Archive-U

.

Peru 2025 Trip

By

kylegard

, , , ,

My friend Max and I went on a trip to Peru for two weeks. Neither of us had been to South America before nor did we speak Spanish very well. We wanted to see what the country had to offer.

We looked into the main attractions in Peru. Those included:

We came to realize it would be hard to see all of the sites within a reasonable time. We were only taking two weeks off of work for the trip, we wanted to make it count. We settled on the following itinerary:

Lima (9/20)

Our flight left from San Diego on 9/19, we had a short layover in Los Angeles, then took the redeye to Lima that arrived the morning of 9/20.

We were able to check in to our hotel early then got to exploring Lima. We saw the Plaza de Armas, Plaza San Martin, Paseo de los Heroes Navales, and the Larco Museum.

  • Outside the Larco Museum

During the evening, we were hoping to go out and see the city at night. There turned out to be major protests occurring in the city. The major plazas were all closed down. We ended up seeing large groups of police that were fully kitted in swat gear heading out to different areas with protests.

We couldn’t stay up too late, we had an early flight the next day to Huaraz.

Huaraz (9/21 – 9/25)

Our flight to Huaraz was at around 7 am. There are only 1-2 flights in and out of Huaraz each day. The flight from Lima leaves at 7 am, then the flight from Huaraz back to Lima leaves around 9 am. Occasionally there is an additional flight around noon.

The Huaraz airport is very small. You arrive and deboard via stairs that lead you directly onto the tarmac. Immediately you can see insane views of some mountains within Huascaran National Park. Pro Tip: the seats on the right side get better views of the national park. The plane lands and takes off in the northern direction with the national park to the east.

Right outside the airport terminal, you will be met with many shuttles/taxi drivers. We found a shuttle that was going to charge us 10 USD to take both of us to our hotel in Huaraz (roughly 40 minute drive). The main reason the shuttle is so cheap is that they are going to pitch you on their tour guide services for the national park.

  • View from airport
  • Mirador de Rataquenua
  • Mirador de Rataquenua
  • Main street in Huaraz

The tour guide service we ended up going with was called Chasing Adventures. I would highly recommend their services. We paid $115 USD for three days of excursions. They will pick you up from your hotel, drive you to the sights, and typically have a tour guide that speaks decent English.

We decided on three excursion for the full days we were there. We went to Laguna Paron, Laguna Rocotuyoc, and the Virgen Route to Hualcacocha. There are a ton of options through the tour agencies. We found it hard to get good info/plan ahead for this portion, but it worked out since the guide could give us the best recommendation depending on weather and business of sights. I wouldn’t worry about trying to setup excursions before hand when visiting Huaraz.

The main guide agent recommended we go to Mirador de Rataquenua the first day to get a little walking in at elevation. The city of Huaraz is at about 10,000′, we were feeling the elevation pretty quick. We got a taxi up to the viewpoint, ate some food at the restaurant up top, then walked down back to our hotel.

The first excursion was to Laguna Paron. We got picked up very early in the morning to head to Laguna Paron. We weren’t the first to be picked up so we didn’t have the best seats in the shuttle, they definitely aren’t made for people over 6′ tall. The drive is roughly 3-4 hours each way. We stopped at a little house for breakfast on the way there and lunch on the way home.

We spent roughly 2 hours at the lake itself. The lake is at 13,600′ with the viewpoint being another 300-400′ higher. I was very out of breath walking up to the view. I kinda wish I went out in the rowboat or kayak. We got back to our hotel in Huaraz at ~5:30 pm.

The second excursion we went on was to Laguna Rocotuyoc. We were one of the first to be picked up for this excursion and we made sure to get a good seat after the rough drive the day before. The lake is much closer to Huaraz so the excursion doesn’t leave too early in the morning.

Rocotuyoc is at ~14,900′. There is a hike around the edge of the lake that takes you to the glacier in the back. The views of the lake and pretty much the whole drive up to the lake were pretty sweet to see. On the way back we stopped for a super late lunch, we were starving.

The third day was our excursion on the Virgen Trail to Laguna Hualcachoca. This was easily the most difficult of the three but also the most rewarding. We were picked up at around 9am and informed that the other couple that was supposed to go with us was sick. It ended up just being Max, the driver, the guide, and I. The guide was a 30 year old dude who spoke pretty decent English.

We started with a 2 hour drive to get to the valley below Hualcachoca. The valley itself was at ~12,500′. The valley had a cattle farmer with a bunch of grazing cattle. We began the hike up to the lake, ascending ~1,800′ over 2.6 miles. The hike was so brutal I wanted to give up. It was a constant grade and super hard to breathe at that elevation.

The hike was worth it though, we were the only one on the trail so we had the lake to ourselves when we got to the top. We also had views of the Huascaran mountain, the fourth highest peak in South America at 22,205′ (only 632′ behind Aconcagua, the tallest in South America). The hike down was a breeze.

Paracas (9/25 – 9/27)

The next city we visited was Paracas. We left Huaraz on the 9 am flight to Lima, took an uber over to the bus station, then rode the bus ~4 hours to Paracas. The hotel we were staying at sent a taxi to pick us up from the Paracas bus station. We saw some interesting terrain on the way there, lots of sand dunes then ocean views.

