Peruvian Adventures

Hester van den Berg
Aug 27, 2019
16 min read

In Lima we planned to stay for a week, but we ended up staying for two. Lima is huge! It takes us exactly 1,5 hour to drive from one side of the city, to the other side where we’re staying. We decided to stay in the neighborhood Miraflores, because it’s quite modern and trendy.

We have a couple of things we need to do in Lima. We need to visit the dentist, and we have to bring the car to a garage. In Cuenca we found out that our car’s rooftop window is leaking, since our trunk was full of water. The other thing we need to do, a little less need to but more a want to, is enjoy the good food Lima has to offer. We heard all about the fine restaurants Lima has, and we plan to enjoy it. After all, you can’t live forever on rice, plantains and a piece of chicken.

I’ve always wanted to get braces, and now seemed the perfect moment for me. Before we arrived in Lima, I already made an appointment with an orthodontist, so I could immediately visit when we were in Lima. I went in for advice, and after that I would see what I wanted to do. Conclusion was that they were perfectly able to place braces, but they first had to remove my last two wisdom tooth. The next day I could come in for all at once. After the orthodontist placed the brackets, the surgeon was ready for me. If you know me at all, you know I’m afraid of needles. It’s hard to explain if you don’t have any fear for the surgeon, but for the needle when you don’t speak the local language.. The surgeon thought I was afraid of him, or the pain he would cause. He was trying to be nice, waving around the needle in the air, explaining it wouldn’t hurt because of the local anesthesia. I didn’t hear a word, since all I saw was a big needle flying around in the air.. Then the owner came, she speaks perfectly English, and explained to the surgeon what my fear was. Imagine the look on his face when he tried to quickly hide the needle haha. He was able to quickly remove both of the wisdom teeth, I thought. But, when he did a quick check, he realized he had left a part of the upper one in my jaw. I had no idea what was going on. Imagining all kinds of scenarios, I figured he saw that the one next to the wisdom tooth must have been rotten, and that there was nothing left to do but remove that one too. In the end he explained to me that I apparently had unusual big wisdom teeth. Yeah dude, that’s why I am so smart! Or was..

I got a very strict diet for the first days, only smoothies and ice scream. Oh what a punishment.. I need to take it easy for a few days, since the wounds from pulling the wisdom teeth need to heal. But, since I was feeling fine the day after, we decided to go for a short walk. A short walk ended up being the whole walk to the VW dealer. At the end my whole jaw was pounding. Maybe that wasn’t the best of ideas. But, the car was fixed and ready to be taken again.

From Miraflores, we were able to take the Metrobus into the historical city center. The bus goes very fast, and you’re there in no time. In the historical center you can find the governmental palace, which has a daily show for the guard changing. We arrived just in time to watch the show. It reminded us a little of Stockholm and Copenhagen, where they have the same routine. We have a quick lunch in one of the oldest cafe’s of town. It’s like we’re in an old movie, very cool ambiance.

The next day we took the Metrobus again, at the end of the afternoon. We stepped out a little earlier, to visit the Parque de la Reserva. This park contains approximately 18 fountains, and you can admire daily water shows. It is a very neat park, and nice to walk around for a bit. Some of the fountains are interactive, which attracts a lot of kids to play with. Of course some of the adults, like us, don’t mind some water as well.

Another nice neighborhood in Lima is Barranco. This area has a lot of Spanish influences in the architecture, and is full of bars and restaurants. Another great thing in this colorful neighborhood is the street art you can admire around almost every corner. We go there with the electric scooter system they use in Lima, even though it doesn’t completely bring us to the Barranco neighborhood, and we have to walk the last bit. A lot of families also seem to be spending their Sunday afternoons here, hanging in the park. Definitely also one of the better neighborhoods of the city. A part of the city that’s totally different, is Gamarra. On Saturdays, there is a big market and the area of the shops is completely blocked for cars. We tried to get as close as possible with the bus, but the last part we needed to take a taxi. Walking around here, you need to constantly wave off street vendors who try to give you their card. On their card they show logos of the brands they sell. Gucci, Nike, Versace, name it.. Is it the real deal? Probably not. On the edge of the shopping area, there was a big market with vegetables, fruits, meats etc. What still amazes us, is the fresh meat that’s openly hanging around everywhere. They never cover it, so there’s always flies around all of the meat. Maybe we’re pussies, but we’ve never tried to buy meat from a market. We did however take a lot of fresh fruits back home. What a different experience than walking around in the luxury neighborhoods of Lima.

