Peru🇵🇪

Our sixth country is Peru, a place we were both really looking forward to! We went over the land border by bus from La Paz, Bolivia, straight to Arequipa. The journey took roughly thirteen hours, including going through immigration on both the Bolivian and Peruvian sides.

As we sadly got stuck in La Paz for an extra three days, we ended up having to miss a couple places in Peru that we had originally booked. These places we would recommend stopping off at, if you have the time:

• Copacabana (Don’t need a lot of time here, maybe one day to explore. Could spend the day exploring then go straight to Isla de Sol for the night or have one night in Copacabana before).
• Isla de Sol (Have at least one full day here if not a night depending on your timeline, has a beach and few walks/hikes to do).
• Puno (Don’t need a lot of time here either, mainly to go to see the Lake Titicaca, but can definitely spend the whole day here to explore and a night if you have time).

Arequipa

Our first stop in Peru was Arequipa and it was a good one! Spend at least four full days here if you have the time. Peru’s ‘White City’ is amazing, it offers a mixture of old, stunning architecture and stone buildings with rich history and gives the vibe of an old European city. That with a spoilt choice of amazing restaurants, cafes, and shops, we definitely could have stayed here for longer if we had the time and budget.

🏨Arequipay Hostels / Qema
Arequipay was a really cute hostel, very close to the plaza. We got free breakfast with our stay, but had a kitchen we could use if we wanted to cook. There was an outdoor social area with hammocks to chill on, a kind of games room, reading area and basic gym outside. We had a six man dorm and it was pretty decent so no complaints!

We moved to Qema after our two day hike, which was a lot more swanky. It was more like a resort than hostel, but exactly what we needed. It had an outdoor pool, big social area to chill at, restaurant and cafe inside and the dorms were very good!

Catalina Monastery and Plaza de Armas and Cathedral
Spend the morning wandering through the colourful, vibrant plaza and admire the incredible architecture, built from white volcanic stone. There is a gorgeous spot by the Cathedral that you must grab a drink at and watch the sunset overlooking the plaza.

Mirador de Yanahuara
This viewpoint is about a twenty minute walk from the middle of the city where you can see gorgeous views over Arequipa. If you go on a clear day, you might be lucky and see a full view of Volcano Misti in the distance, Arequipa’s very own Mount Fuji.

Colca Canyon
One of the most popular activities to do in Arequipa is this two or three day tour to Colca Canyon. You can book this tour through the hostel, but we ended up booking it with Collahua Tours and it cost us 240 SOLS each. A full explanation of this tour will be in another blog here.

Mundo Alpaca
Mundo Alpaca is a free, interactive tourist spot, which showcases the history, breeding and production of alpaca wool. There are live alpacas and llamas, which you can feed, a machinery museum, weaving demonstrations and a high-end alpaca boutique store that you can look around.

Food
Arequipa has some of the most amazing restaurants and cafes so far in our trip, we definitely could have spent one day hopping from different places! There were four traditional foods that we were recommended to try:

1. Rocoto Relleno - a spicy stuffed pepper.
2. Chupe de Camarones - shrimp soup.
3. Ceviche - fresh Peruvian ceviche.
4. Queso Helado - cheese ice cream, sounds weird but surprisingly delicious.

Three restaurants we highly recommend are the following:

Chira - our favourite restaurant of Arequipa! The food was incredible and Ned and I went completely overboard, but it was so worth it and we ended up sharing some of it with Rhys and Molly. It is a Peruvian restaurant serving all the traditional dishes that we wanted to try. We tried to originally order the shrimp soup but they were not serving it for the day, so instead we got the Lomo Saltado, which is a Fettuccine stir fry with marinated sirloin, the Ceviche and Causa Rellena de Pollo, which was a layered dish of mashed potato, chicken, avocado and mayonnaise and lastly the Rocoto Relleno, spicy stuffed pepper, which came with potato dauphinoise. All of the dishes we had were incredible, the best meal we have had out, of the entire trip so far!

