Cusco and Sacred Valley, PeruWe landed in Lima Sunday morning at 7AM, as there were no direct international flights to the interior of Peru (Arequipa and Cusco are technically international airports but there were no international flights to Cusco directly). Peruvian Border Control does not stamp passports at entry or exit. We did not exit the airport in Lima, but rather headed straight to the Priority Pass lounge to wait for our 1PM flight. Originally, we had planned to eat brunch at Bobbe’s in Lima, a kosher eatery, during our stopover, but they had unfortunately closed down during covid. Once we found out that Bobbe’s was no longer operational, we hoped to catch an earlier flight from Lima to Cusco, but the customer service agents at the airport were atrocious, with everyone sending us to speak with someone else, and Latam’s (the airline we were flying with) customer service phone center telling us that the change must be done at the airport, so we eventually gave up on finding an earlier flight. While no covid test was required for entry (our group was fully vaccinated), Peru requires double masking in all public areas. Luckily the only place this was enforced was during boarding, and we were able to take off the second mask as soon as we were seated. After a short flight from Lima we landed in Cusco, which sits at an elevation of 11,000 feet. Everyone adjusts differently to elevation, but I highly recommend that you don’t plan on doing anything your first day- even just walking around the airport with a basic backpack was exhausting and had everyone in our party breathing hard. My doctor had prescribed elevation pills which I believe was a big help, in comparison to how the other group members handled the elevation during our stay in the region. My understanding is that OTC elevation pills do not help much, and prescription grade is the way to go. No one in our party was sick bh, but I did not have such a hard time hiking over the next few days as they did. I also believe that keeping a mask on helps, as the air doesn’t feel so thin when breathing, so there’s no constant unnecessary inhalation which adds to the discomfort. (Obviously some people have issues with their oxygen levels being affected by masks, which is a separate issue).
We opted to head to the Sacred Valley region for the first few days of our trip, as the elevation there is “just” 8,000 feet, and after a few days exploring the area, we headed back to Cusco. If you can, I suggest you stagger your trip so that you’re moving from lower to higher elevation over time, so that your body has time to adjust to the elevation change. Altitude adjustment aside, being based out of Sacred Valley is very convenient as most of the ruins are located in the area and returning each night to Cusco would have been a huge shlep.
A word about our tour guide setup in Peru: we hired Ivette, a local Jewish woman, to handle the logistics and transportation for us. We did not make specific choices about which towns or ruins to visit- Ivette handled that for us. Her family used to own a B&B in Sacred Valley but were forced to shut down when covid hit. We paid approximately $1,700 total for 5 adults (and the baby), which included all airport transfers, transportation between Cusco and Sacred Valley in both directions, a tour guide and transportation in Sacred Valley for 4 days (excluding the tour guide and train fare to Machu Picchu), our trip to Rainbow Mountain, as well as the 3 days/2 nights in the Amazon. All tours/transport were private. I highly recommend having a tour guide in the region, as most of the ruins and sites are meaningless without them.
Ivette met us at the airport with her religious sister, so that we could do some more food shopping. Her sister came equipped with the local kosher list, which was very helpful, although it is rather sparse. She also offered to babysit the baby on our planned high-elevation trips, but that didn’t end up materializing with the baby (more on that below). I also reached out to the Chabad shliach in Lima who was helpful in walking us through what was kosher and what wasn’t. At the airport the driver dumped our bags on the roof of the van, which had a small gate around it, and did not secure the bags in any way.
I expressed concern at this, as I was sure it would not make it through the multiple mountain switchbacks and the drop in 5,000 feet from Cusco to Sacred Valley, but the driver laughed my concerns away, and lo and behold every bag was present when we arrived to the town of Urubamba in Sacred Valley- approximately a 1.5 hour drive from Cusco, where we based out of for the next 4 days.
Some interesting notes about Cusco:
• There are dogs everywhere. At first I assumed that they were strays, but our tour guide informed us that they all belong to a family somewhere- they fend for themselves during the day and forage for food, and return only at night to sleep.
• Traffic lights have a countdown timer before the light changes from red to green- presumably because everyone drives manual. Cars will regularly start going when the timer hits 3 seconds to green.
• There are a lot of Hebrew signs, and many cafes have Hebrew menus, being that a lot of Israeli’s visit the area. Those places are not kosher unless they’re run by Chabad.
