Sorry for the length of this!
Peru 9/6/17-11/1/17 (This is very cursory; fuller details and photos are on DW’s blog—although we didn’t include many details on the restaurants…. If interested, follow link from my profile and/or contact me for more specific information)
We retired as of end of July, made a couple of domestic trips, but our first “real” retirement trip was to Peru. Spent most of August conditioning for long treks (after running 5-7 days a week in the last year of work).
We departed for Lima with only 2 weeks of the 8 booked, although we had general ideas of where we’d go (and, we had three restaurant reservations—two for the first week, and one for lunch on 10/31). We each took one 40L backpack and a small daypack so as to avoid checking luggage. One of the first stops after arrival was to buy laundry detergent, shampoo, and toothpaste!
By the end of the week in Miraflores, we had the first 6.5 weeks mostly booked; 20 years ago, we couldn’t have done this, as we neither one speak or read Spanish. Three cheers for the internet!
The first week in Lima, we stayed in Miraflores and walked many miles. The Malecon and El Parque del Amor were great walks, as was the road along the seashore. Food was amazing (shout outs to IK restaurant, Astrid & Gaston, and especially Maido and the Nikkei Experience). Sampled many versions of pisco sour, with the best being El Capitan bar, near John Kennedy park (Huh? Yeah!)
In a tip off of the entire country, we were content walking block after block well after sunset. Felt strange in the center section of the city and Chinatown, where we were the only [tall] anglos, but never uncomfortable.
After Lima, we took a bus (cruz del sur) to Paracas for two days (better off with ½ day) to see the moonscape desert.
Then hopped back on the bus to Ika, which has what is claimed to be the oldest winery in the Western hemisphere (grapes planted in 1540!); great winery tour, great food for lunch. But, France/Willamette/Napa needn’t be too worried. Also a nice dune buggy excursion in the desert around a tourist trap oasis.
After Ika, we did 13 hour bus trip to Arequipa. In a word, WOW. Beautiful city. Never had heard of it before, but we’ll highly recommend it to anyone. The vice-regency architecture (especially religious) is mind-boggling, and it was the cleanest city that we visited (Miraflores caliber—but for the City as a whole, not just a subdivision)
In addition to the City itself, Arequipa is the jumping off point for day/multi-day trips to the Colca Canyon, which is the second deepest canyon in the world and far deeper than the grand canyon. We hired a private guide and car at last minute and drove over the 15,000 ft. high plains to the area at top of the canyon. The trek down was a great warmup for later activities, and the wildlife both on the drive and in/about the Canyon was really neat. (Andean Condor flybys, for example).
From Arequipa, it is only 6 hours by Bus to Puno, which is on the shores of Lake Titicaca. This was both a destination in itself, and altitude acclimatization, as it is higher than Cusco and Machu Picchu. The Lake and its islands were well worth a day trip, as was the street celebration/parade that took several hours that evening. Many social/educational/parish groups paraded through the streets with music/performances.
From Puno, we took the bus to Juliaco to catch a plane to Cusco (otherwise, another very long bus ride). Recommend taking a cab or private car directly to the airport instead, as getting a cab from bus terminal in Juliaco to the airport is…. Interesting… Not a city that you otherwise are likely to have high on your list!
Once we landed in Cusco, we only had a couple of days to explore and do laundry before starting our Salkantay lodge to lodge trek (which ended in Machu Picchu.
This trek was something we’d highly recommend for those who don’t want to camp and are willing to pay a good deal extra (there was a reason we did backpacker accommodations to this point!). Again, the blog goes into more detail, but having hot tub, nice bed, electric, showers, and tasty meals each night was worth paying for—at least to us, in our mid-50s, and DW just 3 months post-spinal fusion... The trek was worth doing—DW is glad that she chose it over Inca Trail due to the lodges, and the wide-breadth of climates/geography that we hiked through in the 41 miles. Suffice it to say that we are now interested in future trekking! Didn’t see much in the way of ruins, but we made up for that later.
Machu Picchu was Machu Picchu. A bit disappointing, but probably due to fact that I’ve been imagining how neat it would be since I was in 5th grade…. If you make it and are able to obtain a ticket, the climb up Huayna Picchu is well worth it. Looking down over Machu Picchu, with only a handful of people near you, makes the somewhat strenuous climb fade into insignificance.
