Things to Do in Peru

There are two main ways to get from the Peruvian city of Cuzco to Machu Picchu"”either by a long hike or a four-hour train ride, which is what most visitors choose. Though there are a few different kinds of train service, the crème de la crème is without a doubt, the Belmond Hiram Bingham, named for the archaeologist who discovered Machu Picchu. It is the most luxurious of the different trains and seats only 84 passengers.

The train, which runs on the same rails from Cuzco to Aguas Calientes as all the others, has been outfitted to look like a 1920s Pullman carriage, with polished wood and brass details, and comfortable seats that are set up for dining. Meals are included on the train, and are of typical Peruvian food, with basic drinks included. There is an observation car with full floor to ceiling windows to enjoy the view, and there is a bar car as well. There is a pisco sour-making demonstration, and the recipe given out as well, in case you'd like to make it for friends back home.

On the way back from Aguas Calientes (the point at which visitors board buses for the last 20 minutes up to Machu Picchu) there is live entertainment on the train, including live music and dance.

Better known as the Sacred Valley, the Urubamba Valley is the ancient cradle of Inca civilization. It’s a place where merchants still speak Quechua while strolling the cobbled streets, and markets burst with the vibrant colors of traditional Inca art. It’s a place where ruins rise from the hillsides beneath the snow-capped peaks of the Andes, and mysterious archaeological sites offer far more questions than answers. When visiting the mountains of southern Peru, rather than simply racing from Cuzco to the ruins at Machu Picchu, take some time to base yourself in the valley’s colorful towns. Wander the markets of Ollantaytambo or the nearby town of Pisac, and watch as crafters and Incan artisans perpetuate their heritage through art. Visit the sprawling Salineras salt mines to see hillsides of blindingly white terraces, or hike to the bottom of the Incan Moray—an agricultural ruin of concentric circles dug 100 feet into the Earth. 

Temple of the Dragon (Huaco el Dragon) is an immaculately preserved Chimú temple just outside Trujillo. The pyramid-shaped adobe structure features intricate frieze murals depicting rainbows, dragons, and figures that have valiantly stood the test of time. Less known than other Chimú sites, this anti-seismic temple is an engineering marvel.

 

With a local guide, learn the history and various theories surrounding the mysterious pre-Inca site, also known as Huaca Arco Iris (Rainbow Temple), built by the Chimú people, who lived in northern Peru from about AD 900 to the 1400s. Inside the temple, the namesake figure carved on the walls takes the form of a two-headed creature like a dragon, but with countless legs like a centipede. Scholars believe the temple’s rainbow carvings, which represent rain—a precious life-giving resource here in the dry coastal desert—are a tribute to fertility. There is also evidence that the walls were once painted, although erosion from rains and centuries of looting have left the walls with only a hint of yellow glow. 

Travelers often visit this religious administrative and ceremonial center as part of an archaeological tour out of Trujillo that also includes larger temple complexes such as Chan Chan, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. 

 

 

Temple of the Dragon is located about 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) outside of Trujillo in the La Esperanza suburb. You can reach the temple via public bus from Trujillo (there is a drop off in front of the temple), or by taxi or private tour. Inquire at your hotel about the best way to arrive.

The temple is open daily from 9am to 4pm.

Gain a greater understanding of the Chimú civilization by venturing from Temple of the Dragon to the nearby Chan Chan site. As the largest pre-Columbian city in South America, the adobe-walled archeological complex was the center of Chimú culture and politics until 1470, when the Incas arrived and promptly conquered the city. Led by a guide, explore the vast array of shrines, burial grounds, rain reservoirs, and ceremonial plazas flanked by walls adorned with friezes. 

After the fall of the Moche Empire around 700 AD, the inhabitants of the Lambayeque region formed a culture now known as Sicán. Exceptionally skilled in metallurgy as well as a unique form of ceramics, the Sicán metal workers are credited with bringing the Bronze Age to northern Peru. Though massive drought would eventually bring the Sicán civilization to its knees, the ceramics, metal work, and tombs they left behind are intriguingly displayed at the Sicán National Museum in the town of Ferreñafe. 

