Peru?
 

Never been to Peru.
However,
i have a ticket.

Anybody ever biked there?
Whats to know?

Seriously, that's a lot of little info and not sure what your expectations are for answers.
I would strongly suggest taking the time over at cgoab and looking up trip journals where folks have biked through Peru. You'll get good info and you can relate your trip plans of various places to recent riding experience from tourers.
Good luck with your research to get properly prepared.

I was thinking someone who has been there would say what they liked bout Peru

In the last few months there was a thread about biking in Peru, and a fellow who has spent a lot of time there gave good suggestions and experiences, hope you can find it.
Again, all the best getting info.

A few years back, I went down the coast, then once south of Lima, across the country to Lake Titicaca. Here's my impression:

On the coast, the wind is always blowing northward. It's not bad in the morning, can be devastating in the afternoon.
The north coast area, especially around Mancora, has some nice beaches. The rest of the coast is forgettable. The interior of the country is mountainous. So do you want consistent wind or consistent hills?
There's a stretch of highway on the coast that's regarded as particularly dangerous, I believe around Chiclayo. Nothing happened to me, but someone I had ridden with elsewhere let me know that he was robbed - everything but the bike. While I was there, the locals acted visibly concerned for my safety, being all alone, especially at night.
Nasca is pretty awesome.
Ceviche is pretty awesome.
Cusquena is the best beer you'll find. They have a gold (Dorada), red (Roja), black (Negra), and wheat (Trigo). All are good, Dorada is the flagship, I liked Roja the best. Then again, I'm always partial to reds and ambers.
The mountains are beautiful, and they don't mess around! In a single day, I went from 500 feet to 14,000 feet, basically all in one large hill. Even within tropical latitudes, it can get cold up there.
It's often cheaper to buy food at a cafe than at a grocery store.
Cusco is pretty awesome.
Machu Picchu is expensive to visit, and pretty awesome.
Lake Titicaca can be pretty cool. Eat some trout while you're there - damn good!

Like most of Latin America you'd think the entire country was populated by a bunch of four-year-olds that just found out the car has a horn. This was particularly true in Peru. To them, it's not necessarily rude, it's simply a form of communication. Also, there are dogs everywhere, and it's hard to tell the domestic dogs from the strays. None of them ever stop barking. And finally, it's a cultural difference that when you ask a question, people won't necessarily tell you the correct answer; it's considered polite to say whatever will make you happy. This is especially true when the correct answer is "I don't know." So if it's something important, like "When does the bus leave?" ask three or more people and get a consensus.

This page has 3 links to information about bike touring in Peru.

So if it's something important, like "When does the bus leave?" ask three or more people and get a consensus.

I will try to remember that.
And this

In a single day, I went from 500 feet to 14,000 feet, basically all in one large hill.

We're cycling S Am right now in Colombia. Here's a little of what I know about Peru.

Our top destination is going to be the Huayhuash range for some trekking. A Walk in the Huayhuash: 9 days in the Peruvian Andes - Spoke and Words

If you want to go to MP, don't buy tickets in advance, you should be able to get them much cheaper upon showing up in Cuzco.

Drivers are horrible

You will be chased by a lot of dogs. Generally whenever a dog has been excessively aggressive we stop and hop off the bike and they usually run away. Peru supposedly has the worst dogs, so we'll see.

I agree, ceviche is awesome.

The area around Chiclayo and Trujillo is notoriously dangerous, especially Trujillo, which is unfortunate because the oldest and most famous casa de ciclistas is in Trujillo.

If you go to Titicaca, remember that if you want to cross over to Bolivia, they charge $160 for American citizens.

Here's a map of S Am of random info I've found. Make sure to double check anything I have on there, especially casas de ciclistas because the info may not be current. https://drive.google.com/open?id=1n-...1c&usp=sharing

Oh oh, I was thinking about going to Trujillo.
$160 for Bolivia? Is that a 5 year visa?

Thanks for the map. That gives me something to look at.

Don't skip Trujillo for the danger. Most cyclists will take a bus in and/or have gotten a police escort. Maybe contact the casa de ciclistas there for advice.

Also, you can eat roasted guinea pig in Peru if you're into that. I hear it's not that delicious.

5 years, 90 days per year, up to three entries per year.

