We ended up spending considerably longer in Peru than we’d intended, with hiking taking up the vast majority of the time. To try and avoid an overly cluttered entry, I’ve split Peru into two. This blog will tackle Arequipa, Cusco and Lima, and all of our hiking around Huaraz will be covered in the second.
Arequipa
Our first stop in Peru, Arequipa is famous for being the access point to two of the world’s deepest canyons with great Andean condor spotting; having the lovely Volcan Misti and Chachani Mountain as a backdrop and for a gorgeous centre square. After Bolivia, we were pretty stuffed when we arrived at Arequipa.
Chachani
First major action around Arequipa was a hike up Chachani Mountain. Bron was still recovering from a bad case of food poisoning from Bolivia, so I was on my own for this one. With a summit of 6,095m, this was my first attempt at hiking to over 6,000m, so it promised to be a different sort of challenge – hopefully my acclimatisation in Bolivia would help…
After base camping at 5,200m, our group of 5 gringos played some cards after our guides headed to bed just before sunrise. By the time we went to bed, it was bloody cold, and the air was so dry that whenever I touched the tent during the night the static charge was so strong I could see blue sparks on the tent wall! Welcome to altitude, Elis. At 2am, we got up. I was feeling pretty nauseous, and managed one bite of my slightly stale cheese sandwich before accepting food wasn’t an option. Within about half an hour, we were off.
Chachani is supposed to be a relatively easy climb for a 6000m mountain. And it’s fair to say to hike itself isn’t technically difficult, with only a couple of steeper sections and no real crevices to speak of. But I say without exaggeration – this was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Somehow, I managed to keep getting one foot in front of the next, and despite a couple of close calls, keep last night’s soup down, with lightning flashes in the distance and a nice sunrise over the surrounding ranges a good distraction. After a few hours, we all reached the summit, about an hour ahead of schedule to our surprise! Incredibly rewarding, and decent views to pay off for our efforts.
The Good: Pretty simple climb; only 2 days to complete; Fun descent running/skiing down the scree
The Bad: Banging your head on the 4WD roof if you’re in the back
The Ugly: Altitude nausea
Colca Canyon
Bron and I headed to Colca Canyon around 2am the morning after I got back from Chachani (possibly risky call, but it worked out ok). Colca Canyon is one of the deepest canyons in the world; about twice as deep as the Grand Canyon, and has been inhabited since pre-Inca times. Our first stop was for a below-par and under-catered breakfast, although it was exciting to see our first cacti-topped earth-bricked walls there – a common style in Peru, and infinitely nicer than using razor wire or the more common smashed glass to secure a wall.
After a nice drive along the canyon, we stopped at the Cruz del Condor, one of the best places in the world to spot Andean condors, a member of the vulture family, and with a wingspan of over 3m, the biggest wingspan of all land birds. We got lucky, and spotted a couple of condors, with a flyby directly over our heads! Very cool. At Cruz del Condor, it’s 1200m from the edge of the valley to the river at the base.
Not surprisingly, the first days hiking involved a lot of descent. Once we got to the bottom, we grabbed some lunch at our guides family’s restaurant, before continuing on for a couple of hours to ‘el Paradiso’, a bunch of touristy complexes, but nice, where we indulged in our reward Snickers. We played some cards with a cool Spanish couple David and Laura, before some dinner and an early night. The next morning was the 1,100m climb back to the top of the canyon. We resisted the temptation to take a mule up the top. Both Bron and I managed to climb up the top without a break, which we were happy with, and got to enjoy some more nice views over the canyon.
Once we’d breakfasted, we headed along to the hotsprings for a gorgeous soak, then had lunch at a delicious Peruvian buffet, which included some delicious Cuy Picante – pieces of guinea pig cooked in a nice curry sauce. The trip back included some stops at some cool viewing places for the canyons, and for lots of llamas, alpacas and vicuñas, before getting back to Arequipa.
The Good: Condors; Incredible views; Nice weather; Pre-Incan terraces being farmed to this day
The Bad: Mule teams trying to knock you off the mountain; Descending on bad knees; Cold ‘hot’-springs at El Paradiso
The Ugly: Souvenir touts at Cruz del Condor; Littering locals (and tourists…)
Cusco
Cusco City
From Arequipa, we made our way by nightbus to Cusco. Peru has incredible buses, cheap and excellent quality, and it makes those unavoidable long distance trips a much more pleasant experience, and we were feeling pretty rested up when we arrived at Cusco just after sunrise. We checked into a hostel, found an excellent place for breakfast (if visiting Cusco, breakfast at Jack’s Cafe is a must!).
Walking through the streets, we got mobbed by the masses of touts trying to flog massages, restaurant menus and cocaine. After a couple of streets, it became hard to even make the effort of saying ‘No gracias’ every 5 seconds or so. We sorted out our stuff for the Inca Trail and the rest of the time in Cusco was spent bouncing between cafes and checking out local handicrafts.
Cusco could be an excellent destination in its own right, and is very popular with hordes of backpackers, hippies and wealthier travellers. As the old Incan capital, there are some excellent old buildings, which have been nicely incorporated into modern day Cusco. The people are friendly. There is a lot of Incan history to explore in the region. But it’s so damn touristy, and has been for too long. The streets are basically a mixture of gringos and vendors trying to take their money. There are shabby operators everywhere, and everything is very expensive. One interesting tidbit was that the world’s highest Irish-owned Irish Pub is there – only thing is, it doesn’t stock Guinness. ¿Como?
