Visiting Peru

Lima
 The Lima airport is nothing remarkable.  It actually has a Starbucks and a decent food court (pre-security), and some shopping at duty free (post-shopping).  There is no free wifi for general use.  The international side has a lounge that both One World and Star Alliance premium members can use (I'm not sure if other brands can use it, so please check), which serves OK food but has very slow wifi.  It has computer terminals that are infinitely faster though, so if you are not limited to your own device, try to snag one.

When you exit the arrival area, immediately on your right will be the official taxis called Taxi Green.  The rates are fixed based on where you are going, and we were charged S/. 50 to Miraflores.  It took us about 40 minutes.  The driver said normally it would be about 30 minutes, but there was highway construction which resulted in a diversion.

There are Scotiabank ATMs on the second floor of the airport that do not charge you a fee, so when you exit arrivals you can walk straight ahead and take the escalators on the left up, turn right, keep walking, and see a bunch of ATMs.  There are also other banks, but we found Scotiabank to be sufficient.  :-)

Figuring out a SIM card was a pain, but basically you have to go to a shop that sells the card itself (they call it "chip" there).  We found a department store with Movistar and Claro desks, and managed to get a chip, but then had to go to a pharmacy to get a top up card.  We paid about US$5 for the chip, and US$10 for 500MB of data for 30 days (but the maximum daily use was 10MB).

Restaurants generally do not include tip (one did, Senzo in Cusco for 18%, which did not have very good food though service was good and the ambience was lovely), and the Lonely Planet told us to tip 10%.  Sometimes when restaurants run your credit card, they include a buffer for authorization of up to 20%, but will only charge whatever tip you write down on the paper.

Negotiate a rate before you get into a taxi.  To/from airport/Miraflores is S/. 50.  We managed to get S/. 20 rate between Miraflores and the old historic center, and S/.10 between Miraflores and San Isidro.

The folks in Lima do not speak very good English.  Do try to learn some key Spanish words, otherwise I suppose pointing and gesturing might help.  Lol.

Food was generally salty.  This applies to all of Peru.  I felt like a salt pan after this trip.

Puno
Airport seemed like a giant container.  Do not expect anything.

Altitude here is high, I think around 14,000 ft.  Consider taking diamox or some other kind of altitude sickness pills.  Coca tea is supposed to help with altitude sickness.  I liked the taste, and warm drinks, so I kept drinking it but not sure if it actually helped (maybe, maybe not).

Taxi fare is around S/. 80 from Juliaca airport (JUL) to town, and takes about an hour.  We managed to negotiate S/. 75 on principle heading into town, but got our hotel to get us a taxi back to the airport for S/. 80.

Our Lake Titikaka tour cost S/. 75 each.  The hotel said it is possible to go to Uros (reed islands) on our own, but not Taquille (boat might go there and not wait for you to return, no scheduled boats), so we opted for a tour.  Taquille was just OK, so if you have limited time or just want to chill in Puno which has lots of great shopping (we are told it is much cheaper than Cusco) you can just take the scheduled boats to Uros to see the reed islands.  It is really amazing how they built them!

Cusco/Sacred Valley
Airport sucked, had some food.  There was free wifi but Dawg had to fiddle around for a long time to get it to work, so just take it as there was no free wifi.

Cusco is also at elevation, I think around 11,000 ft, but lower than Puno.  Diamox was also recommended.

Our friends' hotel included a free transfer to the airport.  Lingon and I took our taxis separately since we came on different flights - he arrived earlier and negotiated S/. 20, so I did the same.  Lonely Planet said it would cost S/. 12-15, and Wiki Travel said S/. 10.  The official airport taxi price is S/. 40, so unless you are the sort who is embarrassed to bargain, you can save quite a bit here.

Food in Cusco was much more expensive.