• Another weird thing that I couldn’t make sense of- locals here wear jackets all the time. I get that the nights are cool, but midday is hot, especially under the sun.
Some notes about Sacred Valley:
• The towns in Sacred Valley are all picturesque, and prices for everything in the Cusco/Sacred Valley area are cheap. If you’re going during high season (when Chabad is open in Cusco and runs 3 restaurants) things will be more “expensive”. We did not visit during high season as it coincides with rainy season (how did that happen?).
• We saw alpacas and llamas all over the countryside in Sacred Valley- they’re all domesticated and belong to the local families.
• In general, I felt that all the ruins we toured were different, and I did not get the feeling that we were doing the same thing over and over again.
• There’s generally no heating or a/c anywhere, including hotels (and it was not needed at any point, although it does get quite chilly at night).
• The place is chock full of history, and since I enjoy history a lot the trip had a lot of meaning for me. There are remnants of the Incans everywhere in the region- aqueducts and gutters in the towns, and steppe plantations in the countryside.
• There’s a local tourist pass for about $5/pp that provides access to most of the government-run archaeological sites, as well as some museums in Cusco (it does not include Machu Picchu though). It’s availble at all archaeological site entrance booths.
• At most archaeological sites you need to pay 1-2 soles for bathroom privileges, which also gets you two pieces toilet paper.
The drive is beautiful amongst the Andes mountains, and we got into Urubamba just as night was falling. Our driver had no idea where the hotel was located and spent some time meandering through the alleyways where a car (and in our case van) is not meant to fit through, but the locals all do it anyway. Our van got a massive dent at one point when the driver was attempting to pass through an alley that he did not fit in- the driver wasn’t too perturbed by it- part of the cost of doing business. Pedestrians here yield to drivers, and the story of Rashi’s mother takes on new meaning when you see how everyone crams into doorways to escape flying cars.
Hotel Amaru Valle (
http://www.amaruvalle.com/english/amaruvalleng.html), where we stayed during our time in Sacred Valley, is located at the edge of town in the most perfect location. We had originally debated between a more western-type hotel, but had opted to go for the local experience, and it was 100% the right choice. The place is very basic- no TV, no couch, etc, (although there is internet in all the villas), but the location makes up for the lack of amenities a million times over.
There was a torrential rainstorm one night (the only time it rained during our stay in the region, and it was at night) which caused a blackout, but thankfully it only lasted a few minutes (based on the horror stories we heard, towns in Sacred Valley could get washed out and wait weeks for help during strong storms). The staff were very accommodating and provided us with a fridge and hot water urn for our rooms, and each morning they set out a breakfast of tea, coffee, freshly squeezed juice, fruits, and vegetables. The first morning they set out flatware and dishes which we couldn’t use- there was some confusion about why it had to be disposable- but by the next morning they had sent someone to town for disposable goods, and the issue didn’t come up again.
After a good night’s sleep, we met our local tour guide for the day and headed to our first stop, Ollantaytambo. We did not head all the way to the top of the ruins as that required passing through a temple, which we weren’t sure is permitted (there is a direct route to the top, but it was closed due to covid).
Next, we headed to the Pisac Archaeological Park, and then the market at Pisac.
Tuesday morning, we headed to Machu Picchu. As advised by Ivette, we booked train and entry tickets in advance. They usually sell out weeks in advance, but interestingly that wasn’t the case when we were there. We opted for the 11:15 train from Ollantaytambo to Aguas Calientes (the town right below Machu Picchu, where the train stops) and the 7PM train back- this gave us some time to work in the AM, and also allowed us to avoid the early morning crowds, when Machu Picchu is most popular. We booked our train tickets via IncaRail as their timetable fit our departure times better, but some people prefer the PeruRail train (I believe PuruRail has Wi-Fi onboard- IncaRail does not). The price of the train ticket will depend on the timing and availability- generally mornings (7AM-10AM) are most expensive. Machu Picchu was by far the most expensive item on our Peru trip. Train tickets were $85/pp RT (and we booked off-peak times in both directions), $40/pp for the government site entry ticket, and other $24/pp for the bus from Aguas Calientes up to Machu Picchu. You’ll need to book the Machu Picchu entry ticket in tandem with your train ticket, as the entry ticket is timed. There’s no need to book the bus ticket in advance. We arrived to the Ollantaytambo train station a bit early, so we headed to the Inca Rail lounge for a bit. Face shields were required on the train, and there were a few vendors along the railway station that sold it for two soles. Thankfully they only require the face-shield to board the train, and we were able to take it off once seated (those things are tailor made to induce a migraine). The train ride takes approximately two hours- the first hour is spent passing through towns and villages, exiting civilization. The second hour the train follows the path of the Urubamba River passing through beautiful mountains on both sides.
