Peru

We traveled in Peru from south to north, like tourists – Arequipa (an interesting ancient city, the monastery of Santa Catalina is highly recommended), Colca Canyon (almost the deepest in the world, observation of condors), Puno and Lake Titicaca, Cusco (the city of stairs, that is built on the slopes of the surrounding mountains), the Sacred valley to Machu Picchu, the road 3S to Lima and along the coast to Ecuador (we were not thrilled by the arid coastal area of Peru and Lima so we returned to the Andes).

The landscapes in Peru are amazing and diverse, from the bald peaks of the Andes at an altitude of 5000 meters to a desert landscape along the coast. The roads we drove were of a reasonable quality, most of them paved, reasonably maintained, with sparse traffic (mainly trucks and public transportation), yet keep you alert all the time – potholes, landslides, overtaking vehicles, Irish bridges, and just animals. The amount of police, both in vehicles and on foot, is scary. Most of the time it is not clear what their role is, since they are usually not noted especially when they are trying to direct the traffic, but they are always nice both when they stop you and when they were not supposed to be nice (for example when you overtook a car on a white line, or when you rode in the city without a helmet – in all cases we were released after they recognized that we did not have a common language ). The most popular means of transportation is a rickshaw (tuktuk), in some cities you will hardly see a regular vehicle, only rickshaws of every shade and color. We discovered that two new rickshaws could be purchased in exchange for our motorcycle, we considered the issue, after all it is more spacious, but decided unanimously to continue with our Cadillac.

Almost every town/village in Peru looks like one big market that starts at the entrance and ends at the exit with all the colors and the smell and the noise, except for the central square which is always well-kept with grass and statues (and full of policemen who guard the grass) and except for the schools – in every town, even the most remote, the school is the most well-kept building, painted, preserved, and stands out from afar. The cities in our opinion are clean and you have to remember that they look like a market and are still clean (let’s say compared to Argentina or Chile), but the entrances to the cities are one big dump, the roads leading to the cities are paved with piles of garbage and smell like a dump. When we asked about the phenomenon, it turns out that there is no municipal garbage disposal in the cities, so people throw the garbage outside.

Despite what you’d be told about fish dishes, ceviche, and food diversity in Peru, the national dish is chicken with fries. In the survey we conducted in most restaurants, this is what is available (a menu for 8 sol includes a quarter of chicken, chips, salad and a drink). Although we wanted otherwise, about half of the time that is what we ended up eating and some of us are vegetarians… Oh, and there’s also grandma’s chicken soup. And amazing sabras (five huge sabras for a shekel).

The Peruvians don’t smile often, nor do they talk too much, but they are always willing to help, we never once encountered an angry Peruvian, they didn’t try to cheat us (and even if they did we haven’t noticed).

In summary – Peru is the country most reminiscent of India that we have met so far – the rickshaws, and the potholed roads, many people dressed in colors with funny hats, chaos in the electricity and telephone poles, the houses that are not entirely built and the number of policemen on the streets, but unlike India, driving on the roads is reasonable and the city centers are clean. You can even find some nice corners that remind you of Europe at its best – clean, tidy, with colonial architecture. We loved it!!!