do seem very well set up for tourism and I guess with numbers down they have no excuse.
Food & drink
The food was an unexpected bonus - excellent and, we think, very healthy. We seemed to do nothing but eat, but don’t seem to have returned any heavier than when we left! Ceviche features heavily; lots of fresh fruit as you would expect; 3,000+ varieties of potato; 400+ varieties of corn. Tried Alpaca meat on a number of occasions, both cooked and as a carpaccio. Excellent. Gave the guinea pig a miss! In terms of cost, I would say we were typically paying 50-70 soles for a main course, c£10-£12.
Whilst there are a few local wines, the majority is imported from Chile and Argentina. Pisco Sour is the preferred aperitif. The water isn’t supposed to be safe to drink, so we stuck to bottled water but used tap water to brush our teeth, took ice in drinks and ate plenty of salad with no ill effects. Our hotels provided filtered water, generally in glass bottles and replenished regularly.
In conclusion
Definitely one of the best trips we’ve done. We highly recommend a visit. The country is very diverse and every stop on our journey was very different from the last. The people are very friendly and can’t do enough to help. It’s well organised and we had no concerns about security. It’s well set-up for tourists and there’s a great range of accommodation options to suit all budgets.
Altitudes are high, and this can cause issues, but we didn’t have any significant problems. Acclimatisation in Cusco is recommended - we went straight there from the jungle; in retrospect it may have been better to go via Arequipa, which is about 1,000m lower than Cusco, but as I say we didn’t have any significant problems.