The Good: Nice food (honourable mentions to Jacks and Los Perros for their incredible fresh spring rolls); Good shops to stock up for hiking (gear and food); History
The Bad: Relentless touts; Expensive; Shoddy tour operators
The Ugly: Lots of steep streets at altitude for tourists straight off the plane
The Inca Trail and Machu Picchu
The Inca Trail and Machu Picchu was one of the top few highlights we were looking forward to coming to South America. We arranged to travel with United Mice, a Cusqueñan company, highly recommended by our friends Matt and Alicia who used them a few years ago. There were a few driving reasons: they were locally owned (apparently foreign companies operating in Peru are tax exempt, for reasons I am unclear on); they travel further on the first day meaning you miss the vast bulk of the crowds; and they are about half the price of the big international companies.
I am pleased to say that the Inca Trail, Machu Picchu and United Mice all lived up to our expectations. The food was exceptional, there were only four of us (me, Bron and our new Belgian friends Frank and Lynn) in our group meaning we could make excellent time and had a lot more freedom and time to relax than the big groups, our guide was charismatic and well informed, an excellent story-teller – thanks Jaime! Our porters (like all the porters on the track) were troopers. So company wise, I couldn’t recommend United Mice enough (although online credit card payment would have made booking whilst on the road MUCH easier…).
The Inca Trail took us through many different terrain types, including cloud forest, Andean tundra and jungle. There are incredible views throughout, with the snow-capped mountains and Rio Cusichca at the start, several Incan ruins (including our favourite Wiñay Wayna – a gorgeously situated ruin in amongst terraces looking down a huge valley). Jaime explained that in establishing a new settlement, the Quechua (what are normally called the Incas, only the Inca was specifically the king of the Quechua, so it’d be like calling the English, for example, The Regent or The Queen – or at least so I’m told) the aesthetics of the location were as important as its agricultural potential or other considerations.
Machu Picchu was incredible. Due to the small size of our group, we were able to overtake all the big groups despite a slightly later start on the last morning, and were one of the first at the Sun Gate – just as well, because a couple of minutes after arriving at the top, the clouds moved in for a bit. Most of the day we had excellent weather; lots of sun. The Machu Picchu ruins were really incredible, amazing stonework and some incredible design with regards to hydrology and sunlight. The llamas wondering around the place to eat the grass was a nice touch. The only drawback is the number of tourists, although by about 1:30 or 2pm, most of those had headed out. Definitely a must do in South America, it lived up to the hype.
The Good: Amazing views on the trail and at Machu Picchu; No touts; Incredible food; Excellent guides; Great ruins
The Bad: Loads of tourists, especially at the ruins; Very expensive food at Machu Picchu; Aguas Calientes
The Ugly: Deterioration of the track and ruins from tourists; Porters being overloaded by some operators, and forced to move too fast with heavy loads
Lima
We’d only planned an 8 hour stopover in Lima between Cusco and Huaraz. We had to send some packages home, get some proper food after a 20 hour bus trip and wait for our bus out – you’d be hard pressed to find a Peruvian, even from Lima, who’d recommend a visit. The package sending bit went off without a hitch (assuming the package arrives – time will tell there, but we’re confident). It was getting fed we hit a snag.
Wondering around the Plaza de Armas (normally a city centre is pretty decent for tourists, but apparently not in Lima) we found a place just off the street that did reasonably priced set menus. We went in and sat down and a guy came up and started chatting to us, all very friendly. A little bit later, his friend came up and joined us as well. They insisted we tried the local pisco sours, which they insisted were different to the Chilean variety (the origin of the Pisco Sour is almost a matter for fist fights between the two countries). They ordered some from the waiter and four huge jugs of pisco sour arrived at the table. We finally managed to order some food, but after a bit we realised we weren’t feeling quite right. All of a sudden, six people from the restaurant came up to the table and presented us with a bill for 420 soles (about $140). We had our day packs with all our valuables with us, and weren’t really in any state to try and resist – they’d spiked our drinks! We paid and got straight out of there, and headed to a coffee shop to try and recover.
Within minutes of getting to the café, I’d passed out on the toilet floor. Fortunately, some locals had seen something was wrong, and came up and helped Bron, looking after our gear whilst they went to identify the restaurant (which didn’t turn out to have a name, although a neighbouring shop described it as a dangerous place, and gave the girl their name), and then get the police. The police came to the café and took us to the hospital, where I was put onto a drip and given something else, and after about 6 hours was considered well enough to be discharged, from where we spent 2 hours in a taxi looking for a hotel that had a vacancy until 2.30am. We’d missed our bus, but fortunately in the morning, we were both feeling well enough (although still very weak) to travel. Lima, go to hell.
The Good: Free medical treatment for foreigners, although you have to buy your own drugs; Helpful locals for drugged tourists; Patient taxi drivers; the soccer stadium looks quite nice
The Bad: No central bus station, making comparing options difficult; Spending a night there
The Ugly: Dangerous; Getting drugged and robbed by restaurateurs
