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Inca trail or what’s the best of the Andes?

November 26, 2009

Tourists or travelers without prior trip to South America wonder where to go. Many select trip to Peru and trek the Inca trail. Others opt for the southern Andes and tour Argentina or discover the Torres del Paine National Park in Chile.  

Most logical way to access the Inca heartland is to arrive in Lima, the capital of Peru and once called City of Kings. After admiring Lima’s excellent museums housing splendid pre-Columbian collections, one of gold, archaeology, anthropology and number of other outstanding museums, namely the Amaro and Peru’s Museo de la Nacion, it’s best you sample more of what Peru has to offer.

While most head on direct to Cusco by flight and from there to the lost city of Machu Picchu, you should add a side trip to your Peru journey in the footsteps of the Incas and venture down into the Amazon first.

It’s an easy hop from Lima to Puerto Maldonado in southeastern Peru in the Amazon forest not far from the Bolivian border at the confluence of the Tambopata and Madre rivers, and a jumping off point for the Tambopata National Reserve. It is indeed very much worth your time as in Tambopata you can get a wonderful glimpse of the incredible biodiversity of this natural habitat, teeming is hundreds of bird species and butterflies, profusion of mammals as well fish and reptiles.

But southern Andes do indeed also offer great variety of trips, from the magic of Patagonia, the incredible parks of Torres del Paine, Tierra del Fuego and Fitz Roy to Atacama desert and the sophisticates cities of Buenos Aires and Santiago de Chile. But trying to decide between one and the other is pointless, just go to one, you will have to come back again anyway, so your decision is pointless as you will never go wrong no matter what destination you’ll decide on.

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