It quickly became clear to me that the route I had planned through Peru was the same route that most people take through Peru, with the only variance being whether you start from the bottom or the top. Perhaps it was because everyone uses the Lonely Planet as their guide. Pulling from one of the suggested itineraries, I began in Lima.

Lima

Right away Lima was a huge disappointment. Perhaps it is a nice city in which to live, but it doesn’t offer much for the tourist. I’ve already covered my misadvenutes at the beach. Other highlights of Lima are the old town and Kennedy park. While the buildings around the Plaza de Armas were nice, they were no different than any other city squares I’d visited.

The one exception is the Cathedral of Lima. It has a layout similar to any other Catholic church, except this one gives you access to many of the back rooms behind the main public area. It costs you money to visit the church, but I think the many museums inside justify the price, and I would recommend spending at least an hour there.

The other thing I have since told everyone about is the Circuito Electrico (electric light water show). In the center of Lima, near the national stadium, is a park filled with water fountains that are colorfully lit at dusk. The fountains are all of a different style, some designed to walk through, others to walk under. At about quarter past seven, the main pool in the center begins to emit a spray and laser images are projected onto the spray.

Getting around Lima can be a challenge. The city is on a huge scale, like New York City, where distances that appear close on a map can actually take an hour to reach. While it may be tempting to give up on a bus and take a taxi, don’t be fooled; in Lima’s traffic the taxis travel no faster than the buses.

Your best bet is to catch what I call the bus metro. Lima has several bus lines that are given a dedicated lane on the main freeways. While it’s not quite a train, it is an effective way to bypass the lines of cars waiting to inch their way forward on the freeway.

The bus metro does cost a tiny bit more than the regular bus, but you have extra time to sit in traffic for hours, pay the extra 30 cents for the metro. You do have to purchase a metro card for 5 soles in order to use bus metro. Purchase the card at any of the stations, and you can add value for the distance of your trip.   

As my trip progressed, people asked me what to do in Lima, and I would reply, “spend as little time as possible”. It was a response I was told they’d heard often. Having exhausted my visit to Lima, I checked out of my hostel two days early and caught a bus to Paracas.

The same company that runs the $9 USD shuttle from Lima airport direct to downtown offers a traveler package where you can pay one price and hop on or off anywhere along the gringo trail. After reviewing the other bus prices online, I decided to pay a little more for the convenience of the hop on/off experience. That was until I realized the price quoted on the site was in US dollars, making it three times the price of the other bus providers.

Booking all the legs of my trip separately was a little more work but certainly worth the savings. What made it significantly more complicated is that, unlike Mexico where all the bus companies share the same terminal, in Peru, each company has its own terminal. You can imagine how complicated this makes it if you want to research a bus that does not have an online presence.

I found the best thing to do is ask the front desk of your accommodation or other travelers what they remommend. For me, I took Cruz del Sur, a luxury line that allowed me to travel first class from Lima to Paracas in about three and a half hours for about $20 USD. The bus had really comfortable seats, meal service, and WiFi. I really felt bad for the Peru hop people and never had the heart to tell them how cheap my bus was when hearing that their bus was not that great.

One mistake I’ll try to save you is choosing the first class seats on the bus, something I opted for since it only cost $2 USD more. While the seats were bigger and reclined further, I was surprised to find that they were on the lower level of the double decker bus, which means the view was not as good as the upper level second class seats. It actually felt like I was riding in the cargo bay. Being on the lower level means less rocking during bus travel, but this is not so relevant unless you’re taking an overnight trip.

Paracas

Cruz del Sur has their own stop in Paracas, a seaside village just a little off the main highway. The station is about five minutes walk from every hostel in the village. It’s a dusty place but the perfect getaway from the incessant noise of Lima.

Several hotels, hostels, and restaurants surround the main village square so if you’re one of those who doesn’t like planning ahead, this is the place for you. It’s a laid back village where you’re either eating, sleeping, or lying on the beach.

There are a couple activities that everyone who comes here signs up for. One is the boat ride to the Islas Ballestas, and another is a visit to Paracas National Reserve. The former is a 4 hour boat trip around a couple islands with a copious number of birds, including the Peruvian booby. The islands have the nickname, “Galapagos of Peru”

The other highlight is the park. Several tour operators offer day trips to the reserve which is one of the best ways to see it. You can rent a bicycle and ride from town but given the poor quality of the rentals and the size of the park, you won’t get to experience as much as with a vehicle. I was able to rent a scooter which allowed me to cover most of the park in one day. There were some areas far to the south that were only accessible by a road better suited for a four wheeled vehicle.

