Peru - The Rough Guide to South America on a Budget - page 714

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Some places in the jungle, such as
Iquitos, are more easily accessible by
plane, as land and river routes take
much longer and can cost as much as
a plane ticket.
Flights are sometimes cancelled, delayed
or leave earlier than scheduled, so it is
important to reconfirm your flight 48
hours before departure. If a passenger
hasn't shown up twenty minutes before
the flight, the company can give the seat
to someone on the waiting list.

from colonial mansions with rooms
grouped around a courtyard - and tend
to be quite central. At the low end of the
scale, which can be basic with shared
rooms and a communal bathroom, you
can usually find a bed for S20-30, the
price often including breakfast. Rooms
with private bath tend to cost S10-15
more. Hostales can be great value if you're
travelling with one other person or more;
you can often get a good, clean en-suite
room for less than two or three bunk
beds in a youth hostel. A little haggling
is often worth a try, particularly in the
low season.

BY BOAT
There are no coastal boat services in Peru.
In the jungle, river travel is of enormous
importance, and cargo boats are an
excellent way of travelling along the
Amazon - though you have to have plenty
of time at your disposal. The facilities are
basic (bring your own hammock to hang
on deck or rent a cabin), as is the food.
The most popular routes are either from
Pucallpa or Yurimaguas to Iquitos, from
where you can then go on to Colombia
or Brazil. On smaller rivers, motorized
dugout canoes are the preferred local
mode of transport and come in two basic
forms: those with a large outboard motor,
and slow and noisy peke-peke (the name
describes the sound of the engine).

HOSTELS AND CAMPING
A list of the HI-affiliated youth hostels in
Peru is at W hihostels.com/dba/country
-Peru-PE.en.htm. These are relatively
cheap and reliable; expect to pay around
S15-25, more in Lima. All hostels
are theoretically open 24hr. There are
also many non-HI-affiliated hostels
throughout the country (try W hostels
.com, W hostelbookers.com or
W

hostelworld.com). While these are
great for meeting people, they are often
not the cheapest option, as dorm beds
cost S10-25, the same price as a room at
a budget hotel. Camping is possible all
over Peru. In towns and cities you may be
charged the same amount to put up a tent
in the grounds of a hostel as for a dorm
bed. Organized campsites are gradually
being established on the outskirts of
popular tourist destinations, though these
are still few and far between. Outside
urban areas, apart from some restricted
natural reserves, it's possible to camp amid
some stunning scenery along Peru's vast
coast, in the mountains and in the jungle.
It's best not to camp alone, and if you are
setting up camp anywhere near a village
or settlement, ask permission or advice
from the nearest farm or house first.

ACCOMMODATION
Peru has the typical range of Latin
American accommodation, from top-class
international hotels to tiny rooms at the
back of someone's house for around ten
soles a night. Virtually all upmarket
accommodation will call itself a hotel or,
in the countryside regions, a posada.
Lodges in the jungle can be anything
from quite luxurious to an open-sided,
palm-thatched hut with space for slinging
a hammock. Pensiones or residenciales
tend to specialize in longer-term
accommodation and may offer discounts
for stays of a week or more.

FOOD AND DRINK
Peruvian cuisine is wonderfully diverse,
and essentially a mestizo creation,
merging indigenous Indian cooking with
Spanish, African, Chinese, Italian and
Japanese influences. Along the coast,

GUESTHOUSES AND HOTELS
Budget guesthouses (usually called
hospedajes or hostales and not to be
confused with youth hostels) are generally
old - sometimes beautifully so, converted