And now for Peru...
Lima:
- Stay at The Point! Here is the website: www.thepointhostels.com. You can stay in a dorm style room for $7 a night, which includes breakfast and free internet. They also really good meals for $4, they have a bar, and they'll do your laundry for cheap. The staff speaks English and they can set up just about any tour or activity you want to do. The type of people who stay there are really awesome; they're mostly young backpackers from all over the world. The hostel is in Barronco, which is a safe neighborhood that overlooks the ocean. Make reservations online, because they fill up fast.
- Visit the colonial plazas and China town, which is just a couple of blocks off of the main colonial plaza. Also be sure to go to some of the anthropology museums.
- We took taxis around the city. They're relatively cheap and we didn't feel like figuring out the local transportation system. Just make sure that the taxi is marked.
- Watch your stuff and yourself.
Cusco:
- You can fly from Lima or take a 30 hour bus. The bus supposedly can be dangerous...I guess all buses that go through the mountains can be but this one is especially dangerous. It also gets cold as the altitude increases and most buses don't have heat. If you fly from Lima it will be about $80-$130. Here's a little trick: on the LAN website it will ask you for your country of residence. If you say the US you'll pay much more for airfare, so say Chile. You can do this even if you're using a US passport as your travel document.
- Stay at the Cusco branch of The Point. Same website.
- Get a tourist pass museums and ruin sites and a church pass to go to the churches. This way you don't have to pay individually each time that you go to a museum or church and you'll save a lot of money. Be sure to see the cathedral in the main plaza. It's incredible.
- Just to warn you, the altitude will probably bother you at first.
Sacred Valley:
- You can set up a day tour through The Point to go to two markets, ruins sites at Pisaq and Ollaytantambo, and a colonial church built into Inca ruins in Chinchero. Go on a Tuesday, Thursday, or Sunday because those are the days when the famous Pisaq market is open. The tour is a little rushed, but it's definitely the easiest way to see the Sacred Valley since you don't have to deal with transportation from place to place.
- If you want to, you can take your stuff with you, spend the night in Ollaytantambo and catch the train to Aguascalientes in the morning.
Machu Picchu:
- The only ways to get to Machu Picchu from Cusco are to walk the Inca Trail or take the train.
- You can set up walking the Inca Trail with The Point.
- If you take the train from Cusco to Aguascalientes, be sure to reserve tickets online ahead of time or you might not be able to take the cheapest train. The cheapest train is called "The Backpacker" and a round trip ticket is about $80. It takes 4 hours. If you go from Ollaytantambo it will take about an hour and a half but be sure to get a ticket back to Cusco rather than Ollaytantambo. The website is www.perurail.com.
- If you're not hiking the Inca Trail, you'll need to stay in Aguascalientes. There are a lot of cheap hostel options right buy the train station.
- There ARE NOT ATMs anywhere in Aguascalientes. We didn't know that when we went and luckily we had just enough cash. I would bring at least $300 USD just to be safe. The bus that you'll take up to the ruins site accepts American dollars.
- Bring your ISIC with you to get a discount on your entrance fee into Machu Picchu. I heard through friends and my guide book that if you go to the ruins two days in a row you get 50% off on your second day, but when we went there they said that there isn't a discount. It's worth asking though.
- The office can hold stuff for you for the day if you want. We checked out of our shady hostel in the morning and didn't feel safe leaving our stuff there so we brought our backpacks up to the ruin site and left them in the office for the day.
- After you pay your entrance fee there are freelance guides who can give you a tour if you want. We didn't have enough cash to hire a guide, but I'm sure it's a good way to see Machu Picchu. You can also sign up for a large guided tour ahead of time, but this doesn't seem like a good way to see Machu Picchu to me because the tours usually only last a couple of hours, you can't really wander the ruins on your own, and there isn't enough time to climb Huayna Picchu (the big mountain in the background).
- When we went, we visted the ruins for two days. The first day we got there around 11am and stayed until the ruins closed at 6pm. It was amazing how the big guided tour groups all clear out at the same time, and we had the ruins to ourselves for the last couple hours. The next morning we got there early...like 9am and the ruins were also pretty empty. So I guess go early or linger around late if you want the ruins to yourself. Also, significantly less people go on the Pisaq market days in the Sacred Valley, so that's another way to avoid the crowds.
- Be sure the walk up to the Inca bridge, play with the llamas, and climb Huayna and Wayna Piccu. You have to sign in and out when you climb Huayna and Wayna Piccu and they stop letting people in after1pm. The hike will kick your ass but it's so worth it for the views. Plus, there are even more ruins on top of Huayna Piccu.
Lake Titicaca:
- Puno is the largest city on the shore of the lake. It is a crappy city, but it's the most convenient place to stay. It has an airport and so does Juliaca, which is another even crappier city near Lake Titicaca, in case you want to fly to/from Lima. You can bus or train with perurail to Puno, and it takes about 6 hours and it a beautiful drive.
- We stayed in Hotel Internacional, which was clean, had free breakfast, and was relatively cheap.
- Take a boat tour to see the Taquile and Uros islands. The Uros are man made islands that are made out of reeds. People live on the islands and build their homes out of reeds. They even have school and a clinic made of reeds. It is one of the most bizarre sights I have ever seen, so definitely don't miss it.
- Go on a sea kayaking tour! We really wanted to but we went during rainy season and they don't give tours then.
Arequipa:
- Bus from Puno. It takes about 6 hours.
- Stay at The Point again! Same website. It is located about a 10 minute walk from the Plaza de Armas.
- I would compare the size and feel of Arequipa to Mendoza. It's tranquilo city that you can just wander around in and admire the architecture.
- Take a tour of one of the city's colonial convents and go to the mummy museum.
- You can take a trekking tour of the Colca canyon, and most of these tours are based out of Arequipa. Set it up through the point. We didn't do it, but supposedly it's possible to see condors in the canyon and it's sometimes compared to the Grand Canyon.
- The bus from Arequipa to Lima is about 14 hours. However, if you need to be back to Lima on a specific day to catch a flight, I would leave two days beforehand. Our bus got stopped on the highway by some rioting town that decided to block all traffic for 10 hours in the middle of the night. So 14 hours turned into 24 hours. It was lovely. But the bus attendant made it seem like that happens all the time...so allow enough time to get back to Lima.