Pasta Canteen - Another recommended restaurant was this pasta place where you can create your own dish, choosing the pasta, which they hand make in front of you, sauce and then toppings.

Santé Sandwiches - we stumbled across this place on the way to the Mirador de Yanahuara and we all decided we needed to try one. So Ned and I ended up sharing the Chicharrón Sandwich between us, which was pork belly with fried sweet potato. It was delicious and Ned was very tempted to get a second one for himself!

Other things to do in Arequipa:

• Museo Santuarios Andinos.
• San Camilo Market - huge market with delicious traditional Peruvian dishes, fresh juices.
• Claustros de la Compañía.
• Misti Volcano Trek - climb the iconic 5,822 meter volcano overlooking the city.
• Salinas and Aguada Blanca National Reserve - explore the high altitude wetlands and see wild flamingoes near the volcanoes.

Huacachina

Some say you can easily miss Huacachina as there is nothing to do there apart from the Sand Dunes, but this was a must for us. You don’t need a lot of time, but have at least one full day and a night here.

🏨Wild Rover Hostels (party) / Viajero (chill)
Wild Rover Hostels is definitely a party hostel and we ended up staying here for two nights, which most of us kind of regretted. Not because it was a bad hostel or anything, but more because the music went on till 3 or 4am on both nights that we were there. Completely our fault as we knew it was a party hostel, we just underestimated how party it was and how old we realised we are now. We’re not 22 anymore! Still though, the dorms weren’t bad and luckily we were in a four man dorm, so it was just us guys in a room. The pool was pretty big, and there were loads of sun beds to lounge on. Food was good as well and they had events throughout the day leading into the evening, like a live DJ and drinks.

Viajero is a lot more chill, although they do have events on some days, so it can be just as much a party hostel as Wild Rover, but not as intense. Rooms and lounge space are a lot more modern, so it doesn‘t give the impression that it is a young travellers hostel, so definitely stay here if you want a mixture of both!

Sand Dunes
The only thing to do in Huacachina is the Sand Dunes. You can either ski, snow (sand) board or bodyboard down them. I was fully prepared to ski down them, but as soon as I mentioned I had only skied twice I was swiftly told to bodyboard instead, as it can be dangerous. As we had a lot of hiking to do in the next couple of weeks, I wisely listened to them as much as I really didn’t want to, I just knew it might not end well, so I complied.

We booked the tour next to Wild Rover, but don’t make the same mistake as us and go for the first guy who gave us a cheap price, because his words were full of lies (lol). We were promised free bandanas, beers and a camp fire all included. We had to pester for a bandana, which we 100% needed for the sand and then were laughed at when we asked about the beers. They also seemed very unreliable, running around like headless chickens getting the equipment ready for us and didn’t seem to be handling their own equipment with care. We all paid 100 SOLS for the tour, but we found out that those who are just bodyboarding should have paid a lot less at 60 SOLS, as we weren’t using any equipment. This price also didn’t included the 8 SOLS for entering the National Park.

Once we were on the Sand Dunes we all got into a buggy where the guide would drive us up and down the Sand Dunes to different hills where we could ski and board down. Ned and Molly chose to ski and Rhys and I chose to body board. We went to three different hills (small, medium and large) and got two rides down each of them. The tour was overall good, the bodyboarding was a lot more fun and thrilling compared to the skiing, with both Ned and Molly moving to bodyboarding for the last rides. Ned said that the skis were sticking to the sand making it quite hard to find a rhythm and go down smoothly. I also think because we had a mixed group of ski and bodyboard people, that they took us to the smaller hills. A few friends who had done it before us all looked like they were on bigger hills so it was a lot more fun for them to ski down.

