Global Travel Planning
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Global Travel Planning
Exploring Peru: Hidden Treasures, Travel Tips, and Inspiring Stories with Ariana Svenson
Join us for an exciting journey through Peru featuring Ariana, an Australian traveller who traded her political career for the captivating trails of the Andes. Get ready to be inspired by her tales of spontaneous adventure as Ariana recounts her transition to life in Cusco and shares her deep connection to Peru's rich history and breathtaking landscapes. Discover practical tips from her travels across Asia and South America, and learn how to make the most of your first visit to Peru, from managing altitude sickness to savouring the delightful local cuisine.
Our episode also shines a spotlight on the incredible story of a women-owned tourism company in Peru, co-founded by an Australian and her Peruvian partner, Feli Cayenalpa Gonzalez. Hear how they defied societal expectations to create a business that offers authentic cultural experiences, catering to travellers seeking personalized adventures off the beaten path. With an emphasis on spending eight to ten days in Peru, they reveal the secrets to uncovering the country's hidden gems beyond the iconic Machu Picchu.
Planning a Peruvian adventure? We've got you covered with expert advice on crafting an ethical itinerary highlighting Peru's cultural and natural wonders. From the culinary capital of Lima to the mystical ruins of Cusco and the Sacred Valley, your adventure awaits.
Explore the diverse landscapes of the Amazon, Lake Titicaca, and more, all while mastering the essentials of transportation, language, and travel etiquette. Whether you're a seasoned traveller or a first-time visitor, this episode is your comprehensive guide to experiencing the true spirit of Peru.
⭐️ Guest - Ariana Svenson (World of Travel with Kids)
📝 Show Notes - Episode 41
🎧 Listen to next
- Episode #14 - Tips for first-time visitors to Japan
- Episode #4 - Tips for first-time visitors to Vietnam
- Episode #16 - Exploring New Zealand by Van: Insider Tips and Must-Visit Destinations with Abigail Hannah
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Welcome to episode 41 of the Global Travel Planning Podcast. Today we're exploring Peru with our special guest, arianna, who called Peru home for years and knows the country inside out. If you're planning your first trip to Peru, don't miss the expert advice on making the most of your journey. Hi and welcome to the Global Travel Planning Podcast. I'm your host, tracey Collins, who, with my expert guests, will take you on a weekly journey to destinations around the globe, providing travel inspiration, itinerary ideas, practical tips and more to help you plan your next travel adventure. Hi everybody, I'm thrilled to have Ariana join us on the podcast today.
Speaker 1:Ariana's story is one of spontaneity, adventure and falling in love with Peru's mountains, culture and history. We'll start by learning about how she came to call Peru home and then dive into invaluable trips for first-time visitors. From managing altitude to planning your itinerary, avoiding common pitfalls and even what foods to try, ariana has it all covered. So let's get started. So I kind of wanted to know about your background and I was interested to see that you did the kind of travel and things. So you're Australian, are you from Perth?
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, I'm living in the town where I grew up the village, so it's remote. There's 300 people in the town where I grew up the village like a village, so it's very, it's remote. There's 300 people in the town. We don't call them villages, but yeah, I live 20 kilometres away from my mum and my brother. So I came back to the hometown but spent 15, 20 years travelling yeah, so tell me about that.
Speaker 1:So when did you decide that you wanted to go and do? Because I I grew up between the UK and South Africa and after university the first thing I wanted to do was get on a plane and go back to Europe. So I guess you you got that similar kind of travel bug and decided right, I'm, I'm going.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I'm kind of, I had no, I had a career and I was very yeah, I was in politics and, oh, no, sorry, so you've got to go back.
Speaker 2:My dad's American, and so when I was growing up in the 1980s, we used to go to America every second year and Dad would always go like, oh, let's go somewhere else. So we would go to other places, like we, you know, went to Europe and then we'd go to America and visit my grandmother and then come back, and so we did that my whole childhood. My dad's also like kind of not settled in one place so much so we used to always spend time in the gold fields of Australia fossicking and camping and moving about. So the moving about kind of thing kind of always happened. So I got a career and I did the whole like I'm going to have a career and be in politics and work in an office and have a suit and be that sort of person, until I reached 25 and went oh, this is so not what I want to do. So first of all, I spent two years travelling through Asia and then did, like Russia, like the Trans-Siberian long stints in China, and then went back, did some more work in Australia and then went oh, I'm going to go to the UK and do my UK work visa thing because I think we have a work visa before we turn 30 in order to get my two years work visa in the UK and went via South America and said, oh yeah, cool, you know, just do the South America thing. It's called the Gringo Trail. You start in the north and you work south and you follow the Gringo Trail.
