Peru trip - 6th June to 21st June 2026.
Why visit Peru?
Machu Picchu. Famous with very nice photos enough to pique an interest. First visit to South America. Peru is a four letter word country :) A new country, culture, language, world. A developing country - so always fascinating to see how other developing nations are doing the same things like we have done.
Peru Plan
Kanishka did most of the planning this time. At a high level, the idea was to spend -
Cusco - 5 days
Puerto Maldonado - 4 days
Lima - 4 days.
Cusco is the base to visit Machu Picchu. It was also the headquarter of the Incans which ruled over five countries (Peru, Bolivia, Equador, Chile, Argentina) about five hundred years ago. Kanishka figured out that there is a part of Peru that overlaps with Amazon rain forest. There were two options - Iquitos or Puerto Maldonado. I think it was flight connectivity that led us to pick PEM. Lima being the capital - we decided to have sometime there to explore museums etc.
Our original plan was to do Peru in Dec-end but I pulled a back muscle. So, we shifted the entire trip to June during Kanishka and my birthday week.
What stood out in Peru -
- Language and lack of vegetarian options - At the Lima airport, on day 1, we tried to get some vegetarian food. Now, typically, at capital-city airports, by now I expect folks in the hospitality industry to be able to speak English. But, it was not the case here. Staff were all Spanish, the menu options were all Spanish and there were not too many veg options.
- This kind of thing made sense in Japan where most of the tourists are domestic. But here in Lima, this was surprising. I will later learn that this is largely because the number of Spanish knowing tourists is very high. We saw a lot of toursis from Brazil, Spain and US. Many folks from US know Spanish as their 2nd or 3rd language.
- In Lima, Cusco and other places, we found a lot of veg/vegan options but at the airport, it was a struggle.
- Crime and democracy in Peru - As you start to research more about the country, more so, beyond the tourism angle, you get to know different things. In this case, we learnt that Peru has had 10 presidents in last 10 years. Their government instability/corruption is well known. Not only that, in Lima there are only limited localities where tourists can stay - Miraflores and Barranco being the most common. In these two areas, there are upscale malls, good parks, shooping and food options and are (relatively) crime-free but there are many parts of Lima which are No-no for tourists.
- Interestingly, the day we landed, the next day there were elections. At the airport I saw a TGIF and I thought I will try their famous local cocktail - Pisco Sour. But TGIF said that due to elections, they are not selling alcohol. This instantly reminded me of India :)
- Cusco and Puerto Maldonado were all safe and we even walked at night in Cusco and it was all good.
- Toilet Paper - It took me a while to accept this but in Peru, either there are no toilet paper in toilets or even if there are toilet paper, you are not allowed to flush them. It has got to do with their plumbing - their pipes are not large enough or something. You take the paper tissue from outside, wipe your ass and throw this in the trash can. Good news is that all rest-rooms had trash cans.
- Now, this is bizarre to me that why they have not fixed this so far. Or if plumbing is an issue, then why not have water jets like we have in India.
- Even at international airports, the restrooms had this issue. Typically, one would expect that airports will be taken care of correctly.
- Mangoes at Peru - we were delighted to see mangoes in Peru. But interestingly, June is their winter and their summer are in Nov/December when the tree bear fruits. Peru being in Southern hemisphere, the weather patterns are opposite ours.
- Spanish language - It was interesting to see that Spanish was the most spoken language, even in jungles and remote places. Their native language - Quechua is lesser spoken than Spanish. Our guide and driver were from jungle (in Peru instead of saying that we are from village, to talk about their remoteness, they would say that they are from jungle) and their first language was Spanish.
- Even buildings - at Lima, most of the Spanish constructed buildings are now the parliament and key houses.
- I didn't see any hostility to the Spanish conquest even in museums or walking tours.
- Plaza de Armas - Every town / city in Peru had a plaza located right at the centre of the place. Plaza de armas actually means place to store weapons. But today, Plaza de Armas means a nice open space with posh restaurants or shopping outlets at its circumference. The open space is used for cultural programs and a great hangout place. We saw this in Cusco, Puerto Maldonado, in Lima. Liked the concept of plaza in general.
