Machu Picchu. Sacred Inca site high in the Andes of Peru  

GENERAL TIPS FOR TRAVELING IN PERU

And

WHAT TO BRING IN ORDER TO HAVE A GREAT TIME

This is excerpted from a guidebook I am writing, and is also sent to all participants in my  tours.  Whether you tour with me or not, I wish for you the most positive experience possible.  So I offer you these tips.  Many of the lessons did not come easily.

DOCUMENTS YOU WILL REQUIRE:  A valid Passport.  US Passport holders need no visas for Peru or Bolivia.  Holders of other passports must check with their embassies.  No vaccinations are required. Sometravelers to the jungle areas are concerned with malaria and take precautionary medicines.  Most do not.

GENERAL HEALTH REQUIREMENTS:   Most of the sites mentioned in this book are at elevations between 7000-14,000 ft.  Visitors will be much happier if their cardio-vascular system is in reasonable order. If you prepare a month or so in advance with some aerobics, bicycle riding, jogging or the like, you should be fine. I have had senior citizens on my tours, and they did fine, albeit a bit slower. 

TRAVELLING IN THE THIRD WORLD:  The third world is not like home. Among the many differences are the different pace and sense of time.  Commercial transport schedules are often subject to change, and this can be either interesting or frustrating, depending upon your attitude.  When traveling in the Third World, screw-ups do occur. Count on it.  Your patience and good humor are prerequisites.  Standards of cleanliness there are far different to what you may be used to. Additional problems presented to the traveler might be acclimatizing to very high altitudes and the near certainty that no matter how carefully you eat, you will probably contract diarrhea at least once. An additional factor: Unless you are quite proficient in Spanish you might at times feel a bit helpless and out of control. 

WARNING ABOUT PERUVIAN AIRLINES: Flying over the mountains can be quite a bargain as a time saver, as a one hour flight could easily take 10 hours by train and several days by road.  However traveling  by air inside Peru can be maddening, as often the time schedules are approximate.  Your plane can depart early just as often as late.  At many airports, the plane arrives,  passengers disembark, they load the new passengers, and immediately takeoff. This is especially true at airports in the mountains, especially Cusco, where the weather often worsens in the afternoon, and so they want to fly in and out as quickly as possible.    I once had a flight from Cuzco to Lima,  which was scheduled to depart at 8:30 am.  We were loaded, doors locked and taxiing down the runway at 8am!  Woe be unto anyone arriving in the nick of time to catch that 8:30 flight.  It is best to be checked in and waiting for your plane at least 1 hour prior to scheduled departure, and in the mountains even earlier is a wise precaution.

THE PERUVIANS:  They are very friendly and hospitable.  There is no Machismo.  There is no anti-Americanism or anti-gringoism. It seemed to me to be a safe place for a woman to travel alone, and I met many solo woman travelers while there.  No one reported any problems.  The Shining Path revolutionaries are now confined to one valley, [which produces cocaine], and the rest of the country seems trouble free. In the Andes, Quechua or Aymara is the first language of most of the people, but almost everyone speaks Spanish.

Lima is a big city and you must have your street smarts about you. For those traveling to the coastal cities, there have been reports of pickpockets, snatchpurses and the like.  Again, have your street smarts with you. 

The mountain areas are much more mellow.

DRUG POLICY:  There is no formal  inspection when entering Peru.  However, if you are bringing anything you suspect might be illegal-hide it securely, or leave it at home. Upon your return, US customs is usually perfunctory, but can be intense. You do not want to bring anything illegal back to US.   I never cross a US border carrying anything illegal. The US government is just too paranoid and hypocritical concerning the use of sacred plant medicine.

TOBACCO USERS: I am allergic to tobacco smoke.  You will be lovingly banished to the outdoors. You must field strip your butts and pocket your filters.  Please be aware that nicotine tends to coat nerve endings, masking sensations and rendering  the subtle energies we seek much more difficult to feel.

TIPS FOR TRAVELING LIGHT: You can tell the experienced traveler by the size of their luggage. Packing small, traveling lite, is an art form. By contrast, it is incredible the amount of stuff an inexperienced traveler can lug around and never need nor use.

One secret is to always chose articles with multiple functions.  A windbreaker that is rain proof has more function than one that is not. If it is "dressy" enough to serve as your "dress up" outerwear as well, so much the better. One item thus might serve three functions. I sleep in the nude.  One of the shirts I take is thigh length, to double as a nite shirt when I have to journey down a hotel hall at nite to the toilet.  What's that?  You expect a bathroom in your hotel room?  Every nite?  Possible, but doubtful.  If my long shirt had a collar, it could double as an under-sweater shirt. If it also happened to be waterproof, I could leave my raincoat at home. You get the idea.  The more functions one item can perform, the less items you must lug around with you. I'm still searching for a toothbrush that doubles as a walking stick, and a daypack that transforms into a motorcycle. 