Speaker 2:So I went to Chile, ecuador and then Peru and then on to Bolivia, paraguay and Brazil, and so I was in Brazil and I'd probably spent five months in South America and you know I loved it, I absolutely adored it, and I thought, you know I can go. I had this deadline to get to the UK for this visa and I sort of went, oh, just write to like a whole pile of English teaching schools across South America. So I did this one weekend, went to an internet you know cabins, you know how you used to go to the old internet cabins and you'd send all your emails and a school in Cusco said if you can be here on Monday morning, we'll give you a job. And I was like in Brazil, in the Pantanal, and so I like the best. It was a great adventure because you know, I took a motorbike to a military airport and then got the military plane into Bolivia and then, like, had 36 hours of buses and made it to Cusco for Monday morning. Wow.
Speaker 1:And then going oh, it's just a trading day or something stupid.
Speaker 2:Anyway, that was it. Yeah, so that's how. I wouldn't say that there was a great deal of choice. If I chose, I wouldn't have probably chosen Cusco or even necessarily Peru. It was really a lottery of like how I ended up there, but I ended up there and then, very quickly, I would go out.
Speaker 2:I should add that I'm not a hiker, so hiking wasn't a thing that I'd done very much of at all until that point, but on the weekends we would go out with my Peruvian friends and we would follow these trails, and the thing that I couldn't believe, and I still can't believe honestly, is that those trails are ancient Inca trails and everything connects you with everything else, and so you can explore the entire mountains and you don't see a single person. And so that really is what got me is that you could be so far away from the tourist crowds in such a little amount of time and finding these amazing ruins that nobody well, you know people knew about them, but no tourists knew about them, and that was it. I was hooked with the mountains and with Inca, history and those kind of things.
Speaker 1:And how long did you stay in Peru altogether?
Speaker 2:Well, that was 2002. Well, you know, and I still have a daily relationship with Peru today. So we moved back here when I had my son, so that was my second child in 2013, was the permanent one child you can manage. I think living in different places, Two kids is like a whole step up of difficulty.
Speaker 2:And I think you know, with my first child, my daughter, I'd had, um, no scary things happen with her medical treatment, but even when you get a cold or something's wrong with your baby, you suddenly have a massive cultural uh, cultural things, that where you realize you actually need to be in your own culture or your own way of dealing with issues. And so, yeah, I came back six weeks before my son was born and that was it. So that's 12 years ago since I moved back to Australia.
Speaker 1:But I should say you have strong ties with Peru and you have your own company as well.
Speaker 2:And that's why I've got my daily contact, because that's my income, I guess, and so every day I'm talking with Peru, emailing with Peru, you know, and friendships and business colleagues, but you know, always, so like there's rarely a day goes by where I'm not doing something to do with Peru.
Speaker 1:And would you like to talk to us a little bit about your company and kind of? You know who it's for what tours and things that you do and kind of. I guess who you cater for I guess is the kind of question.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it's named Apus Peru Adventure Travel Specialists. Apus are the mountain gods, so the sacredness of the mountains is the Apus, so the Apus of Peru is the sacred mountains of Peru. My business partner is a lady named Feli Cayenalpa Gonzalez. She's a Peruvian woman, or an Andean Quechua woman, and when we formed as a company which was back in 2008, we were like one of the only women-owned companies in a very machista, like which is a macho society. It still is a machista, very macho society where women don't run companies, especially not in tourism. So we were quite out there when we did that.
Speaker 2:So when we started the company, it was really straight. Well, it was kind of funny because I was like oh yeah, there's this new thing called the internet and I'll create a website and we'll sell tours on that website. But of course, it seems so funny and I'm sure you're also at an age when you that was really innovative and, um, of course now, 20 years later, it's not at all innovative. But our market was always selling to people online rather than selling people face-to-face, and my first iteration of my website was I'm going to offer things that no one else offers in the entire world. Like that's it. It's going to be so out there, it's going to be so innovative and it's really going to connect people with the real Peru. And we sold nothing Like nothing.
Speaker 2:You know, second iteration was more touristic, had more offerings and, like now, our most common offering is the Inca Trail, machu Picchu. So we're very well, we're quite mainstream now, but we also maintain kind of a secondary offering which is for people who want to experience more authentic Peru than the typical tourist offering. And I also like to say that the company's evolved as I've evolved, changed, matured, matured that's the word. So you, you know, when I was started it, I was really hardcore, very, you know, I wouldn't spend any extra money, a real backpacker. And then you know, I had children, and so then you become much more interested in safety and of course I am from Australia, so I think safety was probably always the thing that we used to do, and also we are very interested in not exploiting people, protecting the environment.