Our favorite part in Miraflores was the beachfront. The whole boardwalk was filled with parks, even one with Gaudí inspired mosaic art. We did some serious people and sunset watching here.

The second week that we’re in Lima, we both feel a little better. No pain from the dentist anymore, so we decide to go back to the historical center to enjoy it a bit more extensively. We visit the San Francisco cathedral, where we get a tour through the monastery and their underground catacombs. It was a bit creepy to walk through the catacombs, seeing all the bones and skulls lying around. The catacombs were used as a burial site for the rich and members of the church (they suspect around 25,000 bodies), until the local cemetery was opened.

We both really liked staying in Lima. It is a city that offers everything you might need and more. But, just like in any big city, you need money to really enjoy it to the fullest if you want to stay longer. We are happy to move on to our following destinations, we still have some exciting spots in Peru to see. So off to the Peruvian desert.

Timon already mentioned a few times that he would like to do a sand buggy tour or something similar, in the middle of a desert. Since Paracas was next to national park Reserva Nacional de Paracas, and was known for sand buggy and ATV tours, we booked a tour for the afternoon we arrived. I didn’t fully realize Timon had a strong preference to do it in a sand buggy. He was a little disappointed when he saw I booked something else. I booked us both an ATV / quad, since those were a lot cheaper. We both had our own, and after a quick explanation we drove into the national park with the group. It was a nice experience, since both of us never have driven a ATV before. The park was nice to drive through. The first part we had to drive over a paved road, but in the park we could soon switch to a dirt road. We stopped at some nice viewpoints, but overall it was not too beautiful. The tour was fun, but the equipment was a little old. Both our ATV’s worked fine while driving, but as soon as we stood still my motor turned off. But, that was just a small issue compared to another girl in the group. At one point we were driving into a curve, and somehow one of the tires of the girl in front of me fell off. The girl steered into the curve, while the tire just kept rolling forward in a straight direction. Timon yelled at the girl to stop; she didn’t even realize that she lost a tire at first hahaha. Timon went after the tire to pick it up, and the guide tried to put it back on. In the end they put her on another vehicle, and left one of the guides waiting for a mechanic.

The next morning we took a boat tour to the Ballestas Islands. The islands are just a short boat ride from Paracas, and they inhabit one of the biggest sea lion colonies of the world. First we stopped at the coast of the national park, where we admired the Candelabro. It is somehow graved into the mountain side, and you can see it miles away from the ocean. No one really knows how it got there, and for what reason. But, it’s enormous and impressive if you realize that it’s 181 meters high. Someone must have had a lot of time to create this. At the islands we immediately spotted penguins and albatrosses. We turned into a small bay, and we were surprised by what we saw. The whole beach was full of sea lions! Apparently we were there at the right time, the babies were just born. Oh the noise they make, I guess they have a lot to talk about. Some babies got swimming lessons from their mothers, and came close by the boat. Then we came into a few other bays, all of the beaches full with sea lions. The higher parts of the beach full of adult sea lions, close to the water the playful babies. What a special experience.

Form Paracas we had a short drive to Huacachina, the paradise desert of Peru. First we made a quick stop at a Pisco brewery in Ica. One of the employees gave us a quick tour through the brewery, which was quite short and not too exciting. However, we got to taste some of their pisco’s, and that of course was very exciting. Timon still had to drive a little part to our hostel, but I however could taste all of them. They had Pisco wine, Pisco sour, Pisco cream, I tried them all. We decided to buy a Pisco mixed with lime, our favorite. From there it was a quick drive to our glamping hostel in Huacachina. We slept in a tent, but a glamping kind of tent. We cooled down at the pool for a while, before our afternoon adventure. Since I kind of disappointed Timon with the ATV tour instead of a sand buggy, we got a second chance in Huacachina. With a sand buggy we raced through the desert dunes, and on the way we even stopped for a second activity; sand boarding. And no, it is not like snowboarding. You lie down on the board, and then slide down the dunes. We started at a small dune, the sixth dune felt like sliding down a skyscraper. It was really fun to do, especially since we didn’t expect the sand boarding to be included. The buggy tour was fun as well, and in the end it was good that we’ve done it here instead of Paracas. Back there it was flat, hard sand. In Huacachina we had the real sand dunes to race through. After seeing the sunset, we headed back to the oasis. The Huacachina oasis is famous from all the Insta photos. It looks like a paradise oasis in the middle of the desert. The truth is that it is completely full of buildings around the oasis, there’s a lot of tourists and the water looks green and dirty.

