Peruvian coastal road is no problem, its desert and hardly rains. i dont
know how long you intent to spend, but Peru is prety big. Going north,
if you have time go to Huaraz, where you can see the Cordillera blanca
with great mountians. Spend there a day or 3 to visit the region (or
longer if you want to do a trekking?). Visit Trujillo, where you can
spend a day to see the town, and the ruins. See Chiclayo and its ruins.
Go to Cajamarca, in the interior Andes. This is only the north, where I
spend 5 weeks.
its the rainy season, which makes the mountains really nice green (like
in Cuzco). It might rain in the afternoon, after a sunny morning, it
might rain for 1 hour and clear up again. You can have a clouded day or
a sunny day. the roads in the mountains can be bad (if unpaved), you can
have a landslide blocking a road, but overall if you dont go into the
jungle, its not a problem (apart from maybe some delays)
In Lima you can stay downtown near the Plaza de Armas (about 15 sol by
taxi from airport) or in Miraflores (an upmarket area near the sea, 25
sol by taxi from the airport). Downtown is fine till 10/ 11 o clock at
night when there are people on the street. I dont know your budget, but
buy a guide to pick a hotel. Dont get paranoid about the danger in Lima.
its fine, just watch your lugage at busstations and beware of
pickpockets. Same goes for turistic places like Arequipa, Cuzco Quito
etc. I guess cuzco has attracted people living of pickpocketing turists.
The northern part is safer, since there are less turists, so its only
the normal criminalty. Overall, I would say that Peru is safer then
Europe and the USA. That is, if you dont look at driving skils of bus
drivers :)
Dave Wheeler wrote:
> My wife and I fly to Lima in mid-January. My first question concerns
> accommodation - whereas we intend to find post-Lima accommodation 'as
> we go', we would prefer to have a Lima hotel booked prior to departure
> (for 3 or 4 days to acclimatize). Can anyone recommend a decent
> starting hotel (we are budget travellers but would pay more than usual
> if necessary for the first hotel). I am thinking of a place that other
> travellers may frequent, or where the staff are helpful with tips,
> advice etc.
>
> We would like to travel overland to Quito in Ecuador and (having
> returned to Lima) on to La Paz in Bolivia. My second question is: is
> this feasible (I have heard that the rainy season can close even
> 'main' roads)? As there also sites of interest in Peru of course, I
> wonder if anyone can suggest an itinerary (incl Cuzco, Nazca).
> Finishing point should be Lima again from where we fly out. Many
> thanks
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