Peru Travel

Hi everyone! So I have been doing my best to keep up my travel photo of the week challenge for the past couple of months and have been mostly successful so far! Well, if you follow me on Instagram (@thephotokidd) then you would be able to see them all, blogging on the other hand is a different story! Today we are going to do something a little different and post several photos from our Peruvian adventure. A friend of mine started this amazing blog called Entouriste and asked if we wouldn’t mind sharing a few of our travel photos as well as describe a little bit of our experience. So today we are going to share with you all the inside scoop of our little adventure earlier this year. (well at least the Peru portion of it)

Peru has always been on my list of “Must See” places and I was so excited that we were able to make it there this year. I dont know if it was the amazon, Machu Picchu or the people that intrigued me the most but I knew that I would fall in love with this country as soon as I visited it and I was so right.

Here is the article we wrote for Entouriste:

After so many years of dreaming about visiting Peru, I was thrilled to finally see these dreams come to life. We started off our adventures in Peru going straight for the Amazon in the city of Puerto Maldonado. We had to take a canoe to our jungle lodge. Here we stayed at the Inkaterra Reserva property that took care of all our meals, transportation, jungle walks and night excursions. We had our very own private cabana overlooking the Amazon jungle and were situated right above the river. We were only here for a few days but the number of activities we enjoyed and animals we saw would be too difficult to list. Our highlights were walking through the tree canopy on suspension bridges a few hundred feet in the air, piranha fishing, canoeing with Caymans, the occasional torrential downpour and trekking through the Amazon jungle at night. It was quite an experience!

Check out our own private jungle cabana.

From the jungle we went straight into Cusco where we enjoyed the city for a while. With old colonial charm and amazing food, Cusco was not hard to fall in love with. After getting acclimated to the altitude (the best we could), we headed straight toward the Sacred Valley by taking a train up to Aguas Calientes, home of Machu Picchu.

As many times as I have seen pictures ofMachu Picchu, nothing prepared me for the awesomeness of watching it slowly appear out of the clouds at sunrise. This was one of the most magnificent sites I have ever seen. We spent a full day, from before sunrise to sunset, exploring the ruins and trekking along the Inca trail. The view from The Sun Gate is also an awesome perspective to see Machu Picchu and Huayna Picchu in relation to the rest of the Andes. We spent hours and hours hiking and exploring different parts of the ruins. I can’t imagine the amount of effort it took to construct this masterpiece.

After Machu Picchu we eventually made our way to Lima where, being from Southern California, we felt like we were in a familiar place. With cool and mild temperatures, long boardwalks along the coasts and surfers galore, we felt right at home. We enjoyed spending the rest of our time strolling along the coast watching paragliders and surfers ride until sunset as we transitioned mentally to head back to the States.

After learning that many people claim that Lima has the best ceviche in the world I knew I had to try some. After doing a little online research
and asking locals where the best ceviche restaurant was, we were pointed to a place called La Mar Cebicheria. This spot certainly lived
up to its highly esteemed reputation. I tried a sampler of five different kinds and was blown away by all of them! We felt that it was a perfect  way to end our Peruvian adventure.

For any of you who are planning to visit Peru here are a few Peru Travel Tips:

1. Make sure you bring plenty of sunscreen. You are at a really high altitude in Cuzco and Aguas Calientes and therefore the air is really thin and can get really burned even on a very overcast day. Even for an already tan Southern California boy – I know from personal experience
2. Make sure you get acclimated to the altitude before hiking Maccu Picchu – It is really easy to get altitude sickness and I learned that it is even easier for young males – again I know from personal experience. 🙁
3. Make sure you bring plenty of hand sanitizer. It is really easy to pick up a parasite even from just handling money – again..I know from personal experience. Darn you Amoeba Histolytica!

Other then that I think you are good to go! Have fun and be safe. Happy Travels!