We stayed at a great hotel right on the water. The first night we walked to town and got some dinner there. The town has a super chill beach vibe.

We did two excursions during the full day we had in the city. The first was a boat tour past the candelabro de Paracas and to the Ballestas islas. The candelabro is a carving in the side of the peninsula that was made ~2,000 years ago. There isn’t a clear origin story about it, though there is speculation it was done either by the original native Paracas people or by pirates. We saw penguins and sea lions at the Ballesta islas. Paracas was very windy that day so a lot of people got splashed by water, luckily we were in the front so we didn’t get hit.

The second excursion we did was riding ATVs into the Paracas national preserve. They tried to get us to ride together in one dune buggy but we really wanted to ride ATVs. The wind persisted into the afternoon and I was getting pelted with sand wearing shorts on the ride. It felt like we were in mad max, it was awesome. My ATV stopped working after about 20 minutes and the guide had to jerry rig it to get it going again. We saw a few cool sights along the way.

We were able to sleep in a bit on the day we left Paracas. We took a bus back to Lima, an uber across town to the airport, then a flight to Arequipa.

Arequipa (9/27 – 9/29)

We arrived in Arequipa around 8 pm. We checked into the hotel then went out to get a late dinner. We didn’t realize how big of a city Arequipa was, the urban population is around 1.3 million. There were a lot of people out in the town, we went to a little bar that had some live music.

On the first full day we went on excursion to the sillar route. There were some narrow canyons that contained native Peruvian carvings, it also took us to a site with large carvings of the volcanic rocks. The city of Arequipa has a lot of white buildings because of the white volcanic rock that is prevalent in the area.

The second day we were supposed to go on a long excursion to Colca Canyon. We were supposed to be picked up around 3 am but both of us woke up with food poisoning so we had to skip it. Huge bummer, really took the wind out of our sails.

We spent our second full day in Arequipa cooped up in our hotel. Thankfully we didn’t have to travel to another city that day. We left Arequipa early the next day to head to Aguas Calientes.

Aguas Calientes (9/30 – 10/1)

We took an early flight to Cusco, waited a while for a shuttle to head to Ollantaytambo, then we took the Inca Rail to Aguas Calientes. You can either take the Inca rail or Peru rail to Aguas Calientes, they are pretty much the same, I’d recommend just taking whichever time is most convenient.

We were still recovering from food poisoning when we got to Aguas Calientes. By the end of the second day I had only mustered up the ability to eat half a sleeve of pringles and 1 empanada. We were still stoked to see Machu Picchu the next day.

To get up to Machu Picchu, you can either walk up (~1,800 steps up almost 8,000′ elevation) or you can take the bus. Tickets for the bus can be bought through this website. For the bus, you can buy tickets for both up and down or just one way. The bus takes off from the northern side of the river, it should be pretty obvious. You line up by Machu Picchu ticket time.

For Machu Picchu tickets, you’ll need to buy them pretty far in advance. Buy them as soon as you know when you’ll be there. We bought tickets for both circuit 1 (panoramic view) and circuit 2 (citadel route). I’d recommend just doing circuit 2 because you get pretty good panoramic views and get to walk in the city itself.

Machu Picchu was so epic. The panoramic views in the morning were masked by clouds, I’d recommend going a bit later in the day so that it burns off a bit. We still caught some pretty cool views. The walk through the citadel part had a crazy feeling. The stone work is so impressive.

We spent the rest of the day relaxing in Aguas Calientes. We had to take the train then shuttle back to Cusco that evening.

Cusco (10/1 – 10/3)

We stayed in an airbnb in Cusco. It was probably the nicest place we stayed at the whole trip. By the time we got to Cusco, I was pretty ready to go home. Max decided to go on excursion during the full day we had in Cusco, I stayed and saw the main sights in the city.

The main square of Cusco has some pretty cool architecture. The elevation was a little tough here at 11,000′. I enjoyed being able to relax towards the end of the trip.

Lima (10/3 – 10/4)

Our last stop was back in Lima. We stayed in the super nice area called Miraflores for the last night. We walked along the coast line and saw great ocean views, a lot of tall apartment buildings, clay tennis courts, and a bunch of people hang gliding. We also got one of our favorite meals of the trip in Miraflores. It was a sandwich restaurant that made a fantastic pulled pork sandwich. It was a nice way to wrap up the trip.

The flight back to the US was pretty easy although we stayed in the airport for while beforehand because it didn’t leave until 1 am. We landed in LA then rented a car to get back to SD.

Overall we had a fantastic trip. Despite some of the setbacks, Peru is an awesome country to visit and I would highly recommend it. It was a great first country to visit within South America.

Accomodation

  • Lima
  • Huaraz
  • Paracas
    • Atoq – This was a super nice hotel. Also easily the most expensive hotel we stayed at on the trip.
  • Arequipa
  • Aguas Calientes
    • Inti Punku Hotel – We only stayed here one night. It was pretty decent. They also let us keep our baggage there while we went to Machu Picchu which was nice.
  • Cusco
    • Airbnb – We stayed in an airbnb in Cusco.
  • Lima

Leave a comment