Peru Destinations

An active city, some 2400m above sea level, and with a relatively wealthy population of over three-quarters of a million,AREQUIPA maintains a rather aloof attitude toward the rest of Peru.

Chiclayo is the commercial centre of northern Peru, so it's better famed for its banks than its heritage.Nevertheless it has its attractions, even if most of the city is an urban sprawl modernizing and growing by the month.

The Cusco Valley and the Incas are synonymous in most people's minds, but the area was populated well before they arrived on the scene and they simply built their empire on the toil and ingenuity of generations of previous cultures.

Less than a century ago, HUARAZ - some 400km from Lima - was still a fairly isolated community, barricaded to the east by the dazzling snowcapped peaks of the Cordillera Blanca and separated from the coast by the dry, dark Cordillera Negra.

Iquitos is an ideal place for the lovers of the ecological tourism, and for which they wish to feel an intimate contact with the virginal nature of the forests of Amazon.Of the city you will be able to go to the houses of field in the forest.

LIMA is a boisterous, macho city, relaxed and laid-back, yet having an underlying energy, with money and expensive cars ruling the roost - you can buy anything in Lima if you have the cash, particularly in Lima Centro.

Some 20km south of the viewing tower, the colonial town of NAZCA spreads along the margin of a small coastal valley. Although the river is invariably dry, Nazca's valley remains green and fertile.

On the approach to OLLANTAYTAMBO from Urubamba, the river runs smoothly between a series of fine Inca terraces that gradually diminish in size as the slopes get steeper and more rocky.

Less than three hours by bus from Lima, PISCO is an obvious and rewarding stop en route south to Nazca and Arequipa. Although of little interest in itself, it makes a pleasant base - and provides access to the Paracas National Reserve.

With a dry, cold climate - frequently falling below freezing in the winter nights of July and August - PUNO is just a crossroads to most travellers, en route between Cusco and Bolivia or Arequipa and maybe Chile.

Pizarro, on his second voyage to Peru in 1528, sailed by the site of ancient Chan Chan, then still a major city and an important regional centre of Inca rule. He returned to establish a Spanish colony in the same valley.

URUBAMBA , about 80km from Cusco via Pisac or around 60km via Chinchero, is only a short way down the main road from Yucay's Plaza Manco II, and here the Río Vilcanota becomes the Río Urubamba.