Speaker 2:So it's matured. So now I actually think the company is kind of for me in my 50s I'm going to turn 50 this year, but I mean I had children late, so my youngest is six, so I'm still very much in my parenting stage. But yeah, so we create things that are more um for me in my current age range or, and I have an understanding, obviously, of what people are looking for. So I still, I think I still create things that are for people like me in my age range so do.
Speaker 1:What about, like it's like family travel to Peru and solo female travellers, all of that? You kind of cater for all of those kind of groups of travellers.
Speaker 2:We're very bespoke and boutique so we can cater for anybody wanting anything, and that's where a lot of our strength comes in, because we create things that people want individually. We do do quite a lot of family travel and I always have a strong hand in organising that to make sure that the family isn't over committed. Solo women travellers we don't deal with that a lot because we mostly offer private packages. So, pre-pandemic, we did work with a couple of companies in the US which were like women for women, women travellers, but no, we don't have like a solo women traveller thing happening.
Speaker 2:But if a group of solo women traveller wanted to get together we can do it.
Speaker 1:That's what I was going to ask. Actually, that kind of guess was that was going to lead it into that you, if we had a group of five or six I mean how many like what's your kind of maximum size group?
Speaker 2:well, this is the whole thing. We're not about big numbers. So, right, we offer a lot of our clients are two people, so two or two or three people. You know a couple who have, in their more mature years, realised that they don't want to. You know, they want to go on holiday and relax, so they actually just want to go away into the mountains and just have the two of them, and so you'd be surprised at the number of people that just book for two or four people. Two, lots of best friends. So our minimum number's two. Our maximum trekking groups like between 8 and 12, like we can obviously cater for larger groups, but we don't like to because it really takes away from the experience that, um, we try to offer, which is authentic and personal yeah, sounds really sounds really good, and I will put a link to your company in the show notes as well.
Speaker 1:So let's kick in and let's talk about Peru. I literally know it was great to talk about that. It's really good to know. I literally know very little about Peru. Obviously, the first thing that comes into mind when I think about Peru is Incas and Machu Picchu. That's, that's about it. So what would be the key things that you or I should know, or anybody listening to this podcast who's planning to visit Peru for the first time what are the key things that they should know?
Speaker 2:Well, obviously they're going to want to visit Machu Picchu.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but.
Speaker 2:Machu Picchu is an isolated place in the middle of the mountains and to focus on Machu Picchu is kind of just like seeing one thing in the middle of Europe when there's a whole lot of attractions around, everything, like you can go to Peru for four or five days and hit a number of bucket list items, but it's also quite an expensive airfare. So most people, I think, try to spend eight to ten days at a minimum. Fourteen days is better if they can, because I guess, as I've aged, I'm more careful around my body. Most people fly into Lima and I like to, I say, stay a night in Lima, or two nights if you can get your sea legs. It's a really fascinating city.
Speaker 2:It's very different than Cusco, which would be your next port of call. Lima's like the culinary capital of the South America. It's got a lot of for Americans, particularly a lot of famous chefs who have got television programs in America, so they're quite famous. So go and experience the food. And Lima has a Latino culture, so it's sort of more Spanish, whereas when you get to the andes it's andean culture, it's a. It's a really distinctly different culture. So you, you know, I would say you've got to see just a night or two in lima, and that's also really good for your body, because after a long flight, you'll then fly up to cuzco. As you fly into Cusco, it's 3,400 metres, that's like 14,000 feet. 13,000 feet, I think.
Speaker 1:I don't know, I work in metres as well. That's all right. I work in metres. Yeah, we're good. I'm good on metres 3,400 metres.
Speaker 2:So that's like really really high, high, I was going to say it's really really high. Yes, it's really really high, like one of the highest cities in the world with an airport of that size. So the first thing that you struggle with is it hits you like the altitude hits you, and I seriously don't believe that when people say, oh, it didn't affect me, and I'm like you can hardly breathe when you get there because there's little oxygen in the air. So Cusco was the capital of the Inca Empire, so it really merits two or three days in its own right. It's completely charming. It's got lots of cobblestone streets. Basically, when the Spanish conquered Peru, they found that the Incas had built these really amazing foundations and the foundations are earthquake-proof. So they raised the top of the buildings and they built the Spanish churches and the Spanish houses on top of the Inca foundations. So you literally have the bottom part of the city is Incan and the top part is sort of colonial Spanish. So very charming and attractive and you know, it's got amazing restaurants. It's extremely cosmopolitan, but yet it is still highly Andean. So people wearing their traditional dress, bringing their fruits and veggies to the market, they're wandering down the street. Yeah, that's Cusco.
