Donald Duck in Lake Titicaca

Homer Simpson and Indiana Jones are not the only "celebrities" who have came to Peru. About 50 years ago, Donald Duck also visited this land. The most famous duck of the world came to Lake Titicaca (located between the borders of Peru and Bolivia) and had some funny adventures there.

Donald didnt know that "Soroche" (another name for altitude sickness) could be a serious problem in Puno, the Peruvian city on the shore of the lake. He learned how to ride a llama and met the locals. Donald, as every tourist who visits Lake Titicaca, had a great time at the highest navigable lake in the world.

Enjoy this Disney's video

Entrance tickets for Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu (taken from chimuadventures.com.au)

You just get out of the bus after a15 minutes drive. You just came straight Machu Picchu from Aguas Calientes. You feel so excited cause you are going to visit one of the World’s Wonders. You make the queue in the entrance and suddenly you cant get into the citadel and they send you back to the town. What happened? You silly didn’t buy your entrance ticket in Aguas Calientes. Yes, you cant buy your entrance tickets in the entrance. What irony…

To avoid this problem, its better you get your entrance tickets for Machu Picchu in the town, in Aguas Calientes. You can also buy it in Cusco, in INC (Culture National Institute) local. And when you go to the office, be sure you have enough “soles” cause they don’t accept dollars, nor credit cards (sometimes they don’t even have change!!).

The Gate of Machu Picchu

The fees are different if you are Peruvian than if you are foreigner. If you are Peruvian AND show your ID, you will pay S/. 63.00 soles. If you are foreigner, you will pay S/. 124.00 soles. But if you are under 26 years old AND you have (and show) the ISIC card in the office, you just pay S/. 62.00 soles. Are you under 26 and you don’t have ISIC card? What are you waiting for? Go and apply for it!!

Fees (taken from INC Cusco website) :

• Foreigner Adult : S/. 124.00 soles (US$ 41.00 aprox.)
• Foreigner Student : S/. 62.00 soles (only if you show your ISIC card)
• Peruvian Adult : S/. 63.00 soles (DO NOT forget your DNI)
• Peruvian Student : S/. 31.00 soles (show some identification)

Machu Picchu entrance

If you are traveling with a tour agency, its sure you don’t have to be worried for the tickets; they would have arranged everything. But if you travel by your own, you have to go to Machu Picchu Cultural Center, next to “Indio Feliz” (a wonderful restaurant by the way, great website too) placed at Main Square of Aguas Calientes. In Cusco you can buy the tickets in INC Cusco office, at San Bernardo Street, few blocks from Plaza de Armas de Cusco.

Machu Picchu Cultural Center opens at 5:15 AM and it closes at 7:00 PM. I repeat, take the EXACT CHANGE. The workers there are that nice that even if they have change, they wont be bothered to give it to you. They will just say (not even in a kind way) to go out and get the exact sum by yourself. Again, remember, JUST SOLES, no dollars.

Another view of Machu Picchu

The tickets are valid just for three days from the day of purchase, but its valid just for one admission. You cant get into Machu Picchu at the morning, go out for lunch and then come back into the citadel again at afternoon. You would need to buy a new ticket for that second entrance.

The citadel of Machu Picchu (the ruins) opens at 6:00 AM and stays open until 6:00 PM. Be sure to take just small bags with you; avoid big bags, if not you would be forced to leave them at the luggage store close to the entrance (and pay US$ 1.50 per each piece).

Walking in Machu Picchu (taken from perucusitours.com)

Let’s make a summary of this info. FAQ about Machu Picchu:

Where do you buy the entrance tickets to Machu Picchu?

• In Aguas Calientes: Machu Picchu Cultural Center (10 meters away from Main Square)
• In Cusco: San Bernardo Street s/n (some blocks away from Main Square).

How much doest the entrance ticket for Machu Picchu cost?

• Foreigner Adult : S/. 124.00 soles
• Foreigner Student : S/. 62.00 soles
• Peruvian Adult : S/. 63.00 soles
• Peruvian Student : S/. 31.00 soles

How long is the entrance ticket for Machu Picchu valid?

• Its valid just for one admission and for 3 days for the day on purchase

When can I buy the tickets?

• In Aguas Calientes everyday; the Machu Picchu Cultural Center opens from 5:15 AM until 7:00 PM.

Can I pay the entrance tickets with a credit card?

• No, the payment is only in SOLES.

Is there an additional tax for entry to Machu Picchu?

• No, everything is included in the entrance ticket price.

At what time can I enter to the citadel of Machu Picchu?

