XP: Peru trip report

I posted this on the travel board so it's written to highlight things people going might want to know (like hotel names)...

My husband, a friend, and I were in Peru May 22-30.All of our hotels were about $80 for a double room, and all included free breakfast. The first hotel also included 30 Soles of free drinks per room per night.

We stayed our first night in Lima at the Radisson in the miraflores area and then spent part of the next day in the city - we saw Huaca Pucllana, an Incan pyramid right in the city. It was a pretty neat place, but I would say Lima was the least exciting place we visited, as many also stated on this board when I inquired in the past. Our next 3 nights were in Arequipa. Stayed at Los Tambos hotel which was only half a block from the Plaza de Armas (city center), so we could walk to many of the city sites. In the city we went to a Cathedral, Santa Catalina (the huge convent), and the museum that houses the ice mummy, Juanita. All were impressive. I thought that the city was gorgeous and we stuck to the restaurants on San Francisco street - which we were told by our hotel staff was the safest place to eat and not get sick. I believe them b/c none of us got sick for this part of our trip!

our 2nd full day we spent on a day trip to Colca Canyon - a little bit insane, but we really didn't want to bother with adding a 5th hotel to our 8 night trip, so this is how we did it. A (very uncomfortable!) bus picked us up at 3am and we drove out to the canyon. We first stopped for breakfast in Chivay - it was cold! and then drove up to see the Condors and a couple of other look out points. The Condors were amazing and the scenary beautiful. After, we stopped in Chivay for lunch. The town was very charming and there was some weird street dance going on in the city center - people dressed like animals and dancing! On our way home we saw many alpacas, llamas, and vicunas in the mountains.

Next we headed to Cuzco. We stayed at Terra Andina Hotel, which was right across the street from a big market, and a quick walk to the Plaza de Armas. This place was more touristy than Arequipa, so many people trying to sell us stuff every step we took! My DH got sick the first day - he blamed it on the local fastfood, Bembos, I didn't have a problem with it though. The main Cathedral was absolutely gorgeous inside and we also went into an Inka museum that was pretty neat. None of us got altitude sickness despite that the city sits at over 11,000 feet - probably b/c we started out in Arequipa which is at just under 8,000 feet and did our Colca Canyon thing (during our drive there we were at one point over 16,000 feet)- so changes were somewhat gradual.

After 2 nights in Cusco we headed to Aguas Calientes to spend a night before Machu Picchu by Peru Rail. The track is not completely fixed after mudslides earlier in the year, but Peru Rail has it worked out so that you take busses to Ollyantambo and then hop on the train there. The process seems to be going smoothly compared to the chaos it seemed to be at the start based on trip advisor posts. We had our Cusco hotel set up a hotel for Aguas Caliente - the Sanctuario or something like that. For $80 Dh and I had a room overlooking a river and the Andes - it was gorgeous! Not all rooms had a good view, so we were lucky. Some say the town is boring, and sure, there isn't that much to do. But the scenary is so gorgeous and it's a cute place. I liked it.

We woke up early to be one of the first to make it to Machu Picchu. Machu Picchu was amazing! We got there early enough to be one of the 400 people to get to do the hike up Wyana Picchu (it has another name also) - which is that mountain that is always in the background of the pictures of the ruines. It was a strenuous hike and involved going up and down some very steep steps at times with some scary looking drop offs. The views made it well worth it, but you really do need to be physically fit to complete it.

That evening we headed back to Cusco and stayed one last night. We then took a morning plane back to lima. Our plan was to see more of the city before our late night flights, but the guys were sick so we stuck around the airport and played cards and ate Papa Johns all day :-)

Overall, it was a good trip. We drank only bottled water and stuck to nicer looking restaurants and that worked for me, but not for my DH or our friend all of the time! They have some great potato dishes, and drinks made with pisco were pretty good. People were friendly and we were able to get by with our limited Spanish. Prices could be cheap, but were often higher in tourist areas so we often spent just as much on things as we would back in the U.S.