Thanks, I will.

@kja
I am planning a trip to Peru and it is good that I was directed to this trip report. It grabbed my attention from the opening post when I noticed a 90% overlap in what we enjoy on trips, down to market for atmosphere rather than shopping ��. I am motivated to incorporate northern Peru into our itinerary. Well maybe not the highland. I cannot face the prospect of overnight bus. But the coast seems reasonable logistically. I have a couple of questions in designing an itinerary.

• There are quite a few archaeological sites around Chiclayo. Other than Ventarron (which we shall not attempt), you did two full-day tours. How do you find the pace? I hate to be rushed.
• As for Trujillo, you covered most archaeological sites it in one full-day tour. Again do you find the pace comfortable? Was El Brujo a half-day tour? From the map, it is far.
• I see reliable taxi is an important consideration in this part of the world. Sorry that the pre-arranged taxi did not work out in Trujillo. How did you secure a “recommended taxi” when you arrived in Chiclayo? Could bus terminal staff help?

@ foggy_27:

The tours I joined were paced quite well, I thought, but I suspect that the number of people and the guide make a difference. The guides I had for tours from Chiclayo moved at what I considered a very reasonable pace, and I say that as someone prone to looking at everything I can. The full-day tour I had from Trujillo was unusual, in that I had signed up for a group tour, but ended up being the only person who did so. That guide let me take as much time as I wanted everywhere we went.

I thought El Brujo worth the half day, and going there worked well with my itinerary; YMMV. There is definitely some overlap between El Brujo and the Huaca de Luna, so if time is limited, skipping El Brujo might make sense.

I arranged taxis in advance of all of my arrivals either though my hotels or, where it operates, through taxidatum. IME, staff at bus terminals did not necessarily speak English, so whether they could help or not may depend not only on them, but on your linguistic skills.

Hope that helps!

Thanks. I will also plan to stay a couple of days in Lima. The guide books tend to treat it as just a gateway, but my gut feeling is that we would like it.

I wish I'd given Lima more time -- it has such a wealth of opportunities! And if it helps, I thought the Moon Guide and Lonely Planet provided better information about Lima in particular (and Peru in general) than the other guidebooks with which I worked.

Loved your trip report! I'm off to Peru with a friend for a much shorter trip than yours in October - loved all of your daily details and it is making me so excited for our trip!
Thanks for the warning on the uncooked cheese - although I saw mention of it in my travel documents I didn't think too much about it. Now I will be on the alert!

A question: did you bring a walking stick (or two) to use at MP?
Also, your mention of a seeing a (dead) snake at MP had me alarmed. I am extremely phobic, dead or alive. Did you see snakes anywhere else?

i wish we had more time for Lima - I loved your description of your activities there - we will at least be visiting the Larco museum and I am looking forward to that!

@ ellenbw: Thanks for your kind words! I'm glad it helped build excitement for what I'm sure will be a wonderful trip.

Do avoid uncooked cheese, by any and all means!

I did not use a walking stick at Machu Picchu or anywhere else. My wonderful guide at Machu Picchu had extras and offered them, but I've never used them, and didn't think that would be the place to start. If I was familiar with their use, and if I had wanted to go to the Sun Gate or climb Huayna Picchu, they would, I think, be worth considering.

I did not see any live snakes anywhere during my time in Peru, and the dead one I saw was a species that is not at all dangerous to humans. I don't think you have any reason to fear.

The Larco is excellent, and there's a branch in Cusco that is well worth seeing if you have time there, too. And the restaurant at the Larco in Lima is one of Gaston's, so although I stopped only for a pisco sour, it is well worth considering.

Hope that helps!

kja, thank you so much for this wonderful report! Not only did I enjoy your excellent writing but it was also incredibly helpful for my travel planning.

@ marigross: Thanks for the compliment, and for letting me know you found it helpful! You're in for a wonderful trip.

Hi Kja, whow thanks for a great report. Would you recommend May? Was it too busy as I've read it gets busy in May and was thinking April might be better, what is your opinion? I want to plan a 3 week trip. Would re-read your report and thanks for all the advice.

@ MimmieHuman: I'm glad you found some useful advice in my report! Because I've only been to Peru (a) once and (b) in May, I'm not sure I can advise you well, and I suspect the answer could differ a bit depending on which specific locations you plan to visit, but here goes:

Some of the most touristed areas of Peru that I visited (Machu Picchu, Cusco, the Sacred Valley) were at the end of my trip -- so the end of May -- and I did not find them too busy. (Well, during a few of my days in Cusco, the city was packed -- but it was Corpus Christi, which is a BIG deal in the area, and I had specifically planned to be there with not just tourists, but the many people of the surrounding Sacred Valley communities who come to Cusco for that particular festival.) Machu Picchu and Ollantaytambo were definitely full of tourists, but not as badly as I had feared. From what I read, Machu Picchu has been approaching or exceeding its maximum actual capacity (meaning the capacity it can sustain without damage) for quite a while. Limits imposed before I went seemed to control the crowds a bit, and I believe additional constraints have been imposed more recently. I can't speak to the Amazon, which I think is the other most heavily region in Peru.