Speaker 2:From Cusco, if you were to go directly to Machu Picchu, you're looking at about four hours travel. It's not nothing. It's like if you were to take a car and then the train. You'd be like looking at four hours travel. To get from Cusco to Machu Picchu. You're going to go through this sacred valley of the Incas, so romantically named. It's sacred, it's beautiful. It's a lower altitude valley in the middle of the Andes, so growing all this amazing vegetation, flowers, birds. It's where the Incan people naturally cultivated their crops, so there's lots of crops. So it's sacred and it's beautiful. So to not stop there is really a shame if you don't. Yeah, and there's also Incan ruins and things to explore there. So you go from Cusco to the Sacred Valley and then on to Machu Picchu.
Speaker 2:If you've only got five days, you kind of do an express version. If you've got ten days, you can do the whole thing, but more slowly, and actually appreciate some of the intricacies of the culture and really learn about why it's so special and how it's so special and they're the top things. If you've got like five or ten days, the rest of Peru, like there's the Amazon jungle. I could talk, you know, for ages about the Amazon jungle Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world, really iconic looking. You have Arequipa, which is a white city made out of like white silar rock and has beautiful Spanish architecture so a lovely, really attractive place to wander around. And then the Colca Canyon, which is like as deep as the Grand Canyon and has condors flying about. Wow, yeah, so like there's so much to do and see.
Speaker 1:And it's a big country as well. I think that's the thing as well. It's like it's huge. Is it about the third largest in South America, Peru?
Speaker 2:yep, probably third or fourth I suppose yeah, yeah but yeah, it's massive, um, and it's got like the coastal strip, the mountains and then the jungle and within that I don't know how many different ethnic groups and stuff like that. But there's enormous diversity in ethnic groups, where they dress differently from town to town and place to place in these colourful cultural dress which identifies who they are, and so like that, from a photographic point of view, is stunning.
Speaker 1:So it sounds there's so much to do and see in peru. So you've given, you've given us. I mean, wow, I'm kind of. I kind of knew that there was obviously more than machu pichu, but just talking to you I might go, and I need to go for a month, by the sounds of it at least. What's the best way to plan an itinerary? Obviously you've given us a good idea there for kind of like that eight to ten days if you're going to do the kind of Lima, cusco and then on to Machu Picchu. But where, would you say, for people to go when they want to start planning an itinerary? Obviously, kind of you have a huge amount of knowledge which you're sharing with us. I assume you've got obviously got a website with information as well that we can access. But I guess that local knowledge is pretty invaluable, isn't it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, I suppose it all depends on what type of travel people want to do. There's some, you know, there's some good UK companies that offer quality package tours. I always would say look for a smaller company that has, at a minimum, an environmental policy, a social policy these days some of it's greenwashing, but I know there's some good uk companies and I there's some, um, and there's there's good companies around the world. But I mean, your first port of call is to travel ethically and responsibly. Um, so that would be a place that I would say is because the exploitation in Peru is quite.
Speaker 2:There's enormous amounts of exploitation, and so by putting our money where we support people that are socially responsible, we give the message that a lot of the really large companies that offer cheap trips need to step up. But that's going to take a lot of time and education. So you can go with a uk, us-based company, but they will then be always dealing with a middleman. So if you can find a peruvian-based company, then your money goes directly into peru, so you're not dealing with a middleman. You know, if you're an confident, independent traveler, there's like lots of companies. Yeah, that's the thing. If you're a confident, independent traveler, there's like lots of companies. Yeah, that's the thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because obviously you've got the company option. But if you're an independent traveler and you think right, okay, I'm used to traveling around. I guess like describe myself here traveling around the world independently. But I still feel a little bit intimidated when it comes to putting together an itinerary for Peru, in terms of you know how to start with it, what to know, and I know one thing you mentioned is about the start and lower and go to higher altitude, because it's a very important thing to consider.
