Peru Beyond Machu Picchu: From the Coast to the Inca Trail
I didn’t know much about Peru before talking with Julia about her trip last year with G Adventures – if you haven’t read that blog, you should after this one! After hearing about her trip, I was inspired to take my own trip with my husband. While we followed in Joe and Julia's footsteps on the Inca Trail with G Adventures, we decided to add a few days beforehand to experience a little more of Peru, from exploring Lima's coastline to spotting penguins off the coast of Paracas, tasting pisco in Ica, and sandboarding through the dunes of Huacachina!
Day 1 – Exploring Lima
We arrived in Lima pretty early in the day after an overnight flight, which left us with plenty of time to explore Lima throughout the day before settling into our hotel. We stayed in the heart of Miraflores, a lively area of Lima. After dropping off our luggage at Hotel Indigo Miraflores, we had a late breakfast right outside our hotel at La Baguette Armendariz and then got straight to exploring. The hotel was only a block from the Larcomar shopping mall, which was pretty lively in the evenings but not so much at 11AM.
Since we went in May, it was winter for Peru, so it was kind of grey out but still very warm. For the most part we walked the coastline through Parque Domodossola, over to Armendáriz Park, and all the way up to John F. Kennedy Park – which, if you are a cat lover, is the park for you! Unfortunately, because of my husband’s allergies, we weren’t able to hang with the cats as long as I was hoping to. Lima had a lot more charm and felt much more modern than we expected, and we had a lot of fun taking in the views from the top of the cliffs. After a long day of travel and exploring, we had dinner at La Bodega de la Trattoria – Armendariz, an Italian restaurant down the street.
Day 2 – An All-Day Affair
Our second day started extremely early since we had an all-day tour booked to the desert with a lot of fun stops along the way. This was a pretty jam-packed excursion, but when you are on a time crunch to experience as much as you can, it’s worth it. This tour included a 2-hour guided Ballestas Islands boat trip in Paracas, a visit to a local pisco vineyard with lunch and a pisco tasting, a dune buggy and sandboarding tour in Huacachina, and free time to explore the Huacachina Oasis.
Let’s start with the boat trip out of Paracas. We had time to get coffee and a bite to eat once we arrived in the city, then we all loaded up on the boat. We passed the mysterious Candelabra of the Andes, which is basically a giant candelabra etched into the sand of an island. No one can fully explain why or how it came to be, or how it has withstood the elements after years and years of being there. Naturally, that had us making a few Google searches afterward. As we continued on to other islands, we were followed by dolphins the entire way. On the islands there were seals basking on the rocks and even penguins! We really never thought we’d see penguins in Peru! It was a really cool experience.
We then loaded back onto the bus and continued south to Ica, where we stopped at a pisco vineyard for lunch. The food was great and the pisco was even better. I had never tried pisco before and was surprised by how many different varieties and flavors they offered. After the 5 varieties included in the tasting, they invited us to come up and try the rest if we were interested in another kind. There were over 20 different ones to try - talk about best bang for your buck!
After that we headed to Huacachina, my absolute favorite part of the day. After walking through the desert to our dune buggies, we spent about 2 hours being launched over these giant dunes with our entire group screaming and laughing the entire time. We would stop every so often to sandboard down the giant dunes. I was relieved to learn that we'd be going down the dunes on our stomachs rather than attempting to actually stand on the boards. I was looking for an adventure, not a broken ankle days before hiking the Inca Trail! As our time in the dunes came to an end, we parked the buggy at the top of one of the dunes to watch the sunset over the desert. It was a pretty clear evening, so the sunset was beautiful and felt like the perfect slow ending to such a fun-filled day.
They took us back to the oasis so that we could grab dinner and of course some churros for dessert while we waited to leave for home. It was pretty late getting back, especially because we had an early morning flight to Cusco the next day, but it was definitely worth it!
Day 3 – Getting Acclimated in Cusco
Normally I'm someone who wants to fit as much as possible into every day of a trip, but Cusco was one place where I was glad that we intentionally left our schedule open. After landing we really felt the effects of the altitude as soon as we started walking around, something neither of us Indiana kids had really experienced before. The shortness of breath walking up just a few steps was no joke! Because of that, we kept it pretty low-key and stayed around the main square for lunch – we didn’t want to overdo anything so that we could be in tip-top shape for our upcoming hike. Luckily our hotel stay at Antigua Casona San Blas was incredible with the friendliest staff, unlimited coca tea to help with our altitude adjustment, and an all-around great environment for settling in. Both nights that we stayed here we would end our day curled up in front of a fire in the courtyard with fresh tea in hand.
Day 4 – Gearing up for the Inca Trail
Our last full day spent in Cusco was pretty similar to the day before since we didn’t want to overdo it while still acclimatizing. We walked to the San Blas Market after breakfast to buy a few souvenirs and then moseyed around Cusco before meeting with G Adventures to go over the logistics of our hike. They gave us our duffel bags to pack our gear into and then we had our final Cusco dinner at Jardin Organiko – home to some of the best gnocchi I’ve ever had, before heading back to our hotel for a good night’s rest since we needed to be at our meeting point by 5am the next morning. The excitement (and some nerves) was setting in, we were about to hike the Inca Trail!
Day 5-9 – Hiking the Inca Trail
I’ll keep it short since Julia wrote a great breakdown blog for this part of the trip, but I have to mention that this was truly one of the best travel experiences I’ve ever had. It had its challenging moments between the altitude and not-so-great bathroom situations (if you know, you know), but every day we felt more accomplished than the last, knowing we were doing something that not a lot of people get to experience. It really is a once-in-a-lifetime adventure with a great company!
Machu Picchu may have been what initially brought us to Peru, but I'm glad we gave ourselves a few extra days to experience more of the country before starting the Inca Trail. From watching penguins off the coast to flying through the desert in a dune buggy and slowly adjusting to life at 11,000 feet in Cusco, those extra days ended up being some of my favorite memories from the trip.
If you're considering the Inca Trail yourself, Julia broke down the entire trek, including what to pack, what to expect each day, and her biggest dos and don'ts, in her Inca Trail guide here: https://www.grueningertravel.com/travel-blog/a-travel-guide-for-the-inca-trail-to-machu-picchu
-Kylie Ward, Travel Advisor
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