Cusco is the anchor: the Sacred Valley, Machu Picchu and enough Inca stonework to fill a week, at 3,399 metres. Fly in through Lima and give the capital two nights for the food. Then add one more region, and only one: Arequipa for volcanoes and the Colca Canyon, Puno for Lake Titicaca, or Puerto Maldonado for the Amazon, a short flight from Cusco. May to September is the dry window that decides most itineraries, and altitude decides their order.
4 Peru city guides
Fun fact
Machu Picchu is one of the few places UNESCO lists twice over. It was inscribed in 1983 as a mixed site, protected for its Inca architecture and for the cloud forest and wildlife of the sanctuary around it.
Stereotypes, sorted out
The realityMachu Picchu is one morning. The Sacred Valley, the Moche pyramids outside Trujillo, the Nazca lines, Kuelap in the northern cloud forest and the Colca Canyon are all Peru, and most of them are close to empty.
The realityQuechua and Aymara are official languages where they are spoken, and in the southern highlands they are what people use at home and in the market. For millions of Peruvians Spanish is the second language.
The realityCeviche is real and cuy is a highland celebration dish, but the everyday kitchen runs on Chinese, Japanese, African and Andean lines at once. Chifa and nikkei are an ordinary Tuesday lunch here.
The realityIt is not a fitness test. Cusco stands at 3,399 metres and Puno higher, and soroche takes runners as readily as anyone else. Time is the only prevention that reliably works.
The realityThe set lunch, the local bus and a family hostal cost very little. Machu Picchu entry, the train to Aguas Calientes, Amazon lodges and the Lima tasting menus are priced in another currency altogether.
Cultural notes that actually help
- Greet before you ask. A buenos días to the room, the shopkeeper or the driver comes first, and skipping it reads as rude.
- Lunch is the real meal. The menú, two set courses at midday, is what most of the country eats and the best value on any street.
- Ask before photographing people, especially in markets and highland villages. Where a llama and a costume are on offer, a small tip is the arrangement.
- Coca leaves and coca tea are legal and ordinary in the highlands, and offered for the altitude. Taking any of it home is not.
- Bargain in craft markets, not in shops with printed prices, and stop once you have agreed a number.
- Social time is elastic and commercial time is not. Buses, trains and tours leave when they said they would.
- Gringo is usually just descriptive. Tone tells you when it is not.
Famous Peruvian faces
Mario Vargas Llosa
Gastón Acurio
Javier Pérez de Cuéllar
César Vallejo
Juan Diego Flórez
Yma Sumac
Miguel Grau
José María Arguedas
Ricardo Palma
Blanca Varela
Claudia Llosa
Mario Testino
Chabuca Granda
Susana Baca
Teófilo Cubillas
Paolo Guerrero
Kina Malpartida
Pedro Paulet
Daniel Alcides Carrión
Sofía Mulánovich
Pachacútec
Túpac Amaru II
Atahualpa
Santa Rosa de Lima
Virgilio Martínez
Pía León
Must-try Peruvian food
Ceviche
White fish cured in lime with chilli, red onion and sweet potato. Lunch, never dinner.
Lomo saltado
Beef stir-fried with onion, tomato and soy over chips and rice. Chifa on one plate.
Ají de gallina
Shredded chicken in a creamy yellow chilli sauce, thickened with bread and walnut.
Causa limeña
Cold whipped yellow potato layered with chicken, tuna or crab and cut like a terrine.
Anticuchos
Beef heart marinated in ají panca and grilled on skewers at the kerb after dark.
Papa a la huancaína
Boiled potato under cheese and yellow chilli sauce. Every set lunch opens with it.
Pollo a la brasa
Charcoal-roasted chicken with chips and three sauces. The country’s standing Sunday habit.
Tiradito
Ceviche's Japanese cousin: sliced raw fish, no onion, sauce poured at the last moment.
Tacu tacu
Yesterday’s rice and beans fried into a crisp cake, usually under a steak or an egg.
Arroz chaufa
Peruvian Chinese fried rice, and the proof that chifa is a cuisine in its own right.
Rocoto relleno
Arequipa’s red chilli stuffed with spiced beef and cheese, and hotter than it looks.
Juane
Rice and chicken wrapped in bijao leaves and steamed. The jungle’s travelling lunch.
Suspiro a la limeña
Manjar blanco under a port meringue. As sweet as that sounds, and worth it once.
Picarones
Squash and sweet potato rings, fried and drenched in fig syrup, sold from street pans.
Pisco sour
Pisco, lime, sugar, egg white, bitters. The national drink and an old argument with Chile.
Chicha morada
Purple corn boiled with pineapple, clove and cinnamon. Served cold, everywhere, all day.
Inca Kola
The bright yellow soda Peru drinks with everything, sweet and unmistakably its own.
Leche de tigre
The lime, chilli and fish marinade left in the bowl, drunk on its own as a cure.
Arroz con mariscos
Seafood rice seasoned the Peruvian way, with ají and coriander doing the work.
Chupe de camarones
River-prawn chowder with milk, egg and corn. Arequipa’s Friday lunch.
Cuy
Guinea pig, roasted whole for celebrations. Older than the Inca and still a Sunday dish.
Pachamanca
Meat, potatoes and herbs cooked on hot stones underground. More gathering than meal.
Adobo arequipeño
Pork slow-cooked in chicha and panca chilli, eaten on Sunday morning to settle Saturday.
Tacacho con cecina
Mashed plantain with pork crackling, served with cured smoked pork.
Paiche
One of the largest freshwater fish in the world, farmed now and grilled in Iquitos.
Mazamorra morada
Purple corn pudding with fruit, usually served beside rice pudding in two colours.
