7/25 – 9/11 (48 days)

Miles hiked: 127.2 miles hiked. 38,715 feet elevation gain

Places visited:

• Lima (7 nights)
• Oxapampa (2 nights)
• Huaraz (7 nights)
• Santa Cruz Trek (2 nights): Parla > Taulipampa
• Arequipa (2 nights)
• Colca Canyon Trek (2 nights): Llhaur > Sangalle
• Cusco (7 nights)
• Manu National Park (3 nights)
• Salkantay Trek (4 nights): Soraypampa > Colpapampa > Sahuayacu Playa > Aguas Calientes 
• Paracas (3 nights)
• Huacachina (1 night)
• Mancora (3 nights) 
• Night buses (5 nights)
• Day Trips: Pisac, Ollantaytambo 

Best place – Huaraz and surrounding area 

Best experience – Salkantay Trek to Machu Picchu 

Worst experience – Getting food poisoning in the jungle during Manu National Park tour

Most extreme experience – Ice climbing Nevada Mateo in the snow 

Best meal – Punto Marisko seafood (ceviche mixto y arroz con camarones)

Worst meal – Pizza in Aguas Calientes 

Most wild card move – going to 2 day music festival with Peruvian girl I just met a few hours before 

Craziest travel experience – 11 hour bus ride that turned into 32 hours because of accidents on the road. Honorary mention to landslide that destroyed the road and they rebuilt it in a few hours 

The Culture

Peru is a hiker’s paradise but it’s got a lot of other things to offer too: food, markets, alpaca and Inca style gifts, ancient ruins, and so much more. While the culture in Peru wasn’t quite as vibrant as in Colombia, it was still very warm and friendly. I had some great conversations with locals during my 7 weeks from tour guides to travelers to my Peruvian “girlfriend.” I really liked that a lot of Peruvians would travel within the country and stay at the same hostels as the backpackers. It was a good opportunity to meet locals my age who were are also traveling and get a better perspective on their lives and experiences rather than only meeting European backpackers.

I think it’s really cool and interesting to see how heavy the Incan influence still is on Peruvian culture, especially in the mountains. Going to see Incan ruins adds a lot of historical and cultural context to visiting Peru. It’s really so impressive to see the architecture and engineering genius from that ancient civilization and how it still holds the test of time through inclement weather and natural disasters like earthquakes. Not to mention the mystery of how they even built these incredible cities from massive rocks way up in the mountains. A lot of the locals in the mountain towns like Huaraz and Peru speak Quechua (Incan language) and for most of them it’s actually their first language with Spanish being second. There’s a very distinctive energy and mindset to the mountain people in Peru. You can tell that they really respect the land and know how to live in harmony with it. They also have a very strong community aspect. It’s incredible to see how many people have been living this deep in the Andes for so many generations with such a strong lifestyle and culture.

Peru has an incredible market culture with beautiful artesanal crafts, alpaca goods, and every type of food imaginable. Going to the market here is a one stop shop for anything you could need. It’s a fun experience just to walk around and soak in the energy even if you don’t buy anything. It’s also a great place to get a cheap and delicious lunch and/or fruit drink.

Just like Colombians, Peruvians love to go out dancing to salsa, cumbia, and reggaeton. When it comes to nightlife, it’s easy to find a party in Peru. As advertised to me by other backpackers, the Wild Rover Hostel chain was always a spot to party and I unintentionally stayed at all 3 locations across the country. I actually never ended up going out in Lima in spite of all my different nights staying there, but the party scene was big in Cusco, Mancora, and Huacachina. I had an absolute blast going to the 2 day music festival in Oxapampa, Oxafest, with Maria. It was really cool to have this experience in Peru: the energy was on point, the music was great, and it reminded me why I love going to music festivals. 

People were more pushy than Colombia trying to sell you stuff in the streets (although I didn’t go to Cartagena) or get you to come to their restaurant, tour, etc. It was also more expensive although one big reason is that I did more excursion and tours in Peru. Overall I’d say the cost of things was a little higher although once I discovered eating from the menú del día spots it saved me a lot of money. There were many days that I would spend more money buying a few beers than it cost me for all my meals. 

The Food

I absolutely loved Peruvian food! The flavors were delicious and the side of aji added the perfect amount of spice. When it comes to seafood, I loved the ceviche, leche de Tigre, and arroz con mariscos. As I’ve mentioned many times I was a sucker for the menú del dia where you could get a soup, entree, and glass of tea for $2-4. I loved going to the market and sitting at a local stand watching them cook my meal and sipping my tea. Usually these places were equally as tasty, if not more tasty, than the higher priced restaurants.

