Frommers.com Podcast: Destination, Peru (Part One)

In part one of a two-part episode, Kelly Regan is joined by author Neil Schlecht. Neil and Kelly discuss Peru, one of the most diverse and memorable places to travel in the world. From man-made Inca ruins to the natural beauty of the Amazon rainforest, Lake Titicaca and the Andes mountains, Peru offers a great variety of goosebump-inducing sights for travelers. While Peru's political and government history has been complex and bordering on surreal, Neil and Kelly give us a rundown on the recent history and how it's affected the society and people. Additionally, they cover the rise of eco-tourism and some great new travel discoveries. Join us next week for Part Two, Macchu Pichu and beyond.

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• Light Walks: Towns in the Sacred Valley
• Trekking and Mountaineering: The Andes
• Outdoor Activity: Amazon Rainforest

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

Announcer: Welcome to the frommers.com travel podcast. For more information on planning your trip to any one of thousands of destinations, please visit www.frommers.com.

Kelly Regan: Hi and welcome to a conversation about all things travel. I'm Kelly Regan, Editorial Director of the Frommer's Travel Guides. I will be your host.

My guest today is Neil Schlecht, who writes a number of travel guides for Frommer's. He contributes to guides about New York State and Texas, and he is the author of "Spain for Dummies" and "Frommer's Peru." The new edition of "Frommer's Peru" has just come out, and Neil is here to talk with us, among other things, about eco-tourism in the Amazon and Macchu Picchu, the recent Peruvian elections, and -- oh, God -- even Guinea pig.

Neil, thanks for joining me.

Neil Schlett: My pleasure, Kelly.

Kelly: All right. Well, before we get to the Guinea pig, let's start with the basics. For people who might not be familiar with Peru or who don't know it as a travel destination, give me a snapshot of what makes it such a memorable place to visit.

Neil: Well I think, as you well know, Peru has long been one of my favorite countries to travel in, not only in South America but really anywhere on the planet. More than anything, I think it is the just incredible diversity of both man-made and natural attractions that it offers. It is the kind of place that has no shortage of sites that produce goose bumps in visitors. It is really rare, I think, in that respect. I guess it is only logical to begin with, the kind of places that you can really touch and feel the legacy of the Inca Empire, that's what Peru is most famous for, and rightly so.

In Cusco, the Spanish built churches and mansions on top of perfectly engineered Inca masonry that is still there, these giant blocks of stone not held together by any cement.

Kelly: Wow.

Neil: It's really miraculous. Along the Inca Trail, which as many people know is this mesmerizing four-day trek through the mountains, it was the old Inca highway that they used to get to the ceremonial city of Macchu Picchu. Of course, at Macchu Picchu itself, which is rightly famous and mystical for many people. Then also, in other places, like in the small towns and fortifications that you find in the Urubamba Valley, which is more commonly known as the Sacred Valley of the Incas.

But there is a lot more than just Incan Peru. Peru is dotted with these handsome colonial towns like Arequipa in the south, which is almost, the old quarter is constructed almost entirely of white volcanic stone called sillar.

Kelly: Wow.

Neil: And towns in the North like Trujillo and Cajamarca. Everyone says Cajamarca, it's the Cusco of the north, and the more that Cusco gets crowded and overrun with Gore-Tex wearing, you know... [Kelly laughs], Cajamarca is, I think, is a really up-and-coming place.

Kelly: ... place.

Neil: And of course there is much more. There is the spectacular color and the vibrant local culture to be seen, and religious festivals and ancient rituals like Inti Raymi in Cusco, or Puno Week or the weekend of the Candelaria Festival in Lake Titicaca.

These are not mere pageants but they are wildly colorful and sometimes almost surreal festivals, and locals and visitors really get into them usually to the point of drunken revelry.

Kelly: I am always pro-drunken revelry, myself.

Neil: Yeah, I mean, how can you not. But I think beyond that, also it may be Peru's natural gifts and opportunities to experience the outdoors that stay with people the most.

Kelly: I was going to say, it's a real destination for kind of outdoor activities. It's both kind of soft and hard.

