The Tours and the Guides

• Our first trip, nine days,  was organized by Overseas Adventure Travel, which gears, but does not limit, trips to those age 50 and above. Groups are limited to 16 people. Three-fourths of our group were women, traveling singly or with friends. OAT describes its trips well, provides lots of helpful material to help you prepare and has representatives available to answer questions.
• Our second trip, which included Bolivia and Lake Titicaca was with Purple Mountain Tours, a mystical journey group out of Vermont.
• Our third trip to Cusco was arranged via email with Boris Cardenas, a guide we'd met on our second tour, and was great fun and very reasonable. Unfortunately, I've lost track of him, but we have just learned that Boris is now a guide for Overseas Adventure Travel.
• Our trip to Tambopata was with International Expeditions and involved getting to know the naturalists at a remote jungle site. We highly recommend IE's nature trips.

Foods of the Andean Indians.

Typical restaurant meal.

The Food and Drink

The Inca runners and others in the highlands would chew coca leaves for strength, and this is the leaf they use for mate de coca, or coca tea, which was available everywhere. Yes, this is the same plant that produces cocaine, but that is a much more concentrated version. This was a mild herbal concoction, that tastes a bit like chamomile tea. Someone has described coca tea tea as being to cocaine as rye bread is to rye whiskey. The tea is believed to help the system absorb oxygen better and seemed to help our group.

At Chincero, we got our only taste of Indian foods, which included roasted and boiled maize kernels, fava beans and wheat. We ate our first quinoa soup, made from a high-protein grain that has been cultivated at least since Inca times. Cilantro was used liberally.

The maize kernels were huge, about the size of Spanish olives. Amaranth, another nutrition-packed grain, is also grown and used as a breakfast cereal and in baking.

Our meal also included roast cuy, guinea pig, a traditional Peruvian dish for special occasions. It was deliciously spicy and reminiscent of rabbit, but most of us managed only a bite or two. The guinea pigs live with the families in the clay brick homes and feed on scraps and a green weed often seen for sale in the markets.

For the rest of the trip, the food would be more familiar. Full breakfasts with eggs were available. Unless you have tourist tummy and need to avoid milk products, try the wonderful yogurt flavored with native fruits. Lunches and dinners almost always offered a choice of fish (generally a wonderful farmed pink trout), chicken or beef, in light sauces. A soup or appetizer preceded the main meal.

Care must be taken in what you eat and drink, according to seasoned travelers. Nowhere in Peru is tap water considered safe to drink. To keep yourself comfortable and combat soroche, keep a supply of bottled water, readily available at hotels and in the cities, on hand. Coke and other bottled drinks – including some good beers – are available almost everywhere. Try some bright yellow Inka Kola, a sort of citrus-y cream soda with pineapple overtones.

The farmers and villagers have their beverage of choice, chicha, a maize beer which takes about two days to ferment. A red flag on a stick means it’s "happy hour" – the chicha is ready.

• Pucara, Cusco: A nice, inexpensive restaurant just off the Plaza del Armas that seemed to be popular with resident ex-patriates as well as locals. Some vegetarian selections, and great chocolate truffles. Only rough spot is bathroom facilities are rustic. It's been 5 years since our last visit, but I bet it's still there.

  ---

Travel Hints and Comments

• Currency: Be sure to take plenty of small bills with you. Everywhere we visited the U.S. dollar was acceptable currency. Especially with the help of a tour guide, it is easy to change dollars into Peruvian soles,  but it is difficult to get small bills and coins. Even merchants in the stores or hotels may not have change in either dollars or soles, or will take a long time to get it. Travelers checks are also hard to cash. Visa seemed the most acceptable credit card, but only in major tourist services. Some places also took American Express. Money changers, some of whom do their business standing in the street, are more convenient than banks.
• Llamas: Though llamas are seen regularly in Peruvian artwork and promotions, they are used regularly as beasts of burden only in the highlands, higher than we were. They can be seen for photo opportunities in several tourist locations, including the ruins at Machu Picchu.