We then ended the tour watching the sunset on the hills. The ride back to the start was probably the most thrilling part of the tour and the most dangerous. We all were fearing for our lives at one point as the driver was crazy and fully sending it down the Sand Dunes. Bear in mind, they do this everyday and know what they are doing, we were driving down some dunes very fast and there was no proper path that any of the buggy’s were sticking to. About twenty buggy’s driving around fast and aimlessly is a recipe for disaster, still really fun though and I did enjoy myself, but don’t think any of us would do it again! This whole section is probably not recommending this activity, but I personally enjoyed myself!

Paracas

🏨Viajero
Stay at Viajero, the hostel is right by the beach and the main strip of restaurants and cafes. In Paracas, it is the main party hostel, so everyone either stays here or comes to the events they have in the evenings. Make sure to upgrade to private rooms as they are away from the main building of the hostel. The dorm rooms are on top of the dance floor and bar meaning you won’t be getting any sleep if you are staying there on the weekends. The music sometimes blasts till 4am but with the private rooms you can’t really hear the music, only slightly feel the bass of it instead. These private rooms were exactly what we needed, as we realised we were there over Easter Weekend, meaning the music was really loud and lasted for hours.

Boat Trip
One of the main activities in Paracas is to do a boat trip to the surrounding cliffs where you can see all kinds of wildlife and some Nazca engravings. Go for the earliest boat trip which leaves at around 8am as we were told you have a better chance of seeing more wildlife. When we went, we saw sea lions, different species of birds and penguins. We thought it might be a tourist trap, but it was actually a pretty good boat trip. It reminded Ned and I of the Galápagos with the incredible landscapes and wildlife. We booked the tour with our hostel and it cost us 45 SOLS each, which is incredibly cheap!

Paracas National Reserve Park
The other activity to do in Paracas is to hire mopeds or bicycles and bike round the National Park to different viewpoints and beaches. We hired our mopeds with a stall next to our hostel and it cost us 90 SOLS for the day till 7pm, which is when you have to return them. We then spent the day driving around the National Park loop, which can take roughly four hours depending on how many times you stop and for however long.

Cusco

Cusco is a high-altitude city, known as the historic capital of the Inca Empire. It is also the gateway to the famous Machu Picchu, so you must spend at least three to four days here before starting the trek to acclimatise properly. There is a lot to do in Cusco, so spend these days exploring the city and the surrounding sites.

Rainbow Mountain
One of the main activities in Cusco is to visit Rainbow Mountain. We booked the day tour online and it was a really fun day. We got picked up early at around 4am from our accommodation, before going to breakfast with our tour group.

From breakfast, it is another two hours to Vinicuna, also known as Rainbow Mountain. From the car park it is a 2km walk to the top of the viewpoint overlooking the mountain, which can take between forty minutes to an hour to get to the top. If you are doing this walk immediately from arriving in Cusco, you might have some trouble as you won’t have had enough time to acclimatise. As you walk up, you can definitely feel the tightness in your chest and it can be quite tough as you are over 5000m above sea level. If you don’t want to walk you can pay to either get a moped, quad bike or a mule but it is at an additional cost and it is only for the way up, not down. Once you are at the top there are different viewpoints where you can see the surrounding colourful mountains and hills. One of the best part for us was the distant views as the whole surrounding area is pretty incredible!

At the top you will have around fifty minutes or more depending on how quickly you get there. You can also get your iconic photo with the alpacas wearing sunglasses, the locals who run it offer it is a tip basis so you can give them as much money as you want to get a photo with the alpacas. Most of us gave between 3-5 SOLS so definitely have small change on you!

The weather at Rainbow Mountain is also very unpredictable, I think we experienced all seasons whilst we were up there. It went from cloudy and misty to no views of Rainbow Mountain, to bright blue skies and sunshine to then hail stones! Bring a couple layers as it can be very cold at the top without the sun and if you are waiting for the weather to change, you will need the warmth.