Neil: Yeah, if you want extreme adventure or you just want to take light walks between towns in the Sacred Valley of the Incas. I mean, pretty much whatever you are interested in, in terms of outdoor adventure Peru can set you up.

The Andes, for really hardcore trekking and mountaineering; or rivers through the canyons and valleys for whitewater rafting; or of course the opportunity to venture really deep into the Amazon rainforest, which covers a full third of Peru.

Kelly: Right.

Neil: But you get in there and you really do have the opportunity to view rare wildlife, like giant river otters, and more types of monkeys and birds than anyone who is not an expert could possibly imagine.

Kelly: Right. And you talk about Manu, the Manu Preserve, as the place that has the greatest degree of bird diversity in the world, right?

Neil: Oh yeah, no question. I mean, it is remote, and you pretty much have to dedicate -- unless you have plenty of time -- you have to spend a week getting in and getting out, but they are so pristine and so untouched that they are really remarkable places, and fewer and fewer of those places remain on Earth.

Kelly: Yeah.

Neil: I mean, it really is attractive for that. There is a growing number of really well-run eco-lodges in these areas, so that understandably is something that is a huge draw in Peru.

Kelly: Sure. Well, you've been going to Peru for 20 years or more, now.

Neil: That makes me sound really old.

Kelly: Sorry. I think he started traveling there as a tot.

Neil: That's right.

Kelly: I mean, are there any...

Neil: No, since the early '80s I have been going to Peru.

Kelly: Yeah, and I mean, are there places that you have discovered recently that you are really excited about? I know you mentioned the "Cusco of the North" but are there other places that you are feeling are just kind of coming onto the tourist map that are really exciting?

Neil: Yeah, well, my most recent trip to Peru, I went to a little place called Isla Suasi, and it is a tiny little island just about 100 acres in all, in the middle of this great expanse of Lake Titicaca in the south of Peru. It is the only privately-owned island in the lake. There are a couple of others that are inhabited, but this one is a privately-owned island and the woman who owns it inherited it from her grandmother; and she is kind of a well-known, really left-leaning sociologist, and she created a small refuge there, and people started to come to the island.

And then she ended up building what is kind of a surprisingly sophisticated eco-lodge there, and has gotten into bed, metaphorically, with a Peruvian hotel chain, to administer it. So it is kind of a new venture. They are trying to do a very ecologically sensitive eco-lodge on this tiny little island. It is all solar-powered, there are no cars and nothing else. Basically it is an island with an eco-lodge, a dozen alpaca, six rare vicunas, and a dog named Chihu that was leading us to the top of the mountain every day for these just ridiculous sunsets that were surreal. I mean, you are at almost 13, 000 feet, and up there it is just sky and sea and silence, and these colors... I mean, I had never seen anything like it. I guess that was as close as I would come to a mystical experience while traveling.

Kelly: Wow.

Neil: And it's this little place where people, it's really arduous to get to because you have to travel almost the entire length of Lake Titicaca from Puno, and so you end up traveling very far to really do very little, which is....

Kelly: Right.

Neil: I mean, you paddle around in a canoe around the island, you can do the entire circumference of the island, and then go for these sunsets, and try and spot the rare vicunias, and eat really, really well. When I was there I think there were two other guests on the whole island, so it is a really special kind of place to be. You're so disconnected from everything.

Kelly: Yeah, I mean it sounds like it is worth the trek to get there.

Neil: It was. I mean, that's part of the fun. Especially in a country like Peru, you can certainly travel easily enough by plane and by train and pretty comfortable buses, but getting there is part of the fun in a place like Peru, a developing country, where it is not what you expect at home.

Kelly: Right. Well, to switch gears for a minute to some current events, Peru has been in the news quite a bit lately, particularly after this most recent divisive and -- I think you and I would both agree -- almost surreal presidential campaign that ended last month. Why don't you give us a quick rundown of what was happening with that, because it is really, I think people were reading it in the news, and it gives a little bit of a window onto what can sometimes be a pretty crazy political history that Peru has had.