Timon prepared our next stop a few days before arriving there, to arrange a seat on a flight above the Nazca lines. We checked into the hotel and walked into the city center of Nazca to grab a quick lunch. At the airport, we had to go through security and needed to pay an airport fee. They didn’t leave us waiting for long, we could immediately hop into a small plane. Together with an American couple, we took off. The co-pilot pointed out to us where we could see the lines, and what their names were. The helicopter flew twice over it, so people on both sides could check the lines. For the Nazca lines goes the same as the Candelabro, they don’t really know how and why the lines appeared. So, besides pointing out the lines, the co-pilot didn’t have any more information to share with us. Looking at the lines from above was very cool. Honestly, flying in a small sport plane is always cool.

Then we were finally driving into the direction of one of the things that were high on our list; Machu Picchu. From Nazca it took 2 days driving to Cusco, so we had one stop on the way in a small mountain town. For your information; we had to go from the desert at sea level back to Cusco at 3400 meter. It meant driving a lot of curves, going up and up and up. As always, driving through the mountains in Peru provides you with beautiful views! Cusco is a really nice colonial town, but it is also very touristic. We were not even in the high season, and the streets were still full of tourists. After finding our AirBnB we walked into town to arrange tickets for the train to Machu Picchu. There are a lot of ways to get to Aguas Calientes, the town below Machu Picchu, but we decided to take the train. We searched for a nice bar, and watched the game Ajax - Juventus for the Champions League. We soon realized that there’s a lot of Dutch people in this town. With a win for Ajax, we went back to the AirBnB since Timon is feeling a little under the weather already for a couple of days.

The next day we left all our stuff at the AirBnB, and headed out at 6am to get to the train in time. First we had to drive 2 hours with a van to the train station. It was all very professionally arranged by the railway company, including coffee and muffins at the waiting area. The train was a nice experience, it drives through the jungle to Aguas Calientes. During the ride we are provided with lunch on board, luxury life this. Our hotel pick up was not at the train station like promised, so we went on a search for the hotel for ourselves. Aguas Calientes is not too big, so the search doesn’t take too long. It’s a nice town, quite small, but overloaded with tourists. When we walk around, every restaurant employee tries to convince us to grab a bite. Horror.. It seems that everyone wants to go as early as possible to Machu Picchu, but we decide to take it easy. We took the bus up, which dropped us right in front of the entrance. After entering, we decided to first walk to the Sun Gate. It was slightly hot, but the view from up was well worth the hike. From the mirador we walked back to the actual site. Wow, Machu Picchu is pretty impressive if you think about the fact that they build this city so long ago, high on top of a mountain. It is huge. Again, we were not there in the high season. But, after being here in low season, I don’t think I even want to be here in high season. Already now we had to walk in a traffic jam in some of the narrower parts. After walking around for about 4 hours, we’ve seen it all, and headed back down. Before leaving Aguas Calientes to return to Cusco with the night train, we visit the hot springs for a relaxing bath. Very relaxing for your muscles, and you can even order a beer while staying in the baths. What a service. That night, after a quick dinner, we catch the train back to Cusco.

After a short night; night train and some stomach issues, we stayed a day in our AirBnB recovering. Two days later we are both fully recovered, and we head back into town where we watch the procession which kicks of the Semana Santa. Thousands of people are attracted to this festivity, and we can barely move through the streets. We enjoy the buzz for a while, before jumping in a travel agency for some information on the Rainbow Mountain. We watch the second game of Ajax against Juventus, which they win again! We didn’t make any pictures of Cusco yet, so we wanted to walk around a bit with the camera after the game. Slightly tipsy of the beers we had, we make some amazing pictures of the city. Ahum ahum.. We ended up eating a great pizza before heading to our beds, the last day in Cusco we have to get up around 4 to join a tour to the Rainbow Mountain.

At 5am we are waiting at the pickup point, like we agreed upon with the agency. After waiting for 30 minutes, we are finally picked up. In a big bus, we drive to a small town where we are served breakfast by the locals. It’s something like a potato soup, nothing to special but it prepares us for the hike. The last part up to Rainbow Mountain is extremely small, we’re happy the bus driver seems to know what he’s doing. Arriving at the base of the Rainbow Mountain, we realize this is one big tourist trap. The parking lot is full with buses, vans and cars, and we walk in one big traffic jam up. The walk up is very steep, and being at these heights it’s pretty tough. Finally we arrived at the top, where I needed a few minutes to catch my breath. If I tried hard enough, I could see the Rainbow Mountain through all the people standing in front of me. We walked up to the highest point, so we could see the mountain clearly, looking over all the people. We arrived just in time, because within minutes we took a picture clouds came rolling in and obstructed the view completely. We waited a few minutes, but the clouds stayed and the view didn’t return. So we decided to head back down. It’s a nice mountain, mother nature has done something strange to create these colored stripes on this mountain. But, I’m not sure I would recommend it as a must visit. The hike is not too easy, and it’s packed with tourists. We’ve seen nicer places.

