Would you visit Egypt for the first time without seeing the Pyramids, or Paris without visiting the Eiffel Tower?
Of course not - and nor would I be visiting Peru without seeing its headline act, Machu Picchu, the enigmatic Lost City built high in the Andean mountains.
But with LATAM Airlines having just launched direct flights from London Heathrow to the capital, Lima, I'm keen to explore what else the country offers.
On the Pacific coast of South America, sitting atop the Chilean spine and below the Ecuadorean shoulder, Peru is the foodie heart of Latin America and a nation of culture and soul.
In Barranco, Lima's buzziest, most colourful and most bohemian district, murals by the renowned street artist Jade Rivera depict joyous children and tropical birds, and the Mario Testino gallery pays homage to the Lima-born photographer.
Wildly colourful Barranco
The Bridge of Sighs is considered the most romantic spot in the city, thanks to superstitions that those who can hold their breath until they reach the other side will find or retain true love.
'When it comes to art, I would say we are at the same level as Buenos Aires,' says Ada Elguera, our erudite tour guide.
She shows us the treasures of the Pedro de Osma Museum whose collection, which fuses together golden Catholic iconography and indigenous spiritual representations, speaks to the identity of Peru itself.
As one of the six worldwide 'cradles of civilisation' Peru has 5,000 years of pre- Columbian history, and its exhibits in the Pueblo Libre district's Larco Museum give me goosebumps. These unique pieces, from the Chimu-era gold head-dress, to the 1,200-year-old funerary bundle concealing a mummified child, to the erotic art collection, underscore that there's so much more to Peru than the Incas.
Parque del Amor
In Miraflores, one of the ritziest neighbourhoods in Lima, Ada shows us the Park of Love, whose Gaudi-inspired tiles showcase love couplets by the city's poets.
A giant sculpture of artist Delfin kissing his wife pays tribute to the neighbourhood competition for the longest couple's kiss, and near the exquisite Belmond Miraflores Park Hotel, our base for the weekend, a sculpture by Marcelo Wong depicts a fat red cupid shooting an arrow into the sky.
Peruvians love animals, too: Lima's Kennedy Park is known as 'cat park', with its tiny cat houses underneath trees, bowls of food for them, and a mayor's office which ensures they're sprayed and neutered.
All very lovely, but is Lima safe? Yes, as long as you use your common sense and don't hail taxis from the street. Call one from the restaurant, the bar ('or even the cathedral', says Ada) but not the street.
Liman gastronomy tours showcase the best of fusion cuisine: Japanese-Peruvian Nikkei dishes; the Chinese-infused Chifa; and spicy Creole sweetmeats, the soul food of black Peru. Roadside stalls sell sweet anise bread or rotisserie guinea pig, and in Barranco the cool people queue for the latest gelato or ceviche restaurants.
Three loosened belt notches and one internal flight later and we're in Cusco, which was capital of the Incan empire for 300 years, from the 13th century.
At 3,400 m (11,200 ft) above sea level, it's one of the highest cities on earth - and a bout of altitude sickness precipitates a bizarre scenario for me.
Dressed for dinner and seated inside the cloistered, candle-lit El Tupay restaurant, I find myself hooked up to a mask, tube and hospital-grade oxygen canister while serenaded by opera singers belting out O Sole Mio (known colloquially as Just One Cornetto).
The equally colourful people of Chinchero
Cusco is the historical antidote to cosmopolitan Lima, and the perfect jumping-off point for exploring the Sacred Valley, the stretch of Andean highlands which prove why indigenous people worship Mother Nature as their god.
The country's authentic culture is on full display in Chinchero, where I spot Quechua speakers wearing the same traditional garments as their ancestors 250 years ago.
At the Textile Centre of Chinchero, as amiable alpacas bumble around, women wearing multi-coloured shawls, red felt hats and layers of ruffled skirts show us how they dye and weave alpaca wool.
Luxurious Hiram Bingham train
Then it's Peru's piece de resistance, Machu Picchu, accessible via hike or train. We opt for the opulence of Belmond's Orient Express-style Hiram Bingham train, named after the explorer who discovered the hitherto unearthed citadel in 1911.
All waistcoated waiters and polished mahogany, the Hiram Bingham whisks us along the river rapids. Machu Picchu - vast, enigmatic and surrounded on all sides by mist-covered tropical mountains - is wonderful. But so too, is the Hiram Bingham return journey, this time in the raucous end carriage with its open-ended doors which allow me to thrust my head out into the night and enjoy the live Peruvian band, the blottoed Dutch tourists who thrust maracas into our hands and the endless trays of pisco sours as the train cuts through the dark, rich Andean mountains like a snake of light.
First published in the Daily Mail - January 2024
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