From Rainbow Mountain you can also walk to Red Valley which is another section to see the surrounding red mountains in the distance. Annoyingly, this viewpoint is an extra 30 SOLS and not part of the tour, so you will need to pay for it. A little expensive in our opinion for a viewpoint so sadly we didn’t end up going. It also started hailstoning so we decided against it. Typically, as we headed back down, the weather changed back to blue skies and sunshine!

Once the whole tour group was back at the minivan, we took the same two hour journey back to where we had breakfast. This is where you also have lunch and it is a huge buffet spread, very delicious and exactly what we needed after a short but tough walk! Soft or alcoholic drinks you have to pay for but you will need the sugar. After lunch we headed back to Cusco and got in around 4:30pm depending on the traffic. Still plenty of time to do something in the evening if you want to!

Football Match
Another activity to do is go to a football match in Peru. We were really lucky because we were able to get tickets to see Cusco vs Flamengo in the cup. We bought tickets online and they were surprisingly really cheap at only 60 SOLS, even though it was the home team. Even though Cusco lost, it was a really good atmosphere and a fun way to spend an evening. Definitely check out football dates if you are in Cusco during the season.

Machu Picchu
Machu Picchu is one of the seven Wonders of the World and a must do activity when in Peru. We went with the five day, four night Salkantay Trail and it was one of the best things we have ever done! A detailed blog on our tour and who we went with will be here.

Lima

Spend a few days in Lima to take in the huge city and amazing food scene. We sadly only had two full days here because we were on a tight schedule so if you have more time, I would recommend three or maybe four days!

City Tour
Either pay for a city tour or do it yourself and walk around different districts of Lima. We stopped at: Larcomar, Malicon, the main Plaza, Basilica Santo Domingo, and a variety of different Churches.

Food Tour
Another thing we were recommended to do was a Food Tour. Our tour started at 2pm and lasted around three hours. Our guide took us to all the best food stalls, teaching us about traditional Peruvian dishes! We were so full by dish three and we had about seven all together, including different Peruvian fruit and sweet dishes. Completely worth it though!

Miraflores
Miraflores, is a district in Lima, which offers a mix of modern, coastal, and historic attractions:

• Walk along the Malecon Boardwalk, which is a cliff top walkway that offers stunning panoramic views of the Pacific ocean.
• Larcomar is a unique, multi-level shopping centre, built directly into the cliffs, offering numerous restaurants, shops and panoramic ocean views. We spent a whole day here mooching around the shops and cafes.
• Visit Parque Kennedy, which is known for its different cafes and watching live street artists.
• Rent a surfboard or take surfing lessons at Playa Makaha, which is a popular spot to go to if you want to start surfing, perfect for all levels.
• Browse the different artisan markets for traditional Peruvian crafts, alpaca clothing or souvenirs.

Museo de Sitio Pucllana
Museo de Sitio Pucllana is a 1,500 year old pre-Incan ruin right in the centre of Miraflores, Lima’s most vibrant district. The only way to explore these ruins is through a tour, which run throughout the day and offer you a lesson into Lima’s ancient history.

Barranco
Barranco is another district in Lima, known for its bohemian, artistic, colourful street art, and lively nightlife.

• Bridge of Sighs - a historic, romantic bridge whose traditional dictates that you make a wish and hold your breath whilst crossing the bridge.
• Bajada de los Baños - an art-lined walkway leading to the Puente Peatonal Bridge. You can watch the sunset from the Mirador here, which overlooks the ocean.
• Parque Municipal - relax and spend the morning walking around the central park.
• Street Art Tour - book a tour or take yourself down Barranco’s streets for a variety of vibrant murals.
• Malecon Paul Harris - spend one evening walking along the cliffs for a scenic ocean view where you can watch the sunset.

Huarez

Huarez is in Northern Peru, and another incredible place to go to for hiking! There are so many different trails to do ranging from day trips to multi day treks. A blog on all the different hikes we recommend and what we ended up doing will be here.