The route we drive from Cusco to Puno is a beautiful one. We stay high up in the mountains, and are driving over some sort of plateau. We see lots of alpacas and llamas, and the general views are pretty nice. When we arrive in Puno, our host is not answering the door. Timon calls him, and it looks like we woke him up from a nap. The hosts are of age, but a friendly couple. What’s funny is that when we ask for the WiFi code, he first has to bring his modem to our floor. Apparently he has one modem, which they use themselves when there are no guests. In the afternoon we visit some agencies to book a tour to the Titicaca islands, which ended up being all the same price. The tour leaves early, and brings us to a boat at the docks. First we visit the Uros islands, also called the floating islands. The islands are made of reed, and are anchored so they don’t float away. Since the reed rots at the bottom, they keep adding new layers of reed on top every month. Most of the islands have a few houses, also build with reed, and are inhabited by one family. Some of the islands are a bit bigger and have for example a school. We stop at one of the islands, where we get an explanation about the islands and the culture. We are allowed to try on their colorful clothing, and look into the houses. It’s quite weird to walk around on a island made of reed, I keep thinking that it’s possible to fall through. From the small island, we continue to a bigger one. We switch between islands in a typical local boat, also made of reed. It’s a funny experience; the locals are paddling to get us somewhere, but soon there’s a motorboat pushing us to go a little faster. Just before arriving to the next island, we learn that the back of the boat is used as toilet by the smaller kids. A little girl pulls up her dress and starts to pee, after all it’s reed. It will sip right through it.. On the bigger island there are a few shops and restrooms. This is definitely an island build for all the tourists that come to visit the Uros islands.

After this quick stop we continue to the Amantaní Island, where we will stay the night with a local family. As soon as we set foot on the island, we are divided into groups of 4 and appointed to a local family member. We are placed with an Argentinian couple, and walk together with our local host to our home for the night. The host is very friendly, we manage to speak some Spanish with him. The local language on the island is Quechua, but a lot of the locals learned some Spanish as well. After settling down our stuff in the rooms, we have lunch with the family. Lot’s of potatoes and quinoa soup, which is very good. After lunch we have to gather at the local sport field. We wait for our guide, and start a hike to the top of the Pachamama mountain. While hiking up, Timon stays behind at one point. Since he acts a little sneaky, I ask him what he’s up to. He was experimenting with the camera he said. On top we walk around the temple ruins, and enjoy the view of the Bolivian mountain peaks covered in snow, which slowly appeared through the clouds while we walked up. It cools down really quick, so we don’t stay up there too long and head back to our family. After a nice dinner, the lady of the house dives into her closet and gets us some local clothing. After being dressed completely in the traditional style, we join the hosts to the local disco. There’s live music, and everybody dances. It’s a really nice experience, we have a lot of fun. Timon did a dance with our lady host, I got a lesson from our manly host. Completely exhausted we fall a sleep.

The next morning it’s my birthday! Timon wakes me up with a surprise, he bought a gift for me! Remember I said that he acted sneaky? He secretly bought a local alpaca wool sweater for me, very sweet. We have a breakfast with our sweet family, we take a group picture and say our goodbyes. Then we have to leave, the boat is already waiting for us. We make a last stop at the Taquile island, where we make a hike from one side to the other side. Before getting on the boat back to Puno, we have a local lunch in the village on the island. All and all this was also a little touristy, but a really great experience. That night we decide to go out to celebrate my birthday and our last day in Peru. We were on the way to a restaurant I had in mind, but Timon wanted to check one on the way. We stepped into the restaurant, and the lady says take a seat. Normally Timon wants to check the menu first for the prices, but when I asked here he said “never mind”. Without my knowledge, Timon already made reservations at this fancy looking restaurant. When the lady came and asked if we wanted dessert, she had to laugh when I ordered the chocolate dessert. I thought it was something I pronounced funny or whatever, but when the dessert came out of the kitchen it had fireworks on it. The whole staff started to sing happy birthday, I was so surprised. Apparently Timon had already spoken to them about my birthday, and told them I would probably order something with chocolate. I’m so predictable.. :)

On my first day as a 30+ person, oh yes really, we are off to Bolivia! Peru was amazing, we stayed twice as long as we thought we would. The distances are longer than we expected, but the nature is worth taking your time through it.

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