The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Travel
See the best of Peru on an exciting two-week adventure
From Lima’s gastronomy to Machu Picchu, Chris Moss suggests the ideal way to tackle this South American behemoth
The launch of a new direct flight between London and Lima by Latam, South America’s largest carrier, significantly reduces travelling time to one of the world’s most captivating destinations. Board the 10.30pm departure at Heathrow and you’ll touch down in the Peruvian capital at 6.30 the following morning, perfect for a lazy first day enjoying art museums and architecture in the smart residential suburbs of Miraflores and Barranco.
Lima was the capital of Spain’s American empire and Peru, formerly the heartland of the Inca, was its power base. Today, the country is the region’s most enthralling combination of old and new, indigenous and European,
human and natural, cultural highlights and geographical wonders.
The talking point for first-time visitors is still Machu Picchu, and the surrounding Sacred Valley and Cuzco come in as close seconds. Another topclass experience for many tourists is Lima’s gastronomy. Firmly established as one of the globe’s most compelling fusion cuisines, Peruvian food takes ideas and ingredients from the Andes, Amazon and Pacific coast, as well as from Spanish traditions, and Chinese and Japanese immigrants.
What is arguably over-marketed in Peru is far less than what is undersold. The country’s Amazon region spans the country and is accessible at three different entry points: Iquitos is the classic port city, ideal for a Fitzcarraldo-style river voyage; Tambopata’s teeming wildlife is best seen on day trips from riverside lodges; Chachapoyas is the least-explored region, and boasts the dramatic 6th-century citadel of Kuélap.
This itinerary highlights the best way to enjoy some of the classic sites on a reasonable budget; but Peru rewards multiple trips and has lots of great mid-price accommodation.
Whatever you opt for, prepare to be surprised; South America’s complex history and societies seem to be distilled in Peru, and some of the world’s friendliest folk will be on hand to show it off. Get in a round of pisco sours and you’ll soon tap into your own spirit of discovery.
DAYS 1-3 LIMA
Check in at the Hotel B, a luxurious boutique property set in a former aristos’ mansion on a lovely boulevard in the Barranco neighbourhood (hotelb.pe).
Gently work off your jetlag with a stroll around the district. Barranco and neighbouring Miraflores are well-to-do residential neighbourhoods, though the former is slightly more bohemian. There are plenty of cafés and bars, including vegan and organic snack places offering healthy brunches. Quinoa is the best-known superfood; but make sure you try amaranth too, called kiwicha in native Quechua.
Within walking distance is the MAC contemporary art museum, showcasing 20th and 21st-century Peruvian and international artists. Also nearby is the
Museo Pedro de Osma, an outstanding collection of antique furniture, silverwork and art from colonial and later periods inside a beautiful beaux-arts mansion; the gardens are also exquisite.
Eat at the hotel this evening; the Hotel B has dining in the bar, restaurant, patio and rooftop eatery, serving everything from pizzas to New Peruvian fare made using indigenous foodstuffs such as ancestral purple corn and Amazonian camu camu berry.
Walk or take a cab to the Huaca Pucllana, a huge adobe and clay pyramid that was the ceremonial and political base of the Lima Culture, which developed along the coast between the 3rd and 8th centuries. The site was heavily looted, but in 2010 four Wari mummies were found, indicating the presence of later indigenous communities in the same locality. It has a great on-site restaurant, serving specialities including chupe de camarones (shrimp soup).
Next, visit the Museo Larco, a private museum specialising in pre-Columbian artefacts, including an important collection of erotic art.
For dinner, get yourself a booking at Central, a 15-minute walk from your hotel, where husband and wife chefs Virgilio Martínez and Pía León and their talented team turn out experimental tasting menus. Reserve well in advance and, if you’re not able to, talk to the concierge for last-minute cancellations. As a back-up, taverna-style Isolina, famous for its comfort food, is equally close to Hotel B and a lively alternative.
Hop in a cab or your guide’s vehicle for the 20-30-minute drive to the downtown area. Like most historic centres in South America, Lima’s is an enthralling mess of grand churches, crumbling mansions, pockets of renovation and snarling jams of unfiltered traffic. But it is a Unesco-listed area, and it’s well worth spending an hour walking without a plan, noting the famous box balconies, ornate façades, atmospheric hallways and Spanish-style patios.
Step inside the cathedral, the Hotel Maury (where it’s claimed the pisco sour was invented) and the Casa de Aliaga, allegedly the oldest house in the city – sited on a plot of land given by Francisco Pizarro to Jerónimo de Aliaga, and still occupied by the same family 17 generations on. Entrance is $30 (£25), exclusively with a guide.
