Perú

One of the most alluring qualities of cruising in Venezuela is its proximity to so many places that we've always wanted to visit. We decided early in our stay in Puerto La Cruz that we wanted to travel in South America before leaving our secure slip in Bahia Redonda Marina. In preparing ourselves for travel outside of the cruising community in Puerto La Cruz, we went to Mérida (in Venezuela) twice and enrolled in Spanish classes at the Iowa Institute. That was, undoubtedly, the best time and money we spent preparing for S.A. travel, and besides, we love Mérida. We are not bilingual by anyone's standard, but we can get around reasonably well in Spanish.

After an extensive period of research and planning, John and I flew to Lima on March 23, 2004. We spent five weeks in Perú, visiting Iquitos and the Amazon region in the northeast, Lima, Arequipa, Lake Titicaca, Cusco, and, of course, Machu Picchu, and ended our adventure in the southeast rainforest in the Tambopata region. Our experience on the Amazon was unique, and therefore priceless, and we wished we could have spent far more time in Cusco. The rainforest was amazing and it was a perfect way to end our trip.

Planning

My best sources for information were The Lonely Planet Perú and the South American Explorers Club web site (saexplorers.com). The sites at andeantravelweb.com and iperu.com are two that have lots of links that I found very helpful. For information about the frequently visited attractions, I relied heavily on advice from other travelers who have been to Perú, including those who have written articles for Seven Seas Cruising Association.

Additional materials that we found helpful were acquired in Peru. One of the best is A Neotropical Companion by John Kricher, Princeton University Press, 1997. It is a well written book for laypersons that describes the plants, animals and ecosystems of the South American tropics. A seldom found combination of prose and science, it is an absolute must for anyone wanting to travel, arm chair or otherwise, to the South American tropics. Also, an exquisite find was a book we borrowed from the Cusco SAE clubhouse library, Ruth Wright's Guide to Machu Picchu (no details on publication). With the Wright guide, you don't need anything but it and the time to explore Machu Picchu on your own. Another book that we found helpful was Peter Frost's Exploring Cusco, Nuevas Imagenes, S.A., 1999. It's available for purchase from SAE in Cusco.

Having the proper inoculations and preventive medications for traveling in this region is essential. Some of the diseases, such as yellow fever, are often fatal, so there is no rationale that would support ignoring these threats to your health. We received our inoculations before we left the States to go cruising, but this service is also available in health clinics in Venezuela and elsewhere. Some of the inoculations, such as hepatitis B, require a series of shots over several months for you to acquire immunity, so they should be attended to well in advance of your travel plans. In addition to yellow fever, we have typhoid, hepatitis A, B, and C, tetanus, and polio inoculations. Because we were planning a trip into the Amazon Basin and into the rainforest, we also took a malaria prophylactic, starting several weeks in advance of arriving in Iquitos. We carried a powerful insect repellent for exposed skin, and wore light weight long-sleeve shirts and jeans sprayed with deet while in mosquito infested places. Knee high rubber boots are the footwear of choice for the jungle and the river swamps and are available to buy or rent at a very reasonable price. We also carried a strong, broad-spectrum antibiotic in case we came down with malaria despite the preventive meds.

Transportation

After defining our trip goals, we constructed a tentative itinerary that included transportation modes, estimated time in location, activities and estimated costs. We wanted to have as much flexibility in our schedule as possible while still being able to take advantage of the lower airfares when purchased in Venezuela, so we spent a great deal of time deciding what we wanted to do in the various regions, how much time we would need to spend at each stop, and modes of transportation between points of interest. We also built in some slack time for more flexibility.

Before leaving Venezuela, we bought our international and national airline tickets: round trip from PLC to Lima, round-trip from Lima to Iquitos, and flights from Cusco to Puerto Maldonato and from Puerto Maldonato back to Lima. The national Peru flights we booked had no penalty for changing the dates, so we were able to maintain some flexibility during our travels.

We traveled by bus from Lima to Arequipa, on to Puno, then Cusco, and traveled by train from Cusco to Aguas Calientes. We purchased all of our travel tickets only a day ahead of time when we were ready to move on, and had no problems with making arrangements, all of them except in Puno at the bus or train stations. In Puno we used Edgar travels to purchase bus tickets and to arrange a taxi to take us to the station (an early rise).

