Adventures in Peru

After so many years of dreaming about visiting Peru, I was thrilled to finally see these dreams come to life. We started off our adventures in Peru going straight for the Amazon in the city of Puerto Maldonado. Here we stayed at the Inkaterra Reserva property that took care of all our meals, transportation, jungle walks and night excursions. We had our very own private cabana overlooking the Amazon jungle and were situated right above the river. We were only here for a few days but the number of activities we enjoyed and animals we saw would be too difficult to list. Our highlights were walking through the tree canopy on suspension bridges a few hundred feet in the air, piranha fishing, canoeing with Caymans, the occasional torrential downpour and trekking through the Amazon jungle at night. It was quite an experience!

From the jungle we went straight into Cusco where we enjoyed the city for a while. With old colonial charm and amazing food, Cusco was not hard to fall in love with. After getting acclimated to the altitude (the best we could), we headed straight toward the Sacred Valley by taking a train up to Aguas Calientes, home of Machu Picchu.

As many times as I have seen pictures of Machu Picchu, nothing prepared me for the awesomeness of watching it slowly appear out of the clouds at sunrise. This was one of the most magnificent sites I have ever seen. We spent a full day, from before sunrise to sunset, exploring the ruins and trekking along the Inca trail. The view from The Sun Gate is also an awesome perspective to see Machu Picchu and Huayna Picchu in relation to the rest of the Andes. We spent hours and hours hiking and exploring different parts of the ruins. I can’t imagine the amount of effort it took to construct this masterpiece.

After Machu Picchu we eventually made our way to Lima where, being from Southern California, we felt like we were in a familiar place. With cool and mild temperatures, long boardwalks along the coasts and surfers galore, we felt right at home. We enjoyed spending the rest of our time strolling along the coast watching paragliders and surfers ride until sunset as we transitioned mentally to head back to the States. We felt that it was a perfect way to end our Peruvian adventure.

Inkaterra Reserva Amazonica
Andalucía 174, Miraflores L18
Lima, Peru
+51.1.610.0400

Casa Andina
Jerusalen 603 Arequipa, Peru
+51.1.213.9739

After learning that many people claim that Lima has the best ceviche in the world I knew I had to try some. After doing a little online research and asking locals where the best ceviche restaurant was, we were pointed to a place called La Mar Cebicheria. This spot certainly lived up to its highly esteemed reputation. I tried a sampler of five different kinds and was blown away by all of them!

Brandon Kidd is a fine art wedding and lifestyle photographer based in Southern California who has photographed a variety of clients and destination weddings all over the world.