Speaker 2:Yes, exactly yeah. So, if you're an independent traveler, first of all, I can tell you that Peru is really well organised for independent travel, so, and it's also very economical for the independent traveller who is capable of organising their own travel. So, yeah, I would definitely. Everybody will, most likely will fly into Lima. So you know, you're starting low and so, yeah, one of the things that hits a lot of people is altitude. And if they're a slow traveller and they're moving along the coast and then they start moving up through the mountains, they won't have problems with altitude because they're allowing their body the healthy and natural way to acclimatise. And so that would definitely be how I would plan.
Speaker 2:It is working low to high. I mean, I personally, you know, when I'm going to a destination, I don't know, I get packaged tours and I copy them or like at least study them, and go oh, look where they went, and that's how I want to do it and stuff, so that you know, get. You know, in the old, you see, in the olden days, you used to get the glossy magazines and you used to. You know, look, work through them and yeah, but you know, obviously you don't need that now, but, um, that's how I would do it. If you're an independent traveler, get the glossy magazine, if they still have it, or go online and see what companies are offering low to high.
Speaker 2:If you had extra time, I would highly recommend doing a week's worth of Spanish, because Spanish is not a difficult language to learn. You know so, I'm told, and a little bit of Spanish also gets you a long way, and you know. Then you get that immersive experience. There's a lot of Spanish schools in Cusco. You can get you know some language in, do some activities, immerse yourself and then go off and travel.
Speaker 1:That sounds great. I love that. I like learning languages wherever. Wherever I go to, it's always, um, something that I always say to people learn at least, at least learn at least the key phrases, because it's just, it's just polite, just really to be able to communicate, at least in in some of the uh, you know, thank you, hello, whatever those kind of key phrases, and learn a little bit about the culture as well, so you don't kind of make any of those kind of cultural faux pas. But I was kind of going to ask you what would be the kind of biggest mistake that you see people making, and would it be the kind of moving too fast and kind of the altitude sickness kicking in?
Speaker 2:Yeah, always Not taking altitude seriously, you need. I kind of makes people smile a little bit when people go oh, I don't get affected by altitude. Or I've been in Colorado at 2000 feet, I'm acclimatized, and I'm like, yeah, nah, we don't say we say that in Australia, you know, I constantly see people affected by altitude. The range of affection can be changed. So some people will get headaches, some people will vomit, like you know. You're on a sacred valley too and there's like three people vomiting on the side of the road and you think, oh, you know, if they had have just taken an extra day to rest, they wouldn't be having this awful experience. And obviously there's also really bad altitude sickness where people have to evacuate. We don't see that much. It's more that they just have a couple of days with shocking headaches and vomiting and it's just not great.
Speaker 1:And not a great way to start your holiday. No, absolutely not. So taking that seriously and adding that extra time in sounds like absolutely the number one tip. How do I get around Peru? We get asked that all the time. So I'm a UK travel specialist so it's pretty easy. In the UK I can go well, you can get the train or you can, I recall. But Peru, how do I get around? It depends how much money.
Speaker 2:You have Right, okay, you have Right Okay. So, yeah, really, you know. It means it honestly means what's your budget and how much available time do you have? Because, for example, if you don't have a budget and you have plenty of time, it takes 24 hours ish to travel from Lima to Cusco and it'll cost you probably $30 or $40. And if you fly, it's a one-hour flight and it'll cost you $150 and you're there. So that's, the first thing is that Peru does have a pretty efficient bus system and it's cheap. It does have some accidents, but probably not, or you know about the same as everywhere else in South America.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so If you don't have any budget, then you can get around comfortably. They also have now got hop-on, hop-off buses which are also designed for foreigners or economic travellers to get on in Lima. They get off in Arequipa. They join that same bus. So you're not actually going on public transport where you're going to possibly also you don't get robbed that often anymore, but there's always those risks. So they're a higher quality sort of bus. You meet like-minded foreign travellers on the bus. Yeah, so that's called Peru Hop. We have them in Australia too. Hop on, hop off travellers buses. So there's those sort of options. There's public transport and then there's flying, which, um, in such a big country, can obviously speed up your holiday a lot. It costs more, but then you know, fifty dollars versus a hundred and fifty dollars. It depends how you value your money and your time.
Speaker 1:Oh, I'm a bit of a uh, if I can avoid getting on a plane, I will. And also, you see a bit more. I just think you can. You just see, like, when you're an airplane you don't see that much, but when you're on a, a bus or a train, you get a chance to like see a bit more the countryside.
