11 Places to Visit in Peru!

Peru is a fantastic country to visit and is full of different treasures of traveling to explore and these are the 11 places I recommend to visit on any trip to Peru.

Peru is a county located in western South America. The countries Ecuador and Colombia border it to the north while Brazil surrounds it to the east and along the southern border is Bolivia and Chile. To the west, is the Pacific Ocean that allows for lots of trade in and out of the country. Peru is a country of many contrasts and is a wonderful place to visit on any trip through South America. When most people think of Peru, the Andes Mountains are generally the first thing that comes to most people’s minds, but Peru’s western coast is in stark contrast with its dry and arid desert, while to the east of the Andes is the Amazon jungle, steaming with wildlife.

Not only does Peru have stunning beauty and varied landscapes throughout the country, but the many different ancient civilizations and cultures have given Peru some of the most interesting archaeological sites in South America from the Inca Empire in the Andes to the Chimu Empire on the north west coast. Peru is filled with an immense quantity of treasures, so continue reading below and start exploring some of those 11 unique places to visit in Peru on the Treasures of Traveling website!

-- Luke Keeler

Rock Slide Adventures from Arequipa to Iquitos!

Seeing the rock slide up close for the first time after waiting 48 hours for the rocks to be removed!

We had quite the adventure traveling from our last stop in southern Peru, the beautiful mountainous and colonial city of Arequipa to the hot and humid jungle of the Amazon in Iquitos; the gateway and access point to the Amazon Rainforest in Peru! Iquitos is surrounded by the Amazon River on one side and the Amazon Rainforest on all other sides so the only way to reach Iquitos is to either fly there or travel by boat. Therefore, Iquitos is the world’s largest city that can not be reached by any roads. We didn’t have the time to travel by boat up the Amazon River as it takes a week, so we decided to fly.

We had purchased our plane tickets to Iquitos weeks in advance and just had to make sure we arrived in Lima before our flight departed. We had decided to travel from Arequipa to Lima by bus and even though the bus journey is about a 17 hour trip and wouldn’t save us time traveling, we would be saving money as a bus ticket is less expensive than flying. We had the extra time for bus travel scheduled into our itinerary, but what we didn’t have scheduled into our itinerary was a rock slide. It would have been a great trip viewing the entire southern coastal landscape of Southern Peru along the Pan American Highway, but it actually turned out to be a disaster because of the rock slide. The Pan American Highway is the most important highway in Peru, as it connects all major cities in the country's coastal area from the most northern part of the country to the southern most part, so you can imagine all the traffic that uses this highway that abruptly came to a stand still.

Read more about the rock slide on the Treasures Of Traveling Website!

-- Luke Keeler

5 Things to do in Arequipa, Peru!

While in Arequipa’s central plaza filled with colonial architecture, these Peruvians are getting ready to take a group photo in front of the fountains of La Plaza de Armas.

Arequipa is Peru’s second largest city and between it being a UNESCO World Heritage site, it’s lower breathable altitude, and it’s comfortable, relatively stable climate all year, it’s a nice city to visit!  There are not as many tourists as in Cusco so you may feel a little less bombarded and relaxed while exploring this city, but it is becoming more popular every year especially because of it’s close proximity to Colca Canyon. Therefore more adventures are visiting the area to explore the canyon.

Read about the 5 things to do in Arequipa on Treasures Of Traveling Website. 

-- Luke Keeler