Linked to the outside world by air and by river, Iquitos is the world’s largest city that cannot be reached by road. It has a unique personality: friendly, noisy, sassy and slightly manic. Travelers come here for an excursion into the rainforest or a river trip along the Amazon, but they often stay a few days to relish this remote jungle capital of the huge department of Loreto.
Peru’s southern coastal desert is refreshed by palm oases and spanned by a ribbon of pavement, the Carretera Panamericana (Pan-American Hwy), which slices all the way through the country from Ecuador to Chile. It’s the best overland route to Arequipa, Lake Titicaca and of course, Cuzco. Yes, you guessed it: this is the start of Peru’s well-beaten Gringo Trail.
The 100km-long Cañón del Colca is set among high volcanoes (6613m-high Coropuna and 6310m-high Ampato are the tallest) and ranges from 1000m to more than 3000m in depth. For years there was raging controversy over whether or not this was the world’s deepest canyon at 3191m, but recently it ranked a close second to neighboring Cañón del Cotahuasi, which is just over 150m deeper. Amazingly, both canyons are more than twice as deep as the Grand Canyon in the USA.
At the crossroads of the mighty Andes and Peru’s windswept altiplano (Andean plateau) grasslands, fertile Lake Titicaca was a cradle for Peru’s ancient civilizations. Settled life began here in 200 BC with the Pukara culture, which erected huge pyramids and monuments. A millennium later, the influential Tiahuanaco culture spread into Bolivia. Warlike tribes such as the Collas and Aymaras arose shortly thereafter, only to be violently shoved aside by the Inca empire. Hot on the heels of the Inca warriors were Spanish conquistadors, who came lusting for mineral riches to be wrested from the bowels of the earth.
The road to Bolivia via Lake Titicaca’s southern shore passes through several bucolic villages, notable for their myriad colonial churches, busy market days and stunning views. Traveling this route is an easy way to get a relatively untouristed peek at the region’s traditional culture. If you start early enough, you can visit all of the following south-shore towns in a day and either be back in Puno by nightfall or continue onward to Bolivia.
While most travelers to Peru will make a beeline for either Cuzco or the Amazon Basin, the truly curious, adventure spirited and time rich will take a slow, meandering and exploratory look at one of the country’s lesser-known regions – the central Peruvian Andes. While they possess no world-famous sights or ruins or even high-tech tourist centers, the central highlands do offer a glimpse of Peru at it’s most normal. This is the heartland of Andean Peru – its soul, one might say. A place where the Inca spirit lives on in an everyday way.
Millions of inhabitants crowd into Peru’s frenetic capital, giving it an edge few other South American cities have. Its shantytowns look like the developing world, yet the business districts and promenades of its seaside suburbs are Europe away from home.
At the tail end of the Panamericana, almost 1300km southeast of Lima, the hectic border outpost of Tacna is Peru’s southernmost city and the capital of its department. It is situated about 40km from the Chilean border and was occupied by Chile in 1880 after the War of the Pacific, until its people voted to return to Peru in 1929. Incidentally, Tacna has some of Peru’s best schools and hospitals; whether this is due to its Chilean ties is a matter of hotly debated opinion. The city also shows off British and French influences in its architecture and train system. Yet it remains staunchly, even defiantly patriotic. You’ll never be in doubt as to which side of the border you’re actually on.
Also known as Chachas, Chachapoyas is a laid-back town insulated by a buffer of rough unpaved roads and high-altitude cloud forests. The town was an important junction on jungle–coast trade routes until a paved road was built in the 1940s through nearby Pedro Ruíz, bypassing Chachapoyas altogether. The unlikely capital of the department of Amazonas, this pleasant colonial settlement is now a busy market town and makes an excellent base for exploring the awesome ancient ruins left behind by the fierce civilization of the Chachapoyas (‘People of the Clouds’).
For many visitors to Peru and even South America, a visit to the lost Inca city of Machu Picchu is the sweet cherry on the top of their trip. With its spectacular location, it’s the best-known archaeological site on the continent. This awe-inspiring ancient city was never revealed to the conquering Spaniards and was virtually forgotten until the early part of the 20th century. In the high season from late May until early September, the maximum limit of 2500 people arrive daily. Despite this great tourist influx, the site manages to retain its air of grandeur and mystery, and is a must for all visitors to Peru.