Neil: Yeah, there is no question. I mean, the world of Peruvian politics is stranger than fiction. The most recent election, I don't think is something that Mario Vargas Llosa, who is Peru's most famous novelist, could ever dream of coming up with. I mean, yes, there was an election and that is why Peru was in the international news, but it was so much less mundane than that would sound.

Kelly: Right.

Neil: I mean, Peru, basically Alan Garcia won the run-off, but this is a man who was returned to the Presidency 16 years after he left office, and when he left office was under a huge cloud of corruption and disgrace, and uncontrolled political violence across the country, and he basically had bankrupted Peru and embezzled millions on his own.

I mean, I remember being there, inflation was hovering around 7,000 percent, and I remember you needed piles of money to pay for the most basic items. And we'd exchange money on the street and there would be these guys with giant suitcases and calculators. The suitcases were full of bills. It was really wild.

Garcia had been thought to be this Kennedy-esque character. He was just 35 years old when he was arr... -- arrested, I almost said!

Kelly: That was a Freudian slip, yeah.

Neil: When he was first elected his administration turned out to be a total disaster. He fled Peru and he ended up spending nine years in exile in Spain and France.

Kelly: Sixteen years later people seem to think a little differently about him. Was it just a case of lesser of two evils?

Neil: Well, the first thing is, I think Peruvians, a lot of people would say have a very short memory. There is a very young electorate and a lot of people didn't really sort of remember everything that had been going on during his administration. But that they would have a short memory isn't really the weird part, because in this run-off election he was running against this guy named Ollanta Humala and Peruvians called it the election of "Un Mal Menor", which is really "The Lesser of Two Evils."

That is a term that we throw around all the time in elections in Western countries, but in Peru I think it was really, really true, because Humala was this very controversial former military man, and the law-and-order ultranationalist, a real maverick. And he had led a failed coup attempt in 2000 against the former President Fujimori; accused of all these human rights abuses against Shining Path guerillas. People trailed him on the campaign trail yelling, "Assassino!" "Assassin!"

Kelly: Assassin, oh my God!

Neil: And he has also got a family, I mean, you thought Billy Carter was a lot of baggage. I mean, his brother is in jail for leading an attempted overthrow of the government in 2005 that ended in six deaths. His mother called for homosexuals to be shot.

Kelly: To be shot?

Neil: Yeah, it's just nuts. His family advocated shooting Jews and Chilean investors. His father is an open racist who has called for, he has this program called "Ethno-nationalism" that argues that white Europeans stole Peru from the copper race of Inca descendants. There is no question, there is a real disparity of power and wealth in Peru, but the tactics that he advocates are probably a little extreme.

Kelly: Yeah, right.

Neil: So I mean, that is kind of the context. They are trying to elect either this former disgraced President who was charged with embezzling millions of dollars and destroying the country, or this guy.

Kelly: Right.

Neil: And so...

Kelly: Suddenly 7,000 percent inflation doesn't seem so bad.

Neil: Sounds pretty good! And then on top of it you have got Venezuela's President, Hugo Chavez, who sort of inserted himself into the election. He likes nothing better than to stir it up, and I think he is basically looking to try and create this leftist rebellion or Axis of the People in South America, with Eva Morales in Bolivia.

Kelly: Yeah, well he was backing Humala, right, and he was calling Garcia a lapdog of Bush, right?

Neil: Yeah, I mean, overtly. And the thing is, I think in the end Chavez, he inserted himself to such a degree in the Peruvian election that Peruvians resented that, and frankly are a little scared both of Chavez and Humala, for obvious reasons. So you really end up with very little choice. Garcia is kind of a pro-business candidate and is trying to portray himself as this politician who's learned from his errors.

Kelly: His rather substantial mistakes.

Neil: Yeah. So it's endlessly entertaining, I guess, if you don't have to live there and accept this as your government.

Kelly: Right, right. This is all happening behind a backdrop of the former President Fujimori who is currently in Chile and they're talking about extraditing him back to Peru because he's another one who has had kind of a history, right?

