Peru in September

Hi JJoplin (might that be for Janis Joplin?),,,

Well I'd recommend you to go to Puno, the highest city in South America and from there reach Bolivia, you just cross the Titicaca, however watch out with the company you get to have it's not that save for a girl by herself. However what I would recommend you the most is to go either to Puerto Maldonado (tambopata or Manu natural reserve) or to Iquitos in the amazon jungle. From Lima by a cheap bus you could also go to Huaraz at the Cordillera Blanca (White Mountain chain)... it's like a point for x-sports.

Good trip.

Hi, I travelled in Peru twice. First time for 3 months in 1997-1998 with a female travelmate. Second time for 3 weeks in 2006, solo.

Itinerary suggestion:

Lima
Pisco Islas Ballestas: sea lions, penguins, pelicans
(maybe Ica: surfing the sand dunes)
Arequipa, beautiful colonial city (said to be the most beautiful of Peru), lovely monastery, see pictures on my travel website (Peru 1997-1998). Good place to get used to the altitude (+2500 meters).
Colca Canyon: condors with 3 meter wingspan, traditional towns, hot spring you can bathe in
Puno (+3800 meters): good base for trips to islands in Peruvian half of Lake Titicaca
Cusco (3360 meters): take a few days of rest before the inca Trail
do Inca Trail (I'm assuming you've already booked it? It gets filled up months ahead of time)
Fly direct to Lima or bus through Ayacucho back to Lima

This won't leave you time for Bolivia but I believe Bolivia is worth a whole other holiday, it has so much to offer. But so does Peru. So I say, focus on Peru this time around. Saves you the hassle and dangers of the border crossing.

Safety tips are on my travel website (link in my signature), under Travel.

I also suggest you buy a guidebook and do some more research yourself. Itinerary suggestions can help but this one I mentioned is probably in the Lonely Planet guidebook under their itinerary suggestions as well.... and you have your own preferences and tastes, right? You may not be into monasteries or islands or big birds....

Suerte,
Cecilia

<blockquote>Quote
<hr>Any ideas on itineraries will be appreciated<hr></blockquote>
No problem. One idea would be for you to do some basic research, perhaps even read a book or two, so as to get at least some idea about the country you're planning to visit.

Do you also need ideas about what color socks to wear, or how many pairs of underwear to pack?

My husband and I traveled mid-May for two weeks.

We enjoyed our tour in the jungle, we stayed with Cumaceba lodge
two days in Cusco to adjust to altitude, we took diamox to help speed acclimation and it definitely helped
I would recommend a tour if you want to do the Sacred Valley in one day, it was just too much to get to by bus, plus for places like Salinas or Moray, there's no direct bus, so a tour is worthwhile. We tried to do it by ourselves and we missed out on a lot.
The ruins near Cusco (Tambomachay, etc) are reachable by taxi, or if you have energy you can walk out there. We took a taxi and he waited while we explored the ruins, we ended up paying him s/35 for it, which was really reasonable and we didn't have to deal with being part of a tour
We really liked our hostel, Loki - I would recommend it, very comfy and good staff, they'll send your laundry out and add it to your bill, they have a bar and is a nice place in general
Make sure to take plenty of cash on the trail. The hot showers are s/5. The porters work really hard, so they deserve a good tip. We got peer pressured into doing Wayna Picchu after Machu Picchu, make sure to go early, they limit it to 400 people a day and won't let anyone in after 1 (I think it's 1 anyway)
We paid to have porters on day 2 and 3 after carrying our packs on day 1, which was hard. Day 2 and 3 are hard enough without the weight. Day 4 was easy enough to just carry your own. I think the baggage check is s/3 - can't remember because my husband paid
The food was great on the trail - they really take care of you. If you haven't booked yet, you need to asap. we went with Inca Peru trek (www.inca-trail.com.pe) our guide, Alvaro, was fantastic
We took the 10 pm bus from Cusco to Puno the same day we got back from the trail. We went with San Luis, which was an awful ride. If you're doing overnight, spend the extra money to go on cruz del sur - worth the extra money. If you can, book directly with the bus companies directly to avoid a s/10 commision to the ticket brokering companies, or even people who take you to the counters.
Lake Titcaca is a miss for me. The uros were completely touristy and even Taquile was very bland. I think if you want to see Lake T, you should really take the time to do an eco-tour or go through from the Bolivia side, which I've heard is much nicer.
We rode on Julsa, which was more comfortable, but an hour and a half late in arriving
We enjoyed Arequipa, we relaxed alot. It was very lovely. Our Colca Canyon tour was a little too topical for me to enjoy it, I think a little more trekking, with a 3 day trek would have been a better experience than the two day tour we took. Make sure to take plenty of cash, there aren't any atm's once you leave Arequipa.
Nazca was cool enough. We took the Cruz bus to Nazca, they actually arrived early, so we headed to Alegria hotel (directly across from the bus station) and got a room for a discount because we had a flight with them in the morning. The flight was really intersting, I enjoyed it. If you have time, you can stop in Ica and some of the areas as you travel north, which I wanted to do, but we didn't have alot of time, we took a bus directly to Lima. I really enjoyed Lima. We stayed at Loki there as well (I would definitely recommend). We splurged on ceviche at Segundo Mueller in San Isidro, very very tasty - but the waiters don't seem to know alot of English and while we know a decent amount of Spanish, we had a hard time ordering there, but the food was fantastic. our bill came out to be s/80, so it was a big splurge.

While you're there you have to try the Inca Kola, I have a serious addiction to the stuff, it's rather rude to be cut off now that I'm back stateside.
A very successful trip in general. We had a lot of fun. Just take time to take it all in.

the southern gringo loop takes about three weeks. Since you have 2.5, you'll be flying twice. Skip nazca and fly from lima to arequipa. Go to punon and titicaca, go to cuzco, fly back. Much diversion, many things to see, great nature & culture. Don't try bolivia - keep it for the next trip.

thanks, everyone.
(alesimons.. yes, its for janis joplin)

i like her version of 'freedom's just another word for nothin' left to lose :) '