You can easily rent all sorts of camping gear in Cuzco, and probably in Lima as well.

TRAVEL HINTS

If something is indispensable or hard to replace, you probably want to carry it on your person.  Limit yourself to a day pack and one piece of luggage, which you will have to carry at times, or pay others to carry.

CLOTHES AND FEELING ENERGY:  Natural fibers (cotton, silk, and to some extent rayon) allow energy to pass.  Synthetics, especially polyester, do not.  So, as much as practical, bring/wear only natural fiber clothing.

EXTRA CLOTHES:  In the Andes, Laundry service is available in large cities and often even in very cheap hotels. However it can be surprisingly expensive. "On the road" no one really cares what you look or even smell like.  I get away with the clothes I'm wearing plus one change.  After a period of time  I switch and wash. 

OK, most women are horrified by that approach, but it works for me.  But please do be practical.

LAUNDRY: Is cheap in Cusco and tends to be expensive elsewhere.  We will all do laundry in Cusco, and probably again in the Lake Titicaca area.  My solution is to bring little and change seldom. One woman's solution was to bring a lot of old stuff, wear it, then toss it or give it to kids, then buy new.  Especially good idea with tee shirts, and other items obviously from your home country.  Such "foreign" clothing will probably be popular with the Peruvians. Everyone likes to show off clothing from far away places.

TOILET ARTICLES: Decant your liquid toilet articles into small plastic bottles. Best hiss test them first: When empty, tighten cap then squeeze. If it hisses, toss it, as it will leak under pressure, in airlines luggage compartment, or altitude change. You might then want to pack your good bottles in a zip lock bag to protect your stuff if a leak does occur.

IMPORTANT TIP: Take only what you'll need for the length of your trip. Small bar of soap, small supply of shampoo, small tube of toothpaste, (or even better, purchase from REI their toothbrush with refillable toothpaste tube in the handle). Don't take a three months supply of anything on a three weeks trip. Even a towel might be optional if you are only staying in hotels, as even the cheapest hotel will supply a clean towel if you ask.

Pack small. It's a habit that becomes a science, and evolves into an art form. 

MONEY:  US currency:  The cash dollars you bring should be crisp, clean & new-no tears. Up to you if you prefer travelers checks.  They are a bit more awkward to cash, though no huge problems, and you do get a slightly lower rate of exchange. I bring both. I hate money belts so I stash my money in various places. 

Always separate your stash so if one piece of luggage is not available or worse, lost, you still have some funds available.

MAKING CHANGE: The concept of business people having change diminishes as you go into smaller towns. It is nearly absent when you arrive at Lake Titicaca  and vanishes entirely on the islands. Solution: Have coins with you at all times.  Finding change for even the smallest bill (10 sols) can consume an hour or more.  Is that really how you want to spend your time? The game is; when  you are in  the larger cities, purchase items with bills and stash smaller bills and coins for future use.

TELEPHONE AND MONEY TRANSFER/CASH ADVANCE WHILE IN PERU: If you think you might need your phone cards or bank cards, check with your card company to make sure they can be used in Peru and ask for any special instructions. Calls back to the States can be made and paid for at any major Post office, but a phone credit card makes it much easier, and can be done from more places, as several of our over night stops have no major Post Offices.  Phone cards can be used at many hotels.  I strongly recommend that you don't set yourself up with any more obligatory phone calls than absolutely essential. I've observed many tour participants take themselves right out of their experience by too frequent contact with people and habit patterns back home. Even one phone call can alter your experience.  To maximize my experience, I always plan to have zero contact with home when I'm "on the road".

FOOD:  Please let tour leaders know of any special dietary requirements.  Only drink bottled water (available everywhere and carried in your daypacks].  Eat no fruits or vegetables that have not been peeled.  The local food does tend to be fried. You can often order around that, but you might want to bring along some of your favorite treats, or power bars, or other emergency food supplements for the days when "you've had it" with whatever.

HEALTH:  The best medicine is to begin the trip in the best health possible.  Get in shape, especially legs, cardiovascular, and lungs.  Do some aerobics, take bike rides, or long walks.  You will thank yourself.  Our tour does not go into any areas that require inoculations or malaria medicines.  If you plan to later go into the Amazon basin, some travelers take malaria precautions, many do not.

