My new friend, Jill is off to Peru and possibly Bolivia for three weeks and wanted to know if I had any advice, so herererererererere, we go!

I only spent a day in Lima. It was a sunny Sunday and we went down to the beach, which was PACKED. Out of literally thousands of urban Peruvian beach-goers, we were the only gringos. The beach was so crowded that we had to navigate carefully through the maze of people, hopping over towels and ducking under umbrellas. We definitely got a lot of looks like, "who the fuck are these guys?"...it was pretty hilarious. Then, we sat down at this makeshift restaurant and ordered cervezas and ceviche--pretty ballsy for the first day, but the food was great and the next day we were off to Cusco.

Here's where the advice starts, Jill. TAKE THE PLANE, NOT THE BUS, TO CUSCO. We decided to take the bus which ended up being 28 hours, no leg room, chickens flapping , annoying music, stale air, and winding roads on some hair-raising passes. So, if you have some money to spend, a round trip flight to Cusco is a good place to spend it.

Cusco is a cool little city that deserves a couple days. I would highly recommend CASA DE LE GRINGA, a hostel run by a South African woman (la gringa), which sits up on a hill on a cool little street. It's away from most of the other hostels, but it's still walking distance to the downtown square. I think it's about 10 USD per night with all kinds of stuff included. Leslie--the woman who runs the place is really nice and quite a piece of work. She leads "spiritual trips", which you can ad on to your room tab.

Basically, there is a cactus called San Pedro which, if prepared correctly into a beverage, is a natural mescaline cocktail. Leslie prepares LOTS of these cocktails and takes groups of travelers up to different ruins to trip their faces off. Going to Peru and trusting some woman you don't know to make you a hallucinogenic potion may sound a little crazy, but I met when you meet her, she'll put your mind at ease. Did we indulge with San Pedro? No, and it's one of the only regrets from Peru.

When I was there, we were training for our climb of Aconcagua, and we were focused on getting as many peaks under our belts as possible beforehand. There was no time for tripping, but when I go back it may be a different story ;-). If anyone has done the San Pedro with Leslie or anywhere, please leave a comment and tell us how is was.

Okay, back to Cusco...the other advantage of staying with Leslie at Casa de la Gringa is that it's the best way to find "Juan." This guy is a freelance mountain guide. Upon our arrival in Cusco, we were disappointed to learn that we'd to hire a guide to go on the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu (we had the gear and wanted to do everything ourselves). Juan agreed to take us up to Machu Picchu, but after learning that we were most interested in "off the beaten path" travel, he had another idea for a trek to take us on first.

After some quick negotiations with Juan, we piled into two caps and drove 3 hours South of Cusco and got dropped off high in the mountains in a quechua village. We had a couple tough days of hiking, but it was well worth it. If you want amazing views, no tourists, secret ruins, and a night of camping at the most amazing spot you've ever seen, find Juan in Cusco and tell him you want to go to CERRO DE LOS OJOS. Check out the fist blog I wrote on Matador for the pics...this place was un-fucking believable.

If you're looking for fun in Cusco at night, check out MANDELA'S BAR...it's Leslie's side project. They have great food and cocktails and a roof deck terraza that looks out over the downtown square of Cusco.

Machu Picchu is obviously not one to miss, but make sure you go up early on the first bus and avoid the big rush of tourists, and then after eating lunch back down in Aguas Calientes, go down the railroad tracks out of town and look for a path up the other side of the gorge from Machu Picchu. It leads to a pretty major hike with a series of ladders (one of these is about 90 ft tall)...but the payoff is huge: an un-obscured view of ll of Machu Picchu, right across the gorge.

Arequipa is also an awesome town to hit up in Peru. They have tons of outdoor adventure outfitters who will take you on cool local day trips.