When visiting the museum, not only will you find exquisite art pieces forged by Sicán craftsmen, but you will also find artifacts that point to the existence of trade with faraway neighbors. Blue stones, for example, exhibit trade with neighboring civilizations from as far away as Chile, and snails and shells found in Sicán tombs have been traced to the beaches of Ecuador.

Also of note when visiting the museum is the re-creation of a tomb where a man was found buried in the fetal position with his head facing down towards the floor. The position, it’s believed, was meant to mimic the process of being “birthed” into the afterlife, and is one of the many cultural curiosities on display in this modern museum. 

Walk inside San Pedro de Andahuaylillas, set in the central square of a tiny Andean village near Cusco, and you’ll quickly understand why the church got the nickname “The Sistine Chapel of the Americas.” The Baroque church, built during the late sixteenth century, appears whitewashed and rather banal from the outside, but the lavish embellishments found within — carvings, paintings, murals and an impressive gold-leaf alter — are what make the church so famous.

When Spanish missionaries were cementing their hold in this Incan region, they often used murals as a way to overcome the language barrier to evangelize the local population. The colorful murals packed into the small San Pedro de Andahuaylillas depict numerous biblical scenes, including a vivid take on the Last Judgement, imbued with Incan symbolism.

The 40-plus floating Uros Islands are perhaps the most photographed attraction on Lake Titicaca, famously constructed with springy totora reeds. The reeds are collected from around the shores of Lake Titicaca, and used to replenish the fragile islands every three months or so, as the bottom of the two-meter (6.5ft) totora mat slowly rots back into the lake. Thus, the islands change shape, size and even number as the centuries pass, anchored to the lake bottom but in many ways a completely separate world.

The Uros people are an ancient race, predating the Incas by millennia and, according to local legend, even the sun and stars. The “People of the Lake,” as they call themselves, once said that they did not feel the cold, thanks to their “black blood.” (The last full-blooded Uros woman died in 1959, after centuries of intermarriage with Aymaras and other races, so that claim is subject to some conjecture.)

Heavily taxed by the Incas and enslaved in the silver mines by the Spanish, the Uros have managed, through ingenuity and isolation, to outlast their tormentors with their unique culture largely in place. The key to their survival is the reeds, whose starchy tubers are consumed for food, flowers brewed to make tea, and stalks used for medicine, handicrafts, and the construction of gondolas, homes, schools, churches and just about everything else on the islands.

The islands change in size and number over the centuries and will quickly thin if not meticulously maintained. Tourism on the handful accessible to tourists is relatively open and you can arrange trips with several Puno travel agencies or even come on your own, in public boats that leave regularly from the Puno pier. The 5km (3mi) trip takes about thirty minutes.

The islands are part of Titicaca National Reserve which protects 37,000 hectares (143 square miles) of reed bed, including some 60 species of bird and 14 of fish, many collected by the Uros for meat, eggs, and as work animals, such as cormorants used to fish. You’ll also see plenty of domesticated cats, to keep mice from devouring the delicate islands.

While many of the Uros traditions have been maintained, the islands are by no means frozen in time. For example, they no longer speak their original language, having switched to Aymara after centuries of trade and intermarriage, and have more recently embraced technology, such as electrical generators, modern motors on reed boats and so forth. 

Tourism has brought money and opportunity to the islands, which cuts into time once spent doing traditional activities, such as the all-important collection of totora. They are savvy enough to know their time’s worth, so expect to be charged for photos and/or offered handicrafts with a cheerfully hard sell.

When you hear “Inca ruins” you probably think Machu Picchu, and while the famous 15th century site deserves its bucket list status, Peru is home to other travel-worthy ruins as well. One of them, arguably the best demonstration of the incredible engineering skills of the Incas, is Tipón.

The 500-acre site, located near a natural spring 12 miles (20 kilometers) south of Cusco, comprises a network of agricultural terraces so elaborate that archeologists think they may have been used for testing difficult crops rather than for everyday farming. Some of the terraces are still in use and still supplied by the same ancient technology.

