Peru or Chile?

[ICriedAllTheWayToTheChipShop]

That's my question - I can't decide between the two because they're completely different holidays and I don't know which one I like the idea of most.

The Peru tour takes in Lima, Cusco, Machu Picchu, Puno, Colca, Arequipa and the Nazca Lines. Chile would involve Santiago, Puerto Varas, Puerto Natales, Torres del Paine and then Easter Island. Both equally interesting but for different reasons!

The things that might decide it for me are the food, the friendliness, how expensive or otherwise it is to eat out, how good the roads are, how efficient the local airports are for internal flights, and how safe it will be for me, as a lone woman, to go out of my hotel in the evenings. I don't want to be limited to eating at hotels every night preferably!

Has anyone been to either or even both and had a strong preference for one over the other?

The altitude is a factor in Peru, we found Cusco very difficult till we had acclimatised.

Yes, it's in my mind, but I've never been at those altitudes before and I have no idea how I'll feel. I would have a couple of days in Cusco before attempting anything very strenuous so I hope I'd be able to acclimatise (and get some coca tea down me).

The altitude can take some acclimatisation. Took me 3 days to not feel like I was walking through treacle in Cuzco.

I was absolutely fine in Cusco. Running up steps and being really smug. I stupidly thought that 2 days would be enough to acclimatise for the salkantay. I did take diamox. I then got really ill on salkantay pass at 4300 meters. I literally couldn't breathe and then vomitted all the way down. Altitude sickness is no joke.

@ICriedAllTheWayToTheChipShop they recommend that once you go to Cusco you then go back down a bit and spend the night in the sacred valley, as going up then down a bit for a night helps. Diamox can help and you can buy it OTC anywhere in Peru.

@ICriedAllTheWayToTheChipShop Cuzco is lower than Lake Titicaca. By around 1500 ft. I find 12,000 ft is my limit and it definitely was in Chile. You will not really know in advance. Take Imigran. Lots of it. Drink Coca tea. That really works. Holiday companies should build in acclimatisation because Lima is sea level. You notice the difference.

Just in case anyone was interested in an update, I've booked Peru for October 2025, with three days in the jungle in between Lima and Cusco. Now I just need to calm myself down a bit and not spend the next 14 months in a state of high excitement.

Great! Something to look forward to:)

@ICriedAllTheWayToTheChipShop It will be great. The rainforest is a must when you have gone all that way. At our lodge we fed meat to piranhas and then we could swim with them! DD aged around 8 did! The rest of us wimped out. She has dined out on this story for 20 years!

I loved our trip to the Amazon (from Ecuador though). We also swam off a boat - but didn't feed the piranhas first! We also saw plenty of pink river dolphins which are very strange indeed! I am sure you will really enjoy your trip OP :)

@TizerorFizz I'm not sure I would be brave enough to swim with piranhas, recently fed or not. I'd worry that the meat would just whet their appetites and they'd see me as the main course. I'm looking forward to seeing some though!

Mine at termites in the Amazon and still talk about that!

They aren’t actually that big! Just ugly!

In Peru we also saw fantastic giant otters and the macaws were amazing. Rainforests really are something completely different!

I love weird, ugly animals though. My biggest hope is that I'll manage to see an anaconda while I'm there - it's my dream snake that I would totally have as a pet if I had the house room. And I really want to spot a hoatzin because they're pleasingly dinosaur-like.