• Machu Picchu opens at 6:00 AM and you can stay there until 6:00 PM

Even Homer wants to come to Machu Picchu!!! (taken from lanuez.blogspot.com)

One day in Lima, what to do?

Lima Main Square - Plaza de Armas (pic of www.destination360.com)

First of all, Lima is a very nice city with a lot of attractions. One day will not be enough to enjoy it. If you have just only one day (because you are in transit or just have some hours), it would be a good idea that you use the following tips.

If I have to spend one day in Lima, I would follow more or less this itinerary:

• 9.30 – 11.00: Larco Herrera Museum.
  
  
• 11.00 –13.00: Historical Center (Plaza San Martin, Plaza de Armas, San Francisco Church)
  
  
• 13.00 – 15.00: Lunch in some Miraflores Restaurant
  
  
• 15.00 – 18.00: Barranco, Miraflores, Larcomar
  
  
• 18.00 – 20.00: Magical Fountains Park (only from Wednesday to Sunday)
  
  
• 20.00 – 22.30: Dinner

You could start your tour visiting Larco Herrera museum. This museum has a lot of pre-Columbian art, including a big erotic ceramic gallery. It is located about 20 minutes from airport (and also from Miraflores). It opens everyday (including Sundays and holidays) from 9:00 am to 6:00 pm; it has a nice cafeteria. The entrance ticket to the museum costs around US$ 10.00 and a complete tour could last 2 hours.

Larco Herrera museum (pic of www.s-church.net)

Lima Historical Center is an obligatory stop when you visit this wonderful city. Start in Plaza San Martin and then walk to the Main Square (“Plaza de Armas”) through the pedestrian street “Jiron de la Union”. In “Plaza de Armas” you will be able to see the Government Palace, the Cathedral and other magnificent buildings.

Two blocks away from “Plaza de Armas”, you will find San Francisco Church. This monastery has an art museum inside and also catacombs where visitors’ blood seems to get frozen. The complete tour lasts less than an hour and the entrance ticket to this church costs less than US$ 2.00.

Lima Main Square - Plaza de Armas in Lima

After Historical Center, it’s time to taste one of the best food of the world. Go to “La Rosa Nautica” or “Costa Verde” and enjoy Peruvian traditional Cebiche and lots of seafood with a nice view of Pacific Ocean. You can also try “El Señorio de Sulco”, another restaurant where you will eat like nowhere in the world. Do not miss the “Causa” and drink some Pisco Sour, the best Peruvian traditional drink (but do not drink it that much or you will end up dancing in the street!!). Prices for a meal in any of these restaurants are about US$ 30-40 per person.

After that spectacular meal, it’s time to walk a bit through Barranco, a bohemian district. Visiting the “Bridge of Sights” is almost obligatory stop when you go to Barranco. Then you can go to Miraflores and Larcomar, a mall with an extraordinary view of the ocean. Sunsets there are wonderful even if its winter!!

Sunset from Larcomar. La Rosa Nautica restaurant over the sea

Falling the night, the “Magical Fountains Park” (aka “Magical Water Circuit” too) is the best option. Those amazing fountains where lights and music play over water will surprise you. Entrance ticket is very cheap (about US$ 1.50), but this Park opens just from Wednesday to Sunday.

Magical Fountains Park (pic of www.viajeahorro.com)

Magical Water Circuit

Magical Water Circuit

Dinner in Lima is the perfect excuse to end a perfect day. Do it in “Brujas de Cachiche” or in "Astrid & Gaston" and you will stay in Lima forever just to taste the food again and again.

So, if you come to Peru, you have to stay at least one day in Lima. If not, that would be a sin you would regret the rest of your life. Enjoy Lima, a beautiful city with one of the best gastronomy of the world!!

Peru, live the legend…(Promotional video of Peru)

This is a spot made by the Commission for the Promotion of Peru (Promperu in Spanish). It shows something I love about Peru: that you have everything, everything the planet has to offer, a place that has it all. If you want wonderful ruins, you have Machu Picchu and Cusco. If you want beaches, you can go to beautiful northern beaches. If you want adventure on snow or climbing, you better go to Huaraz. If you want some mysticism, get a flight over Nasca lines. If you want nature, go to Amazon jungle, the largest forest of the world. Are you a fan of delicious food? Try the best gastronomy of whole America in our restaurants.

And you know what the best of all of this is??? You can do everything in any time of the year. You can go from cold Cusco’s mountains to hot Puerto Maldonado’s jungle in less than an hour…. You can go from the high snowy mountains to warm beautiful beaches in less than an hour… Don’t think it more. Come to Peru….

