Peru – Hey, it's Russ!

I traveled to Peru from May 3-22 with Jeff Almonte and Richie Ricardo. Our rough itinerary was to visit:

Lima – Miraflores
Amazon – Iquitoes
Cusco
Machu Picchu
Lima for fine dining

Here are my thoughts on the trip and this post is a reminder to myself of what we did as well as for me to share with others. There is so much that happens when you travel which is easy to forget. Some people might think 19 days is too long for Peru but we found plenty to do and took our time to walk around and explore. I personally prefer this slower type of travel.

Lima (Miraflores)

It is easy to think Miraflores is how the rest of Lima is but it is not. Miraflores is a wealthy bubble within Lima, but most of Lima is run down. Miraflores is the touristy area of Lima, similar to comparing Beverly Hills or West Hollywood to the rest of Los Angeles.

Miraflores was a great area to visit and felt very safe. Currently the USD to Soles ratio is 4:1 so your dollar goes far.

The lady who served us was incredibly kind and sweet. She tried having a conversation with us even though our Spanish was terrible.

We tried Picarones Mary which was featured on Netflix’s Street food Latin America. It is fried doughnut made with squash, sweet potato, and topped with a chancaca syrup.

We did a bike tour around Lima which was a good way of getting familiar with the city. Miraflores is very bike friendly with plenty of dedicated bike lanes and medians.

We met a couple at the bike tour, Jeff and Irene, who was also traveling around Peru and joined them for dinner. We had such great conversations with them including how COVID has affected our lives. In short, travel more and take nothing for granted. Also those Pisco sour cathedral were pretty potent, just look at our red faces.

There was a lot of drinking that night

El Infusionista was a cocktail bar with glowing neon lights, graffiti, and a cool vibe.

The ceviche in Lima is very fresh. We ate at a spot called Mira Mar in Miraflores

Tomo Cocina Nikkei

This was a random find since we had a lot of Peruvian food and was looking for something different. We found a Japanese restaurant and tried to dine in with no reservations. This place had incredible Peruvian Japanese seafood fusion.

The entrance. Very plain, very deceiving.

So much fresh seafood and we enjoyed it so much we ate there a second time during one of our last days in Lima.

Iquitoes and the Amazon

From the airport we took 1 hour and 45 minutes bus ride to Nauta which is the launch town of the boat. We went to El Infusionista the night before,

Since Iquitoes is an island, importing a car is expensive. Motor bikes are the only way to get around.

We only had one hour of sleep and had been traveling since 6 AM. Sleeping every chance we could get.

The boat cruising through water lettuce, the weed of the amazon.

Our lodge which was much more comfortable than the pictures on their website.

The same day we arrived at the lodge we got to see a sunset on the Amazon river.

Later that night we went wildlife watching at night even though we were falling asleep. We got to hold a caiman crocodile.

We did a lot of wildlife watching and got some pictures by putting our phone right up against the binoculars

Went swimming in the Amazon river.

And saw giant lillipads

Went piranha fishing and ate them for dinner.

Saw a flooded forest where only the top of the palm trees were sticking out of the water.

Moises, our guide, and our captain.

After Iquitoes we flew to Cusco which was another long travel day.

The night we landed in Cusco we found a local bar (KM0) where there was a live band playing covers.

…and one of the band members tried making friends with us so we could keep paying for his beer haha

We did an Ebike tour the next day to get a better idea of what to do in Cuzco

Cuzco at night looks really nice with all of the lights illuminating the hillside.

Nice view of Cusco from Mirador San Blas.

Album drop

Lucuma ice cream – a tropical fruit in the Peru region. Tastes like a darker vanilla.

Peru has many varieties of corn

We did a half day tour of the Sacred Valley which has multiple Inca ruins and sites. We travelled to Moray and the Salt Mines

Moray ruins where the Incas tested out different crops. Each level terrace has it’s own microclimate

Salt mines. Last stop of that day. We had to sleep early and get ready to start our four day Inca Trail.

Inca Trail to Machu Picchu

I was really looking forward to this part of the trip. 4 days and 3 nights of hiking. We had to be up and ready by 4:30 AM. We grabbed breakfast from Ollantaytombo and started our hike from KM 82.

Day 1 – An Easy Start

Nothing difficult here, mostly flat to get to our first camp site.

Some of the views from the start of the hike were already incredible, you could tell this was going to be something memorable.

The food that was provided was amazing, everything tasted good and it makes the hike a lot easier when you do not have to plan the meals. The chef was awesome and we never got tired of the food.

The team including our guide, the cook, and the porters. The porters carry 50 pound packs which includes the tents, sleeping bags, and cooking equipment. The youngest porter was in their early 40s and the oldest was in their early 60s. These guys work really hard and come from far away to provide for their families. A lot of them work for 20-30 years and it puts any complaint I here into perspective.

Day 2 – Dead Woman’s Pass

This was a tough one, almost 4000ft climb in one day at high altitude.

The path changes a lot on the climb but there is always something new to look at. You hike from parts that are exposed with little plants to parts of a cloud forest with lots of vegetation.

This was our lunch stop. We could see this view from inside the lunch tent.
We finally make it to the top of Dead Woman’s Pass.

There was still a decent amount of steps to climb down after we reached the top to reach our camp.

Day 3 – The long travel

We had to go through two passes and a lot of steps down to reach our final camp site before Machu Picchu. Although a long day, this had some of the most scenic views and cloud forests to trek through.

Had to jump this collapsed part of the Inca Trail

Hiking through a cloud forest. There is so much cloud formation on this part of the trail that it is always moist and allows for this kind of vegetation even though it is high up.

The northern part of Aguas Clients, where we will be taking the train back

After these stairs you walk through more cloud forest vegetation until you reach Intipata. You keep walking and this amazing view opens up.

For maybe 10 or 15 minutes, we were the only ones there. We were all silent for how beautiful and awestruck we were. For a small moment we experienced something we will never forget. It was a realization that life is just a series of small moments like this.