Peru Just Back- Questions?
 

My husband and I just returned from a week in Peru and welcome your questions! We are extensive travelers who wanted to broaden our horizons with this first trip to SA. We had a great trip with no altitude probs and below I'll post some highlights that I haven't seen on this board or wanted to share! Thanks to all for the great tips!

THE BAD (few):
Lima- Unless you have a massive layover, skip it. The trip into the Plaza Mayor for the Cathedral and San Francisco is expensive and not impressive. Larcomar mall is nice at the cliffs for a lunch/dinner if you do have a big layover, but not worth it just for that.
If you have an overnighter and just waiting for early AM flight, we stayed at the Ramada at the hotel and it was VERY handy.

Be prepared all over the country for the constant begging. Visitors to Europe will be familiar with the pleas to visit restaurants, but the barrage of constant begging for entrance to restaurants, buying products, and taxis from adults and kids can wear you down. Expect it.

TIPS:
Take more cash than you think you will need. Try to get small bills. ATMs seem to give out only 100 sols.
ATMs in Cusco were mostly just inside the doorways of stores, which made us feel more secure.
Leave your AMX at home. Visa and MC are avail in Cusco at restaurants, but AMX was not.

PACK LIGHT and in layers. Everywhere was super casual and it got hot during the day and chilly at night.

THE GOOD:
Cusco:
We stayed at the Casa San Blas.
LOVED it. This hotel is incredible and I highly recommend it. The staff greeted us with tea and had the room ready. Make sure you keep that white immigration form you get on the plane. You need it to skip the 19% tax at hotels. This hotel helped with all our taxis, breakfast was good, room was nice, even had hot water bottles to warm up our beds. I've read complaints about it being uphill, but really it wasn't a back walk! My hubby and I had few altitude probs, though. I will also say there was noise from some school, but there were rehearsals for Inti Rami, so I think that was the cause and it was over by 2200.

SHOPPING:
Those great hats and alpaca sweaters are EVERYWHERE. The San Blas area has the best bargains. If you see something, just buy it, b/c every place has the same thing. For sweaters and tshirts- TRY THEM ON. I am a size 6 and no Pamela Anderson..and hubby is a normal 6 foot 2 and the sizes are SMALL in shirts and BIG in sweaters. Save yourself disappointment later and try things on. Jewelry was also everywhere.

FOOD:
We thought the food was better than expected! Had no probs! Bottled water was also everywhere. Liked Inka Grill, Chez Maggys, and Jack's Cafe. HATED Paddy Flaherty's Irish Pub. Irish Pub with no Guinness on draft? Also both meals were just BAD! We also liked the Inka Wall buffett. It had guinea pig without the whole head, teeth, and feet looking at you!!

OLLANTA:
Can't spell it from memory :)
We took a taxi from hotel and it was 80 sols. Don't take a tour, you will not have the time. It was about 1 hour 20 minute pretty drive. The ruins were great and we seemed to be all alone! We loved them.

MP:
We took the train from Ollan. The Vistadome Valley train was nice. Bizarre because there was a fashion show on board. We stayed at the Inti Inn. Fine, but would LOVE to have afforded the hotel at MP.
The bus rates for MP seem to have gone up. We expected 7-8 dollars...paid a bit more. If you are going up for two days, as we did, you can buy the tickets all at once.
MP IS TOO INCREDIBLE FOR WORDS.
TOTALLY WORTH IT!!!
Just a few tips:
If you go for sunrise, the first bus is at 0530. But they lined up 20 buses in a row. It was really well organized and not a mob scene. The sunrise was not great for us, but maybe you will have better luck.
Bring a big memory card on your camera
Be sure to explore the eastern side- on the right as you enter. No one was there and we thought it was really interesting and unexplored.
Bring sunscreen!
PASSPORT- The MP passport stamp is self-serve. As you exit the guard shack, look immediately to your right. There's a tiny table with a stamp set up.
While waiting for the train, we had the buffet lunch at Toto's right on the tracks. It was good (started at 1145) and took credit card if you are saving money for taxis/buses/shopping.

These are just some brief highlights, so pls feel free to ask any questions!

Sounds like a great trip...brought back memories of ours last April. We also stayed at Casa San Blas and loved it too. Wonderful staff. We had the school playing music everyday, starting in late am/early pm and stopping around 6-7 pm as I recall. But it never bothered us. We thought it was sort of nice.

Heading to Cusco next week and have a couple question (we had more before reading your post!).

1) Any chance you remember how good/bad the exchange rates were there if you needed cash? We need a fair amount of sole for our inca trail camping trip (more than I'll be getting out of an ATM)... I had planned on exchanging here (Chicago) but then the exchange rate I was offered was 2.5/$ which seemed pretty crappy (actual rate is about 2.9). It's not a huge deal either way but figured I'd see if anyone had an opinion...

2) Any guidance on what to do in Cusco while waiting for our trek to start? We've got about 1.5 days before and 1 day after the trek. The stuff you already posted is helpful, but if you've got any additional advice that would be great as well. It's just my wife and I, we're 28 have a decent but not crazy budget, and enjoy checking out lots of different places/restaurants/etc (but we won't be eating any guinea pig...).

Thanks in advance!!

David

The exchange rate was ok, basically 3 sols to 1 US dollar.
We had luck bargaining in the markets, not as good in the stores.
As always I would check with your bank to see about any fees for ATM withdrawls.

In Cusco we saw the Cathedral, which was lovely and took a taxi to Sacsayhuaman. I cannot stress enough how UPHILL those ruins are! The ruins are great and the hike to the top has nice views over the Plaza de Armas in Cusco. There's also several museums in Cusco, but honestly we enjoyed being outside and used our time to take the daytrips to the Sacred Valley to really experience the "living" museums. The stores stayed open late, some til 2030, so you can definitely shop after dinner.

One weird things I didn't mention.
We thought the massage and waxing offers were just WEIRD. There's a woman on every corner in Cusco begging you to visit a massage/waxing place. Just what you went to Peru for, huh?!

Hi, David, my son and I just got back from doing some hikes in Peru, and the Inka Trail was great. If you only have a day and a half to get used to the altitude before you start walking (I'm assuming you're flying in directly from Chicago to Cusco), I think that should be your priority. Not to alarm you, but a couple of hours after we started on the trail, a guide and a hiker had to turn back because of the hiker's very bad reaction to the altitude.

We followed the local advice to drink lots of coca tea and we didn't have any problems (other than a few nose bleeds), but we had a few more days than you do.

If you are not feeling the effects of the altitude in your head (you undoubtedly will in your lungs), I would definitely suggest walking up to Sacsayhuaman as frequently as you can for a mini-preview of the hike to come. From Sacsayhuaman, you can follow a path for about 8km that will take you past three or four other ruin sites, Qenko, Pukapukara and Tambo Machay (I'm sure my spelling is off), but it's fairly flat and won't give you the workout it will give you to go up and down to Sacsayhuaman.

Have a great trip -- and I assume from your post that your trek operator won't take credit cards?



You will love it!

Sounds like a great trip. My soon to be wife and I are going to honeymoon in Mancora for 7nights 8days. We are curious about all inculsive (meals and drinks only). We have been quoted $75.00 US per person per day. Having been to Cancun this would be a grat deal, however, some Brazillian people in my neighborhood (Rahway, NJ) say this is a very high price. Would it be better to pay for our meals and drinks or go with all inclusive?
Thanks,
BillnRosa