Shop around for a Sacred Valley tour (Pisac, Ollantaytambo and Chinchero).  The Lonely Planet said we could get one for $22 (not including the tourist ticket, which is either S/. 70 for 2 days or S/. 130 for 10 days (about US$25 or $46).  Zito and Dawg's hotel was quoting USD$75 and ours was quoting $88 including the tourist ticket and lunch, but we went near the main square and found a travel agency that charged us S/. 30 not including the tourist ticket and lunch.  What a deal right?  Not sure how the tour would have been like if we took a more expensive tour, but we enjoyed the ruins anyhow and our tour guide spoke some good English so I was happy.


Inca Trail
I believe we start around 9,000+ ft. of elevation.  It is VERY highly recommended to stay in Cusco for a few days to get acclimatized and I completely agree with this if you plan to do the Inca Trail, because the Inca Trail is brutal.

Of all the big hikes I have done (the other two being Kilimanjaro and W Trek at Torres del Paine), this was the most interesting, since there were ruins to see and stories to hear along the way, since people lived here many many centuries ago.

While I think this is a really amazing hike, I recommend it with reservations, since it really was quite a physical challenge.

Cell service was poor.  Toilets were poor.  Please practice the third world squat if your tour company does not bring a portable toilet for you.

After the hike, you will be taken to Aguas Calientes for lunch and to take the train back to Poroy where probably your tour agency will meet you and transport you back to Cusco.  We were booked on the second train at 4.43pm, which was way more time than we needed.  There is a 3.20pm train, so try to get your travel agency to book that for you if possible.  We did the Huayna Picchu hike and managed to finish up around 12.30pm and be at our designated restaurant (where our bags were stored) at 1.00pm, and for us we just wanted to go back and relax so waiting there was brutal.  All the restaurants in Aguas Calientes seemed to be cash only, so make sure you have some cash to pay the bill!  They also take USD but the exchange rate is poor.

Visit Peru!!!!  :-)

Peru Day 4 - Lake Titikaka and Puno

Our hotel provided breakfast.  Pretty standard with cereals, bread, fruit, yoghurt, etc.  They also have coca tea so we made sure to have that to try to combat our headaches and various weaknesses.

Today we decided to take a tour of Lake Titikaka.  The tour picked us up at 6.50am.  We were all so tired.  Here is a picture of Puno from the harbour area.  There were cute paddle boats in a pond adjacent to the make that looked gross and full of algae.  The tour was S/. 75.

Our first stop was to the floating reed islands of Uros.  We went to one of the islands and the president of that island, who was but 23 years old, talked to us (and our guide translated in Spanish) about their way of life.  These islands last about 25 years (that island we were on was 25 years old so I was crossing my fingers we would not sink in!).  These man-made islands are constructed with mud and reeds.  They showed us the inside of their houses, and we got to see some of the crafts they made.

Next we visited the island of Taquille.  We went to the main square where they were honouring a chief justice that Dawg and Zito sat next to and chatted with on the plane from Lima to Puno.  There were these cool brick arches they build along the walkway, perhaps welcoming visitors there.  We had lunch which consisted of quinoa soup, grilled and steamed flounder, and a vegetarian omelette.  Not too bad tasting.  We sat on a balcony with a beautiful view of the shimmering blue lake water and I quite enjoyed that!

After lunch we took a 30-min walk to the other side of the island and caught the boat back to Puno.  Let me make it known that the boat moves very slowly.  So although we were only 35km from Puno, it took us about 3 hours to get back from there.  We spent about 6 hours in the boat which I think is a very long time.  Had we know, I think we would all have chosen to take the faster boat.  Anyhow we just slept on the boat and I suppose that was OK.  I enjoyed the Uros visit, and the Taquille visit was just so-so.  I guess I'm happy to have seen Taquille but Uros was very unique while Taquille seemed like a fair common type of day trip visit that could be done anywhere.  For those wanting to do this independently, we were told Uros was easy to get to with ferries from 9am-6pm, but to get to Taquille posed a challenge since there were no regular boats, just sometimes cargo boats, which may not wait around to take you back.