Since the site was part of an Incan noble’s estate, the elaborate stonemasonry exhibits the same stunning Imperial style as the structures seen at Machu Picchu, but with far fewer visitors to contend with.

The most important island on the lake, according to pre-Columbian tradition, is the Isla del Sol, “Sun Island.” It is the largest of the lake islands (14.3 square kilometers, or 5.5 square miles), and considered sacred to the Andean Sun God and Inca patron deity, Inti. Today, its dramatically sculpted terrain is home to some 800 families, 180 pre-Columbian ruins, and several kilometers of ancient trails to explore.

It is said that after a great flood cleansed the Earth, Viracocha, the god of creation, rose from the sacred lake and came to this island. First, he created Inti, the sun, and Mama Quila, the moon. Two large “footprints” in the stone, still visible on the path to the sacred city of Challapampa, mark the spot where Viracocha created the Earth’s first man and woman, Mallco Capac and Mama Ocllo.

While it’s possible to come here on a day trip from Copacabana (but not Puno; Isla del Sol is on the Bolivian side of Lake Titicaca), it is much better to stay overnight. Most services are in Yumani, also home to an ancient stone fountain that sits atop 206 stone steps; this may be the Fountain of Youth. Boat tours and stone trails lead to scores more ruins, such as the Inca seminary and enormous stone labyrinth called the Chinkana, the ornate Temple of Pilcocaina, and the “Stone Puma,” or “Titi Karka,” thought to have bequeathed upon this lake its name. Sunset is fittingly spectacular, and perhaps best appreciated from the lighthouse, atop the island’s highest point (4,097m/13,441ft).

Nearby Isla de la Luna (Island of the Moon) is another sacred isle, which can be visited by boat tour from either Isla del Sol or Copacabana. The most famous ruins are those of what is thought to have been an ancient convent, called Ajlla Wasi (House of the Chosen Women).

Stories of a nearby lost city, long thought to have been as apocryphal as Plato’s tales of Atlantis, were proven absolutely true in 2000. An international expedition discovered a submerged temple dating to perhaps 700AD, roughly the size of a football field, connected to Copacabana by an undersea road. You can see some of the artifacts uncovered there at the island’s Museo de Oro (Museum of Gold).

Within walking distance of Arequipa city center, the quiet Yanahuara neighborhood is most famous for El Mirador e Iglesia de Yanahuara, a scenic lookout point with sweeping views over Arequipa and the volcanoes in the distance. Much like the historic city center, Yanahuara’s architecture is dominated by sillar, a white volcanic rock, and the streets of the largely middle class residential neighborhood are dotted with pretty Spanish Colonial churches.

Apart from the main square with its mirador, there aren’t many out and out attractions in Yanahuara, but a visit to the neighborhood does offer a glimpse at what daily life is like for a typical middle class Peruvian. Set aside some time to wander the streets and duck into a tucked away restaurant for a local meal.

During the late 19th and early 20th century, German archaeologist Hans Heinrich Brüning Brookstedt devoted his life to Northern Peru. For decades, Brüning would toil tirelessly along the desert coastline in search of ceramics and cultural artifacts from the Moche, Chimu and Inca. Today, the Brüning National Archaeological Museum is where visitors can view the astounding finds of his years of digging in the dirt. 

In addition to the rooms full of cultural treasures"”including a room filled entirely with gold"”the lower layer showcases Brüning's photography from years of work in the field. Many credit Brüning with being a catalyst for the area's archaeological study, and many of the sites that have been uncovered today could be in part to his dedicated work. Unlike the neighboring Royal Tombs of Sipan Museum, photography is allowed inside the Brüning Museum, and visitors should make an effort to visit both sites during a museum tour of Chiclayo.

As famed for its handicrafts—the island’s traditional knitwear has been proclaimed a UNESCO Masterpiece of Intangible Human Heritage—as its dramatic, rocky topography topped with windswept pre-Columbian ruins, Isla Taquile is one of Lake Titicaca’s most famous destinations. 