I spent one more day than most in Paracas, but you could easily spend a week. Once you’ve done the two main highlights, there’s not much more to do than read by the pool, but sometimes that is exactly what I’m looking for. Traveling several hours every few days can be exhausting.

The next stop on the gringo trail is Haucachina, just outside of Ica. Bus service from Paracas is fairly limited with only two trips to Ica each day, neither of them at a particularly convenient time. The workaround is to take a collectivo to Pisco for less than 5 soles. It will drop you in the center of Pisco, where you can share a cab to “la cruce”, the main intersection with the Pan American highway.

If you’re as cheap as I am, you may think to walk the 3 miles to “la cruce”, but sharing a cab for 5 soles saves you a hot dusty walk through an unattractive part of what is already a pretty scrappy fishing village. The cabs wait where the collectivo drops off, and you will have to wait until every seat is full before it heads to “la cruce”.

Don’t worry about being in a hurry, however, PeruBus has busses leaving every ten minutes for Ica. The trip on this local bus takes about an hour and a half, and you are dropped into the center of Ica, a medium sized city, equally as unattractive as Pisco.

Huacachina

Once outside the bus station, you’ll be assaulted by taxi drivers ready to take you to the oasis of Huacachina. Cabs charge around 8 soles and the three wheeled tuk tuks charge 5. I am guessing the tuk tuks charge less because they are open air, but I found this to be an asset in the warm desert sun, unless you have more luggage than can fit on your lap.

If you need any supplies, pick them up in Ica. There are ample lodgings and restaurants in Huacachina but little more. ATMs are located in Ica around the main square, which is 3 blocks to the left when exiting the bus station. A note about ATMs in Peru: Few ATMs allow you to take out more than 400 soles at a time. This is particularly frustrating because the ATMs can charge as much as 18 soles for each withdrawal.

The trick is to search for BCP ATMs which allow you to withdraw as much as 700 soles at a time, though they do charges 13.5 soles to do so. If you want to avoid fees altogether, scope out the Banco de la Nación ATMs, which while only allowing you to withdraw 400 soles at a time, do not have any fees.

Huacachina offers an amount of activity very simiar to Paracas. You can go on a dune buggy ride or snowboard down a giant sand dune. After that, there’s nothing much to do. That said, these activities are a blast. The dune buggy trip is exhilerating, and the drivers are skilled enough to have you white knuckling the roll bar.

The sandboarding was something I didn’t expect to do, but since it was included in the trip, I gave it a shot. I had no idea that I would travel downhill faster than I ever had on skis. They allowed us to practice on less steep hills at first, but for the last hill, they required us to lie flat on the board. This turned out to be good advice as I felt I reached a velocity equivalent to what you see in the Olympic ski jump. While thrilling, I couldn’t help but think about the damage that would be done to my body if I lost control of the board. Fortunately that didn’t happen, and I was all smiles at the bottom of the slope.

I recommend staying at Banana’s hostel. While it is more expensive than other hostels, it includes three activities from which to choose between: dune buggy ride, wine tour, and BBQ. I chose the dune buggy because that was why I had come to Huacachina and the BBQ because it saved me the cost of a dinner. Wine tours I can do at home!

In addition to the activities, Bananas has a swimming pool and an outstanding restaurant serving plenty of healthy dishes. I was able to get my daily fill of vegetables, something unusual in this part of the world. The rooms were exquisite for a hostel, unless you chose the lowest price one. I’d read the reviews advising against that. To give you an idea of the cheap option, everone referrd to it as “the stable”. Other than that, there were plenty of people who had transferred to Bananas from other cheaper party hostels.

If you have the time and energy, you can also climb the giant sand dunes surroung the oasis. Many people do it for sunrise or sunset. Unfortunately, I got the only rainy day of the year so, while the climb was nice, my photos weren’t as I’d seen on the internet. Of course, that wouldn’t be the last time that was true.

Near to Huacachina are the Nazca lines, ancient geoglyphs formed by depressions or shallow incisions made in the soil. You can book a trip to the Nazca lines from Huacachina, but I recommend doing it from Nazca as it avoids retracing a route you are going to do for the next segment of the gringo trail. The only way to really experience the lines is by taking a flight over them for around $75 USD, which was cheaper than expected but still outside my budget for that activity.