After Machu Picchu, we returned to Cusco and the Sacred Valley. The Valley is a very verdant agricultural area that has been intensively cultivated since before the Spaniards. During the Incan Empire, it consisted of private estates, and fortifications to hold the line against inroads from the less civilized tribes. The highlights of the valley were the ruins at Pisac and Ollantaytambo. Just outside/above the valley, the Maras Salt Mines and the, presumed, Incan agricultural laboratories at Moray are well worth a stop.
Cusco itself is chock-full of vice-regency religious architecture, has a great market, and eye-catching Incan ruins. The best of the latter, which is less crowded (by far) than M.Picchu, and has even more impressive masonry, is Saksaywaman (“sexy woman”), which can be spelled 10 different ways. This was the site of the last major Incan action against the Spaniards and is just above the city.
E.T.A.: Rainbow Mountain!! Can't believe I left it out. Don't know why cusco travel shops deem it necessary to photoshop this attraction. It is sufficiently beautiful on its own...
At the end of our time in Cusco, we caught a bus to begin our next week in the journey through the Manu Bioreserve. We tend to think of Incas and mountains when we hear the word “Peru,” but it is the source of the amazon, and has many tributaries of that river. The Manu Forest reserve, and the Manu and Madre de Dios (upper region at least) rivers, are among the least disturbed of these tributaries. After a very bumpy 1.5 days by bus, we and a Chinese party of 6 boarded a small boat (width was one seat on each side of the aisle) that was to serve as our conveyance for the next 5 days. This was a very undisturbed area. The lodges had solar panels and no electric in the rooms—and even the dining areas had electric limited to certain hours. The wildlife made up for it. Saw many types of monkeys, birds, etc. The endangered Giant River Otters were everything advertised and more. This was the part of the trip that really made me happy that I’d lugged DW’s telephoto lens along in my daypack!
The Manu trip ended in Puerto Maldonado. From there, we flew to Lima and onto Iquitos in the same day—where we embarked to an Amazon River lodge the next morning.
After Manu Reserve, the Amazon lodge was not as exciting for us as for others—although it was far nicer, with actual king/queen sized beds, long, hot showers, and even electric lights in the room! We did get to see several sloths and more varieties of monkeys here, however. The highlight, as we hoped, was seeing Pink River Dolphins.
All in all, though, DW decided that “I’m not a jungle girl.” The heat and humidity was not her cup of tea—particular when compared to the weeks at altitude.
After the Amazon, we flew (via Lima, of course) to the Northern coast cities. Here, in off-season, we were a rarity. In two weeks of travel, we think we saw only 6-10 other people from North America/Europe/Asia. But, the Nature Reserve in the Dry Forest outside of Chiclayo, and the coastal ruins were worth the trip. (Funny aside—during a tour of highly impressive 1000+ year ruins/museums, local elementary school children were more fascinated by the tall, white-skinned strangers than by the subject of their field trip. As a former trip chaperone, I thought “kids are the same everywhere.”)
This is an area that not many people see, but it compares well to the rest of the country. The “lord of Sipan” museum in Lambayeque, just north of Chiclayo, is itself worth a trip. From Chiclayo, we took a bus to Trujillo, which is said to be where Pizarro first encountered the Incas. Beautiful city again, through which we walked quite a few miles. The history highlight here is the temple of the moon.
After Trujillo and its adjacent beach/surf community of Huanchaco (mehh. Especially in winter….), we flew back to Lima as we were running out of time. We spent a long afternoon and evening at Larco museum in Lima, which we had missed at the first go round. Again, this should be high on any list.
On Halloween, we ate at Central (unfortunately, disappointing, especially when compared to Maido), and spent several hours in and around John Kennedy Park watching the trick or treaters. (Trivia: “Halloween” in Lima seems to be pronounced “Halloween.” And the retail stores give treats out!)
The next morning, we arrived at the airport the requisite three hours early and departed.
Wish that we would have had more time to go further north and to see the apparently spectacular site of Kuelap. Likely will touch down again to explore this area when we are heading to Chile at some point in the future.
Summary: Highly recommended! Bottom line for us—our first long trip ever, and we didn’t get homesick, or get sick of each other. All in all, a great experience and we look forward to more.
