Why glorious Peru should be on your travel wish list for 2024
Quite apart from the ancient ruins, there are many unique reasons to visit Peru ... the roadside guinea pig cuisine is just one of them.
Probably you kept guinea pigs as a child, or else your own children had some. They’re so cute, right? Would you eat one? No? What if I told you that Jesus ate one? You can in fact see a picture of Jesus and the Twelve Apostles about to tuck into a paws-up guinea pig in a version of The Last Supper painted by Marcos Zapata in 1753. It hangs in the Cathedral Basilica in the ancient city of Cusco, Peru. Everyone is always amazed. Then they find out that the painting exists because the Spanish were keen to bring the native Incas into the Catholic fold. So, don’t take it too literally.
You can, however, take it as gospel that Peruvians love to eat guinea pigs. You will find them running around in cages at markets across the country. In fine restaurants, of which Peru has many, they are mostly served whole, and often with a top hat.
I opted to eat one like the locals do, in a plastic-chair restaurant by the side of the road in Cusco. Mine had been roasting over hot coals for several hours. It was stuffed with local herbs, and the skin had just started to blister. The chef cut the head off, and served the guinea pig with potatoes. How did it taste? I’m not sure I swallowed. It felt in the mouth a bit like pork crackling. Peru is a superb place to visit to have these kinds of experiences. But of course, the first thing your friends will say when you announce your trip is, oh, are you going to Machu Picchu? Of course, this ancient mountaintop city is an excellent reason to visit Peru, but it is far from the only reason. The country is rich in art, history, cuisine, and Amazon jungle adventures. The cities have European-style town squares, and they are far less crowded (and cheaper) than Europe.
Our tour was organised by Adventure World and Prom Peru, whose mission is to promote tourism. They insist that you can actually visit Peru without seeing Machu Picchu; just tell them what you’d like to do (eat, drink, twitch, or maybe go sloth-spotting?) and they will organise it.
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Lima
Head to Venice in summer and you’ll find about 65,000 people crammed into St Mark’s Square. Why do that to yourself, when you can go to Lima? The capital has baroque churches and cobblestone streets, and you won’t feel like one of a million tourists all doing the same thing. You’ll feel like a wandering Australian in parts of Europe 30 years ago. It is safe, pretty, and friendly. The Country Club Lima Hotel is well worth a visit. Fun fact: they built the golf club across the road first, then decided they needed a club house, and now you can stay there. You’ll find the famous Bar Ingles (“English Bar”) which does a fine version of the famed Pisco Sour, a cocktail that originated in Peru. And you know the Presidential Suite must be good: Lionel Messi stayed here.
While you’re in Lima, also check out El Beso (The Kiss), a monumental sculpture of lovers locked in an embrace in Lima’s Parque del Amor (Love Park) overlooking the Pacific. It is by Peruvian artist Victor Delfin, who is now in his nineties and still quite the fox. I was lucky enough to visit his house, which is open to the public. The place oozes an appreciation for sex; one sublime tapestry had all the animals of the Ark going for it, which was fun.
The Amazon rainforest
One thing I was worried about, when it came to heading into Peru’s part of the Amazon? It was the tarantulas, mainly because I’d asked a friend who had been to Peru before me: “Did you see any tarantulas in the jungle?”
“I couldn’t see the one on my back,” she replied.
I felt sure she was punking me, but no. Guides from the Inkaterra Reserva Amazonica, an eco-luxury lodge on the Madre de Dios River, happily moved their torches over the trees during the evening jungle walks to reveal spiders as large and furry as kittens.
Lovely to hold, apparently. I took their word for it. The four days in the Amazon were sublime. We paddled to quiet waterways in dug-out canoes, in search of giant river otters, red howler monkeys and heron; we found caimans and also piranhas –they’re much smaller than you think, but when feeding they whip up the surface of the water like it’s a washing machine. There was no WiFi, which was brilliant. You can doze in your private hammock overlooking the river, or tackle the Inkaterra Canopy Walkway, comprising wobbly bridges made of rope and timber suspended between the trees. They roll underfoot, providing just the right level of thrill. Sloths? We found one on day four, and he was not as slow as I thought he was going to be. He was searching determinedly for the sweetest new leaves at the very end of the branches of his tree. If they fall, they die. They often fall. Ours lived to sloth another day.
