Peru

Peru is a country with a huge diversity of experiences. From the pinnacle of fine dining to the heights of Rainbow Mountain, there’s something for every kind of traveler. We went on a ten-day trip to this country and still didn’t experience everything it had to offer.

A brief breakdown of our trip:

• Eating amazing food in Lima
• surfing dunes in huacachina
• flying over 1000-year-old symbols in Nasca
• Exploring the ruins of the Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu
• Having a tasting menu experience at an ancient Inca food lab
• Getting used to the altitude of Cusco and hiking the Rainbow mountain
• Staying on a floating island on Lake Titicaca

Lima

We had some of the best food in our entire lives at the restaurant in Peru. Kjolle and Central were huge standouts, and easily world-class. There were some cool museums as well, but otherwise, the city itself wasn’t the most standout.

Huacachina

Huacachina is exactly how you would imagine a desert oasis town to look like. There is a body of water with palm trees at the center, and a tiny town built around it. Surrounding it are massive dunes on all sides. We spent a day going sandboarding on the dunes, and it was a ton of fun! That being said, my friend mentioned that it was essentially a worse version of snowboarding.

Nasca

Nasca was definitely an interesting town. At first glance, the only thing to do here is to fly over the world-famous Nazca lines and then leave. But we had some extra time to spend here, and we learned more about the culture. We were even able to hold 1000-year-old pottery and buy similar ones that are hand-crafted by artisans today. Overall, for a day’s worth of exploration, Nasca pleasantly surprised me.

Sacred Valley

This is a beautiful part of Peru. We stayed in the town of Ollantaytambo, which has been preserved since the time of the Incas. Doing a tour around the valley, I instantly fell in love with the scenery. The mountains there are so beautiful, along with the quaint towns in the valleys underneath them. It reminded me a lot of the Interlaken area of Switzerland if it had a completely different vegetation.

Mil

Even though the food in Lima set a high bar, this somehow edged it out by the slightest margin. We arrived at Mil, the food lab from the creators of Kjolle and Central, at around 9 in the morning. We first had a tour around the area located in Moray, where a guide told us about how the Incas used the site during their time to experiment with foods in different altitudes, and then had an experienced craftsman show us traditional techniques of food cultivation. After the experience, we had an incredible tasting menu paired with spirits for each round. There aren’t many experiences quite like it in the world.

Rainbow Mountain

This was quite a tough hike due to the conditions surrounding it. We had to wake up at 3 am to get on the shuttle to the base, which took around 2 hours. Once we were there, the elevation was a staggering 16522 meters. Along with that, the road was quite steep. However, it was worth it in the end. We got to see some of the most stunning views the Andes had to offer.

Lake Titicaca

The highest navigable lake in the world, it is home to some of the most unique communities you will ever find, such as the Uros. They are a community of people living on floating islands. These floating islands are artificially created and only tied to the riverbed with an anchor. It was quite a unique experience to be able to stay on one and have a community member show us around. We even got a hand-crafted souvenir from them that I display in my room to this day.