Dine at Maido in Miraflores this evening. This superb Peruvian Nikkei restaurant, helmed by Mitsuharu Tsumura, is marine-focused, featuring dishes such as octopus in olives, deepfried rockfish and crab with tapioca.
DAY 4 CUZCO
Check in early for the 70-minute morning flight to Cuzco. It’s a short taxi from the airport into the Inca’s “navel of the world” – one of the most beguiling cities in South America.
Stay at Inkaterra La Casona, a converted colonial-era mansion in the San Blas district (inkaterra.com). As you’re now at more than 11,000ft (3,353m) above sea level, let your body acclimatise and drink lots of water.
The hotel is beside the Museum of Colonial Art; it’s less than five minutes walk to the cathedral and the Plaza de Armas, site of three of the city’s most important churches. It’s worth employing a guide to help you explore the Inca temple known as the Coricancha, upon which the church of Santo Domingo was constructed, and to navigate the Inca walls and main churches.
The same applies to the site of Sacsayhuaman, two miles north of Cuzco and, in its way, as impressive as Machu Picchu. Massive stones, some over 30ft tall, were used to build walled terraces, ritual spaces and fortifications.
Have an evening meal at Chicha, a fusion restaurant owned by Gastón Acurio, arguably Peru’s most lauded chef.
DAYS 5 & 6 URUBAMBA
The Valley of the Río Urubamba, a headwater of the Amazon, is known as the Sacred Valley along the section linking Machu Picchu to Pisac. While the Inca religion once prospered here, the name is really a tourist-board moniker.
Check in at Sol y Luna in the town of Urubamba (hotelsolyluna.com), a Relais & Chateaux resort is set in lush gardens, with two excellent restau
man-style train has stylish cabins in carefully restored carriages, and elegant dining cars. The 12-hour journey crosses the Altiplano, the high-altitude plain that stretches from here to the Atacama desert and northern Argentina. It’s flat, vast and barren-looking, but never boring. Since pre-Inca times, indigenous farmers have successfully developed agriculture on the plain and there are villages dotted in the most remote corners. The journey takes in the impressive La Raya mountain range, arriving late in Puno, where you spend the night on board.
DAY 9
After breakfast, transfer to Titilaka, a luxurious resort just half an hour from Puno at a much quieter lakeside location (titilaka.pe). After check in, cross the lake on a private excursion to see the Uros floating islands, constructed
junco reeds, and the island of Taquile – famed for its textile weavers.
The hotel restaurant, overseen by Peruvian chef María Fé García, is the best on the lake. Try the trout dishes – the fish is farmed on Titicaca, or the delicious anticuchos (kebabs).
DAYS 10-13
Transfer to Juliaca airport for the flight to Lima and on to Iquitos, a steamily hot tropical city, not connected by road to the rest of Peru.
Get a beer or a fruit juice on the Plaza de Armas, the main square. Check out the Casa de Fierro (Iron House) on the south-east corner, designed by Gustave Eiffel, prefabricated in Belgium and shipped here on the river you’re about to explore.
The four-night trip to the Pacaya Samiria national reserve in northern Peru has to be one of the most memorable river cruises on the planet. The Delfin III has space for just 44 guests, so it’s always quiet enough on deck to soak up the jungle views (delfinamazoncruises.com). The embarkation port, Nauta, is only 60 miles south of Iquitos, but once the ship pulls away you’re plunged into the magical, mysterious world of the upper Amazon. The mouth, at Belém in Brazil, is 1,864 miles away, 18 days’ voyaging by modern ship, though it took the conquistador Francisco de Orellana six months to cover the distance in a brigantine.
Your ship has beautifully appointed suites with floor-to-ceiling windows and the onboard cuisine is world class. But the reason you have come all this way is to see the Marañon and Ucayali rivers that feed the Amazon. A canopy walk on day one and a trail walk the following day allow you to see the forest up close, and there are optional excursions including kayaking in creeks, swimming with pink river dolphins, fishing for piranhas at sunset, birdwatching and visits to local communities and to a river mammal rehab centre.
The Pacaya Samiria national reserve is, at five million acres, Peru’s second largest and the world’s largest protected flooded forest. It’s a biodiversity hotspot, with large numbers of fish, reptiles, amphibians, birds and mammals. Signature species include the Amazonian manatee, red-faced spider monkey, South American tapir, puma and jaguar, giant otter, coati and capybara. Standout birds, of the 449 recorded, include the blue-and-yellow macaw, hoatzin, collared hawk, chestnut-eared aracari, cocoi heron, jabiru stork and horned screamer.
DAY 14
Fly home via Lima and London.