In a land where gods have turned into mountains

The siblings of the sun dress in gold

Scissor handed mortals dance for days on end

Pink dolphins emerge from the water

In the distance, we can see a magnificent city made entirely of mud

and ancestral figures stretch for miles across the desert

This place exists

see it

feel it

Peru, Live The Legend…

Sleeping at Lima’s Airport

Tourists sleeping in 1st floor of Lima's Airport

Sometimes you arrive to Lima late at night and you have your connecting flight very early at next morning. What to do? Well, lots of people decide to spend the night at the airport. Others, much luckier, take a room in a hotel. In fact, there is a hotel in Lima’s airport: Costa del Sol Ramada Hotel. Ramada is a 4 stars hotel that is located inside Lima’s airport. This fancy hotel would be perfect to rest those few hours between flights. The problem is that is expensive; almost US$ 200.00 per night according to its web site.

If you are not that lucky to rent a room in Costa del Sol Ramada, you have to take your luggage and get ready to sleep at airport. Once I slept at Lima’s airport. I arrived at 11:00 pm and my connecting flight departed next day at 5:00am. As far as I had to check around 3:00 am and the trip my home-airport and vice versa takes 1 hour, I decided to stay at airport and tried to sleep there. So now I am gonna give you some advices if you want to do the same.

Taking a nap at Lima's airport

• Go to second floor. First floor is more crowded and noisier.

• Try to sleep inside some coffes / restaurants if you can. Convince waiters to let you sleep in comfortable couches instead doing it on floor or in noisy food court. I slept at food court and it was not bad at all, but the cleaning service woke me up with their vacuums.

• If you don’t have problems with it, a little Chapel on second floor is highly recommended to get some rest. You can also take advantage that you are in that place and pray a bit for a safe trip (and ask for best wishes for this blogger too).

• If you can, check in early and enter to boarding area. Seats there are much more comfortable than in normal area, so comfortable that you have to set your alarm cause you could lose the plane.

• Announcements are very loudly so don’t forget your earphones. Cleaning service starts around 2:00 am too, so you could get wake up.

• Lights are intense, so you could take some night shades sleep mask with you.

• You can leave your luggage in “left luggage” area.

• Airport has very clean toilets but no showers.

• No water fountain there, but you can buy bottled water all night long.

Food Court area of Lima's airport

If you cant sleep, there is always the nice option of spending some time at internet (about US$ 2.50 per hour). You also have restaurants, coffees, shops, pharmacy, banks, money exchange, post office, internet, call center and other services, most of them 24 / 7.

How to come to Cusco by bus?

Cruz del Sur, the best bus to travel to Cusco

Going to Cusco by bus could be a problem sometimes if you don’t have the right info. There are many coaches from Lima to Cusco but not all of them offer a good service. Here I am going to mention some of the companies I myself travelled with.

You can find many buses going to Cusco from Lima. The departure time of almost all of them is between midday and 5 or 6 pm. The trip lasts around 20 hours (yes, I know…. tooooo much but it is worth it if you want something cheap), very different from going by plane (just 1 hour)

The first part of the trip is really boring. Lima – Nasca (first 6-7 hours) resembles a desert; in fact, you travel through a desert. Then you travel all night long from the coast to the mountains. I recommend taking some pills against high altitude illness just in case. When you wake up at 6-7 in the morning, you will see an extraordinary landscape around Abancay city. The nature, the mountains, the sky, everything is amazing. From Abancay to Cusco (the last 4 hours of the trip) the landscape is great.

Here I will compare the 5 different coaches that travel to Cusco.

Click the picture to enlarge it

I am gonna talk about the following enterprises: Cruz del Sur, Civa, Cial, Wari-Palomino and Flores.

1. Cruz del Sur (www.cruzdelsur.com.pe): The best bus that goes to Cusco, in my opinion. The service called “Cruzero” is really great and it departs twice a day (2pm and 5.30 pm). This bus doesn’t stop on the way and you get dinner and breakfast inside the bus. There are hostesses (kind and cute girls in almost all of the cases) who serve you as best they can. The movies shown are not bad, but if you don’t like them there is always the option of listening to your mp3 player.

In this service there are 2 floors. The first one is the best, of course. The second floor is not bad at all, but if you want your trip to be more comfortable, pay a bit more and take the first floor.

The bus tickets are expensive, but I repeat, it is really worth to pay more because of the service, comfort and security (the buses don’t stop on the way to pick up passengers and they change drivers every 4 or 6 hours). One way first floor ticket costs around US$ 54.00 and second floor like US$ 45.00 (prices of February 2009). I travelled in “Cruz del Sur” lots of times and I was always happy with my choice.