Aguas Calientes is a quaint little town with shops and a market. Busses depart here every 10 minutes for the harrowing journey up to Machu Picchu. The bus drivers here consider the narrow mountain pass a two-lane road, and don’t even pull over to the side for oncoming traffic- both sides just make do as best they can with the speed they’re going at…
We didn’t reserve a tour guide here in advance, instead we picked up our guide, Pual Herrera, at the bus stop. After quizzing his English to make sure he was up to par, and a bit of negotiation, he agreed to $40 total for our group, for a 3-hour tour. Tours groups are generally comprised of 8 people, but he agreed to give us a private tour and not fill up the remaining 3 slots as it was already after 1PM, and the chances of filling up the group were dwindling. The absolute minimum I suggest you spend atop Machu Picchu is 3 hours. If you’re doing any additional hiking in the area, you’ll need more time of course.
Taking the 11AM late train ended up being a hit- Machu Picchu was close to deserted- even our tour guide was shocked by how few people there were. FYI the llamas atop Machu Picchu are not native to the area- they were brought up the mountain for the 1950 Ben Hur movie. After a great tour, we took the 5PM bus (the last of the day) down to Aguas Calientes and headed to a local police booth to get a stamp in our passport. It’s silly and takes up way too much room- almost a full page (I agreed to do it since Peru doesn’t stamp passports at entry/exit, but I regretted it about 5 minutes after getting the stamp done). Being that our train back to Ollantaytambo wasn’t until 7PM, we walked around Auguas Calientes a bit, and headed to a local bar for some drinks. Note that Peruvian brandy is made of grapes, which is a Yayin nesech, so after that blunder we stuck to whisky/tequila/beer. They have some great local mixes made with native fruits. The train back was really exhausting and boring, being that it was dark outside- 2 hours moving at snail’s pace, and no beautiful views due to the dark (really dark- I couldn’t tell if the train was outside or in a tunnel until we reached the outskirts of Ollantaytambo).
Originally, we had planned on exploring Humantay Lake (elevation 13,900 feet) on Wednesday (check out google images to see why), but on Tuesday evening we found out that the road to Humantay would be closing the next day at 6:30AM for construction (part of Peru’s covid plan to get things fixed when there are minimal tourists). Since a few in our group didn’t want to get up at 4AM to get past the Humantay checkpoint by 6:30AM, we scrapped this plan and decided to do some more Sacred Valley activities in a leisure fashion. Our guide found us a local ATV rental that offered a one-hour scenic route drive to Moray. The route was dotted with idyllic sites: snowcapped Andes mountains in the background, and sheep and cattle farmers along the way dressed in traditional Peruvian garb. After 4 weeks in the sun, I was pretty sure I was immune to sunburns- boy was I wrong. Due to the high elevation the atmosphere is very thin which makes the rays more powerful, and even with the sun behind the clouds a burn is possible.
On the way I passed a little kid- about 8 years old- riding his donkey. To my dismay he was holding a smartphone in his hand… I guess technology has really infiltrated every tribe on earth.
Moray is an old Incan farming site where they grew non-native plants by creating microclimates on each of the steppes.
We then headed to Salineras de Maras, a pre-Incan town with salt mines. There’s a small entrance fee here as it’s privately owned and not covered by the government pass.
On Thursday morning we headed to the Chinchero District. Chinchero is a fascinating town where the locals show off their traditional dying and weaving process, as they’ve been doing for hundreds of years. Starting from shearing llamas/alpacas, to dying with all sorts of natural flowers, vegetables, and minerals, to weaving it into a full garment. The items here are of high quality, and we all stocked up on gifts for family back home. For about $170 I purchased 3 pairs of gloves, a hat, a shawl, and 7 sweaters! This is all handmade alpaca or llama wool- dry clean only- and great quality. If anyone in the import line needs a business idea, visit Chinchero… The locals were crying with joy after our visit. Since covid they’ve barely had any tourists come by.
After Chinchero we started the drive back to Cusco, where we planned to spend Shabbos. We spent about an hour at the ChocoMuseo watching the chocolate-making process- it’s not a must do but it was pleasant enough.