(And FWIW, these places may have been full of people, but not to the point of unpleasantness that often accompanies the onslaught of daytrippers from cruise ships in Europe.)

My understanding is that April is still in the rainy season, but I'm sure it's a transition that occurs over time. Most better guidebooks give at least a rough overview of month-by-month differences, and you can check weatherbase.com for climate statistics (temperature, precipitation, etc) for more detailed historic data on specific locations.

FWIW, I thought May a very good choice for my purposes, except that I hadn't fully appreciated just how cold the highlands would be at night. Fortunately, my "emergency" preparations for cold proved sufficient.

I hope that helps!

Hi Kja, Wishing you a great 2019. I only get time now to start planning the Trip (from Nov to now it was very hectic). Think May is too close to start planning the trip and working 24/7? It sucks I wish I could just do the travel thing LOL. Can anyone comment on July/August if it is very busy - so bad that it is better to wait till October? September is not going to work as we have the Otter trail already booked for September (South Africa)?

We want to do a trek to Machu Picchu and with my 'knee problems' (yes me too Kja , I've read that the normal Inca trail route is downhill and not recommendable for someone with knee problems. Currently their is Travel expo have specials on treks to Mountain Picchu. Up to 60+% discount. Anyone used TreXperience before? they have a Salkantay to Machu Picchu trek 7 days - anyone did it before?

@ MimmieHuman: I'm sorry, but I can't help with your questions -- just empathize with the ways that work interferes with life. Good luck with your planning!

July and August are very busy, colder but not as rainy. It wouldn't be too hard to book May now although I don't know about the Inca Trail and even if you could get on a guided walk would you be sufficiently ready? I'd ask a MD about the knee issues..The Inca Trail(s) (they are not just at Machu Picchu) are not nicely graded ones but have big steps and are laid with stones..You can likely look at some YouTube videos to get an idea. If you want to just get a taste of that, you can take a taxi to the top of the Pisac ruins and hike down into town. Or go to Machu Picchu and just walk up to the Sun Gate from the citiadel (which isn't difficult) and back down. Same place that the Inca Trail trekkers enter on their last day..so you will get the same view as they do. Or book for Huana Picchu. May is a great month for MP and the Sacred Valley since it will still be green (some flowers and crops showing) but rain should start tapering off... October very definitely can be rainy. Whether better or worse than May depends on the year and, sometimes, if there is an El Nińo. Not sure anyone can tell you for sure.

thanks for the info. May would be the best but you're right (I dont have enought time as May is around the corner) !!

@ mlgb: Thanks for answering MimmieHuman
@ MimmieHuman: I hope you come up with a plan that works for you!

Me to

I’ve been enjoying your trip report. I don’t intend to butt into your report; but only to reinforce your impressions, I’ve added a few stray comments below. (And anyway, this seems to have had the salutary effect of bringing this report back to the top for a now — as long as they note that it was from 2018, I think readers who are interested in Peru beyond the “Sacred Valley” will still find it to be a good starting point.)

On Chachapoyas: I was there about a year after you — I’m glad to report that by then the construction you reported was essentially finished. (My photos show only some plastic netting in the plaza surrounding patches of newly-planted grass.)

On Kuélap: Like you, I felt the site to be magnificent, and felt myself “transported to a different time.” Not only back to Peru of a thousand years ago, but even back to Europe any time before 1950, when one could still visit most of its ancient sites the way I visited Kuélap in 2019 — without having to purchase advance tickets, or share the site with tourist hordes. In fact everything came together to make my Kuélap visit perfect: the magnificent mountain vistas; the amazing ruins themselves; perfect weather (though unless it’s raining, I usually find the weather at 10,000 feet to be perfect!); and as I mentioned, a mere trickle of other tourists (and those few might all have been Peruvian).

On Chiclayo: My memories of the city are somewhat better than yours, though my visit was eleven years earlier; and anyway I was already rather accustomed to Latin American cities off the tourist trail. (But if all goes well, I'll have updates to offer this June.)

On your impression of Tucumé (“awesome!”) I felt the same. And excuse me for mentioning this if you did so yourself (in which case I somehow missed it), but that’s also basically what the famous explorer and scholar Thor Heyerdahl thought when he first visited the site. (I knew that if it was good enough for Mr. Heyerdahl, it would be good enough for me.) Another pleasant memory is that I never had to share the site with any more than two other tourists at a time; and for a glorious 15 minutes I had it all to myself (apart from some archaeologists working in a far corner). I don't know whether it's the same today, 19 years later, but I'm planning to find out this May!