I came up with another scheme that might allow you to see the Nazca lines for free, but I’d come upon it too late. The next part of my trip was from Huacachina to Cusco, a trip that can only be done by overnight bus. I’d already bought my ticket when I found out the cost to fly to Cusco was about the same, and the flights took off out of Nazca. I figured if I flew during the day, I’d see the lines for free!

If you want to visit the Nazca lines, either by bus or by plane, you can catch the PeruBus from Ica to Nazca, which is the end of the line for that service. Once in Nazca you can visit the lines, catch a flight to Cusco, or board the overnight bus to Cusco or Arequipa. I chose to go to Cusco first because I planned to visit Arequipa as I headed south from Puno to Arica in Chile. If you will end your Peru visit in Cusco, then it makes sense to first visit Arequipa.

Since, I hadn’t had any luck purchasing my bus tickets online, I’d already purchased my tickets at the station when I arrived in Ica so the plane option was out. Finding the ticket office for the bus to Cusco is a bit of a challenge. It is around the corner to the left when you walk out of the PeruBus terminal. I passed it the first time because it is simply inside the same bus yard where the PeruBus exits the station.

Several buses do the overnight trip to Cusco so it’s mostly a matter of choosing your level of comfort. I recommend the Civa line though I’m sure regardless of the bus you choose it will be a miserable trip. At least everyone I talked to said the same thing. The trip through the Andes is a winding one and the bus drivers all seem to think they are driving little sports cars.

I really thought my life was going to end on the ovenight trip to Cusco. It was worse in the daylight when I could see how narrow the roads were, a point our driver seemed oblivious of. Many times he slammed on the brakes when he realized he was headed into turns too quickly and, on at least three occasions, cars and trucks honked at us for not being on our side of the road. I also wondered if the poor driving was due to lack of sleep for the driver. I couldn’t recall at any point during the 17 hours when they had managed to change drivers.

Cusco

I arrived in Cusco exhausted with a splitting headache. I’m not sure how much was due to the trip and how much was due due to the elevation change. Having traveled to 11,000 feet above sea level, I was now getting less oxygen. Headaches and fatigue are common signs of altitude sickness.

Being my cheap self, I deceded to walk the 30 minutes from the bus terminal to the main plaza where my hostel was located. I walked slowly and took deep breaths whenever I felt depleted of oxygen. Half way to the hostel I stopped for a delicious chocolate dessert I saw and ate it while sitting in the park acrosss the street. I later figured out the bus system and any other trips around town were done by bus for less than one sole.

Cusco was a real treat, much more like the colonial towns of Mexico which I love so much. It’s a great place for walking and I extended my stay twice for a total of one week’s time. The premier destination is, of course, Machu Picchu, but other things to visit are the Sacred valley and rainbow mountain.

For exploring Cusco, you can use a guide book or take a free walking tour, but my suggestion is to simply head up into the hills around the San Blas neighborhood. If you ascend high enough, you’ll get to the Avenida Circumnavigacion. Take a left and follow it to Cristo Blanco. I find the name which literally translates to white Jesus, somewhat ironic in a country of people with dark skin, but it does describe the statue accurately.

On the other side of the statue from where you entered, there is a path leading down to the ruins called Saqsaywaman (pronounced sexy woman), interestingly juxtaposed across from white Jesus. You have to pay an entry fee to enter the ruins. If you are just going for a walk, then take the staircase down to the left, and after about 30 minutes, you’ll find yourself back in the main square of Cusco. Doing the route in this direction is free. If you try to do it clockwise, you will have to pay at the bottom of the stairs to Cristo blanco. Once you’ve spent a couple of days eating well and acclimating, you can head out for adventure.

There are many outfitters that can provide you with one to five day tour and trekking options to Machu Picchu, which you should book in advance. The following is for those who want to do it on their own. There is no cheap way to do Machu Picchu. Everyone must have an entry permit which costs around $50 USD. Having gone during the rainy season, I could have waited until the day before to buy mine, but in peak season, you should probably buy your permit as soon as you arrive or online at https://www.machupicchu.gob.pe/inicio

The other thing you have to plan in advance  is how you will get there. If you go with an agancy, they will take care of this for you. If you go on your own, there are two options for getting to the entrance to Machu Picchu. The more expensive, and more common way, is to take the train. There are no roads into Aguas Calientes, the town at the foot of Machu Picchu so the two railroads hold a duopoly on access.

