Transport

Plane

We booked a plane from Schiphol (AMS) to Charles-de-Gaulle (FR) and eventually to Lima () for 600 euros. This was without our luggage. With our backpacks, we had to pay a total of 700 euros for the retour flight between Amsterdam and Lima. We used a very handy app named Skyscanner. If you want to search for the cheapest flights, this is a very good way to try. Our flight was with AirFrance and we were very satisfied. We only had about one hour to change flights and still our luggage arrived with us.

We also took a plane from Cusco to Lima. This is more expensive than taking the bus, but it takes less time and we were very tired after our trip to the Machu Picchu. For us, this was a good choice. If you want to save money, you should take a night bus instead of a plane.

Bus

We travelled a lot by bus. It's very easy and very cheap. When the distance is less than 6 hours, you can take a day bus. When the trip takes more then 8 hours, you should definetly take a night bus. It's saves you a lot of time and a lot of buses are very luxerous. We had night buses where the beds were better than in the hostels. We got a blanket and a pillow in most of them and you could completely lay down in your chair. In some of them you even got food and unlimited drinks. It was a good way to travel cheap.

We had some specialities on our bus trips as well. When we had to cross the border from Peru to Bolivia, we had to get out of the bus and walk across the border. The bus can only pass the border empty. They check your passport, stamp it and after half an hour you are back on track. From Copacabana to La Paz was an amazing journey. We had to cross a little bit of water, so we got out of the bus and took a boat. Our bus had a boat all by himself and the view was very funny. it looked like our bus was just floating on the water. From La Paz to Cusco we also took a night bus and again we had to stamp our passport to get across the border. You cannot take any fruits with you back to Peru. They are very strict about that. That was about it for the busses.

Taxi

This was a big shock for us when our journey started in Lima, but almost every car driving in Peru is a taxi. They have the destination visible on the front window and you just have to wave a little bit and they will stop and take you with them. The strange thing is that they all look like normal cars. They don't look like the typical New York taxis. These drivers are the cheapest ones. You do also have the real taxis of course with a taxi sign above the car. These are a little bit more expensive, but for little distances still cheaper than in Europe of course. In a big part of Peru you also have "Tuktukjes"(left picture), or that's what we called them. They are taxis for two persons and for the experience we took it once, which was hilarious. It's very uncomfortable and not cheaper than a normal cab, so not recommended to do more often in my opinion.

Food

The food in Peru was very good and very cheap. You could eat menus for 10 soles (which is around 4 euros). There are also a lot of European restaurants which are a lot more expensive, but if you don't like Peruvian you can always eat this. We ate some typical meals. For example "tamal". It's something to eat mainly as breakfast. Another example are chicken legs. The idea is not to waste anything of the chicken, so they give you there feet as well. You can find it a lot in for example soup. My companyon was vegetarian, so we searched a lot for veggie options. This is absolutely no problem in Peru. They had delicious vegetarian restaurants. In Bolivia we had a harder time, because they eat a lot of meat there. We didn't eat out a lot, because we stayed with some friends. They cooked typical bolivian meals for us and explained us a lot about the country. So I don't really know how expensive it is. But the food is definetly a reason to visit South-America! I thought it was absolutely delicious!

Tourism

Something else quite shocking is how much some people need tourism to survive. They sell these little souvenirs on for example the streets, in buildings and at markets. That's the only money they make. Don't feel guilty to buy anything. A lot of the families have children and they have to feed them with only the income of selling souvenirs. Sometimes the men have a better income to live from, but most of the time they don't. We talked to some streetvendors who told us all about it. The crazy thing is that these mothers and children are so nice to you, while you are rich and they have no money at all. They need you to help them. They need you to buy anything at all from them. It's not even expensive, but it will help them a little bit more. What is not a lot of money for us, means the world to some of them. So tourism is very important in Peru and Bolivia. It's makes it possible for people to survive.

Safety

A lot of people are scared to go backpacking alone. Especially in lands like Peru or Bolivia. This has its reasons. You do have to be carefull. The people don't have a lot of money, the roads aren't always safe and you stand out with you nice backpack and white skin. They can see you are a tourist from far away. The people working in the hostels told us to be very carefull when taking a cab for example. Some apparently just leave you in a dark street close to a hostel you didn't need to be and they get some money for that from the hostel behind your back. This way you have no other choice then to sleep at this hostel. I heard stories about people being robbed in a cab as well. Bottom line is that you have to follow the route on your Google Maps and always check if the taxidriver is driving you the right way. We did this everytime and never had any trouble. We didn't always take the safest route, but we were watching out every single second. We also had these little bags that are meant for underneath your clothes to put in your passport, important cards and some money. This way, when you got robbed, you still had everything that was necessary to continue your trip. But this, even after all the warnings, did not happen. We only met nice people, we didn't lose anything and didn't get robbed as far as we know! Our trip was totally safe!

Tips and tricks

We used Hostelworld to book all our hostels. It's very cheap and you can cancel it whenever you want. We bought mosquitospray and a mosquitonet, but we never needed it. The only time it might have been handy was when travelling to the Machu Picchu. We had a whistle close by, so whenever something would happen, the other person would know. We also had an alarm that made crazy loud noises. This was for when we would be in danger and we wanted people to come and look for us and for the noise. Also, because of the difference in height, we always had some cocacandy. I have no idea if it works, but it tasted good and it can't harm you in any way. We had these little sleeping bags from the Decathlon, which were perfect. We used them every night (even if we had blankets). I don't know how often the owners wash those blankets, but it's definetly not every night. The sleeping bags were warmer as well. Sometimes we used both. In Bolivia in Salar the Uyuni this was necessary, because it was freezing at night. We didn't book anything up front. We only did this one day before the night we had to book. This way we could adapt ourselves to the place and see how long we needed there. Also the buses you can book one day up front. If you are less adventurous, you can of course book everything up front. For the rest we brought thin clothing, so it didn't take all the room in our backpack and several layers of thin jackets. This way you had something for each temperature. When it was cold, you just used 2 layers of jackets instead of one.