Neil: Oh, yeah, more weirdness. He was also exiled and in Japan for the last five or six years and then under the cover of darkness he decided to try and return to Peru to present himself for the national election. And he was arrested in Santiago, Chile. As far as I know he's still in jail there and they are trying to extradite him, but he's been charged with everything from hijacking democracy to directing death squads while he was President of the country.

First you had Garcia. First you had a bunch of military dictatorships, then you had Garcia. Then you've got Fujimori, and sadly for Peru, a country that I really, really love, things just don't seem to get better. At least on the political front.

Kelly: Right, right. Do you think this is something that travelers would be aware of while they're visiting? Did this political turmoil affect visitors at all?

Neil: Strangely enough, you'd think that with all these bizarre stories of mismanagement, corruption and soap opera politics that you'd think that maybe this is a wildly unstable place. However, when you're traveling in Peru, unless you're really involved and you're talking to a lot of people about it, it doesn't make much of an impression on you if you're just traveling from one place to another.

That wasn't always the case. In the late 80s and early 90s is when the Shining Path, Moaist guerrilla group was waging a two decade long war against the Peruvian state and there were all these bombings. Then it was a place that really, understandably deterred visitors from going.

Kelly: What happened to the Shining Path?

Neil: I guess the one good thing that Fujimori can be credited with, I'm sure his means were not the most honorable, but he did succeed in defeating and pushing the Shining Path deep into the Amazon. Their presence is really negligible today. Their leader who is a former university president is in jail as are most of the former leadership.

There have been a couple of isolated incidents, a couple of bombings over the last few years but generally they just don't have the presence in cities like Lima that they used to. Their stronghold was a town called Ayucucha, in the central highlands, which was off limits even to Peruvians. No one would dream of even going there because it basically was their base. I was there just a couple of years ago and I can tell you, it's just miraculous. You've heard so much about this town and it's really one of the most peaceful, tranquil places in Peru.

Kelly: Wow. It seems that probably the thing that's most likely to make an impact on travelers who are visiting Peru is the obvious levels of poverty that you're going to see.

Neil: Yeah, there's no question. Even if you stay in luxury hotels and travel comfortably by plane from one place to the other, I don't think you can help but notice the extreme poverty. Peru is a place where the poverty level hovers at just above 50 percent and half the population lives on a dollar and quarter a day or less. Like lots of places in South America, there are street kids who late at night are in the plaza selling chocolate and cigarettes, just trying to get by. I've met little girls at one A.M. in the morning have to sell their whole box or they can't go home and this is on a school night. And these are like almost the main income earners for the family.

But there are positive things. For example, in Cuzco, even if you can afford to stay at the Hotel Monasterio, which is one of the finest hotels in South America, I'd encourage people to check out Ninos Hotel. It's part of what has become a continually expanding non-profit goodwill enterprise by a Dutch couple. They arrived about a decade ago and almost immediately adopted 12 Peruvian street kids. They established this small inn which is a really basic but very comfortable, clean, nice, non-profit in a colonial house. All the profits go toward needy children in Cuzco. Since that time they've built a learning center, a restaurant for 125 kids, medical services for disadvantaged youth. Now they have a second hotel, also in a historic building and incredibly, more adoptions. I think at last count they'd adopted another 15 girls and two boys.

Kelly: Wow, that's fantastic.

Neil: It's really one of these amazing stories. The poverty is something that necessarily you will run into but I think there are contributions that people can make.

Kelly: Sure, sure, of course. Well, let's stop there. I've been talking with Neil Schlecht, the author of "Frommer's Peru," which is on sale now. Join us next week for part two of our conversation with Neil, in which we'll talk more about Machu Picchu, responsible tourism, and Peruvian Cuisine.

I'm Kelly Regan, editorial director of Frommer's travel guides and we'll talk again soon.

This podcast is a production of frommers.com. For more information on planning your trip or to hear about the latest travel news and deals, visit us on the web at www.frommers.com and be sure to email us at editor@frommermedia.com with any comments or suggestions.