Peru Travel Guide
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Rateros

All over the world people use variations of 'Good Morning' as a greeting, but the Peru's Incas were a little different. They used to say: 'Don't lie, don't steal, don't be lazy'. The response was 'Don't you too'. Sadly ironic considering the present state of Peru, which is plagued by Rateros - literally 'Big Rats'. They are bold, quick and imaginative thieves, though usually unobtrusive and almost never violent.

One of the cardinal rules of travel in South America is to never venture near markets looking affluent, but we had been strolling through the centre of the old Inca capital of Cusco in semi-smart dinner kit, when a cheerfully discordant brass band paraded by, led by several capering nitwits in masks. We followed them for a while, and just as the novelty was wearing off the procession passed a sloping street of whitewashed houses that framed a vegetable market, all multi-coloured petticoats, brown bowler hats and radishes - photographic nirvana. We blithely entered the street with two cameras, and left an hour later with one. The other was snatched, in the nicest possible way, from out of my camera bag by a teen Ratero.

The good news about travelling Peru:
a) Rateros discourage timid tourists so numbers of travellers are less than they might be.
b) You can outwit the Rateros with foresight and care.
c) Peru is amazingly good value.
d) It has a fabulous number and variety of exotic landscapes, strange cultures, and incredible sights.

Peru Destinations

North: The Peru Amazon jungle is less spoilt, cheaper and has more friendly locals than over the border in Manaus, Brazil. Jungle walks, canoe trips, pirana fishing, dolphin and monkey spotting, tarantula cuddling, and alligator catching are all available within a few hours boat travel of Iquitos, though don't expect to see a lot of wildlife. They, along with a large selection of deadly snakes, mostly go to work at night - and this is not a good time for you to be on the prowl.

Centre: The capital of Peru, Lima, is worth a quick look if the usual winter fog isn't hanging about. Central city buildings are Spanish colonial, hotels and museums are good, food is excellent.
Travel 400 kms south of Lima and you'll hit the Nazca Desert. Over thirty huge, clearly drawn images, - for example a monkey, a spider, a humming bird, a whale, and a humanoid that Eric Von Danniken swears is alien - as well as more than a hundred geometric patterns, are cut into the desert's stony crust. Sizes vary from 4 metres to 10 kms, and are perfectly drawn. The big mystery is that they can only be seen from the air, no problem these days if you have $40 to spare, but how many aircraft were there 1,000 years ago?

South: The 'White City' of Arequipa, 2,300m up the Andes mountains, is not only home to some grand Spanish buildings built from white volcanic rock, and stunning Andean folk music but also more than its fair share of rateros as well as some outstanding festivals. Nearby is the Colca Canyon, claimed to be the world's deepest canyon, and offering Inca terraces and passing Condors, if you're lucky.
Arequipa is a good place to start acclimatising to higher altitudes before arriving at Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world at 3,820 metres, and the home of alien spaceships according to Shirley Maclean.
In fact some quite alien people, the Uros, live on the lake, on floating, one metre thick, reed-floored islands, including a floating church and football pitch. The reeds rot away underneath and are constantly replaced on top, so if you put your foot down firmly you may find yourself in deep water. It's fascinating but becoming increasingly commercialised - for a small fee a Uros man will takes travellers for a paddle in a reed canoe; the trouble is he requires a much larger amount to take them back to the island.
Taquile is another unusual Titicaca island, where men spend their time knitting.

Peru's lake port of Puno leads the world in bowler hatters, all women, while the surrounding, barren altiplano (high plain) is llama country.
Llamas, though blessed with cute faces and lovely bottoms, are - like alpaca and vicuna - of the camel family, and detest humans as much, if not more, than their desert brethren. Close encounters with a llama will yield at the least a faceful of rank, green spit, if not a bite to bone. My main memory of Puno is of being severely and deservedly beaten with a bunch of spring onions by a cutely dressed, mad Indian hatter when my supposedly discrete photo of her was noticed.

Peru Destinations continued

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