Hostels allow travelers to save money on what is often their largest expense after flight tickets: lodging. There are some universals that you can expect in hostels around the globe: plenty of opportunities for socializing and the sorts of amenities that long-term or budget travelers need, such as communal kitchens. There are idiosyncrasies, however, that vary by regions. Here, we’ve compiled a list on what you can expect in hostels in Peru:
Puno is a hillside city located on the shores of Lake Titicaca. Travelers stop by Puno in order to visit the lake’s islands or to cross the border into Bolivia.
You can reach the sacred pre-Inca Sillustani Chullpas, or burial towers, in about 45 minutes by car from Puno. These structures, the final resting place for noble mummies awaiting rebirth, populate a burial ground located on a cold hilltop overlooking Lake Umayo. The circular towers are wider on top than on bottom, making them unique in South America. Another popular site are the ruins of Inca Uyo (Aymara for Place of the Inca), which date to after the Inca Conquest of the Lupaka Kingdom of Tiahuanaku. Inside of the ceremonial complex you´ll find many phallic stones 2-3ft high arranged upright like mushrooms. Though both temple and stones are authentic, the placement of the stones inside the temple was a municipal decision, which has led to the site´s as yet unproven presentation as a fertility temple where virgins sat atop large stone phalluses.
Just 3 miles west of modern Trujillo, one finds the sprawling, crumbling, and extraordinary ruins of Chan Chan, the former capital of the Chimú Kingdom. The site has been under excavation since the mid 60’s. During its time, Chan Chan was the largest city in the Americas, and it was and remains the largest adobe city on earth. It covered 600 miles along the northern Peruvian coast and housed around 60,000 inhabitants. Even the ruins show how massive the site was: an estimated 10,000 structures remain.
Last year, Peruvian authorities declared the second Friday of each October to be National Guinea Pig Day. Representatives from the Ministry of Agriculture (MINAGRI) explained, “We’ve decided to establish National Cuy Day on the merit of the importance of the care and raising of the animal, its genetic richness that contributes to family economies, and, above all, its contribution to food and nutritional safety.”
You may be surprised to hear that 11 tons of cuy meat were exported last year, 90% of which went to the United States.
Paracas National Reserve is known for its natural beauty and surprising wildlife which includes numerous penguin and sea lion colonies. You can reach it by taking a bus from Lima to Pisco, a trip of about 3-4 hours. (Pisco’s a stop on most buses covering the Lima-Arequipa route, with the most frequent Lima-Ica-Pisco buses being Ormeño.)