We went to Peru in 2003 with Thomas Cook holidays. It was a package holiday, but given the variety of desitnations available in peru it offered the most hassle free way of gettign around and getting to see everything.
Having never been abroad before I found the package hoiday deal most helpful. We got picked up at the house and dropped at heathrow to a waiting tour guide who told us where to go and what to do. This tour guide was then with us through the trip and sorted us all out speedily and efficiently even when the planes were delayed due to powercuts. Where I might have got stressed out in an airport due to delays and scedules we simply sat back and relaxed and let the guide deal with it all. Most gratifying.
The holiday was half board, with only a few days (about 5 out of 17) where we had to find our own food.
As for the tour itself I honestly think we covered everything. We started in Lima - which I have to say is a bit of a cess pit and if you are touring alone I wouldn't reccomend it. It obviously has it's highlights, and we were taken around these by bus, but we stayed in the upper class end of town and it was definately a dive! One to miss, even if you miss a few interesting cathedrals and museums.
The we were taken to Iquitos and Ceiba Tops, a resort in the Amazon where we were escorted on a guided tour around teh jungle, fished for pirhana's, did a night walk (eek! Bitten badly by red ants and came close to several tarantulas!), did some early mornign bird spotting, and visited a real native village. While there were were also given a demonstration of dancing and music, and of course if we tired of everythign there was always the small outdoor pool to relax in.
Form Iquitos we were driven by bus to paracas the holiday resort of most lima-arieans. again a bit of a cess pit, not helped by the fish meal plant only a wind away from the resort, which was cold and breakfast was appauling. It was the highest star hotel available, but still was poor. The only attratcion in paracas was the islands just off teh coast which were a nature reserve inhabited by humbolt penguins and a huge colony of sealions, so despite the poor accomodation it was worth it.
From Paracas we drove to Nazca (yes the lines!) Along a very scary route in the mist with a bus driver who never went slow even with a sharp drop to the ocean only inches away! Some of us took the opportunity to fly over the lines, which we did not (husband is terrified of flying so smaller aircraft were not a good idea - the big ones to get there were bad enough!) so we only saw the lines from the observation tower. From the reports I had from those who went up the lines still needed pointing out and the aircraft ride was... "exhilarating" would be the polite way of putting it. (so probably just as well we gave that one a miss!) However if you do plan to go, you'll only see the lines from the air, so it's worth paying the extra to go.
From Nasca we did another long drive to Arequipa taking in some cochneal beetles on the way - did you know they came from peru? I didn't. Arequipa was amazing, after a drive down teh east coast which is mainly desert and looks rather like a luna landscape with the odd starwars style shanty hut thrown in, Arequipa was the first hint of real greenery we had seen since the amazon. The city was prestine and the air wonderful. Behind the city was a volvano - the misty volano, which is due to erupt any day and earthquakes are common, though I'm pleased to say there were none while we were there. A huge craft market, nice hotel, lovely places to eat and a bit of free time. Arequipa is one of te deinfates of anybodies trip. It also has the distinct advantage that it is a slow increase in altitude, so as a stop over on route to the highest point of our trip I'm sure it help most of us acclimatise.
From Arequipa we flew to Cuzco and took in several ruins, sacsaywoman (not spelt right I'm sure) and Ollanytamo (again miss spelt), an inca temple, a craft market or two, had some free time and also did an over night from cuzco to macchu picchu.
Micchu Piccu was reached by train from cusco - we only did one switch back so we could have a lie in and the bus took us to the other side of the hill avoiding the multiple swtich backs from cusco. Being on a mountain in the middle of a temporate rain forest it was very cold at the bottom and warmed up at teh top throughout the day so you had to strip off. The site was magnificent, the hotel mediocre and the town of aguas callentes where we stayed at the bottom, intreguing if shabby. But the humming birds which flew around you wild were worth the saty at the bottom and the drive to the top of the mountain by bus was terrifying!!!! We had a knowledgeable guide all around the site and then the next day did a short section of the inca trail before we returned home by train (with an interesting fashion parade of knitwear conducted on route by two very embaressed looking stewards!)
Back in Cusco we had another night with a bit more free time before we boarded a train, not dissimilar to the orient express and train journeyed to Puno, the location of lake titticaca. The train journey was silver service with an observation car and bar on board. Proper armchairs and a stop at teh highest point only a few hundred feet below the snowline, it made for an interesting day.
the next day we did a tour of the lake visiting some reed island dwellers then a tour of the local farmland, funery towers and then back to lima via arequipa for a short overnight before returnign home.
The tour was 17 days in total and began and ended at your own front door - wow! The guides were knowledgable and friendly. The peruvians themselves, were wonderful. Their main industry is tourism and so it was in everyones interest to be curteous. Many spoke a smattering of english so with our spanish conversational dictionary we were able to get by.
Currency exchange was good, though it turned out most people perferred dollars if you had them (though you could get had by paying more this way!)
Food was of good quality, and the guides would give us advise on where to eat when we were buying for ourselves. Obviously you have to take the usual precautions of bottled water adn avoiding fresh salad (as it was washed in dodgy water) but with that most got by without diahorreoa. altitude sickness claimed a few people, even with ready supplies of coco tea (some sort of cocaine derivative that they recommended you didn't try and fly home with). I have to say we managed fine.
If you had to have a once in a lifetime trip than this is it. We saved up as we had to go in the peak season due to my husbands work as a teacher, but even then it was value for money. What a trip and what a lot of memories we took home as well as over 400 pictures!!
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