Speaker 2:That's kind of what was my, my thoughts um, and they've got sleeper buses too, which is to save money. So you know you sleep on the bus. It's a 24 hour bus and when I say 24 hour-ish, you know they can. There's you know issues. They can take 30 hours or 22 hours, it just all depends.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So I guess it's as you say. It's kind of looking at your travel style and your budget and your time and kind of figuring out which, which way is the is the best way for you to to get around and then and then choose. But it's good to know that there are things like those, those hop on buses that you can do, obviously, flights and things like that. So what about? Now? I know there's a train I've heard about this train to match.
Speaker 1:Now, I'm not a hiker. I'm going to say you mentioned that before. About this train to uh, now I'm not a hiker. I'm going to say you mentioned that before. I am. I am definitely not a hiker. Um, I got to 55 and I got to the point where I said I'm not gonna lie anymore about things that I don't like doing. So I don't like any sport whatsoever. That's my first one which my husband finds absolutely appalling, and my daughter, um. But I also don't hike. I very rarely hike. I did a hike in new zealand last year which I absolutely loved and I went. Oh, maybe I do like hiking, but generally I don't. So if I wanted to go, I'm kind of going to just switch back because of the transport thing as well. If I want to go to Machu Picchu, which obviously I will want to do, can I get there without doing any hiking whatsoever, or will I be expected to do some kind of hiking?
Speaker 2:No, you can absolutely get there without hiking and the vast majority of people go there without hiking. It's a misconception that you have to hike the Inca Trail to get there. In fact, only 200 people depart each day on the hike, when there's like 2,000 tickets a day to Machu Picchu. So it's a misconception that it's a hike. So yeah, there's a famous train, which is the train to Machu Picchu. These days it usually doesn't run from Cusco to Machu Picchu, it just runs from the town of Ollantaytambo, which is a little town in the Sacred Valley.
Speaker 2:For logistical reasons they've changed that. So it's an hour and a half trip. It's absolutely spectacular. It's got different ranges of categories, so they've also got like they've got a standard train and they've got a middle class train, and then they've got a super luxurious five hundred dollars return with um, wow, you know, waiters and you and gourmet meals and things like that. Very posh, very posh. And so that particular train company does very posh, really well. They have a very elegant luxury train that also runs to Lake Titicaca, so they do that very well. But the one that runs to Lake Titicaca, I think, is one of the greatest train journeys in the world.
Speaker 2:You'll hear those kind of things thrown around. So no, you don't have to hike. And then, if you do, if somebody does want to hike, there's a four-day option and then there's just a one-day hike option. So there's possibilities there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you can choose based on how I guess how fit you are as well and how you know all those sorts of things considerations. I was going to ask as well is there a? Is and I didn't. I know I sent you some questions beforehand and I didn't add this one in, but I was thinking about it. Is there a? Is there like a? A better time of avoid?
Speaker 2:It depends on you. The best time of the year to visit is the dry season, which starts in May and runs through to end of August loosely, which corresponds with the northern hemisphere summer, so it's the busiest time of year. It's very, very full. There's tourists from all around Europe and North America. Everything tends to be booked out. The days are sunny and dry, the nights are very cold, below zero, but it's considered the best time of year. There's also a lot of really good festivals then, so it's very colourful.
Speaker 2:But if you're interested in well, low-season travel, the rain starts in September. But September and October are really good shoulder months in my opinion. Not too much rain, nice amount of sunshine and not that like hectic, hectic, super high-season feel November through February, low season. So you will encounter rain every day in the afternoons, which isn't too bad. If you're not trekking Like, you can get out of the rain. It's mostly well, you know it's more Latin American travellers than North American and European people Prices can be better. So, yeah, if you're what kind of traveler you are because a lot of people are if you're like a bucket list traveler that needs the perfect weather, then june through august is is the time to go. It's the best time of the year but, um, I mean, you know I love christmas, those months, because it's green. So the the dry season it's like it's just dry, it's arid, it's brown, blue skies, brown mountains. In the middle of the wet season it's it's vibrant green, everything's growing, but you know it's sort of cloudy skies and so that sounds good.
Speaker 1:That's good to know because I know that's kind of a common question that we get like is there a time I should go somewhere or avoid going somewhere? And it's good to always have those considerations.
Speaker 2:Now I kind of touched on it oh yeah, yeah. So my recommendations for the very best months are sort of late March, april, avoid Easter, like avoid Easter like the plague, and then September, october are really good months in my opinion. April avoid Easter, like avoid Easter like the plague, and then September, october are really good months in my opinion. Yeah, so definitely avoid Easter and also avoid the end of July, which is the Fiestas Patris, the Independence Day, when national tourists are travelling.
Speaker 1:It's just chaotic. Yeah, I can imagine Extremely busy.
