Go to Peru to be amazed by its people, the indians living high in the Andes. They are colorful, hospitable and completely incomprehensible. Their language isn't Latin-American Spanish, though some know the words for selling and buying stuff. They speak Quechua, the old Incan language. Be sure to visit the indians on lake Titicaca's floating islands!

Quick Tips:

For those who want to try anything different then hamburgers and spaghetti/pizza, you should try the local favorite lomo saltado (it's shredded beef, with onions, potato and peppers). Also very good is the trout (trucha), especially when overlooking Lake Titicaca.

Best Way To Get Around:

Going to Machu Pichu you can do it easily, or the hard (Inca) way. If you're lazy and rich, you take the helicopter from Cuzco to Agua Calientes, near Mach Pichu. If you're just plain lazy, you take the train, which is a nice way of travelling and seeing the surroundings. If you're part Inca, you take the Inca-trail, walking through the Andes-range and jungle till you find Machu Pichu!

In between cities you can travel by bus on the PanAmericana Highway. You can choose between the local standard bus (you should try it once, see the free form info) or deluxe version: Royal Class. You can also fly. From Lima you can fly to Arequipa and Cuzco in about an hour for about 80 dollars. The costs given are with TansPeru.

The location is not that good. It is about half an hour taxicab drive away from the old centre of Lima (Plaza de Armas) and about twenty minutes of walking distance to Miraflores, one of the shopping areas where you can also find the nearest MacDonald''s....

On the other side are banks (also with ATM) and supermarkets nearby, so you won''t starve.

The hotel also has a fax and Internet service, although you can surf cheaper just a few houses further down the Libertadores-road.

This hotel, in the heart of the Sacred Valley of the Inca''s, has rooms in both an old monestary (one of which seems to be haunted...) and in the old hacienda across the road. In the latter we stayed, in room 306 where Simon Bolivar also has slept. The rooms are very good, spacious with good bathrooms and antique furniture (not the beds).

The plus of this hotel is that it is just a 15 minute car drive away from Ollantaytambo, where you can catch the train to Machu Pichu. You can travel to Ollantaytambo by minivan from the hotel. The train takes about 1.5 hours to Machu Pichu. You can also take this train from Cuzco, in which case it will take around 4-5 hours till Machu Pichu. You can leave the train at the stop after Ollantaytambo and walk part of the Inca-trail from there, but you''ll need a guide.

The hotel has two restaurants. They are both rather expensive but in Yucay there isn''t a lot of choice. The one at the old monestary is the more upperclass one with gourmet food. Here there is also live music and a nice bar. The one at the old hacienda has spaghetti and set menus for less money.

In both hotels you can also pay by credit card, traveler cheques and dollars.

It is also just around the corner of the main shopping and eating street of Puno and its Plaza de Armas.

The rooms have good beds, television (with American channels) and good bathrooms. It is located very near to the main plaza (Plaza de Armas) of Cuzco, with its many restaurants.

Try to get one of the rooms on the second or third floor, because the first floor tends to be rather noisy (you can hear the people in the room above you walking around on the wooden floors). On the first floor, there is also the boiler room, so the rooms are rather hot and at night you''ll hear the boiler.

The location is perfect. One block down is Santa Catalina, the famous must-see monestary. If you turn the second corner to the left, you''ll walk straight on to the Plaza de Armas, which in Arequipa is especially beautiful with lots of restaurants.

If two families get into a fight, this is easily resolved by cutting the island in half, and the fueding familes drift -literally- apart. This also means, however, that it isn't sure which island you will visit, once you get there.

If you have seen them, then go to the lecture in the planetarium of the Nazca Lines Hotel in Nazca. The lecture focuses on the theory of Maria Reiche, a German scientist who studied the lines for over thirty years and concluded that they're a giant calendar which the Nazca-people used to know when they should plant and harvest. The lecture is accompanied by pictures in the little planetarium and costs about 6 dollars per person. It starts every evening at about 19:45 hours.

Actually, Machu Pichu was a disappointment to us. Perhaps this was because we had seen so many pictures of Machu Pichu, that it doesn't come as a suprise, rising up between mountains from the jungle. In our case, we didn't see much in Machu Pichu, because the city was shrouded in the mists and it was pouring. i.e. not the ideal circumstances to see the ruins.

Still, a trip to Peru isn't complete without visiting it, and the Peruvians know it. Nowadays they charge 20 dollars entry-fee.

The trip takes you also to El Candelabra, a sand/rock drawing not unlike those on the high plains near Nazca. The Candelabra is also best seen from the skies or from farout on the ocean. Nobody knows who drew it or with what purpose, although theories abound. Yep, some gather it was the aliens again. Busy little grey people, weren't they?

The most famous part of the museum, however, is not the weapons department but the 'gold' and artifacts part. Downstairs you'll find art from almost every civilization ever to inhabite Peru. Chimu golden statues are placed next to Nazca-mummies and Inca-knifes. You'll have to buy a book about the museum to know what you're looking at, because the pieces aren't place in any kind of order.

Centerpiece of the collection is 'Tumi', the famous gold statue which is always linked with Peru and the Inca's. In reality, this golden statue is created by the Chimu-tribe, which rose to the summit of it's power long before there was such a thing as Inca's.

If you really want to you can buy a Tumi-lookalike in gold from the jewellerstore H. Stern on the museumgrounds.

Warnings: you'll probably get an overdose on culture in this museum, seeing all the thousands of pieces. If you stagger outside to get a breath of air, the guards, however, won't be letting you back in, so -if you're with a group, you'll be doomed to wander around on the museum grounds, looking at the souvenir shops and jeweller store.

The men also 'attacked' tourists with their destinations. 'Really, it is very nice in Pisco, won't you go with us,' I imagine they said. Once, I thought, they stopped a taxicab and asked the passenger inside if he didn't rather go to Pisco...

Anyway, after many stops inside Lima, we reached the Panamericana highway, but the stopping didn't end here. Many a time did we take on passengers who just walked beside the highway.

If you take a royal class coach, you get great seats, video and coffee. But you'll miss this! Just try it once.

Not only be prepared to travel by other means than you wanted to (we had to use the plain to Arequipa in stead of the Panamericana, which was blocked by boulders). An earthquake also changes the weather.

We had planned to fly to Lima from Cuzco, but the Cuzco-airport was closed because there was too much mist and clouds. This change in the otherwise beautiful Cuzquener weather was brought about by an earthquake (aftershock of the bigger one in Arequipa).