The typical entrees I ordered were: lomo soltado, fried trout, and chicken milanesa. I also loved eating chifa, Peruvian Chinese fusion (read more about it in my Huaraz blog post), where I would get a massive plate of fried rice or noodles for just a few bucks. Some other dishes I really enjoyed were aji de gallina, papas huancaina, rocoto relleno, and alpaca. Of course I also had to try the Guinea pig which I didn’t find to be that exciting but I also didn’t eat it at a fine dining restaurant. The queso helado in Arequipa was the highlight desert that I continue to crave on a hot day. The fruit drinks weren’t quite as good as Colombia but they were still delicious. After 7 weeks, I still never got sick of the Peruvian food and barely escaped back to eating anything Western. I don’t think I had a single burger and the only time I had pizza was in Aguas Calientes and it was terrible.

The Cities

I was not the biggest fan of Lima, and it’s probably my least favorite of the South American capitals (at the time of writing this I’ve been to 4). But it did serve it’s purpose as a home base between my travels…I did end up spending 7 nights here over 4 different times. Also I had my local “girlfriend” here which gave me a reason to come back. And a lot of the Peruvians I met elsewhere in the country during my travels were from Lima and they were great people.

That being said I’m just not a huge city person and I do see the appeal. There are endless incredible food options, Miraflores and Barranco are both really nice neighborhoods, and the boardwalk along the beach/above the sea wall is nice to walk around. I didn’t do any of the museums or historic district but that’s always an option too. Lima is just a massive city both in area and population. You could spend 1-2 days here and get the vibe or also easily spend 1-2 weeks eating well and soaking in the city energy. 

Arequipa is the second biggest city in Peru yet most people have probably never heard of it. I actually loved the tranquil vibe of the city and would definitely spend more time here in the future: the food is delicious, the white volcanic stone architecture is beautiful, there are lots of small streets to wander around, and the gigantic surrounding volcanos add a nice backdrop to the city.

While Cusco is the gateway to Machu Picchu and the surrounding Sacred Valley cities, it’s also a beautiful city nestled in the hills. It is very touristic, but I did like the overall energy and vibe. The market is probably the best I saw in Peru (Arequipa being a close second) and there are plenty of good restaurants and bars. 

Huaraz was my favorite place in the whole country as it’s a small, beautiful mountain town but it still has a lot of energy and activity in the streets and has access to the best Andes hiking.

The coast of Peru isn’t particularly beautiful compared to other places in the world but the coastal towns had a good energy and vibe, fun nightlife, and delicious seafood.

The Landscape

Peru is in the heart of the Andes mountains and has some of the most amazing landscape I’ve ever seen. It’s such a crazy feeling when you’re 15,000 feet high and yet the mountains next to you are still towering above. The county has 37 peaks higher than 6,000 meters with Huascaran South being the highest at 6,768 meters (22,205 feet). I found it so magical to hike in the Peruvian Andes with the expansive mountain and valley views. It’s a different type of challenge when hiking this high up, but it also gives you a very rewarding sense of accomplishment and it is quite an addictive feeling. I went over 15,000 for my first time (and a few more times) as well as over 16,000 once; and it always left me both incredibly satisfied and craving more. There are so many other landscapes and microclimates in Peru besides the Andes. It has some of the deepest canyons in the world, Cotahuasi and Colca, as well as some incredibly high volcanoes.

It also has a very long coastline with many small beach towns and it’s largest city, the capital, Lima. The area by the coast is very arid with lots of desert and dry land. As if this wasn’t enough biodiversity, the western half of Peru is made up of the Amazon jungle. This largely untouched land is home to a variety of exotic plants and wildlife. It is also the home of many native tribes that live a much different lifestyle than the rest of the modern world relying solely on the land for their survival.

The Weather

Since Peru is south of the Ecuador, it was technically their winter (and therefore dry season) when I showed up in late July. I got lucky with the weather for the most part as it wasn’t too hot or too cold, and it was mostly dry. I did get screwed with some of my hikes in Huaraz where I didn’t end up getting the views that I could have: the Santa Cruz trek was incredibly rainy, foggy, and cold; and my Nevada Mateo ice climb was snowy and cloudy. But the experiences were still incredible and it gives me a reason to just do them again. At least the Salkantay trek with Matt was absolutely beautiful weather. And in general over the course of the 7 weeks, I had a lot of sunny days and bluebird skies. Lima was always grey and somber weather but I think that’s just how it always is there in the winter. 