We then spent some time walking around Plaza De Armas and the San Pedro Market. San Pedro market is a great place where you can find literally anything under the sun. They have about 30 booths selling fresh juices alone, and over the next few days I purchased countless drinks for 5 soles (about $1 for 16 oz). Once I learned that Peruvians were into fresh juices, I started asking for them everywhere, and it really spruced up my diet.
After San Pedro we head to Saqsaywaman, another ancient Inca ruin. We no longer had our tour guide at this point, just the driver, so we didn’t get much background on these ruins, but we did bump into a herd of free-range llamas which was fun.
After that we headed to our Airbnb (
https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/28182501), which we originally booked with the assumption that Chabad would be in town, so it’s located close by. At first, I was sure we had been scammed, as the address the host had sent us did not seem to match what we expected at all. After waiting outside for a few minutes, the host came by to open the door and show us the place- turns out the door on the street led to a courtyard, which led to an alley, which lead to a modern building. The place is exactly as pictured, and while it has manual locks on the all the doors (which is still a problem since there’s no eiruv to carry the keys), the outdoor hallway has automatic motion-sensor lights at night which might be problematic on Shabbos.
On Friday morning, with Shabbos looming and no Chabad in town, we didn’t have much time to tour. I popped into the Museo Inka in the morning for about an hour- it’s not a professional museum by a long stretch, and has a high school project feel to it, although they do have a lot of artifacts and even mummies which made it worth it. The entry fee was 10 soles, and the guard at the door made me purchase a face shield for 2 soles before allowing admittance, even though the face shield was not required in the museum. I guess the peddler at the door selling face shields made a deal with the doorman… Halfway through the museum they got tired of translating the placards to English and my Spanish is non-existent, so I got bored quickly. After the museum I headed to Orion Supermarket- the “large” supermarket chain in Cusco, for some basics for Shabbos. On the way back to our Airbnb I stopped by San Pedro market, since I remembered that we’d forgotten enough candles for Shabbos. Being that I did not have a sim card, nor offline google translate, I was a bit lost. I started asking for “luminos” (blame Harry Potter) but I might as well have been asking for lecht because no one knew what I wanted… after a few minutes wandering around I finally came across an English-speaking vendor who understood me, but she was pretty sure that no one sold candles, even as a souvenir. She was nice enough to walk me through several booths to ask around if anyone knew of anyone selling and candles, and lo and behold one woman did remember a vendor that might have some- she walked me across the market and indicated that I wanted “velas”. The vendor started digging around in her multitude of shopping bags and voila! A whole bunch of tall white Ma Nishtana candles emerged!
By Sunday morning the rest of the group had headed home, and I was the only one completing the final week of the trip. Our tour operator, Ivette, joined me for the day’s trip to Rainbow Mountain. Originally, she had pushed me to head out at 5AM, being that it’s a 3+ hour drive to the mountain, and the weather tends to be better in the early hours, but I really wasn’t feeling it on a Sunday morning, so I pushed our departure to 6AM. It took about an hour for the driver to find Ivette’s apartment, so we weren’t on the road until after 7AM. The drive from Cusco to Vinicunca (Rainbow Mountain) is absolutely beautiful, passing through lakes, mountains, and valleys in the Andes. There’s a lot more greenery than I expected for the elevation.
There’s a 5 soles charge to pass the first community gate prior to Rainbow Mountain. It was amazing to see the locals running up and down the roads here for miles (the elevation here is over 16,000 feet) with their donkeys and horses in tow. After passing the first gate we had to pass the mountain entry gate- there’s community infighting here, hence the multiple entry points and charges. Our driver told me to expect to pay 10 soles for entry here, but the guy at the gate decided that it was a good day for 20 soles… The first half of the road past the mountain town is paved, but the second is not, so it's a bumpy ride. There are a lot of alpacas and llamas grazing along the mountainside here- nearly all llamas/alpacas/vicuñas in Peru are family or village owned.
