Peru travel tips

Following are regularly updated travel tips for Peru.

The text below is from the comprehensive holiday travel tips to be found at
Cheap World Travel Tips.

May 22 2010 Peru travel tips

Taxis in Lima come in all shapes and sizes, the most common being Toyota Corolla station wagons circa 1990. Seatbelts are not required and most cabs don't have meters. The fare is usually negotiated at the end of the trip and Lima drivers are known to double or triple the journey length or their price if they think the passenger is a tourist sucker. Nevertheless, fares are cheap by western standards.

A tourist magnet in Lima is the Plaza Mayor, where the changing of the guards outside the Government Palace at midday draws hundreds of spectators every day. The Plaza Mayor is dominated by a 17th century bronze fountain and is encircled by a beautiful baroque cathedral, Archbishop's Palace, City Hall and Teatro Colon. Around the corner is the San Francisco Monastery, one of Lima's first religious buildings and a drawcard partly because of its catacombs filled with tens of thousands of human bones.

Alto Purus National Park near the Brazilian border is deep Amazon jungle within which there are still native Indian tribes using bows and arrows who are isolated from the modern world. In 2007, nomadic Indians have been seen from the air along the banks of the Las Piedras River. An estimated 65 indigenous tribes in the Amazon Basin have shunned outside contact to avoid new diseases and some have fled the advancing gas, oil and timber industries for the past hundred years. These people should not be sought as they voluntarily avoid western contact, having no immunity to outside diseases that have historically decimated jungle tribes.

The best time to explore Machu Picchu itself is at dawn when rising sunshine bathes the city in light and you don't have to put up with thousands of tourists milling around.

Fit hikers who trek about five days south-west of Machu Picchu can explore Choquequirau, the Cradle of Gold, an ancient Incan city larger than Machu Picchu. About 35% of Choquequirau has been uncovered from a thick tangle of cloud forest and the terraced city descends to the Apurimac and Rio Blannco rivers. Few tourists make the trek to Choquequirau, where a wealth of archeological, cultural and historic finds are yet to be discovered.

Independent and self-supported trekkers are no longer allowed to tackle the Inca Trail. Every person entering the trail system must now have a permit bought in advance. Only 500 permits are allowed each day and they are sold out months in advance. The permits can only be bought from authorities through licensed operators and are non-refundable.

If you're unable to book a permit to walk the Inca Trail, it's well worth considering alternative treks that approach the city via different jungle and mountain routes.

The five-day Salkantay Mountain trek is popular and covers 70 kilometres. These alternative trails can be travelled alone but it's advisable to hire guides as people do get lost. Most agency prices start at around $US150.

If you hire a car for your Peru travel, be aware that road conditions are poor and it's safer to travel in convoys because of highway bandits, particularly in remote areas.

Even some intercity bus trips in Peru have been ambushed by armed robbers in recent years, and the buses themselves are involved in a few more crashes than they should be. For example, a bus crash in May 2005 near the town of Jauja killed more than 35 people.

Peru Travel Tips 1

Peru Travel Tips 2

Peru Travel Tips 3

Peru Travel Tips 4

Peru Travel Tips 5

Peru Travel Tips 6

Peru Travel Tips 7

Top of page