Peru Travel Tips and Info

Or also check our

FAQs

Inca Trail FAQs

Inca Trail Overview

Inca Trail Packing

Peru Travel Guide

Peru Packing List

Facts for the Traveler

Visas: Most travelers do not need visas; travelers of most nationalities are granted a 90 day tourist visa. All nationalities, however, need a tourist or embarkation card (tarjeta de embarque) to enter Peru, issued at the frontiers or on the plane before landing in Lima. Should you want to extend your visa (between thirty and sixty additional days), there are two basic options: either cross one of the borders and get a new tourist card when you come back in; or go through the bureaucratic rigmarole at a Migraciones office.
Health risks: Altitude sickness is common in the highlands, but can easily be treated by taking it slow and resting, staying hydrated, and with altitude sickness pills available at any pharmacy. There are very small risks of cholera, hepatitis, and malaria in the lowlands. A yellow fever vaccination is recommended for areas east of the Andes Mountains, but not needed for Lima, Cusco, Machu Picchu, or other places along the coast or in the mountains. It is however required for travelers arriving from a yellow-fever-infected areas in Africa or the Americas.
Time: GMT/UTC minus 5 hours
Electricity: 220V, 60Hz
Weights & measures: Metric.
Traveler Safety
While pickpockets are remarkably ingenious in Peru, this country no longer deserves such a poor reputation when compared with Venezuela, Colombia and even Ecuador or Brazil. As far as violent attacks go, you're probably safer in Peru than in New York, Sydney, or London. Nevertheless muggings do happen in certain parts of Lima such as in the central main shopping areas. However, a few simple precautions can make life a lot easier. The most important is to keep your ticket, passport (and tourist card), money, and credit/debit cards on your person at all times. And as for terrorism - as the South American Explorers' Club once described it - "the visitor, when considering his safety, would be better off concentrating on how to avoid being run over in the crazed Lima traffic."
When to Go
Picking the best time to visit Peru's various regions is complicated by the country's physical characteristics. The desert coast is extremely hot and sunny between December and March (especially in the north), cooler and with a frequent hazy mist between April and November. Apart from the occasional shower over Lima it hardly ever rains in the desert. The freak exception, every ten years or so, is when the shift in ocean currents of El Niño (which last hit Peru in 1998) causes torrential downpours, devastating crops, roads and communities all along the coast.
In the Andes the seasons are more clearly marked, with rains from December to March and a relatively dry period from June to September, which, although it can be cold at night, is certainly the best time for trekking and most outward-bound activities. A similar pattern dominates much of the jungle, though rainfall there is heavier and more frequent, and it's hot and humid all year round. In the lowland rainforest areas around Iquitos water levels are higher between December and January, which offers distinct advantages for spotting wildlife.
Events
Peruvians love any excuse for a celebration and the country enjoys a huge number of religious ceremonies, festivals and local events. Carnival time (generally late Feb.) is especially lively almost everywhere in the country, with fiestas held every Sunday - a wholesale license to throw water at everyone and generally go crazy. It's worth noting that most hotel prices go up significantly at fiesta times and bus and air transport should be booked well in advance.
Calendar of major public holidays & festivals:
February Carnival - Wildly celebrated immediately prior to Lent throughout the whole country.
March/April Easter Semana Santa (Holy Week) - Superb processions all over Peru (the best are in Lambayeque, Arequipa, Cuzco and Ayacucho). Read our newsletter article about the celebration of Holy Week in Latin America.
June 24 Inti Raymi - Cusco's main Inca Festival of the Sun
July 28 - 29 Peruvian Independence Day - Public holiday with military and school processions.
August 13 - 19 Arequipa Week - Processions, firework displays, plenty of folklore, dancing, and craft markets.
September End of the month Festival of Spring - Trujillo festival involving dancing, especially the local Marinera dance.
October 18 - 28 Lord of Miracles - Festival featuring large and solemn processions (the main ones take place on October 18, 19, and 28). Read our Newsletter article about the Lord of Miracles Procession and learn how to make the associated dessert the Turrón de Doña Pepa.
November 2 Diá de los Muertos (All Souls Day).
These are just a few of the highlights. Peru celebrates some 3,000 festivals a year throughout the country. Most of them are held in homage to a patron saint, although they have blended with the magical beliefs of ancient forms of worship.
Money
Although more under control since the 1980s, devaluation is a regular occurrence, leading to two major currency switches in the past couple decades. The current Peruvian currency, the Nuevo Sol - whose symbol is S/. - is still simply called a "Sol" on the streets and has so far remained relatively steady against the US dollar.
In Lima and Cuzco (and most other cities), Euros are as acceptable as US dollars for changing into soles. In smaller cities Euros are difficult to exchange but not impossible. For changing small amounts of dollars, the street changers (cambistas) give the best rates, but take care to check their calculations and check your soles before handing over your dollars. Other options are of course banks and exchange houses (casas de cambio) which provide added discretion. Rates vary from place to place but not significantly, unless you try to change money at a hotel which charges high commission. Most banks accept American Express traveler's checks and some will accept Visa traveler's checks, although you will often receive a much lower exchange rate for traveler's checks. Many travelers find it easier to simply use a debit card as there are ATMs/ Cash Machines found in all major cities. Credit cards are also now widely accepted at major restaurants and stores, with Visa and Master Card being the most popular. Naturally street vendors and sellers in the markets don't accept credit cards, so you'll want to have some cash on hand.