Transportation

Peru is an interesting country to get around because the Andes mountains smack dab in the middle of the country makes it difficult to get anywhere directly. There are lots of narrow, winding mountain roads where you just have to trust the drivers…and I really do, it was impressive to watch these guys navigate these crazy roads. The main highways were in pretty good condition but some of the smaller roads were full of potholes and crushed rocks. I even had one landslide experience on the way back from Manu National Park (from this blog post) but they impressively built a new one in just a few hours. There are a lot of very long bus rides to get between the major destinations so I ended up taking way more night buses (5 in total) here than in Colombia. It’s an efficient way to not lose a day of travel and to save money on accommodation. Sometimes I was tired enough to get a good night’s sleep and for other I only got a few uncomfortable hours. I usually just took the cheaper buses but if you really wanted to have more comfort than companies like Cruz del Sur offered seats with better incline. The longest bus I intentionally took was the 20 hour ride from Lima to Mancora and it really wasn’t that bad. The longest bus I unintentionally took was the 32 hour ride from Lima to Oxapampa (from this blog post). Besides that one really bad experience, the buses usually departed and arrived relatively on time, especially compared to Colombia. The longer bus rides all had functioning bathrooms and sometimes they would even make a 30-40 minute pit stop for us to get lunch.

Domestic flights were also cheap so I took this route twice to optimize my time. Once to get from Lima to Arequipa since Matt was visiting me soon and I had to speed up my travel. And once with Matt to get from Cusco to Lima because that bus would have been 24 hours and he was only visiting for 2 weeks.

My Spanish

I had a lot of opportunities to practice my Spanish and I definitely improved on the foundation that I created in Colombia. Whenever I went on a tour I would make a point to try and chat with the guide in Spanish, although sometimes it made them think I was better than I was. I wanted to talk in Spanish for 30 minutes, not 4 days…but hey it was good to practice whenever I could. And Peruvians are actually quite good at speaking English. I think it’s because Perú has been a popular tourist destination for so many years now that a higher influence is put on learning Spanish. All the Peruvians I met that were my age had a good foundation of English and some were very fluent. Based on a conversation I had with one girl, it seems like their education system has a solid focus on learning English. I think the highlight of my progress was my last stop in Mancora when the crew I hung out with was mostly Spanish speakers (more on that from this blog post).

My Route

My route in Peru didn’t make any sense. I talk about it in my Lima post how I ended up in that city 5 separate times and created my own Nazca Lines. But backpacking doesn’t always follow a straight line. I could have planned better, but I was also just living in the moment in Peru soaking in whatever path felt right at the time. A part of my poor planning was also because I had to meet Matt in Cusco on my birthday, August 17th, and I really didn’t do a great job mapping things out before then. Another factor was that I really wanted to head to Ecuador since I had skipped it after Colombia due to the protests going on. This required me to backtrack up north rather than continue south toward Bolivia. In the end it really didn’t matter for me because I still had the best time but if I were recommending a route through Peru then I certainly wouldn’t give mine.

Backpacker Life

As I entered the second South American country on my journey, I was still coming off the high of my Colombian life. I had really gotten into the full swing of the backpacker lifestyle meeting new people, exploring new things, embracing the culture, and loving every second of life. I felt very comfortable traveling solo. But arriving in a new country pushed me a bit back out of that comfort zone…although only for a few days. As I write this now I’ve been to 5 countries so I have more perspective on the feeling, but every time I’ve gotten to a new country it’s a bit of a reset. There’s a brief adjustment period to get used to a new culture, a different Spanish accent and slang, and the overall different vibe of being in a new country. While there is a lot of similarities between the South American countries, each one has a distinct energy and feeling to it. Luckily after a few much needed solo days in Lima, I met Maria and had the most wild card experience of my trip and then everything went uphill from there in Peru. I was quickly in my backpacker zone making new friends, soaking in the culture, enjoying the incredible food, and high altitude hiking through the amazing Andes landscapes.

One Regret

I regret not doing the Huayhuash trek nearby Huaraz with my friends Joe and Lorna. The trek is 8 days and at the time that seemed like a large commitment. Especially because Matt was visiting me in less than 2 weeks so I was going to have to change around my itinerary for what I was going to do before and after his arrival. But I wish I had pulled the trigger because it’s one of the most epic treks in the world and I would have been doing it with 2 very good friends. During the first day of the Santa Cruz trek (the shorter 4 day trek I did instead), I felt this sense of regret that I wasn’t doing Huayhuash. The fact that the weather wasn’t great on Santa Cruz didn’t help. But the next day I kicked those feelings of regret because I was still hiking in such a beautiful place doing the thing I love most. Even with 8 months of travel I still can’t do it all. And I reminded myself that there’s no reason to dwell on past decisions, especially when the alternative is still an incredible life experience. Plus not doing the Huayhuash trek on this trip just gives me yet another reason to go back in the future.