It is not easy to get here, however, and most people making the 45km (28mi) trip on the slow boat from Puno opt to spend the night. That, too, can be a challenge, as the island and its sole tourism operator, the Munay Taquile Travel Agency, are communally owned by Taquile’s 2,200 residents. They (or rather, the Taquile Council of Elders) require that the island’s 40,000 annual visitors live much as locals do while on the island.

When tourism began to arrive to Lake Titicaca in the 1970s, shortly after the indigenous government won full ownership of the island, the quiet, agriculturally oriented lives of locals began to change. Outsiders were in control, and brought in boatloads of camera-snapping tourists without the permission or input of local leaders. 

Rather than submit to the loss of privacy and profit like so many indigenous communities, however, Isla Taquile’s government secured exclusive rights to transportation, lodging, food service and island tours. Thus, if you choose to visit, you’ll be staying in a family home, eating traditional cuisine and hiking around the island’s Inca ruins and stunning vistas with a local guide. 

You’ll also have plenty of opportunity to peruse the island’s famed hand-woven textiles, considered some of Peru’s finest handicrafts and see them made. Knitting is done almost exclusively by men, while women spin yard and work the looms, creating elaborate designs that incorporate both ancient and modern symbolic patterns. Most famous are the knitted hats with earflaps, called chullos: men wear red chullos if married, red and white if single and black to signify leadership. Women usually stick to the stylish bowler-style caps popular throughout the Andes.

One of Lima’s most affluent neighborhoods and main financial district, San Isidro is often passed over by visitors on their way to the beaches and shopping malls of Miraflores, but there are still a few surprises to be found between the business headquarters and residential blocks. In recent years, San Isidro has also spruced up its image and many of its elegant 20th-century mansions have been converted into 5-star hotels, luxury shopping boutiques and international restaurants. 

The Huallamarca is San Isidro’s principal tourist attraction, an elaborately restored adobe pyramid centered around the ruins of a pre-Columbian temple and now home to a museum displaying artifacts excavated from the site. Equally incongruous are the many green spaces that break up the sea of high-rise office blocks, most notably the scenic El Olivar park, an ancient olive grove and National Monument, popular with bird watchers and picnickers. 

Oh, what Batán Grande must have looked like in 1100 AD. 

Located 20 miles north of Chiclayo, this sprawling remnant of the Sicán civilization is set amongst a grove of algorrobo trees that form the largest dryland forest on South America's west coast. Poking out from the field of green, eroded brown pyramids are all that remain of Sicán tombs that, for hundreds of years, were packed to the brim with gold. In fact, archaeologists estimate that over 90 percent of Peru's gold was sourced from this river valley, and much of the gold in private collections is from looters who pillaged the forest.

Visitors to Batán Grande today will find an interpretive center and small museum that tell the history of the surrounding forest, as well as a viewing platform for gazing above the groves of algorrobo. The tops of the huacas (pyramids) seem to float above the treetops like haunting, dusty relics, and one of the trees in the middle of the forest has been standing for over 1,000 years. Hand dug pits from hundreds of looters are evident as you walk the grounds, and from the top of a huaca gazing out over the forest, it's a surreal feeling to stand in this complex so many years after its devastating fall. 

The Temples de Moche (Huacas de Moche), are Trujillo’s two most important sites that date to the Moche Empire. It’s hard to enough to fathom that civilizations existed here over 2,000 years ago, and even harder to fathom how some of their artwork has miraculously managed to remain. 

At the Huaca de la Luna—Temple of the Moon—archaeologists are still uncovering frescoes which were thankfully missed by looters. Many of the paintings depict the deity Ayapec, whose snarling face and animated teeth are found on everything from ceramics to walls. It’s also believed that Huaca de Luna was a site of human sacrifice, and diggers have unearthed dozens of remains that suggest torture, warfare, and sacrifice.  Given the murals and the human remains, it’s highly likely that the Huaca de Luna was a site of religious importance, and walking the corridors of the temple today is as enchanting as it is surreal. 

Across the dusty Moche Valley, the Huaca del Sol—Temple of the Sun—rises 135 feet from the desert and is comprised of over 50 million bricks. It’s officially classified as the world’s largest adobe structure, although due to heavy looting by the Spanish and damage from El Niño rains, the temple hasn’t been excavated as heavily and is closed to the general public.

