Leaving Peru

Peru is a curious country, incredibly varied. From the heights of the Andes, to jungle valleys, ancient Inca ruins and Spanish Colonial coastal deserts… you do get the impression of truly travelling as you move from place to place here. Each city or town (or village) we visited was very different from the last – keeping us interested even after being on the road for nearly 11 months.

Although Lake Titicaca was truly beautiful (and spectacularly cold) and the Ballestos Islands offered the chance to see the most amazing wildlife we’ve ever come across, I think the highlight of Peru for us was visiting Cusco and the Sacred Valley. The scenery is beautiful, the towns vibrant, and of course the area is crowned by a series of dramatic Inca sites – including Machu Picchu, the most impressive Inca Citadel of all. This is a great area to explore independently too – no need to get tours to sites as the public transport is very good (and very cheap).

Since we landed in Santiago back in December we’ve travelled solely by bus, car or train – so it’s a little strange to have to catch a plane to Mexico for our last month of travelling. This return to the northern hemisphere doesn’t actually move us much closer to the UK as Mexico City lies much further west than Lima. But from there we plan to travel overland eastward towards Cancun, passing a few Maya pyramids on the way.

Anyway, below you’ll find a good v scary contest for Peru…

Some things we’ve found great…

1. Inca Ruins. Predictably the highlights of Peru for us were the ancient sites of the Inca civilisation – not so much for the stone work or architecture, but for the locations! The Incas really couldn’t match the Cambodians of the Khmer Empire or the Ancient Chinese in the construction of their temples or forts, but they really did place them in the most breathtaking sites possible! Machu Picchu is particularly beautiful of course, but even the lesser known sites such as Pisac are stunning. The Incas must have been mad to build on the top of the Andes like that – and very, very fit!

2. Inca Terraces. The Incas were actually better a sculpting agricultural terraces than building temples… these fascinating terraces transformed the Andean mountain slopes in many places and are frequently still used by local farmers today. Perhaps the most impressive examples we saw were in Pisac, where numerous clusters of immaculate terraces stretched downs the steep mountain slopes in all directions. The ones at Machu Picchu weren’t bad either, come to think of it…

3. Ceviche. This is the closest Peru gets to Sashimi – raw fish marinated in citrus juice and spices instead of being cooked. We particularly liked the fish called chito, but we haven’t a clue if this goes by another name back home. Great texture and well worth trying if you get the chance.

4. Ballestos Islands. After seeing the hoards of birds and sealions on these fantastic but tiny lumps of rock I’d really love to visit the Galapagos Islands at some point. Unfortunately we don’t have time to visit Ecuador now - we’ll have to reserve that for the next around the world trip I think!

5. Orange Juice. The orange juice in Peru was universally excellent – concentrate doesn’t seem to exist, so they squeeze everything freshly. Lovely! The only other place we’ve found with juice like this is Egypt weirdly enough.

6. Rural Peruvians. In some ways Peru is a distinctly less pleasant place to travel than neighbouring Chile – in the main towns and sites you get the distinct impression that everyone wants to make money from you. The honest ones tout tours and hotels, or try to sell you everything from woolly hats to mini-guitars. The less honest ones tend to follow you, trying to look unobtrusive! Not that we had any trouble, but we’ve met plenty of people who’ve lost a few belongings in South America! But if you leave these areas and wander off into the countryside, as we did in search of a few Inca sites near Cusco, you get a completely different impression of the locals. We met nothing but kindness and helpfulness in our wanders off the beaten track, making us much more optimistic about Peruvians than we would have been from our highly irritating encounters with pestering souvenir vendors and shoe-shine boys in the Plaza De Armas in Cusco. It’s a shame our Spanish wasn’t a bit better – conversation may have been virtually impossible, but at least you don’t need to be fluent in a language to convey good will!

And some scary things…

1. Earthquakes. Erm, none struck during our visit thankfully, but from time to time Peru does seem to be knocked by some crackers. The destruction from the 2007 earthquake that virtually destroyed Pisco and the Paracas peninsular is still painfully evident – from the piles of rubble and ongoing construction work in Paracas’ port to the cracks stretching along the cliff edges in the peninsula. Throughout the country most of the historic buildings are relatively new simply because they have been decimated every hundred years or so! This is not the most stable part of the world.

2. Security Measures. While exploring Lima we saw no violent crime, but we were more than a little perturbed to see how many security measures were in place to stop it. Police and hired security constantly patrol the public areas on foot and by car – especially in Miraflores, the coastal suburb where we chose our hotel. All buildings have elaborate security systems and sturdy external gates with remote locks… in a way reassuring, but in another fashion highly disconcerting in their necessity! This country may be a lovely place to travel, but they clearly have unresolved issues regarding violent crime.

3. Touts. And tacky souvenir sellers. They get everywhere and they are really tiring. We haven’t seen this many since India, and the only place where they are more numerous and annoying is Luxor in Egypt!

4. Vultures in the Desert!

Oh well, back to the Northern Hemisphere to swap the Incas for Mayas and Aztecs for our last month of our trip. I don’t think a year is long enough for this kind of thing…