On Huaca Rajada (Sipán): While your tour guide may have had a lot of local “pull,” I think I can go one better! For on my visit I was lucky enough to have seen the site’s chief investigator himself, the famous Peruvian archaeologist Walter Alva, leading a small group of young people, possibly students of his. I wanted to walk over and say something, but I was too shy to think of anything!

On Trujillo: My visit was so long ago (2005) that my recollections are getting a little dim, but I do remember liking the city a lot. And like you, I was amazed at Chan Chan. One odd recollection from the city itself is that of a policeman futilely blowing his whistle at the drivers who were just ignoring him as they rushed by. And it’s too bad the Cassinelli museum was closed when you were there — it was quite an experience. (I’ve read that it’s been re-opened by one of his children.) I think I still have, somewhere, a ticket receipt signed by José Cassinelli himself.

I had to quit reading upon reaching your Lima section, but I will return to it as soon as i can.

@ Faedus: Thanks for topping this trip report and for sharing your thoughts (so far)!

Kuelap is very special, wasn’t it? It seems we both made it there in that golden window after the cable cars were installed and before it’s tragic 2022 partial collapse. It seems that a limited number of (lucky) people can now again visit part of the citadel. I’m sure you join me in wishing success to those who are working to stabilize it.

I’ll have to re-read the sections of my report on Chiclayo, as my recollections of it are quite fond. (The outskirts, not so much.) I found it a bit of a crazy introduction to urban Peru, but I remember it’s wonderful market and some absolutely welcoming and kind people. I hope I didn’t give a negative impression of it.

It sounds like you had some utterly awesome experiences on your previous visits; I hope your upcoming trip is also wonderfully memorable!

Thanks again for topping this report and adding your comments.

I’ve enjoyed reading your trip report. As I’m rather fond of Peru, I’m always glad to see places in the country beyond Cusco-Machu Picchu get positive coverage.

And though I’ve been to Peru several times, it’s still a good thing I read your report. I wasn’t able to make it to Leimebamba on my Chachapoyas trip, and after reading your comments I saw that should I make it back to the area I will have to find time for it. But more significantly, given that I’m going to Chiclayo in a couple of months, your reported clued me on two sites that weren’t open yet on my 2007 visit. First, the interesting-looking Ventarron site, which, as I noted after going to the internet with your information, was discovered in the very year I was in the area — unbeknownst to me then, the initial studies were being made even as I was visiting the area’s other sites! Second was the Huaca Rajada site museum, which, I found, opened two years after my visit.

But apart from all that useful information, your sections on the town of Chiclayo (as distinct from its fascinating vicinity) may have been a little more on the negative side than you recall; but then, as few people go to Chiclayo to see Chiclayo itself, I wouldn’t worry about it too much! Anyway, if all goes well, I’ll post an update in June or July.

I seem to be getting a little verbose, so just a couple of additional notes:

First, I was very intrigued with your mention of how your tour agent “had spoken to the lead archeologists at each site” [Sipán and Ventarrón] that you considering. This is one of the things that keep me visiting Peru and Latin America — in many places there, visiting can still be more like real travel and discovery, as opposed to common “consumer” tourism. In Europe, does anyone ever have to consult with the lead archaeologists before visiting Pompeii in Italy, or the Acropolis in Athens?

But more generally, throughout your report, I was very pleased with the overall positive impression you gave of the various places you visited. Sometimes I get frustrated with the “is it worth it” or “worth only a day” comments I see on travel forums like this one (though less often on this very one), and while I rarely see such comments regarding Cusco and Machu Picchu, I believe your trip report provides a good affirmative answer regarding the other places you visited in Peru — yes, they are worth it, as long as one is sufficiently curious and open-minded to appreciate what they offer, as you evidently were.

[Well, all right, one more thing to add: Though it’s mainly a judgment call, I’ve probably been more impressed with the Lima's Plaza Mayor (Central Plaza, Plaza De Armas) than you were. True, the surrounding buildings represent several architectural styles; but still, I thought they all somehow hung together aesthetically, and I felt (thought this is rather impressionistic) that this grand plaza offered a strong reminder that Lima was, for a long time, one of the two Great Cities of Spain’s American empire (Mexico City being the other). And since churches generally aren't my scene, i won't comment on your comparison between Lima’s cathedral and Latin America’s other fine ones, except to note that Lima’s seemed to me as good a place as any in which to worship, if one is inclined to do so. Also, the cathedral does have a few interesting cultural items inside, but though most have to be sought out, that curious little Francisco Pizarro room just inside the main entrance is hard to miss!]