At last, we finally made it to the parking lot, which lies about a 1 hour walk from the mountain. Don’t judge its beauty by what you see from the parking lot: you can’t see much from that angle, so no need to be disappointed at first, like I was. I started the walk confident in my abilities to make it to the mountain on foot- boy was I mistaken. Within 3 minutes I was huffing and puffing- Rainbow Mountain lies above 17,000 feet above sea level, and the air here is extremely thin (that’s almost the same elevation as Everest’s base camp). I pushed myself to keep going for about 30 minutes, but it was brutal. My guide had brought along hiking sticks, and while it helped, it didn’t make enough of a difference on the way up. My guide also gave me coca leaves to chew on (they get bad rep since they’re used to make cocaine, but while the locals swear by their medicinal benefits and chew them all the time and give them to all the tourists to help for altitude sickness, it really doesn’t help at all). They’re extremely bitter, and I spit it out after a few minutes of attempting to chew. At that point I decided to swallow my pride and hire a horse for 60 soles- they’re available alongside the trail throughout. The horse owners lead the horse up the trail til the foot of the mountain (they’re not allowed to go higher than that), and then run back down the trail to find their next customer. These are locals that are used to operating under these oxygen levels, but it was still incredible to watch how unaffected they are.
It was brutally cold whenever the sun was behind the clouds, but when it did deign to make an appearance, it became warm fast- temperatures and sunshine are very unpredictable at this elevation and region. At the foot of the mountain I had to disembark from the horse and climb the final stretch myself. This is the hardest part of the hike, and the trail here was full of people breathing hard, resting, and holding onto whatever support they can find. I myself had to take multiple rests along the way- I met a group of experienced hikers who expressed that they had never done a hike as difficult as this, due to the elevation.
The only ones who didn’t seem to have a problem were the locals- my guide was springing around like it was a dance floor. After scaling the first hill, we purchased some coca tea sold by the locals to warm up. Rainbow mountain itself is rather small, but the colors are otherworldly.
What I found to be the highlight here was the general area, more than Rainbow Mountain itself.
The surrounding mountains are all shaded with color, and the lookouts for those are a lot quieter than Rainbow Mountain. Since I wasn’t up for more uphill hiking our guide took me around the peak opposite rainbow mountain (which is packed with people), for some beautiful glacier views.
Note that depending on the sun and time of day the rays will fall differently, changing the shades of color on Rainbow Mountain and the surrounding areas.
The walk on the way down was worlds apart from the way up- I practically ran the whole way and didn’t lose my breath at all. I think the walking sticks made a big difference here, as well as spending some time in the area to acclimate. Some local offers a passport stamp here as well, but after regretting getting one on Machu Picchu I skipped the one here.
I’ve had many people question whether it was worth the 6-hour round-trip bumpy ride to Rainbow Mountain, and my answer is yes, absolutely.
The next morning my driver picked me up for my early flight to Puerto Maldonado- a gateway town the Amazon.
Puerto Maldonado (Amazon), PeruThe first thing that hit me when exiting the plane was the humidity- way worse than Iguazu- I could literally taste it. Puerto Maldonado is a third-world ramshackle town of concrete one-story structures and huts. The taxis here are motorcycles with yellow jackets- just hail one and jump on behind the driver. (That’s not me in the pic)
A word about my choice of lodge/expedition: We did not do a lot of research here. Originally we had planned to go with the Inkaterra Hacienda Concepcion (
https://www.inkaterra.com/inkaterra/inkaterra-hacienda-concepcion/the-experience/ they have a few locations which varies in price/luxury), but their management was very against bringing a baby along on the expeditions, and we didn’t think it a good idea to leave the baby with their babysitting service all day, so we dropped them. Ivette, the one in charge of our tour logistics in Peru, found us a place that was ok with the baby, for about half the price (and half the amenities) of the Inkaterra. Due to a change of plans the baby and his parents were already home and did not end up making it to the Amazon, but the reservation was non-refundable so I ended up sticking with the tour operator Ivette chose, Monte Amazonico Lodge via Carlos Expeditions (
https://monteamazonico.com/monte-amazonico-lodge-sandoval/). While the amenities were severely lacking, the place was clean, and the tour expeditions were amazing. There’s no A/C or hot water here, and Wi-Fi is only available in the dining room.