MEDICINES TO BRING: Lomotil is excellent for diarrhea and available at most pharmacies throughout Latin America. No prescriptions are necessary.  Latin America is not ruled by the AMA or the American pharmaceutical industry, so the rule in any pharmacy is;  if you can pronounce it and pay for it, you can buy it.

Incidentally, they have zero problems with drug abuse. Requiring a doctors prescription in order to obtain medicine is just another scam by your friendly health professionals. I am sure you by now realize that the FDA, AMA and all their rules and regulations are not to protect you, but exist solely to insure the obscene profits of the medical and the pharmaceutical industries. Prices in any Latin American pharmacy will illustrate just what your medicine can and should cost.  However there is no certainty of your obtaining a particular brand of medicine. Take any special medications you require. If in doubt, bring your own (again, to conserve space, bring only the amount you will actually need).

LADIES AND THEIR COMPANIONS:  I'm not sure if it's the altitude or the intensity of the energies experienced, but some ladies report a much more intense menstrual period than normal, physically and/or emotionally, while on tour.  Be prepared, do what you do, and its a nice idea to let your companions know when your moon time comes so they can understand and support you without taking anything personally.

TOILET PAPER:  The third world has an incredible product they call toilet paper.  Looks like crepe paper, feels like sand paper, tears like butcher paper.  Bring your own.  New rolls are bulky and far more than you're going to need in any one day.  My secret is: at home between trips I wait till a roll is down to its last 1/4 and then set it aside, and break out a fresh roll. Come travel time, I take out my collection, crush em flat, and pack em in a plastic bag in my luggage.  Then while traveling, I always have a 1/4 roll in my day pack and another in my pocket.  Never bulky, and always handy.  NEWS FLASH:  Since this book was begun, the Peruvians have mastered the art of making soft TP. You still want to bring ¼ roll or so for carrying around in your pocket or day pack.-Carrying around a full roll of TP is awkward at best.

YOUR SACRED OBJECTS:  You may wish to bring along small favorite objects, to purify and energize in the Andean sacred sites or Lake Titicaca.  You may want to bring offerings of corn, crystal or whatever.  You may also wish to leave pebbles, crystals or small objects from home at these sites, to serve as antenna when in future you wish to tune in on your favorite sites.  That is my understanding of the deeper reason why pilgrims

since time immemorial have left objects at sacred sites.  Originally it was not as an offering to the gods, (the gods do not need our trinkets) but a means of later reconnecting with the energies of a particular place.

DRESS IN LAYERS:  Temperatures change rapidly and dramatically at high altitudes.  You will want layers of clothing in your daypacks, "just in case". I find I am layering and unlayering often, every day.  Wear lite weight, easy to wash garments next to your skin, and you will be less concerned about soil and travel grime on your outer garments.  Silk thermals pack small, wash/dry quickly, are very warm yet cool in sun.  Tan or earth colored pants will show dirt less than darker colors.    

Alpaca is a hollow fiber, hence considerably warmer than similar weight in sheeps' wool. Alpaca garments are incredibly cheap in the Cuzco markets.  I usually buy an alpaca sweater, neck scarf, hat  (there are  many styles ranging from ultra conservative to Bozo The Clown), heavy wool socks (From God knows what animal) and finally an alpaca poncho.

One guy on one of my tours had a travelers vest with 1,000 pockets which  carried everything!  A down jacket or vest stuffs nicely and will be wonderful on occasion (camping) and in the way the rest of the time. 

Choose everything you take with you to be as small as possible.

Some sort of rain coat or poncho, (you never know when it might rain). My great shoe tip is  cheap Velcro

tennis shoes from K-mart. They look presentable, are strong enough for hiking, are washable, come on and off easily when entering homes or sacred sites, and since they are cheap, you can toss them when the trip is over. 

They are the only shoes I take with me, except for a pair of sandals if I'm going out into the Amazon jungle after the tour. One woman did my entire tour in Teva sandals, and was quite comfortable the entire time.

Whatever shoes you bring, make sure to thoroughly break them in before the trip.  Make sure they are comfortable on a long hike.

SUGGESTED MINIMUM CLOTHING FOR PERU:

ANDES MOUNTAINS:  Can be hot or cold, wet or dry.  Our tour sites range from 6000-14,000 ft.  High altitude sun is very intense.  It will be cold at night, especially when camping.

