Peruvian Fun
Peruvian culture is extroverted Fun Freedom (ESFP), as are a few of its neighbors—Colombia and Chile. Fun Freedoms tend to be spontaneous, optimistic, and very social. Who wouldn’t want to vacation in Peru? But, they’re not all party, party, party. Fun Freedoms can also be extremely practical. Today’s travel tips are courtesy of my extremely discerning—read picky—Smart Structure (NTJ) friend, Joe. I’m going to have to give him his own byline now that he’s written an entire week’s worth of PixieTips.
Joe’s Smart Peruvian Travel Tips
Although you’ll likely have to fly into Lima, my experience was there’s not a lot of reason to stay there very long—maybe a day—best I can say is you can stay at higher end properties much more cheaply than in major east coast cities.
Why you really want to go to Peru is for the obvious—Machu Picchu (MP) and its surroundings.
Cuzco
You fly from Lima to Cuzco, which is the historic site of the Incan Empire (UNESCO world heritage site) which was sacked by the Spanish (Pissaro) in the mid 1500s. Upon arriving in Cuzco, you become quickly aware that it feels unique. It’s hard to describe, but there’s a sense that something more is going on than what’s obvious on the surface. I know, sounds strange, but there’s sort of a mystical feel to the whole area including the whole Urubamba Valley (Sacred Valley of the Incas) which run from Cuzco up to MP.
I stayed at the Monasterio in Cuzco and would HIGHLY recommend doing so. It’s a 1500s converted spanish monastery that I thought was pretty special – beautiful, excellent service, food, etc. Orient-Express owns it [Kelly: And you pretty much can’t go wrong with an Orient-Express property]. They also make it easy to arrange trusted car transportation from the hotel into the valley to see a host of ruins and Incan towns. The hotel also offers oxygen-enriched rooms that allegedly reduce the altitude by 2,500ft (from real altitude of 11,000+ feet) [Kelly: Whoa this is huge. If you are prone to headaches or are older this will make your stay immeasurably more pleasant and safer. Heart attacks do happen more at higher altitude]. Who knows, but I did it for the hell of it. You should book at the Orient-Express hotel site for best rates. They offer a “BAR7” rate. don’t know why it’s called that), but significantly better than what I’ve seen elsewhere – saw oxygen-enriched suites for $460)
After staying in Cuzco a couple days and doing some local car sightseeing trips, I took a car into the Urubamba Valley to visit a couple main Incan towns like Pisac and Ollantaytambo – they have markets, ruins, old Incan structures and great photo ops of the Incan descendants. You’ll find that what we call guinea pigs are a common food here. They really look like grilled rats (that fur does a LOT for their appearance), but they were tasty. Driving thru the Valley is great—step farming which hasn’t changed in hundreds of years. Moms and kids tending to llamas/alpaca, snowy mountain tops of the Andes—quite an experience.
Machu Picchu
From Ollantaytambo, I took a two-hour train trip onto MP. You can also take the Hiram Bingham train—very luxurious train also operated by Orient Express from Cuzco which is a 3 1/2 hr trip. I opted for regular train so I could run around the valley with a car/driver to see the towns.
Options for lodging at MP are limited. I’d suggest two from my research. The Inkaterra—where I stayed—which is an eco-nature oriented place where you’re surrounded by hummingbirds/flora. It was really a super spot. I stayed in a standalone villa with a fireplace. From Inkaterra, you can take buses into MP – I’d suggest the earliest being the best, so you can explore MP with less people which grows as the day goes on. If your are able, DO climb, Wayna Picchu the steep mountain that overlooks the whole site – fantastic mountain views. Inkaterra also does a number of other nature excursions which I understand to be very good, though I didn’t have time for them.
The other option is the Sanctuary at Machu Picchu (also run by Orient Express). The draw here is that it is located right near the entrance to MP and no bus is required. This is good because day trippers come later and generally leave earlier so you have access during quieter times at MP. I didn’t find this to be an issue especially in the morning (Kelly: But if you’re not a morning person and would like to visit MP when it’s not mobbed, sounds like The Sanctuary is the way to go). Inkaterra buses run at 5:30 am and I was one of the first people there and it was far from crowded (Kelly: Of course it wasn’t crowded at 5:30am. Who wakes up that early on vacation? Is he insane?? Let me rephrase, if you are not a Smart Structure (NTJ), a Classic Structure (STJ) or possibly even a Fun Structure (STP) then you should probably stay at the Sanctuary. That is if you want to visit MP without mobs of people and not have to wake up at 4:30am on your vacation to catch a 5:30am bus!]. By the time it was getting very busy in mid-afternoon, I was already taking off for the day (spent two days at MP). As far as the actual hotel, most reviews I’ve seen viewed Inkaterra more favorably—Sanctuary rooms are more basic and small). Another item to consider is cost – Sanctuary’s cheapest rooms are $925/night. Inkaterra isn’t cheap, but I think you can do very well for $400/$500 a night – maybe a bit more now for the villa I stayed. Net-net, both seem to be very good options. (Kellly: Okay so I don’t see many Funs (SP) able to spend $925/night. So I’ll re-amend my amended statement to say the Sanctuary is likely for Smart Freedoms (NTP), Organic Freedoms (NFP) and maybe a few Classic Freedoms (SFJ) and Organic Structures (NFJ) all with extra cash to burn!)
As far as food goes, I basically stayed with the hotel in both Cuzco and MP with the exception of sampling food in the towns—not a whole lot of options and the two hotels had very good food.
I’d say if you just want to hit Cuzco/MP, you can easily do it in 5 days/4 nights—assuming of course you’re not treking to MP from Cuzco (Kelly: Can see a few Funs doing this trek). This gives you plenty of time on a 10 day trip to hop a flight to Rio on the way home and relax on the beaches—what I did on my trip. (Kelly: Looks like I might have to re-enlist Joe for some Fall travel tips, Rio anyone??)