Peru & Bolivia Travel Blog: Expert Guides & Insider Tips 2026

Arequipa's regional government has announced a 10 million sol investment in a new touristic circuit through the city center, which aims to promote occasionally overlooked sights such as the Fundo el Fierro, La Recoleta Convent, and Puente Grau. The project will involve underground cabling, signage, a new visitor's center, and newly pedestrian-only streets.

Permits for the Classic 4-Day Inca Trail to Machu Picchu have sold out through mid-July. In the face of the overwhelming demand for the Inca Trail, a variety of alternative treks are growing in popularity. Although they are not as well-known, and thus lack some of the cache of the Inca Trail, these more affordable options can be booked with less notice, cost less, and are less trafficked...

There has been much ado about quinua this year, and whether the rising popularity of the highly nutritive grain will actually benefit the poorer Andean communities in which it's grown. Yet if the intensive Bolivian efforts to popularize quinua worldwide are any indication, Bolivia expects to benefit greatly from the grain's rising profile.

A demanding and exciting route's been announced for this January's Dakar 2013, which is expected to bring more than a million spectators to its starting point in Lima and 10,000 to Arequipa. Challenges will include the largest chain of dunes the off-road racers have ever had to face, and the south to north route is expected to cause some big gaps and high drama early on.

Each February, the little city of Puno alongside Lake Titicaca throw's one of South America's most spectacular festivals in honor of its patron saint Mamacha Carmen, the Virgen de Candelaria Festival. The city is currently preparing its UNESCO application for "Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity" status for the festival.

The Festival of the Virgin of Candelaria is celebrated in Copacabana twice a year, on Feb 2^nd & Aug 5^th. It's marked by folkloric parades with live music and vibrantly costumed dancers, religious processions combined with drunken street parties and feasting, shamans selling fortunes along streets lined with new vehicles festooned with streamers and presented for blessing with beer. It's a fun and fascinating time to be a tourist in Copacabana!