Brazil is also $160 and the process to get it is annoyingly complicated because you have to apply at the Brazilian consulate closest to your home and then they take however long they want to send your passport back to you. However, I believe it is good for 10 years.

Paraguay is $160 as well, but I don't know the process because I have no intention to spend $160 to visit Paraguay.

Argentina used to have the same fee, but just recently revoked it, so now it's free to go there.

BTW, food in Peru is insanely cheap, and I think lodging will be when you're outside of tourist hotspots. Bolivia is also very cheap once you get in. Chile is not cheap, but cyclists seem to love the Atacama desert and the Andean passes in northern Chile/Argentina.

I was on the coast of Peru (And occasionally in the mountains) on my world tour years ago. YOU will love it. Better a bad day touring than a good day working.

Some things never change.

(1) Don't trust the word of tourist authorities, vacation promoters, or local police authorities about crime and violence statistics. They are not going to discourage you from going someplace when foreign dinero is their livelihood. As far as they are concerned if you are robbed you deserved it, you rich gringo. Your police report is destined for the circular file.

(2) Who to trust? truckers, fellow cyclists, and backpackers. When I was in Colombia, believe it or not, I was in daily email contact with a guy in Bogota who processed insurance claims from truckers and shippers from robberies. Talk about timely data! I wanted to cycle and see him but I avoid big cities like the plague.

(3) I loved the coast because I loved the sunsets...but yes, the wind from the south howls in the afternoon. Plus the sand it carries gets into your bearings.

(4) people chucking mangos out of their windows are trying to be helpful, not mean. YUMMY!

(5) I loved the valley with Mt. Huascaran because I know the story about Annie Peck, a famous woman mountain climber decades ahead of her time. But many sections of the Andes in this region are gorgeous and famous for landslides and freak snowstorms.

(6) I had some trouble with the food...got sick as a dog twice after eating at some local spots...but it would really be hard to say what I could have done to prevent it. Keep some antibiotics handy. But most of the time the food and people were great. They are so happy to meet you and yet so proud to be Peruvians.



P.s. speaking if plague it is common in low lying swampy regions at the foot of the mountains; so is rabies. Make sure you have proper inoculations but that is true throughout this region.

Oh no I hate needles!
What would the proper inoculations be?

could not be that bad, just get a police escort, are you sure?
Are you saying the outlying area is dangerous but not the town it self?

I haven't looked into the details because I'm not planning to go that way, but I would guess that it is outlying areas where people have been robbed. Towns generally aren't dangerous because there are people everywhere, unless you go down some crazy alley or are out late at night.

BUT, Trujillo is the most notorious area for robberies of cycle tourists in all the Americas. Some of that has to do with the huge amount of cyclists going through there, but it also is because it has been happening for years and nobody has done anything about it. You'll have to look more into it for more details.

What I'm saying though is that you shouldn't skip Trujillo and the equally famous Casa de Ciclistas if it was on your list just because of the robbery danger. Just do your research and do what it takes to not get robbed.

Better look into that.

I thought Ecuador was the most notorious. At least from the journals I read.

Safety Tips for Travelers in Trujillo, Peru
The city of Trujillo has the unfavorable reputation of being one of the most unsafe cities in Peru.
But is it a city that foreign tourists should avoid?

No, not at all. Trujillo is a standout destination on the north coast of Peru

or
https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/peru

do not read the state department
they might make kansas sound like Iraq
https://travel.state.gov/content/pas...ntry/peru.html

The best thing is to go to a local travel medicine clinic, give them a list of where you will be and when, and then let them shoot you up! :) But I'd say at the least pneumonia, tetanus, yellow fever, rabies, and whatever else they add. I almost got the gamma globulin for bacterial hepatitis but it doesn't last long (i think). I had my hep B shots decades ago because us frequent-flyer-studmuffins (to sugar coat promiscuity) should get that kind if thing. Carry your shot record with you and it will help if you need it for treatment. With the rabies titer you still need to get the rabies shots if you get bit, but you have a longer time to seek treatment and the number of shots you'll finally need is less.

I don't hate needles or giving blood (I watched as they injected painkiller into my knuckle a few years ago when I dislocated a finger....). You might feel kind of funky punky for a few days if you get all the shots at once.