The staff at the lodge was very accommodating with my kosher needs and provided heaps of raw fruits and vegetables at all meals. Expedition groups here are capped at 8 people maximum, and you stick with your group and guide for the duration of your visit. Thankfully I was assigned to a very fun and like-minded group, which probably added a lot to my enjoyable experience here. The tour company was great with timing the expeditions, and not overdoing it- we had plenty of rest between activities, especially on the day that we started early. The thing that I most enjoyed in the Amazon was the sound of the birds- so many different songs and all so beautiful. I didn’t sleep past 4AM on a single morning, and I wasn’t the least bit annoyed at being woken by these sounds. I suggest bringing along a decent pair of binoculars to the Amazon, as you’ll have a much easier time spotting wildlife- we only had two in our group, and it was constantly being passed around between 8 people. Warning: the mosquitoes here are vicious. I had bug spray and used it liberally, and by the time I left the Amazon I was more bite than human, and these were painful bites. It took about two weeks for them to clear up.
After being picked up by the lodge’s driver we headed to their office in town where I sorted through my bags for the basics I needed for the next three days, and checked in my remaining baggage in a locker. You can shlep all your baggage to the lodge if you prefer, but I found it easier to just take a small knapsack. We waited a few more minutes for some additional passengers to arrive, and then boarded a motorized canoe for the 1-hour boat ride to the lodge. Note: the lodges around Puerto Maldonado vary in distance, starting from a short 15-minute boat or truck ride, and as far as 3+ hours away. The farther away from the town you go the more wildlife you’ll see, but you’ll also need to spend more time in the area as you’ll lose a half a day just for transferring each way.
We arrived at the lodge around midday, and after being assigned to a group, guide, and private room,
were given some time to rest before we headed out for our first activity: a jungle hike. We saw some cool trees such as “moving trees” (trees that grow roots down from their branches so that they can move to areas with better water supply/nutrients) as well as strangling trees (trees that choke neighboring trees and devour them).
After lunch we headed to Monkey Island- this was the only disappointing expedition for me in the Jungle. The island has a grand total of 13 monkeys, and they’re not even native to the island… they were very cooperative and fun to play with, but 13 monkeys is not my idea of Monkey Island fame…
After some downtime and dinner, we headed out for a night cruise on the river to spot caiman (a type of alligatorid). This was one fun and creepy ride.
(above: sunset prior to our night cruise)
We did not experience a drop of rain on day 1, which is extremely rare here.
On day 2 of our trip, we headed out at 5AM to the Tambopata Reserve where we saw lots of birds, including the beautiful macaw parrot, monkeys, otters, and more.
The expedition included hiking, canoeing, and some hammock-resting with a nearby local family.
The most dangerous creature here is the electric eel, which can microwave a human with one jolt- I stopped skimming my fingers on the side of the canoe after hearing this one... There are also Jaguars and Pumas in the Reserve, but we weren’t lucky enough to spot one. What you’ll see in Tambopata depends on the time of day (mornings are best for wildlife viewings), the temperature (the hotter it is the less chance you’ll see anything, as all creatures will be hiding from the heat) and the weather (if it’s raining you won’t see much either). A decent tour company should be able to calculate the best time for wildlife viewings, although we did see plenty of tour groups heading into Tambopata at about 11AM when we were heading back to our lodge, and it was starting to rain then as well, so maybe they’re not all as good with timing as expected… Thankfully we made it back before the rain really started coming down, and had a relaxing rest of the day until our night trek in the jungle. On this walk we saw various spiders (some really huge ones- as big as my face), scorpions, snakes, and frogs.
On day 3, my last day in the Amazon, I had a private canopy tour with my guide at 6AM to spot some birds at the canopy level (as mentioned I’m not an ornithologist but the birds in the Amazon are so beautiful that I enjoyed it anyway). The other group members were all staying until that evening or the next day, so they had a canopy tour later in the day with some ziplining, fishing, and kayaking scheduled. Amazingly we did not experience rain on a single one of my group’s expeditions- it only rained at night or when we had scheduled downtime.
While I got to the airport with enough time to spare for my late AM flight, the line at security was excruciatingly slow. The real pain here was that the airline insisted on charging me $70 for my 2 carryon bags (I was shlepping some kosher food and those llama sweaters I had purchased in Cusco), even though I technically had 4 extra seats on the flight since my companions had not joined for this leg. Thankfully I got $40 back from Maker’s Mark (
https://www.dansdeals.com/more/free-stuff/apply-baggage-fee-rebate-makers-mark/ thanks
@Dan) so that helped lessen the pain in retrospect. The PEM airport only has one departing gate, but thankfully there was a Priority Pass lounge that I was able to relax in.