Check both their sites (Inca Train and Peru Rail) for tickets. Because this was my biggest expense ($150 USD), I planned my trip around train times. Prices vary depending on the popularity of departure and return times, and I was able to get a couple dicounted tickets. It meant I had to spend a night in Aguas Calientes, but that was still cheaper than buying a more expensive ticket. My train ticket also made it so that I would tour Machu Picchu on the second day as I didn’t arrive until 2:30pm.

Machu Picchu

The train to Aguas Calientes leaves from Ollantaytambo, though in the summer there is service from Cusco. To get to the train station from Cusco, you take a collectivo for 10 soles. Your hotel or hostel can tell you where to find the collectivo. They run regularly all day long.

Once you get to Ollantaytambo, you can walk down to the train station, but I opted to stay in the village and walk around. It’s a charming place, with plenty of restaurants, ancient ruins, and nearby hiking options. Had I known this before I arrived, I would have planned at least one night here. Depending on what time your train tickets are, I recommend staying either the night before or the night after your trek.

I explored the town before heading to my train which arrived in Aguas Calientes at mid-afternoon. That was fine as it allowed me to check out the walk to the trailhead, which was about 30 minutes from town. It’s an ugly walk but the only way to go if you are hiking on your own. You can pay the $24 USD to take the bus up and back, but my thriftiness wouldn’t allow that. The tradeoff is that you must hike to the top which takes about an hour and a half. I was fine with that, but some might reconsider as it leaves you with less energy for exploring once you reach the top.

Aguas Calientes is filled with bars, shops, and restaurants so it’s easy to keep yourself entertained before or after yout hike. The train companies offer baggage check for free so you don’t have to carry all your things around. People said the food was expensive in Aguas Calientes, and if you simply look at the menu that’s true, but what I found in all of Peru is there is a special menu they don’t show you. It’s called the tourist menu, but often they don’t have it on display. For less than the price of one entree, it typically includes a starter, a main course, and a dessrt or drink. I’m not sure if the portions are smaller than ordering something off the menu, but I found the tourist meal to be plenty for me.

After dinner, I went home to read a bit and then went to bed. Around four o’clock, there was a lot of shuffling as the early risers stirred to get to the entrance by 5 am. I’ve never understand the obsession with getting to places to watch the sunrise. For an equally lovely sky show, you can sleep in and catch the sunset at a much more reasonable hour. I remember laughing at all the people who got up at 4am to watch the sunrise at Angkor Wat and saw nothing but an overcast sky. The same is true for Machu Picchu. It starts every morning shrouded in mist so your efforts are in vain.

On the advice of a guy I met at my hostel in Cusco, I booked my start time for noon. That’s another reason you should purchase your train ticket first; you must select a start time when buying your permit for Machu Picchu, and they will not allow you to enter any sooner. There was plenty of availability for my late start time, but the advantages worked well. First of all, I got to sleep in. Second, by the time I reached the top of the mountain around 1pm, all the other tourists were headed down. If you look at my photos it looks as if I had the whole place to myself, and I did.

The hike up over a thousands steps was challenging, but I took my time and had plenty of energy to explore once I got to the top. The only thing I was lacking was water, but that was readily available at the top for an exhorbidant price. I hiked up to the sun gate and then to the Inca bridge before heading into the city ruins. Besides giving me more time in nature, it allowed for even fewer people remaining.

After descending, I still had an hour before my train so I had an early dinner in town. The return trip to Cusco was roughly the reverse: Train to Ollantaytambo and collectivo back to Cusco. As I mentioned, it would have been nice to spend the night in the little town and return to Cusco the next day, but I had another adventure booked.

The Sacred Valley

There are several tours of the Sacred valley available for purchase through one of the many agencies in Cusco. The one I selected was a half day tour of Maras and Moray. The other sites focus on ruins, and I’m kind of a “once you’ve seen one ruin, you’ve seen them all” kind of guy. I asked a guy who’d done it on his own, and he really recommended going with a tour group because while you can get to the towns on local buses, it is a long trek out to the sites. Besides that, the cost of doing it on your own is more expensive than paying for a tour. You get about 45 minutes at each site, and that is plenty.