A combination of taxes and service charges are added to bills in the best hotels and restaurants and can total as much as 28%. The cheaper hotels and restaurants don't add taxes. Tipping is not expected in budget restaurants, although a minimal tip is gratefully received. A tip of 10-15% is fine in upscale restaurants if a service charge has not already been added to the bill. Taxi drivers are not tipped - bargain hard beforehand and stick to your price. Local guides should be tipped US$3-5 per day. Bargaining in Peru is a way of life, people expect it, so you should not feel bad about negotiating a price (obviously keeping in mind that prices should be fair for both parties involved).
History
The first inhabitants of Peru were nomadic hunter-gatherers who lived in caves in Peru's coastal regions. The oldest known site, Pikimachay cave, dates from 12,000 BC. Crops such as cotton, beans, squash, and chili peppers were planted around 4000 BC; later, advanced cultures such as the Chavín introduced weaving, agriculture and religion to the country. Around 300 BC, the Chavín inexplicably disappeared, but over the centuries several other cultures - including the Salinar, Moche, Chimu, Nazca, Paracas Necropolis, and Wari (Huari) - became locally important. By the early 15th century, the Inca Empire had control of much of the area, even extending its influence into Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile.
Between 1526 and 1528, the Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro explored Peru's coastal regions and, drawn by the riches of the Inca empire, returned to Spain to raise money and recruit men for another expedition to the country. Return he did, marching into Cajamarca, in northern Peru, before capturing, ransoming, and executing the Inca emperor Atahualpa in 1533. Pizarro subsequently founded the city of Lima in 1535 but was assassinated six years later. The rebellion of the last Inca leader, Manco Inca, ended ingloriously with his beheading in 1572.
The next 200 years proved peaceful, with Lima becoming the major political, social and commercial center of the Andean nations. However, the exploitation of Indians by their colonial masters led to an uprising in 1780 under the self-styled Inca Tupac Amaru II. The rebellion was short-lived and most of the leaders were rounded up and executed. Peru continued to remain loyal to Spain until independence was declared in 1821. Peruvian independence, however, was not consolidated until 1824, when the country was liberated by two 'outsiders': the Venezuelan Simón Bolívar and the Argentinian José de San Martín. In 1866, Peru won a brief war with Spain but was humiliated by Chile in the War of the Pacific (1879-83), which resulted in the loss of lucrative nitrate fields in the northern Atacama Desert. Peru also went to war with Ecuador over a border dispute in 1941. The 1942 treaty of Rio de Janeiro ceded the area north of the Río Marañón to Peru but the decision was fiercely contested by Ecuador.
Cuban-inspired guerrilla uprisings in 1965 led by the National Liberation Army were unsuccessful, but a series of nationwide strikes coupled with a violent insurgency by the Maoist Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso) guerrillas caused political instability in the 1980s. Another guerilla group - the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) - also gained in strength during this time. However, the 1990 presidential election victory of Alberto Fujimori (erroneously known as El Chino ("the Chinese one") because of his Japanese parentage) over Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa, and the capture in 1992 of inspirational MRTA and Sendero Luminoso leaders buoyed hopes for a sustained period of peace.
The main threat to domestic stability remains unemployment and poverty, despite Peru's fast-growing economy. Fujimori was re-elected in April 1995, comprehensively beating former UN secretary general Javier Perez de Cuellar. A treaty was signed with Ecuador in 1998, peacefully resolving a contentious 57-year-old border dispute, paving the way for increased foreign investment in both countries. In November 1999, Peru and Chile settled their last long-standing territorial dispute over the important trade bottleneck of Arica.
The world watched the April 2000 elections intently as Alejandro Toledo, an Andean Indian from a poor family who became a World Bank economist, gave two-time President Alberto Fujimori the election run of his life. One week before the country headed to the polls for a second time, Toledo filed a formal letter with the National Election Board to further call attention to election corruption, a move that brought a response from the Organization of American States (OAS). It announced that the National Election Office needed more time to correct 'deficiencies' in the voting process. Toledo instructed his followers to write 'No To Fraud' across their ballots and ultimately withdrew from the runoff.
Fujimori emerged victorious in that controversial and rigged election. However, he resigned from his third presidential term in November and fled to Japan following charges of human rights violations and corruption that were made against his intelligence adviser, Vladimiro Montesinos.
After a brief term by provisional president, Valentin Paniagua, Alejandro Toledo was elected and served as president (2001-2006). The current constitutional president of Peru is Alan Garcia Pérez (2006-2011).