Peru 9/6/17-11/1/17 (This is very cursory; fuller details and photos are on DW’s blog—although we didn’t include many details on the restaurants…. If interested, follow link from my profile and/or contact me for more specific information)
We retired as of end of July, made a couple of domestic trips, but our first “real” retirement trip was to Peru. Spent most of August conditioning for long treks (after running 5-7 days a week in the last year of work).
We departed for Lima with only 2 weeks of the 8 booked, although we had general ideas of where we’d go (and, we had three restaurant reservations—two for the first week, and one for lunch on 10/31). We each took one 40L backpack and a small daypack so as to avoid checking luggage. One of the first stops after arrival was to buy laundry detergent, shampoo, and toothpaste!
By the end of the week in Miraflores, we had the first 6.5 weeks mostly booked; 20 years ago, we couldn’t have done this, as we neither one speak or read Spanish. Three cheers for the internet!
The first week in Lima, we stayed in Miraflores and walked many miles. The Malecon and El Parque del Amor were great walks, as was the road along the seashore. Food was amazing (shout outs to IK restaurant, Astrid & Gaston, and especially Maido and the Nikkei Experience). Sampled many versions of pisco sour, with the best being El Capitan bar, near John Kennedy park (Huh? Yeah!)
In a tip off of the entire country, we were content walking block after block well after sunset. Felt strange in the center section of the city and Chinatown, where we were the only [tall] anglos, but never uncomfortable.
After Lima, we took a bus (cruz del sur) to Paracas for two days (better off with ½ day) to see the moonscape desert.
Then hopped back on the bus to Ika, which has what is claimed to be the oldest winery in the Western hemisphere (grapes planted in 1540!); great winery tour, great food for lunch. But, France/Willamette/Napa needn’t be too worried. Also a nice dune buggy excursion in the desert around a tourist trap oasis.
After Ika, we did 13 hour bus trip to Arequipa. In a word, WOW. Beautiful city. Never had heard of it before, but we’ll highly recommend it to anyone. The vice-regency architecture (especially religious) is mind-boggling, and it was the cleanest city that we visited (Miraflores caliber—but for the City as a whole, not just a subdivision)
In addition to the City itself, Arequipa is the jumping off point for day/multi-day trips to the Colca Canyon, which is the second deepest canyon in the world and far deeper than the grand canyon. We hired a private guide and car at last minute and drove over the 15,000 ft. high plains to the area at top of the canyon. The trek down was a great warmup for later activities, and the wildlife both on the drive and in/about the Canyon was really neat. (Andean Condor flybys, for example).
From Arequipa, it is only 6 hours by Bus to Puno, which is on the shores of Lake Titicaca. This was both a destination in itself, and altitude acclimatization, as it is higher than Cusco and Machu Picchu. The Lake and its islands were well worth a day trip, as was the street celebration/parade that took several hours that evening. Many social/educational/parish groups paraded through the streets with music/performances.
From Puno, we took the bus to Juliaco to catch a plane to Cusco (otherwise, another very long bus ride). Recommend taking a cab or private car directly to the airport instead, as getting a cab from bus terminal in Juliaco to the airport is…. Interesting… Not a city that you otherwise are likely to have high on your list!
Once we landed in Cusco, we only had a couple of days to explore and do laundry before starting our Salkantay lodge to lodge trek (which ended in Machu Picchu.
This trek was something we’d highly recommend for those who don’t want to camp and are willing to pay a good deal extra (there was a reason we did backpacker accommodations to this point!). Again, the blog goes into more detail, but having hot tub, nice bed, electric, showers, and tasty meals each night was worth paying for—at least to us, in our mid-50s, and DW just 3 months post-spinal fusion... The trek was worth doing—DW is glad that she chose it over Inca Trail due to the lodges, and the wide-breadth of climates/geography that we hiked through in the 41 miles. Suffice it to say that we are now interested in future trekking! Didn’t see much in the way of ruins, but we made up for that later.
Machu Picchu was Machu Picchu. A bit disappointing, but probably due to fact that I’ve been imagining how neat it would be since I was in 5th grade…. If you make it and are able to obtain a ticket, the climb up Huayna Picchu is well worth it. Looking down over Machu Picchu, with only a handful of people near you, makes the somewhat strenuous climb fade into insignificance.