The ringed elevations at Moray were interesting, but just as catching was the beautiful countryside we passed through on the way. The tour agencies always sell you with great pictures of these destinations, but what my agent failed to tell me is that the salt terrace evaporators at Maras are brown this time of year, as they can only harvest the salt during the dry season. We still got some good pictures, but if you’re on the fence about the Sacred valley tour, I would skip it for something more dramatic.

Rainbow Mountain

That said, the next day’s adventure took me to rainbow mountain. This is a mountain range that looks like fruit striped gum because of the erosion of the many different minerals in the hills. While it looks alluring in the pictures, what they don’t tell you when they’re selling you the tours is that you have to climb to an elevation of 17,440 feet. You can spend all the time you want acclimating in Cusco and still not be prepared for this hike. Sadly many people come unprepared for the cold, wet and challenging climb because all they saw was a pretty picture at the tourist office.

I lucked out on my day as the hills were clear of fog, and there was very little rain. People who went they day before me saw nothing due to poor weather conditions. The only way I achieved the top was by walking at a slow pace, kind of like an evening stroll along the beach. It was a real version of the tortoise and the hare as I was passed by several people only to saunter past them later as they tried to regain their breath.

It is clear that this is a relatively new activity. The roads are terrible and the management is in disarray, but I understand the prices for the trip have come down significantly since the mountain first revealed itself with the melting of the glacier that previously covered it just 10 years ago.

I looked into hiking the route on my own since the city from which the hike begins was 2 hours towards my next destinaition, but I ran into a couple problems. One is that there were no accommodations to be found in the town due to its only recently discovered attraction, and all the buses to Puno were direct with no stops in between. That meant I would have to go back and forth to Cusco anyway, and it was easily cheaper to do the paid tour.

Having not gotten enough exploration time, I extended my stay another day in Cusco and bought the ticket to my next destination, Puno, on the shores of Lake Titcaca. Though is only about 5.5 hours from Cusco, all but one of the bus companies offer it as an overnight trip. Not wanting to repeat my previous experience, I booked the one day trip through Cruz del Sur. The ride takes you through beautiful country, and it would be a shame to miss that on an overnight trip.

Puno and Lake Titicaca

You can buy your ticket online or at the main terminal in Cusco, but note that the bus takes off from the Cruz del Sur terminal a few blocks away. The bus travels through the town of Juliaca, which despite its pretty name is the most depressing town I’ve ever seen. A town littered with unfinished buildings featured only businesses related to construction and auto repair, the latter sporting posters of girls in bikinis performing oil changes, During my short trip through town, I saw no one to match the girls offered in the photos.

I was relieved to find Puno was not nearly in the dire straights as the previous town. Though not particularly attractive, it was built up the cliff sides of a harbor above Lake Titicaca. There are many ways to ascend to the various viewpoints of the city, each centered around some icon of Christianity. It always amazes me that the countries that shed themselves of the brutal practices of their colonial conquerors kept the religion that inspired such brutality.

At first, Punu seemed to be nothing but dirty streets filled with fried chicken places (pollerias), but while looking for a restaurant not centered around fried food, I stumbled across the city square and surrounding pedestrian mall. You’d have thought the area was settled by Italians given the dearth of places offering pizza and pasta. I felt compelled to indulge when one of the solicitors out front told me the lasagne was cooked in their wood fired oven.

Outside of hiking city stairs, the main attraction to Puno is access to the islands of Lake Titicaca. They vary greatly in their appearance and offerings. Intending to do it on the cheap, I looked at taking ferries to the islands of Uros and Taquile. In addition to the fares, you also had to pay admissions to each of the islands. While the price for a tour offered through my hostel seemed expensive at first, it turned out to be about the same price as doing it on my own, and it included lunch.

The shuttle picked me up early in the morning and headed to ferry dock where we were escorted onto a boat that would be ours for the day. A guide gave narration in English and Spanish despite most of the passengers being Spanish speakers. It was a good way to practice my understanding.

Our first stop was on a floating island of the Uros people. The islands are made up of reeds they gathered from the lake and literally float. It’s a bit disorienting as you step off the boat and the surface gives way to your weight as you hope the strength of the reeds is consistent throughout the island. The island is covered with huts made of the same material.

They broke us into small groups, and each tribe member took us in to see how they lived. Everything was rather primitive except the light bulb hanging by a cord from the ceiling and a TV set tucked into a corner. This explained the solar panel and satellite dish I saw earlier hidden behind the hut.

