Shell's Peru Round-Up

Shell’s Peru Round-Up

 

Loved loved loved Peru, Machu Picchu, Jungles, stunning Spanish cities, good food, the odd mummy and lots and lots of history what’s not to like? Well the Mosquitoes and the altitude for a start but we won’t go there again!

 

There’s lots to do here and we certainly didn’t cover everything. If I was to visit Peru as a 2/3 week holiday and not have the luxury of traveling, I’d recommend combining it with the best bits of Bolivia. Whilst there are Cholita’s here, they don’t seem very authentic. Most are carrying a lamb or pulling a Llama along to get a paid photo opportunity, Bolivia will give you the South American authenticity.

 

One of our most favourite things was the Nazca lines, something a lot of travellers we met didn’t do. Its only when you see it from the air that you can really get a sense of how very perfect the diagrams are, and nobody still knows why they are there. If you go, don’t opt for the cheaper excursion to the tower, it’s well worth the $85 flight

 

Glenn was really impressed with Machu Picchu and I enjoyed it too but in all honesty, I was far more blown away by Las Huacas del Sol y de la Luna from the Moche period. Built around 100 AD, its 700 years older than Chan Chan and 1100 years older than Machu Picchu. It’s much more intact, offers up a lot of history and a lot of questions as they simply can’t get the funding to excavate further. It’s currently off the tourist beaten track so nobody really knows it’s there, we didn’t!  The Inca’s get a lot of credit for their agriculture and medicine but here we can see that Coca leaves were used back in this period too.

We loved the cities, especially Arequipa and to think we almost missed this town. It was only when we noticed it was closer than Cusco so headed there first to break up our journey. It’s at an altitude you can live with, lovely weather and in beautiful volcanic surroundings. The Spanish influence is very evident with lots of beautiful plazas, cobbled streets and pretty buildings. Well worth a visit. We both preferred it to Cusco.

A couple of useless facts we may have missed in our blog: Like in Bolivia, Coca Cola is their no. 1 drink,so much so that Coke has brought out an alternative flavour named Inca Cola. A bright green, very sweet fizzy drink that tastes a bit like cream soda. In fact, (we were told) Coca Cola originally contained extract of Coca leaves and was created by a pharmacist as a medicinal drink. However, you won’t find any cocaine in it today as the ingredient was removed back in the early 1900’s.

 

The other thing that we never got explained but you could hazard a guess as to why: Every time you board a bus, a guy comes around the bus videoing you so he has a record of each passenger on board. A bit disconcerting!

 

We’ve also broadened our culinary palates tasting Alpaca, Llama and guinea pig, although neither of us would be in a rush to try guinea pig again.

 

So come to Peru! It’s pretty safe, clean and lots to do, just bring a suit of armour with you to avoid the mosquito bites (they bit through denim here!)