Lima, PeruI landed in Lima Wednesday midday with no real plans. Back at the Amazon lodge with its slow and unpredictable internet I had tried browsing for flights to Arequipa or Puno, but the only direct flights from PEM that day were to Lima or Cusco, and I was unable to find a flight from Lima to Arequipa or Puno that would still give me enough time to explore the area (in Puno I wanted to explore Lake Titicaca, the largest freshwater lake in the world where Peruvian tribes have entire towns built on reefs on the lake. In Arequipa I wanted to see the famous Colca canyon) before my late Thursday (Friday AM really) flight back to NY. I tried finding a day tour from Lima to Huacachina/Ica (oasis and sand dunes) and Ballestas Islands/ Paracas (“poor mans” Galapagos), and while there are many options availble, all only make it back to Lima after 11PM, which wouldn’t give me enough time to make it to the airport for my 1AM flight (btw these tours start at 5AM so they’re a very long day trip). Lima gets a lot of bad rep for not being interesting, and while I wasn’t majorly impressed and wouldn’t say that you must spend time here, I managed to keep busy. I booked myself into the ibis budget hotel (
https://all.accor.com/hotel/A8F5/index.en.shtml) for the night- hotels in Lima are fairly cheap throughout town, but I needed to stay in an area that was reputably safe as I was traveling alone, even if it wasn’t located near all the major tourist sites. I requested late checkout at the hotel since my flight the next night wasn’t til 1AM, and I didn’t want to be out on the town after 9PM. Standard late checkout is at 7PM for a half-day rate ($20)- I requested that they bump it up to 10PM for which they charged me $30 (a full night is about $40). They allowed me to pay in cash which was great since I still had a chunk of soles that I wanted to get rid of.
Some generals about Lima: I spent some time walking around Miraflores and San Isidore- it’s nicer than I expected but clearly crime ridden as is evidenced by the tall gates surrounding the houses (similar to Sao Paulo). Lots of intersections don’t have lights here, even the busier ones, and it’s a sort of free for all about who goes and who stops. Traffic in Lima in general is terrible- a few times I found myself sitting 20 minutes on a block without moving. Google maps and Uber have no concept of budgeting ETA’s correctly here. I used Uber to get around, which was consistently cheaper than local cabs by about half, although I did have two run ins with charges here. The first was at the airport- the driver asked me to come to the parking lot to meet him, then had me sit for 20 minutes in his cab while he paid for parking, and then added the parking charge to my Uber fare (about $5). The second was when a driver forgot to end the trip after dropping me off. I had to cancel it on my end since I needed to call another Uber to continue on to my next stop, and I was charged a cancellation fee (about $1). I tried fighting both with Uber but after a few nonsensical answers that totally didn’t address my issue, they stopped responding to the help ticket.
After checking in to my hotel and settling in a bit I headed to Huaca Pucllana, an archaeological site of ancient ruins located in the city. I got a glimpse from the outside- looks very cool- but I wasn’t able to enter as they randomly change opening hours. I tried again the next day, but they decided not to open at all on Thursday. After walking around some neighborhoods I headed to the closest urgent care center for a covid antigen test which I needed for my flight back home. The process was quick and painless (at this point I was armed with my offline google translate app so even though no one spoke a lick of English, I was able to get by well). I then headed to the Inka and Indian Markets- nothing major going on at either of these places.
Around sunset I headed to a viewpoint overlooking Miraflores Beach- the beaches here aren’t beautiful in any way.
The next morning, after a few hours of work, I headed out to the Historic Center of Lima. I spent some time at Plaza De Armas, the Government Palace (no entry was permitted indoors), the Municipal Palace, and then walked down Jiron de la Union to Plaza San Martin.
Many streets were blocked off that day between Plaza De Armas and Plaza San Martin due to a large protest over the President (the guy is a left wing nut whose election has been contested since he won). It was cool to see a local protest, and to compare the views of the locals in Lima with that of the people we’d met in Cusco- they’re worlds apart.
After heading back to the hotel for some more work and a quick shower, I headed to Lima airport for my flight to MIA, and from there on to NYC.
Just a quick note about MIA- there was no Global Entry line, and I was forced to stand in a very long line for about 45 minutes to clear customs. After finally getting past customs, I found out that there’s no TSA pre-check in MIA when connecting, so I exited the airport and reentered, only to find out that there’s no dedicated pre-check line even at the regular security checkpoint. Instead, I was given a pre-check card which allowed me to keep my shoes on. Thankfully the Priority Pass lounge here was open which was a big help.
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