Speaker 2:Well, it is Like here in Australia. It's like insane at Easter and Christmas. I'm sure it is.
Speaker 1:Exactly Same in London. If people are going to visit London, I'm going to go. Well, if you're going to visit Easter, you're going to visit Christmas it's going to be even crazier, busy than it normally is, because, because all the brits are also traveling, then as well we also go to london. We'll kind of briefly touched on it before. But things like, um, you know cultural norms or etiquette, things that are useful to know, because you know, for a lot of people it's going to be a completely different culture that they're not used to. So, um, what sort of things are useful to know before you go?
Speaker 2:I think, overall, peruvian people are fairly open-minded about most things and they've certainly been changing a lot in the last 20 years. So, like I don't think there's a lot that you can do to really offend them or at least the ones that work in tourism are pretty open-minded. You should always carry your own toilet paper that's a tip, because they don't always have toilet paper. Well, they don't have toilet paper in toilets and sometimes you can pay money outside the toilet and get a piece of toilet paper. Maybe you can't.
Speaker 2:And the other thing is to not be offended if they kind of lie to you or agree with you. Offended if they kind of lie to you or agree with you. So, um, you might say something like is this the way to the fred's restaurant? And they go yes, yes, yes, this is the way to fred's restaurant, but it's not the way to fred's restaurant, because they don't want to disagree with you. Um, right, that's sort of they that.
Speaker 2:So the the truth is flexible. Oh, time's flexible too. They're really not good at time. But again, I think the tourism industry's developed a lot, like since I first arrived in Peru. They're really understanding now that you can't arrive late when you have I mean, at least in my company too, we work really hard on those things. You can't be late, yeah, you need to be late. Yeah, you know you need to say you are there at the time. You are there. But yeah, I mean, it's a strongly Catholic country, so I think I would avoid some of the any topics that are contentious with Catholic people. But apart from that, but even then, like like you know, I I think people are quite open minded these days cool and obviously learning a few, a few words at the least of spanish is really useful.
Speaker 2:As I said before, it's always a good thing to do to prepare yourself absolutely keep in mind that the second language in peru, or the main language, is Quechua, which is the language of the Incas. So not in Lima, but in Cusco, a lot of people speak Quechua, and until recently they were really looked down upon. It was not a celebrated thing. It was a sign of being a lower class or a less educated person if you spoke the Indigenous language. As with Indigenous cultures across the world, they've struggled with their identity, and so it's only really recently that they're very proud of speaking Quechua and will do it openly in public. So if you learn a few words of Quechua, you'd be particularly popular, and you know there's a cultural one.
Speaker 2:So when my company works, we do seek out Quechua-speaking people, because all of our field team on our treks and our hikes are Quechua-speaking, and women are still often monolingual, so they only speak Quechua instead of Quechua and Spanish Men are pretty much all bilingual because they've been sent to school, whereas the girls weren't sent to school. Again, that's changing. So these days, 30-year-old women were educated, but 50-year-old women weren't educated. So you know you have that mix.
Speaker 2:So we actively employ Quechua-speaking people, and so we have porters on our Inca Trail and so the people really want to sit with them and talk with them, and we're like, yeah, but they don't necessarily want to sit and talk with you. They're very closed kind of in their culture, and it's not that they don't want to, they're not being rude, they just like to be with their own people. And so, yeah, well, I think it's really difficult when you're in an Indigenous culture that has been conquered and then put down over hundreds of years. So, yeah, they like to hang out with their own groups. And people are like, oh, but I want to talk with my porters, I want to sit with them, and they like I'm like, yeah, they don't really for the no one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, you have to have that respect for what they want at the end of the day that's right. It's not what we want. No, exactly, it's having that sensitivity um to that. I'm going to slightly pivot towards um food and drink, because I always I, I like my food, I like my drink. That sounds wrong when I say it like that, but what should I try when I go to Peru?
Speaker 2:Well, Peru now has this amazing culinary renaissance where they've come out and they've got all these famous chefs where they're doing really, really amazing stuff with Peruvian cuisine. One of the dishes that you must try if you're in Lima is ceviche, which is raw fish. Well, it's not cooked in lemon, but that's how you what's the word? It's like marinated in lemon, yeah, so ceviche in Lima is really good. They make a nice ceviche in Cusco, but it's better in Lima.
