Our Basic Itinerary

Each trip has its own slightly different itinerary, but we all share a lot of common activities.

During our time in Lima, we will be staying in the neighborhood of Miraflores in a very nice hotel that includes breakfast every day along with hairdryers, ESPN, and alarm clocks, and a very helpful, English-speaking staff.  We either stay in the La Hacienda Best Western or the La Paz Aparthotel.  We get breakfast everyday with all of our hotels.

Some of the things we'll do in Lima include a tour of our neigborhood in Miraflores and a visit to the local Pucllana Huaca (pre-Incan ruins).  We'll also take a bus tour of the city of Lima.  In addition, some groups visit the National Archeological,  Anthropological, and History Museum.

There are several internet cafes on our street that you can use for your course projects and to keep in touch with people by email.  There is also very affordable drop-off laundry (usually done in 12 to 24 hours) in the neighborhood. The laundries usually charge about $1 to $2 (3 to 5 soles) a kilo (~ 2 pounds).

When we travel, we will stay in a variety of locally-owned hotels, including this one (below) in Ica.   It is called the Huacachinero.   It has a great pool, so don't forget to pack your swimsuit.  

         

After a couple of weeks in Lima, we fly to the historical colonia city of Arequipa in the morning.  There we'll be staying at the Case de Melgar.  After Arequipa, we head for Puno on Lake Titicaca at an altitude of 13,000 feet.  We'll spend our nights in Puno at the Quelqatani Hotel, before we head across the Alti-Plano and Andes Mountains for Cusco on a spectacular trip!  We'll be staying in Cusco at the Hotel La Residence Del Sol.  It has a great location in downtown Cusco.  Our last hotel for the trip is in Aguas Calientes, at the base of Machu Picchu, but they don't have a website.

For more weather information on Peru, click here.

For some good information, check out the Lonely Planet's website on Peru and on Lima.  Another very informative site is the Wikitravel entry on Peru.  They have lots of good information and lovely pictures.

Our area, Miraflores, is the safest neighborhood in Lima, and has all the modern conveniences of any city:  museums, beautiful historic churches, beaches, shopping, Dunkin Donuts, KFC, movie theatres, and nightclubs.  Restaurants provide the entire range of cuisine, from Peruvian specialties like cerviche (raw, marinated fish) or cuy (guinea pig) to pizza, pollo a la brasa con fritos (roasted chicken with french fries) and McDonalds.

Some very good restaurants in our neighborhood include San Antonio's, Punto Azul, and Tanta.  Peru has their own fast food restaurant called Bembos. It's pretty good!

      

There's also modern grocery stores with anything you'd want to eat, from Peruvian delicacies to Lucky Charms and Skippy peanut butter.  They also have lots of good and cheap take out like roast chicken, sandwiches, and pizza.   

Check out this map of Peru to see where we'll be going.

The first weekend, leaving Friday morning, we will travel down the Pacific Coast and see the Nazca plain, where it hasn't rained in over 500 years.  Our first stop is at the pre-Incan ruins of Pachacamac. 

We'll see the controversial Camisea Natural Gas Plant, lunch at a Pisco (brandy) winery, and tour a historic hacienda (farm) with horses.

In Ica we will see the amazing Huacachina Oasis and 5-story-tall sand dunes.  If you can snow-board, you can probably sand-board.  We'll have the opportunity to take dune buggy rides up the dunes and try boarding.

 

That weekend, we'll also see coastal fishing villages at Paracas and Pisco, and tour the famous Ballestras Islands by boat, viewing sea lions, boobies, and penguins. 

Our second week of Lima classes will include a day-long field trips to schools and lectures by Peruvian experts.  

Our extended tour includes Arequipa, Puno and Lake Titicaca, and Cucso

We will start our tour flying to the beautiful Spanish colonial city of Arequipa, located at 5000 feet at the base of the Andes Mountains and the volcano El Misti.  We will tour the city, have some free time for shopping and viewing the beautiful architecture.  The next morning, we'll visit a stunningly beautiful nunnery.

  Our group from a couple of years ago.  From Arequipa we will travel by bus to Puno on the edge of Lake Titicaca.  We'll have the first evening to acclimate to the much higher altitude.  The next day, we'll visit the market in Puno, before heading out by boat to see the amazing Uros villages built on floating islands.

      I thought they were crazy for swimming!!

On July 2, we will head for Cusco, home of the Incas.  We will travel overland by "tourist" bus -- it's great beacuse we ge to stop and take pictures, visit some historic sights, and have a picnic lunch in the Andes.

Spectacular Cusco (Cuzco) is located at 10,200 feet in the Andes Mountains.  For comparison, Denver, Colorado is at an altitude of 5280 feet.  The first day we'll acclimate and tour some of the Incan sites around Cusco, which was the ancient Incan capital city.  This is also where the best shopping on the trip is.

    and    

Click here to learn more about the Incans.  The Conquistadors rebuilt Cusco along Spanish lines, but using the Incan stones and building materials.

and

The second day we'll tour three impressive Incan sites in the Sacred Valley including Chincherro, Moras and Moray and Ollantataymbo.  At Ollantataymbo, the Incan water systems still work!  See more photos on the January and June 2004 trip pages

       

The is enormous strain on the Machu Picchu National Park, and they are trying to manage the demand for tourism the best way they can.  Currently, the 2-day Inca Trail is closed (the one that we did in June 2004), but we will try to make arrangements to hike 9 km of it (optional).   The nice thing about the trail is that we'll get spectacular views of the Andes Mountains. Read up on Machu Picchu on the UNESCO World Heritage Site.  Maybe even better is that we do all of our hiking in one day and then get to relax in comfort in Aguas Calientes, the town at the base of Machu Picchu.  The next day, we will return to Machu Picchu for a tour, more photos, and more climbing.

   and    

Read more about Machu Picchu on Wikitravel...

View of Machu Picchu and the clouds of the surrounding mountains...check out the orchids.

  and

    

We'll spend the day at Machu Picchu--its enormous with tons to see!  After a tour of the main sites, you'll be free to explore the ruins and perhaps climb the smaller peak (below right).

That evening we'll return to Cusco to enjoy a last evening of nightlife and entertainment.  After that, we fly to Lima, where we'll have one last day in Lima to prepare for our departure, see friends, eat in our favorite restaurant, and buy another suitcase for all the shopping!