The Uros originally built these islands to escape the warring Incas, and have lived like this for thousands of years. It was really moving to see the simplicity of their lives though I couldn’t help but notice there were not many children around. The tour ended naturally, with the option to buy many of their hand made crafts, but since I was still at the beginning of a four month tour, I wasn’t keen on picking up any souvenirs.

Our next stop was a two hour boat ride from Uros. It was a nice time to get to know my fellow passengers as we sat on the roof of the boat taking in the surrounding beauty of Lake Titicaca. Again I was fortunate with the weather, hearing that yesterday’s tour experienced heavy rains and a tumultuous trip on the water.

From the moment I set foot upon it, the island of Taquile remind me of the Italian coastline. It had a hot, dry Mediterranean climate, and terraced fields climbed the hillsides punctuated by farmhouses. There was a single stone path that crossed over the island with the town center being at the apex of the hill. From the top we gazed out over the cascading farms, and I wasn’t alone among my group to make the comparison to Italy. An Italian woman commented that it reminded her of Tuscany.

We descended about halfway to the port on the other side of the island where our boat was to meet us, and our guide led us under a covered patio where we were invited to sit at long picnic tables. Under the warm Andean sun, we enjoyed a meal of freshly cooked trout with potatoes and rice. Not unlike Italians and their pasta, people of the Andes love their their starches.

A gentle breeze caused the tarp above our heads to wave, and I looked up, for a moment seeing the shape of wind. It was a place I could spend a week, but I had only booked a day tour so I joined the rest of our group as we gingerly walked the steps down to the harbor.

You can actually make reservations to stay overnight on either of the islands. The Italian woman from our group made reservations to do so, and we dropped her off on Uros as we passed by it again on our return trip. I guess it makes sense that she chose the floating island as opposed to the one representing a place of which she was already familiar.

When we returned to Puno, I had the shuttle driver drop me off at the bus terminal so that I could purchase the bus ticket for the next leg of my journey to Chile. I had originally planned two other options. One was to go to Bolivia and the other to go to Arequipa in Peru. I’d had about enough of Peru on this visit, and since a fellow traveler said Arequipa was not worth going out of my way for, I decided to skip it. Sure I’d miss Colca canyon, but having browsed photos of it online, I realized it would offer nothing I hadn’t already seen in other parts of the world.

As you may remember from before, Arequipa was part of my back up plan if I couldn’t get into Bolivia, which was my first choice. I discovered that Bolivia has special visa requirements for US citizens that no other country is subject to. They call this policy reciprocity, and it is intended to make getting a Bolivian visa for Americans as difficult as America makes it for everyone else.

They’ve done a great job in mimicking our process. American citizens are required to provide:

• A valid passport
• 2 color passport photos for each person
• 2 color copies of your passport
• 2 color copies of credit card (back and front)
• Complete itinerary with hotel information, translated into Spanish.
• Evidence of your departure flight/bus ticket info.
• Bolivian currency
• Evidence of Yellow Fever vaccinations

We are also charged $160, which is three times what every other country pays to enter Bolivia. I’m surprised they charge anything at all, once they have full access to your credit.

While some of the requirements were easily fulfilled, others, like having a paid ticket out of Bolivia were relatively impossible since I had no idea when I’d be leaving, and even when I did, I planned to do so by 4×4 tour from Bolivia to Chile, and there was no way to purchase that before I got to Bolivia.

Even with all your paperwork in order, I’d heard from other Americans who’d done it, that Bolivina customs try to find any small way you haven’t met the requirements, and even when you have, it seems common that they make you wait from 1-3 hours while everyone else waltzes through. This is a problem when you are traveling by bus as it does not wait for those having issues at the border. One guy told me they made him wait for 2 hours while they watched anime videos on Youtube.

This is a real shame given that the few Americans who travel are apt to bring back good stories of Bolivia, and we are happy to spend our money doing something unique, like the 4 day desert trip I had planned. In the end, I decided the hassle not to be worth it, and I spent the $500 I would have spent in Bolivia in Chile instead.

Departing for Chile the next morning marked the end of my travel along the gringo trail in Peru. While it wasn’t one of my favorite visits, I really enjoyed the beach at Paracas and exploring the neighborhoods of Cusco. My advice to those going: spend as little time as possible in Lima and plan ahead to take advantage of the cheap airfare as opposed to long overnight bus trips through winding mountain roads.