WHAT I NEED (MINIMUM): A light-weight daypack, Raincoat or waterproof poncho, warm sweater, collared shirt (for under sweater), and a change. I prefer one short sleeve and one long sleeve (for maximum versatility).  Two pair pants with a  multitude of pockets (Military style pants with two sets of pockets on legs are great), 2 tee shirts, 2 sleeveless tees, 2 light socks, thermal underwear bottoms (useful if you sleep cold and for inside sleeping bag when camping ), Cheap Velcro tennis shoes, (I found this foot gear was all I needed even for the Inca Trail!)  Good sun block,  good insect repellent (only Machu Picchu seems to have bothersome insects. The other sites are probably too high), sun glasses, sun hat or head kerchief. Bathing suit (there is a great public hot springs in the town below Machu Picchu). Ear plugs for occasional noisy hotels, and travel alarm if you need one.  Small powerful flashlights are the most practical.  MiniMag or equivalent are best. Make sure your batteries are fresh. If you need a lighter, you'll be happier if its windproof.

MEDICINES: Insect repellent: 100% DEET, or all natural if you prefer, but make sure it works. I only needed it for no-see-ums at Machu Picchu. Bring copies of any prescriptions you might use, eye glass prescription or perhaps a spare pair.  Skin moisturizing cream.  Lomotil or other anti diarrhea stuff.  Optional: High Altitude medicine(acclimatization seems to take max. of 2 days)

OPTIONAL: camera and film, compass(if you want to check alignments of power places, sun rise and set, etc.), shorts, Flip flops or sandals.

FOOD: While no one journeys to Peru for the food, it is adequate and nourishing. Most common cooking method is fried. Lots of fish, chicken, beef and fried potatoes.  Large towns have more variety-yogurt, spaghetti, pizza, Chinese food, pancakes, omelets.  To escape the dreaded  fried potatoes, boiled is called "au vapor".  Mashed may be called "puree".

Cheap local lunch(what they have prepared for the day) is called "menu". You will get soup, meat, grain, vegetable and tea for about $1.50

The fish is excellent.  Trout is huge and very good, and you can often order a  white fish called pejery (pronounced "peheray") which is even better. The Lake Titicaca region has the best roasted peanuts on the planet.

WATER : South of the US border, never ever drink un bottled water or un boiled water.  Your habit patterns can get you into serious trouble here.  You can't rinse your tooth brush in the tap or your mouth in the shower.  I've had tour participants get quite sick from each practice. The treated water in the US may taste bad and dry out your delicate skin a bit but it wont kill you. The water in Latin America wont kill you either, but there can be a few days when it seems like it might.  Drink only bottled water, and eat no fruit or vegies that you have not peeled. 

Th exception is when you are in a restaurant that is obviously accustomed to catering to foreigners.  There you can usually trust that they know and take the necessary precautions. 

BEGGING AND TIPPING : You are guests in another culture. Tipping is not natural to Peru. It is being introduced by foreign travelers. 

You have an obligation to the future. In obvious tourist establishments, tipping is optional. In local establishments tipping is not expected and perhaps not even desirable.

If you encourage kids to beg they will grow up seeing tourists as objects to beg from or otherwise prey off of, and it severely limits their abilities to make a productive life for themselves.  If you reward begging you are encouraging and training that generation. It really changes the relationship between local and visitor, and future travelers will probably curse you for spoiling this place.

I've been many places where no one begs. The kids stay with you or ignore you depending on what they feel and not what they can get from you.  In my opinion begging is not natural, it is a learned activity, it is taught.

Please reward creativity and entertainment.  Don't reward sadness, pity, or displays of misery.  If you are moved to add to someone's life, please give them food, or perhaps school supplies.

STAYING ON AFTER THE TOUR IS OVER:  If your schedule allows, I urge you to consider staying on, on your own, after our two weeks tour.  By the time the tour is over, you should have your basic survival skills. 

You should  have a bit of the language, have an idea as to how to arrange local travel, find a hotel, find your favorite foods,  and other basic necessities. You will also have some intuitive guidance about where you want to spend more time.  My experiences have been that after a brief period of cultural shock, the tour became a smorgasbord of what the country offered, and my tour participants soon had a good idea of what they wanted to go back to or concentrate on.  If shopping or gift buying was on their agenda  they knew the prices, had acquired some bargaining skills, and knew where the best merchandise could be obtained.  If you do chose to stay longer, it is MUCH EASIER if you notify me when you reserve with me so I can book your air ticket accordingly.  Changing your return flight while in Peru is sometimes easy, sometimes difficult, and the airlines usually tack on a surcharge. Unless you want to extend beyond the 30 days, in which case it can be difficult and costly.  It is certainly the simplest if you inform me of your desired return date before I book the tickets.

I am an energy freak, and Peru is a paradise of "cheap thrills" for me, so I always stay the full 30 days, to check out new places and play. If my schedule allowed it, I'd probably stay even longer.