Speaker 2:The pisco you can try pisco, which is, you know, Peruvian brandy, I believe, or like a derivative of brandy, but it's also chili. Chili also claims pisco, so you can't say it's just Peruvian, so don't write that Topa. There's I mean for everybody, there's Inca Cola, which is this bright, vibrant, fluorescent, yellow soft drink which you've got to try because it's like so insanely sweet, bubblegum-like, but really funny to drink. So do try Inca Cola. And the controversial one is, of course, guinea pig. So kui is an Andean delicacy and they bring out guinea pig on all the special occasions, and so you can eat it in restaurants where it's without its head and feet, which is a more palatable way of eating it. But how they eat it in their homes is with the feet and head and everything. It's obviously not for everybody, it's quite a gamey taste, but it's certainly something that you must try if you're into that kind of thing. And, of course, potatoes Don't forget the potatoes.
Speaker 1:I have to tell you. I mean, I, I absolutely love potatoes. I was so excited when I read about how many varieties of potato they have. I was like, wow, yeah they.
Speaker 2:They have so many different varieties of potatoes wow, amazing.
Speaker 1:I was like and different colors and different they're just. I looked at a photo, I think I don't know if it's on your instagram, on your website, and I was like, wow, that's just incredible. And I guess they've all got subtle differences in flavor yes, yeah, but, and it's still and um.
Speaker 2:So that's when you go to these gourmet restaurants and things like that. Now they're really good at talking about the different flavors because I mean, when we're from a culture or somebody is from a culture, they don't recognize it. So I lived in Peruvian households for, you know, a long time and I didn't realize what I was eating, because you just ate it and not until you go to a gourmet restaurant and they split them and they go, oh, this is this and this. And you're like, oh, wow, it's really unique Classic.
Speaker 1:So are there specific ways that they prepare the potatoes, like, I think, roast, mash jacket potatoes, just a variety of ways, or is that kind of like a speciality way of doing it?
Speaker 2:Well, this is also where it's difficult, because the really typical ways of eating the potatoes in the high mountains with the Indigenous people is not particularly palatable to Western taste. So there's two ways that they prepare them in the Indigenous communities. One is that they freeze, dry them when the frosts are coming down, and so those particular potatoes are really not palatable to us, and they carry them in their bags. And then the other way, they just boil them in their jackets and then they peel them as a way of hygiene. So you'll meet an Indigenous lady when you're walking in the mountains and she'll pull out. They carry a manta around their shoulders and she'll pull it out and she'll offer you some hot potatoes and that's how they eat them. So that's the most traditional way of eating potatoes. It's just boiled potatoes, um. But in rest, that's what I'm saying. I didn't really have the appreciation until I went to gourmet restaurants where they were able to jazz them up a bit yeah, do many different things with them.
Speaker 1:yeah, right now I I always end the podcast with the same question, so I know our listeners are going to expect it and I kind of know what you're going to say, but I'm going to ask it anyway. What is the one tip that you would share with anybody visiting or planning a visit to Peru for the first time?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you did guess it, it's take the altitude seriously. And I mean my second tip would be like don't jam it all in.
Speaker 1:Allow time and discover like what a unique culture it is. Yeah, it sounds amazing. I'm very excited to. I'm not sure when I'm going to get over there, but it's definitely on my can't-wait-to-go-to list at some point. Thanks so much for coming on and chatting to us about peru. It's been brilliant to chat to you today, ariana. I meet you for the first time. I've actually yeah, first time we've met today. So it was lovely to meet you and chat and we'll share links in the episode show notes to your company and to your website and, um, obviously, social media channels and everything like that. So if you want to find out more about ariana and her company and about Peru, do check out the show notes. But thanks so much for coming on today, ariana.
Speaker 2:Oh look, thank you for inviting me and I hope that it was helpful. And, you know, message me if you've got more questions. I don't know.
Speaker 1:Well, we actually have a new thing called Speakpipe, where people can actually leave a voice message if they have a particular question or something they want to know, so I let you know if we hear anything back from anybody.
Speaker 1:so if you listen to the episode and thinking I've got something specifically I'd love to know about, then I can pass that on to ariana and, uh, hopefully get back to you with any, uh, anything, anything you want to know. Or, obviously, you can email ariana. The information will be in the show notes and on your website so we can definitely sort that out. So, thanks again, thank you. Thank you for joining us on this episode of the Global Travel Planet podcast. For more details and links to everything we discussed today, check out the show notes at globaltravelplanetcom. Remember, if you enjoyed the show, please consider leaving us a review on your favorite podcast app, because your feedback helps us reach more travel enthusiasts, just like you. Anyway, that leaves me to say, as always, happy global travel planning.