We had dinner at Mojsa again.  We tried all new dishes - quinoa tabouleh salad, a hearty creole soup, chicken with yellow pepper sauce, lomo saltado and alpaca steak, as planned.  The alpaca tasted like pork.  I was worried it would be too gamey and I would not enjoy it, but I did!  We also got a Puno caramel sandwich, and a Maras (place in Cusco) flourless chocolate cake, which was not as dense as we imagined but rather fluffy.  The food was good, but I feel like Limon in SF provides a much better lomo saltado.  This was our second visit, which I supposed counted for something.  Good solid food in Puno!

Lastly, here is my bruise update for the day.  Looks the same as yesterday.  Maybe I will not continue with this daily bruise update until the look changes.

Peru Day 3 - Puno

Day 3 in Peru was pretty much a travel day.  We woke up early to get to the airport for a flight to Juliaca to visit the town of Puno, and arrived at midday.  We took a taxi to Puno, official price S/. 80 but we negotiated down to S/. 75 on principle.  The flight had been quite bumpy and I felt a little ill at the airport.  I tried to sleep it off in the taxi but woke up eventually and had to tell the taxi driver to stop the car, ran out and yakked all over the land, twice.  Zito had a picture of my projectile yak which hopefully I will obtain later and post online.  Very fun.  I also almost fainted since right at that moment altitude sickness hit me.  I was the only one of us that did not take diamox, and as luck would have it I seemed to be hit the hardest.  Eventually I regained my composure and we made it to Puno.

We checked into Hotel Tierra Viva.  The lobby had coca tea which we drank since we were not feeling too well.  Got into my room, and it had a funny smell which was like pee to me, but the boys said it was a different odour, and Dawg said it was cleaning fluid smell which I did not think so at all.  The hotel bed was comfortable, very basic room, and they gave us 2 bottles of water.  The rate of US$70 also includes breakfast.  Very reasonable, I would say.  My one BIG complaint was that as I was showering, the water got colder and colder, like someone was trying to chase me out of the shower, which was most uncomfortable, especially since all I wanted was a nice warm shower to rest my sick body.  The smell I can deal with, but this hot water situation made me feel really terrible.  Also the wifi is slow, which I’m not too surprised about but it is really frustrating.

Puno looked like it had some fun shopping.  We walked around to find alpaca things to buy, and I loved these alpaca rugs that I’m considering purchasing.  We also went to a market where I saw super creepy cow heads (see at your own risk, it is really gross).  Dawg purchased some corn snack which was delicious, and as I ate it I felt more and more sick.  He also got coca leaves and some ash-looking thing whose name I forgot, but apparently if you chew on this thing it will give you a high or help you with altitude sickness.  These are the leaves of the plant that makes cocaine, but I was assured that neither the tea nor this leaf-chewing business would not produce any such evil effects.  Still on the fence on whether I would try the leaves.  Dawg and Zito bought some hats and a sweater from this one lady off the main street and it seemed to be a good buy since it was much cheaper!

We went to Mojsa for dinner, ranked #4 on Tripadvisor in Puno, which overlooked the Plaza de Armas.  The guys had some Mojsa energy drink which was supposed to help with altitude sickness.  For food they ordered quinoa soup, which we were told was a specialty of the area, a quinoa caprese dish and a chicken avocado dish.  They were kind enough to let me sample their food which was delicious, but I chose not to participate in dinner since I was feeling truly horrible, and it was all actually very good.  We will go back tomorrow to try their alpaca steak and other local specialties!  Hope I am well enough by then.  :-/  There was a good view of the Plaza de Armas and the church from the restaurant.  Make a reservation if you want to come here for dinner, they had a "full" sign when we left dinner around 7.30pm and did not seem to be admitting anymore folks.

Here is a bruise update.  Getting darker, but at least the skin is healing.