After Machu Picchu, we returned to Cusco and the Sacred Valley. The Valley is a very verdant agricultural area that has been intensively cultivated since before the Spaniards. During the Incan Empire, it consisted of private estates, and fortifications to hold the line against inroads from the less civilized tribes. The highlights of the valley were the ruins at Pisac and Ollantaytambo. Just outside/above the valley, the Maras Salt Mines and the, presumed, Incan agricultural laboratories at Moray are well worth a stop.
Cusco itself is chock-full of vice-regency religious architecture, has a great market, and eye-catching Incan ruins. The best of the latter, which is less crowded (by far) than M.Picchu, and has even more impressive masonry, is Saksaywaman (“sexy woman”), which can be spelled 10 different ways. This was the site of the last major Incan action against the Spaniards and is just above the city.
E.T.A.: Rainbow Mountain!! Can't believe I left it out. Don't know why cusco travel shops deem it necessary to photoshop this attraction. It is sufficiently beautiful on its own...
At the end of our time in Cusco, we caught a bus to begin our next week in the journey through the Manu Bioreserve. We tend to think of Incas and mountains when we hear the word “Peru,” but it is the source of the amazon, and has many tributaries of that river. The Manu Forest reserve, and the Manu and Madre de Dios (upper region at least) rivers, are among the least disturbed of these tributaries. After a very bumpy 1.5 days by bus, we and a Chinese party of 6 boarded a small boat (width was one seat on each side of the aisle) that was to serve as our conveyance for the next 5 days. This was a very undisturbed area. The lodges had solar panels and no electric in the rooms—and even the dining areas had electric limited to certain hours. The wildlife made up for it. Saw many types of monkeys, birds, etc. The endangered Giant River Otters were everything advertised and more. This was the part of the trip that really made me happy that I’d lugged DW’s telephoto lens along in my daypack!
The Manu trip ended in Puerto Maldonado. From there, we flew to Lima and onto Iquitos in the same day—where we embarked to an Amazon River lodge the next morning.
After Manu Reserve, the Amazon lodge was not as exciting for us as for others—although it was far nicer, with actual king/queen sized beds, long, hot showers, and even electric lights in the room! We did get to see several sloths and more varieties of monkeys here, however. The highlight, as we hoped, was seeing Pink River Dolphins.
All in all, though, DW decided that “I’m not a jungle girl.” The heat and humidity was not her cup of tea—particular when compared to the weeks at altitude.
After the Amazon, we flew (via Lima, of course) to the Northern coast cities. Here, in off-season, we were a rarity. In two weeks of travel, we think we saw only 6-10 other people from North America/Europe/Asia. But, the Nature Reserve in the Dry Forest outside of Chiclayo, and the coastal ruins were worth the trip. (Funny aside—during a tour of highly impressive 1000+ year ruins/museums, local elementary school children were more fascinated by the tall, white-skinned strangers than by the subject of their field trip. As a former trip chaperone, I thought “kids are the same everywhere.”)
This is an area that not many people see, but it compares well to the rest of the country. The “lord of Sipan” museum in Lambayeque, just north of Chiclayo, is itself worth a trip. From Chiclayo, we took a bus to Trujillo, which is said to be where Pizarro first encountered the Incas. Beautiful city again, through which we walked quite a few miles. The history highlight here is the temple of the moon.
After Trujillo and its adjacent beach/surf community of Huanchaco (mehh. Especially in winter….), we flew back to Lima as we were running out of time. We spent a long afternoon and evening at Larco museum in Lima, which we had missed at the first go round. Again, this should be high on any list.
On Halloween, we ate at Central (unfortunately, disappointing, especially when compared to Maido), and spent several hours in and around John Kennedy Park watching the trick or treaters. (Trivia: “Halloween” in Lima seems to be pronounced “Halloween.” And the retail stores give treats out!)
The next morning, we arrived at the airport the requisite three hours early and departed.
Wish that we would have had more time to go further north and to see the apparently spectacular site of Kuelap. Likely will touch down again to explore this area when we are heading to Chile at some point in the future.
Summary: Highly recommended! Bottom line for us—our first long trip ever, and we didn’t get homesick, or get sick of each other. All in all, a great experience and we look forward to more.
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