Pangea: Travel Registry

Peru Fact Sheet

Updated January 2009

Current time in Peru (Lima):

For the more adventurous holiday-maker who enjoys hiking, the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu is a must. Beginning in Cusco you will take a 3 night walking journey through the mountains above the Urubamba river, following the route of an old Inca road leading to the city of Machu Picchu. This journey will take you through some of the most spectacular sceneries of natural beauty, surrounded by mystery and filled with a rich history, all ending in one of the new wonders of the world – Machu Picchu.

The Inca Trail routes range between easy 2 day hikes and some more challenging 7 day treks.

Contact us today for a personalised itinerary and quote

When to go

The best time to do the Inca Trail is when the weather is mostly dry and sunny – from May to September. The winter months of June, July and August are particuarly cold at night (dropping to -1°C), so bring that extra-warm sleeping bag with you!

Notable events in Peru for 2009

Visa and Health Requirements for Peru

Visa – none required for South African passport holders on holiday for up to 90 days. However, visitors must have a return or onward ticket and sufficient funds to support themselves while in Peru.

Vaccination – Yellow Fever compulsory; Hepatitis A, Typhoid and Malaria Prophylaxis are recommended

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Lima, Peru: The City of Kings

Peru’s incredibly rich and compelling archaeological heritage and its great natural beauty–remarkable even in a continent renowned for its exotic vistas–draw tens of thousands of visitors each year. Almost all make a stop at Lima, which is Peru’s cultural and business center. Lima runs at a slower pace than many South American metropolises; its rhythm is more traditional, and its people reflect a steadier, calmer constitution. Lima’s unusually amenable inhabitants give the metropolis the feeling, at times, of a cluster of smaller towns.

Lima’s physical atmosphere is slightly dreamlike, mostly because of the garua–a mist that settles over the city between May and October. Under its blanket, Lima’s inhabitants meet at the penas (bars offering folk and Creole music), shop at the open marketplaces, and dine at Lima’s celebrated restaurants. Several museums display and preserve Peru’s golden past, including most notably the internationally famed Museo Nacional de Antropologia y Arqueologia.

South of Lima, long white beaches washed by the cold waters of the southern Pacific stretch away in an uninterrupted string, backed by row upon row of huge, brilliant white sand dunes. In contrast to the tourist beaches of warmer climes, these shores have few amenities other than small restaurants and cafes. One of the best of these remote beaches, as if to confirm its tranquillity, is known as El Silencio. Like Lima itself, these beaches seem to exist in an eddy of time, pleasantly removed from the relentless pace of more frequented destinations.

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Cusco: The Cradle of the Inca Civilization

Cusco -South America, is known all around the world for its special beauty and the incredible archaeological ruins of Muchu Picchu.

This is the town hikers depart from in order to go on the Inca Trail.

Cusco/Cuzco- “the old imperial Inca capital, which was both the administrative and the religious centre of the empire. Seized by the Spanish in 1533 after the murders of the Incas Huascar and Atahualpa, many of the original Inca buildings were destroyed and their stone used to construct palaces and churches for the invaders. Much of the city was also burned during the rebellion of 1534.”

Cusco porudly carries the title of “Archeological Capital of the Americas” because there is no other place on the continent where you can easily experience such an amazing culture as that of the Incas in such beautiful surroundings.

The contrast between native and western cultures, between history and the present makes Cusco especially attractive to foreigners visiting Peru

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Lake Titicaca – The World’s Highest Lake in Peru

Lake Titicaca is the world’s highest lake navigable to large vessels, lying at 12,500 feet (3,810 m) above sea level in the Andes Mountains of South America, astride the border between Peru to the west and Bolivia to the east. Titicaca is the second largest lake of South America (after Maracaibo). It covers some 3,200 square miles (8,300 square km) and extends in a northwest-to-southeast direction for a distance of 120 miles (190 km). It is 50 miles (80 km) across at its widest point. A narrow strait, Tiquina, separates the lake into two bodies of water.

In Inka mythology, Manco Capac and Mama 0cllo, children of the Sun, emerged from the depths of Lake Titicaca to found their empire. Like famous naturalist Jacques Cousteau, today’s visitors to Titicaca will surely feel the same emotion that captivated the symbolic universe of the ancient Peruvians. With lofty snow-capped peaks along its far shores, the vast blue lake at 3,800m is one of the Andes’ most enchanting scenes.

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Festivals in Peru

For many, South America equals festivals. The festivals bring along with them an abundance of pilgramages, parades, dancing and general merriment, but they also focus on the sacred and the profane manifestation of vitality, pride and happiness. The festivals of Cusco form a rainbow of colour bringing together sounds, flavours, scents and a sense of reinventing a synthesis of Man and the Earth,

Choose a date for your holiday that coincides with a festival and feel the true essence of South America

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