Hotels

The only accommodation we booked before leaving Venezuela was in Lima. We chose La Posada del Parque, recommended by Lonely Planet and by www.andeantravelweb.com (see our pix) because it looked nice and the price was right. The hotel provided the pickup at the airport for an additional fee (no more than a taxi charges), a welcome service at midnight in the Lima airport. Other Lima hotels can be booked online, and most have pickup services. You really don't need a travel agency and guide to do this for you!

In general, we asked around for recommendations and consulted our travel guides, then called ahead to our next stop to reserve a hotel, primarily to have a destination when we arrived. We found that during our trip, there were plenty of hotel accommodations at very reasonable prices, so we wouldn't have needed to book ahead at all, but it saved time and energy when arriving at a new town, tired and hungry and carrying lots of luggage.

A notable exception is Pevas. This Amazon village has only one place to stay: the Casa de la Loma lodge. We arranged our stay there before boarding a cargo boat, and I wouldn't have wanted to show up there without some contact ahead of time. We found the place to get information and make arrangements in Iquitos, as recommended by Lonely Planet.

The hotel names and price we paid are listed in our itinerary below.

Guides

Once having arrived in Lima, we went to the South American Explorers Club in Miraflores, an organization that provides many travel services for members, to determine if a membership there was worthwhile for us. We also wanted to book our final Peruvian adventure in the rainforest while we had access to SAE and the Internet. Rainforest Expeditions, Inc. not only had SAE's recommendation, but they offered the only trip to the Tambopata Research Center deep in the primary rainforest and a ten minute boat ride from the largest macaw clay lick in the region. We decided to book a 5 day 4 night trip with Rainforest Expeditions, and since SAE members are given a 10% discount at Rainforest Expeditions, we joined SAE at almost no additional charge. We also bought the SAE booklet for Madre de Dios/Iquitos and environs as a supplement to our Lonely Planet Guide to help us prepare for our Iquitos trip, then happily took them up on their recommendation for a local (Miraflores) cevicheria, Albertos, specializing, of course, in ceviche de corvina. Exquisite!!

Except for our trip into the rainforest, we used all local guides hired on site (and then only when required). We believe that the experiences we had were far more satisfying and in some cases, more memorable for not having been planned and booked in advance. For instance, we were able to meet local people, to visit (in several cases) their homes, and to see things that we never would have seen had we been boxed in by a schedule and a preselected guided tour. It takes more time up front to figure out the questions to ask and the places to go to ask them, but we relish the challenge! Just the process of nosing around for more information about local attractions is interesting in itself. I guess it also requires an adventuresome spirit that isn't overwhelmed by a bit of uncertainty.

In Iquitos, we met a young man named Alfredo, who we hired to show us around. He took us to meet his family who live in the port town of Bella Vista, stopped at the university of Iquitos, then to Belén where we rented a canoe and toured the floating barrio. He did such a good job that we hired him to connect us to a boat for a tour to the Butterfly Farm. In Iquitos, there is a tourist office next to the El Dorado Hotel, and they can help you connect with a guide as well as give you an idea of what you can expect to pay for the services. There's no shortage of guides and motocarro drivers just waiting to help you enjoy your visit.

In Pevas, Abelardo is the manager of the Casa de la Loma and is also a guide into the Amazon jungle. We went with him on an early morning bird watching trip, a jungle hike, and met his family and friends in the Boras tribe who live in huts on the river. There, John had the opportunity to learn how to use a blowgun, a very long bamboo tube through which you propel (by blowing, of course) a poison dart.

In Puno, we used Edgar Travels as our guide for a trip to the Floating Islands and to Taquile on the lake. For those trips, you must use a guide, and we were happy with our choice.

We did not use guides in Lima, Arequipa, Cuzco, or Machu Picchu, though there are plenty to choose from, especially in Cusco. If we ever return to Peru, we would spend more time in the Cuzco area and would use a guide to show us the Sacred Valley.

Below is the itinerary that we settled on. When we saw that our stay in Arequipa was going to be too long, we moved on to Puno and then spent the extra time there and in Cusco. Otherwise, the schedule we planned in advance worked well for us. Looking back, I would allow even less time in Arequipa and still more in Cuzco.

The costs listed are for two and are reasonably accurate to the best of my recollection, though I didn't record all of the bus fares exactly. The prices in the guide books were right on target, and sometimes lower, especially the hotels. We traveled just before high season rates kicked in, so we were able to take advantage of low season rates. We budgeted about $30/day for food and drink, and we were able to live quite well on that budget. During our time in Lima, we budgeted $20/day for taxis. Our Amazon trip and the Rainforest Expeditions prices included all food and lodging as well as transportation.