Between bohemian Barranco, glitzy Miraflores, and the coastal streets of Chorillos, the Surco district is a part of Lima that few visitors see. Located well off of the tourist trail—though physically not far away—Surco is stocked with universities and hundreds of manicured gardens. It’s a place that was heavily looted and destroyed in the War of the Pacific with Chile, and a place where locals gather in droves in the green oasis of the parks. Take a stroll through the Surco district’s very own Plaza Mayor, which is punctuated by the baroque Iglesia Santo Apostol rising up from the square. While there aren’t a lot of formal sights, Surco becomes a sight unto itself whenever it hosts a festival. The Vendimia festival in the second week of March is an ode to the district’s wine harvest, when downtown Surco becomes festively punchdrunk on music, drinking, and song. Other than the plaza, churches, and festivals, the museums in Surco—while small in scale—are refreshingly free of crowds. For a look at centuries of riches and warfare, stop at the privately owned Gold and Weapon Museum and its 20,000 pre-Columbian artifacts. You can also find weapons from the days of the conquistadores, and even look at a gleaming sword that was used by Francisco Pizarro. 

Tambomachay might not be one of the biggest ruins in Cusco, but it’s definitely one of the highest, topping out at nearly 13,000 feet. 

Located five miles from the city center, Tambomachay is also known as “the Baths of the Inca” due to the multiple baths which are scattered about the site. The Inca held water in a spiritual regard as one of the sources of life, and the spring waters at Tambomachay are masterfully diverted into aqueducts, baths, and stone-carved waterways which would divert the water through the stone. Given the site’s natural beauty and the spiritual significance of its waters, it’s believed by historians that Tambomachay was reserved for Inca royalty. 

When visiting Tambomachay today, be sure to admire the smooth mosaic of stone which forms the walls of the ruin. The way in which the stones are perfectly stacked on each other is an example of the handicraft for which the Inca were famous. Also, take a moment to notice the way that the multi-tiered terraces are built into the mountainside in such a way that they nearly blend as a natural part of the landscape. This is a relaxing, powerful, and meditative spot that sees far fewer visitors than some of the more famous ruins.

To visit Tambomachay, you can either take part in a guided tour or visit the site independently. For those who choose to visit on their own and are looking for a bit of a workout, consider riding a bus to the site and then strolling the five miles back towards the city. Remember to take it slow, however, as the altitude can easily be felt, and be sure to admire the views of Cusco that stretch out to the surrounding valley.

Puno’s most enigmatic attraction lies 35km (21mi) from the port city, overlooking Lake Umayo with dignified mystery. Tours are easily arranged; consider coming around sunset, and staying to enjoy the starry skies.

The Chullpas of Sillustani are a collection of striking burial towers, among the finest examples of such architecture in the Andes. Though no one can be sure of their age, they appear to have been under construction just prior to the Inca conquest of the local Aymara-speaking Colla people, around 1300 AD. They most resemble, however, the neat stonework of the Tiwanaku people, who controlled the southern shore of the lake from about 500 AD to 1100 AD.

More advanced than even the Inca’s finest masonry, these towers reach with neatly squared geometric regularity toward the clear, high-desert sky. The tallest are 12 meters (40ft) high; others probably exceeded that, but have long since been dynamited by tomb robbers. Some have detailed carvings and all open eastward toward the sunrise.

Archaeologists have long hypothesized that these were the tombs of the Aymara elite, buried in baskets that trapped them in fetal position. The dry, desiccating desert air mummified many of the presumably regal corpses, surrounded with offerings such as ceramic bowls of grain, guinea pigs and gold (the last now displayed in Puno’s excellent Dreyer Museum.

More recently, archaeologists discovered the bodies of 44 children around a 10m-tall (32ft) tower called Chullpa Lagarto. They were apparently sacrificed some 700 years ago, perhaps by the Colla people during some sort of conflict.  A volcanic stone was placed on each of their chests and they were also surrounded with food, ceramics and other offerings. Perhaps the adult corpses were not royalty at all, but the revered remains of a human sacrifice.