This trip came about as a celebration for Josh’s upcoming nuptials, with a side dish of Steve and I turning 50 in April. Not having many days between our IU class commitments and the wedding, the guys put together a quick tour of the highlights in Peru! Join us on the next 8 days of fun and adventure!

Days 0 & 1 – Travel Days

The best travel days are the ones that don’t leave much to write about and we had that for the most part. Three flights, minimal hassle, only one delay, and zero missing luggage! I’ll call that a win!

Landing in Puerto Maldonado about 2 hours behind schedule, we hopped in the local taxi option – a motorcycle with attached bench seat, ie a rickshaw! Luckily the rest of the day was unstructured so we decided to settle into the hotel and then wander town for dinner.

We ended up a a restaurant called Burgos and it was lovely! They had a variety of dishes, both vegetarian and carnivore. Our meals came with the buffet and that was a treat! I could easily eaten my fill just there. We tried the mushroom ceviche and it was delicious! I’m still deciding if the mercury exposure from the local fish will keep me from getting real ceviche or not…. Since we had no altitude coming the next couple of days, we toasted our arrival with a “Man’s beer” and Pisco Sours! The man beer came about when Josh was asking the server the difference in the 3 beers on offer. The server called one “a beer for the women” and told Josh to get the other one!

We detoured to the local market on our way back to the hotel, totally Steve’s idea and he hates shopping!

Lodging: Hotel Copasu – lovely hotel with easy walking to various spots. Room had mini split AC and came with a great breakfast buffet!