The Sacred Valley
We came out of the jungle to head into the Sacred Valley, in the Andes north of Cusco. We stayed at Tambo del Inka, and it was sublime, but one of my favourite adventures was meeting Manuel Choqque, a fourth-generation farmer who grows purple potatoes with scarlet interiors, richer in antioxidants than blueberries. His passion for the humble spud – he calls them “super potatoes” – is so quirky and cool. He grows them for Central in Lima – recently voted The World’s Best Restaurant – and he made chips for us. I could have eaten my bodyweight those chips.
Machu Picchu
It’s an ancient wonder of the world, and you are probably not going to travel to Peru without seeing it. Visitor numbers are currently capped at 4500 a day, because the mountaintop site has been under pressure and they want to preserve it. We took the Inca Rail, a fun train with open carriages. Employ a good guide (ours was exceptional) because you’ll have a thousand questions about how on Earth they built it.
Shortly before heading up the mountain, I wandered into a local market and bought a bag of coca leaves – the raw material in the manufacture of cocaine – for about a dollar. They are legal and good for altitude sickness. Chew them and it’s supposed to make you feel about as buzzy as you do after one Pisco Sour. I wasn’t sure whether I should do it because I’m a bit of a nerd about substances, but then, at the base of Machu Picchu, I got talking to an 89-year-old Christian pilgrim, who asked me what I was holding.
“A mild cocaine derivative. Do you think we should try it?”
“What the heck,” she said, and we chewed together.
Top tips
Pisco Sours: they creep up on you. You have been warned.
Hiking boots: look, the Inca managed without them, but you should definitely bring a pair.
The coffee, and the chocolate: there are so many young people doing fun things with beans, and the packaging is often brilliant, too. Excellent gifts, in other words.
Alpacas: they wander the villages, but you can also eat them barbecued, on skewers. My advice would be to skip that, and buy an alpaca sweater to bring home. There are fakes everywhere, so remember, the real thing is cool to the touch. The ones made from the wild vicuna – a deer-like creature that is the national symbol of Peru – cost around $5000 but those made from baby alpaca are about $300 and you will have them forever. Do not wash them in hot water. Definitely do not put them in the dryer.
Reading: Take a copy of Death in the Andes by Mario Vargas Llosa with you. The scene involving the death of the vicunas will stay with you forever.
Movie: Secret of the Incas is a 1954 film starring Charlton Heston, who plays a swashbuckling adventurer searching for a priceless Incan artefact … sound familiar? Yes, it’s the original Raiders of the Lost Ark but better.
Fun fact: Paddington Bear is from “deepest darkest Peru.” A third film in the current series, Paddington in Peru began filming in Cusco in July 2023.
Checklist
How to get there: LATAM is terrific. I took six different flights as we bounced into, and then around Peru, and every single one of them left on time. Amazing, right?
What to do: Visit the Amazon forest, to see macaw, heron, sloth, and tarantula. Stay in Spanish colonial hotels with jaw-dropping artworks, tapestries and pottery, mainly loaned from museums, all around you. Eat. The food is incredible. Not cheap. But excellent.
Where to stay: Luxury Collection Hotels: Palacio del Inka Cusco and Tambo del Inka, Sacred Valley or the Sumaq Hotel Machu Picchu and Inkaterra for jungle experiences.
Adventure World: adventureworld.com.au or phone: 1300 363 055
Prom Peru: peru.travel/en (This is their English site URL. If you just use peru.travel if will take people to the option of selecting a language.)
Luxury Collection Hotels: Palacio del Inka Cusco & Tambo del Inka, Sacred Valley