Your doctor might also give you a broad spectrum antibiotic to take in the event you get some kind of intestinal upset or infection.

But odds are you'll come through fine. In Colombia they love cyclists because they do so well in the TdF mountain stages. And in most countries they love cyclists because you are a person who is "of the land" instead of gawking at the locals while you take a rest off of a tour bus.

Oopps...I forgot to mention State as the fountain of worthlessness! Talk about a government agency that should be abolished. I'll always remember their wonderfully useful advice:

"Avoid crowds of loud and obviously drunk young men! "

Wow...$200,000 for four years at Tuft's Fletcher School of Diplomacy, for THAT!

Heh. :) I would image things change pretty frequently. I flew into Guayaquil, then rode north thru gorgeous country to Santo Domingo and made the climb straight up to Quito. I took a round trip to Ibague in Colombia, then continued south on the "volcano" road. Lofty lofty lofty and solitary! Most of the time the mist dangerous thing in the road was me. :)

And now that I look at maps..I had no problem in Trujillo...it was Chimbote I was warned to avoid, so I turned inland to the valley below Mt. Huascaran (I think it is Callejon de Huaylas). Up Up again!

I've lost track of how many first-hand reports I've read from cyclists who were robbed in Peru. You can find stories on the PanAm google group, Lonely Planet's Thorntree, crazyguy, and in websites in other languages. I've read accounts by cyclists who were robbed or were victims of theft in Trujillo, Paijan, Pisco, and in the middle of nowhere south of Cusco, among other places. A cousin of mine was robbed in Peru, but not while biking. I've biked in a lot of developing countries including 4 countries in South America. No problems at all, and overall I recommend touring in Latin America. However, I can't think of any country in the world for which I've heard more robbery stories from touring cyclists than Peru, even though the vast majority of cyclists will probably have no problems there.

Trujillo is a single point on the map where several robberies have occurred and I've been hearing about it since before I even started my trip. It's also probably totally worth the visit for the Casa de Ciclistas alone. If it were ME going, I'd take a bus or police escort or hitchhike into town. I generally don't worry about vague travel warnings or hypotheses about a certain area being unsafe, but if there is a single point that keeps coming up, I'll take action to deal with it.

I've heard of people being robbed in every country, even the middle of nowhere Canada. I've never heard enough to avoid any particular country because the odds are so low. Don't worry about it too much. It's easy to spend a lot of time thinking about getting robbed and forget to put bright colors on the back of the bike to be seen by krrs.

What is the best region for cycling that you've encountered in Colombia? I was there a couple of years ago but just in one region, and I'd like to return.

Anyone who's been around the block in the so-called 'developing world' will know that they won't tell you the time the bus leave because they don't want to displease you, but rather because they actually don't know. Unless you are riding 1st class, TV-equipped, captain-chair, A/C 1st class buses, all other buses leave when the driver feels that he's got enough passengers to make a profitable run. There's not an arcane cultural explanation. It's simple, pedestrian economics.

Flew in to Lima about 17 years ago. Next to me on the plane was a Peruvian chap who grabbed my arm and warned me upon disembarking to be very careful because his countrymates were all crooks. Welcome to Peru. Never did have a negative experience in my time there.

Topographically and geographically, there are at least three Perus. One is the temperate, dry coastal strip. Two is the temperate/freezing highlands with some of the highest peaks in the world. Three is the lowland, tropical hot, humid Amazonian basin. What's your poison?

I started a what to watch out for thread. What about a combination thread? good and bad. Lots of good stuff in South America too.

almost time to go
tic tic tic


ring

All of my climbs in the Andes started near sea level and crossed passes similar to that in height, and in the case of Agua Negra (15,600+) even higher. I was leary of altitude sickness, and in fact I got very woozy on A.N., but I managed to do OK. I got turned back repeatedly by snow, though it was more a "preference" on my part to just return to warmer coastal riding than it was any serious threat to my well being. At night the stars above you would be stunning and the milky way (which has brighter portions in the southern hemisphere than the north) was remarkable also.

During the day if you (carefully!) looked straight up you could even see the darker shades of blue that begin to reveal the thinning atmosphere as you approach "outer space."

I did not do those climbs in a day though. Ciao! :)