Evaluation (over 10):

• Security: 8
• Cleaning: 9
• Punctuality: 10
• Service: 8
• Comfort: 8
• Prices: 6
• Bus Station: 9

Extra info about “Cruz del Sur”

• It accepts all credit cards
• You can buy your tickets on the Internet
• Air conditioning / Heating inside the bus
• Bingo with free tickets as prize after dinner
• Bus equipped with GPS
• 2 toilets (one per floor)

Cute Argentinian passenger singing in Cruz del Sur Bingo

2. Expreso Cial (http://www.expresocial.com/). This is not a bad bus, it’s similar to Cruz del Sur but the service is not as good. Only one bus departs from Lima to Cusco daily at 1.45 pm. The prices are not low either, US$ 47.00 if you choose the first floor and US$ 38.00 if you choose the second floor.

Evaluation (over 10):

• Security: 7
• Cleaning: 7
• Punctuality: 8
• Service: 7
• Comfort: 7
• Prices: 7
• Bus Station: 8

Extra info about “Expreso Cial”

• It accepts all credit cards
• Air conditioning / Heating inside the bus

3. Civa (http://www.civa.com.pe/). In this case we have 2 different types of buses: the “economic” and the “superior”. Both of them have toilets inside the bus. Meals are not served in the “economic” bus; they stop in restaurants on the way to take dinner and to eat breakfast. This is the reason why a trip with this bus lasts a couple of hours longer than others. “Superior” service is similar to Cial and Cruz del Sur.

“Economic” costs around US$ 24.00 and “Superior” costs US$ 38 in First Floor and US$ 28.00 in Second Floor. The “Economic” bus departs at 1.30 pm and “Superior” at 4.30 pm.

Evaluation (over 10):

• Security: 5
• Cleaning: 5
• Punctuality: 5
• Service: 5
• Comfort: 6
• Prices: 8
• Bus Station: 4

Extra info about “Civa”

• It accepts all credit cards
• Air conditioning / Heating inside the bus

A puppy playing with plastic inside "Economic" service of Civa (sorry for pic quality)

4. Wari – Palomino (http://www.expresowari.com.pe/). The buses of this company depart very often. Wari – Palomino has 3 types of services: “Ideal”, “Imperial” and “Bus-Cama”. The “Ideal” service has neither toilets inside the bus as far as I know, nor meals (they stop in restaurants on the way). It costs US$ 25.00 and it departs 4 times a day (9am, 11am, 2pm and 3.30 pm). The “Imperial” service has a toilet and serves meals but the buses are not that modern and comfortable. “Imperial” costs US$ 29.00 and it departs once a day (5pm). The “Bus-Cama” has a similar service to Cruz del Sur or Cial. It departs twice a day (12.30 pm and 8pm) and costs around US$ 41.00

Evaluation (over 10):

• Security: 6
• Cleaning: 6
• Punctuality: 5
• Service: 6
• Comfort: 6
• Prices: 7
• Bus Station: 4

Extra info about “Wari – Palomino”

• It accepts all credit cards.
• Air conditioning / Heating inside the bus, apart from the “Ideal” service (this is not a joke, get a blanket if you travel in “Ideal”).
• 2 Bus Stations, the best one is in Arriolas avenue. The other one (Luna Pizarro street) is in a very dangerous place. Go to Arriola!!!

Inside Wari - Palomino

5. Flores (http://floresbuses.tripod.com/). This is a bus enterprise that I would never use or recommend. I’ve heard lots of bad stories about Flores. There are 2 types of buses that go to Cusco, “Imperial” and “Golden”. Both have toilets, air conditioning / heating and meals, but “Golden” is more comfortable than “Imperial”. That’s the reason “Golden” costs more (US$ 35.00 first floor, US$ 28.00 second floor) than “Imperial” (US$ 28.00). “Golden” departs at 4pm and “Imperial” at 6.30pm.

Evaluation (over 10):

• Security: 2
• Cleaning: 2
• Punctuality: 3
• Service: 3
• Comfort: 4
• Prices: 6
• Bus Station: 1

So if you want to go to Cusco by bus, use Cruz del Sur without doubts. If you want a real Peruvian adventure, with lots of problems and stuff, don’t hesitate (and don’t complain) and take Flores. Taking any of them, even Flores, will be worth it when you finally get to see Cusco, Machu Picchu and all the wonderful places around.