Non UK Any tips for Peru and Rio?

keety

keety

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Off on a walking holiday to do the Inca trail at the end of September, 10 days in Peru (2 in lima, the walk and 2 in cusco) and 3 days in Rio after... just after any tips fo ranyone that's been to those places (Photo tips mainly)..

Was hoping to book a day trip out from Lima to the Desert...

I've got a guide booked for a day in Rio, so after any good spots really... (will probably be spending the other two days drinking and surfing)

Oh and if anyone knows of anywhere I can shoot assault rifles it would appreciated :)
 
I've walked the trail on three different trips (with work). Obviously it's worth travelling light. I wouldn't bother with a tripod, partly due to the weight, and also as you'll most likely be in camp long before/after the golden hour. None of the camps are particularly picturesque. I'd definetely take a lens for portraiture as there's loads of friendly locals on the trail who are happy for photos. You might get invited into some of there homes (V dark inside, fast wide angles would be useful). If I was going again I'd be thinking of carrying a decent telephoto as there's pretty impressive peaks in the distance. I'd personally take that over an ultra wide angle.

There's minimal chances to charge batteries, other than the final nights camp, so take enough.

Cusco is awesome. There's a dark indoors market for the locals about 500m out of the main square (towards the main/new bit of the city). It's a great route down to it with at least two other squares in it that the locals hang out in (as opposed to the touristy main square). There's also an interesting railway track beyond there - bear in mind that there won't be any tourist police that far out so be sensible.


Fallen Angel was an awesome steak bar and cocktail place, at least It was three years ago.

Walking into Machu Pichu gets you ahead of most of The tourists. If you want the postcard shot then get there as soon as possible - a ND filter for a long exposure would be pretty handy to blur out some of the tourists (tricky without a tripod mind).

And bear in mind that at least 10% of our groups were sick/vomiting due the altitude on their first day in Cusco - they were always fine after abit of rest.

There's still a few cusco images on my flickr photos treat if you search "cusco".
 
Cheers chaps, was planning on taking my 24-70 2.8L and sigma 14mm 2.8.... had been toying of taking the 70-200 2.8 but don't want to add too much weight... tripod will be a lightweight carbon fibre job and taking it for some wide angle astro stuff (cloud permitting), got a shed load of batteries, so should be fine for the 4 days

Hoping i'll be fine with the altitude.. Done a season in Val Thoren before (3.2k up) and was fine (even with the back country boarding) so touch wood..... been doing a fair bit of walking training over here and i'm pretty fit anyway (PB for a half marathon is 1:31 and I run around 35 miles a week)
 
I've been a couple of times and personally I would only take one or two lens on the trial, I made the mistake of taking pretty much everything I had in the rainforest rather than leaving it in the hotel and pretty much solely used a 24-105mm and 16-35mm. If your bag is too large or they see your tripod at Machu Pichu you will be asked to put it in the cloakroom or I think you can pay a fee for using a tripod also if you wish.

If you can I would stay over night in aguas calientes and go back to Machu Pichu in the morning for a second visit, I'm not sure if its the same this year but there has been a bit of a late opening of the final checkpoint on the trial so the tourists getting the train/buses up are already inside by the time you come through the Sun Gate, as you walk down many of them will pass you the other way going to the sun gate to pose for photos.

Aguas calientes is also worth spending some time walking around, it gets pretty crazy when the trains stop to load and unload in the main street.

Cusco is amazing as Dan said, there's some great photo opportunities there and across the whole of Peru.

I have no idea about assault rifles in Peru/Rio, I do however regularly shoot in Poland so if that interests you I can forward the details.
 
Cheers for that, bags not too large (hand luggage size), my tripod is fairly compact, but can always get a mate to smuggle it in for me...

Decided to go with my 24-70 2.8 and 70-200 2.8 and 14mm Samyang for astro stuff, as well as filters etc, just about got everything sorted as I Fly out in 8 days .. excited now!

Any tips for stuff round Cusco or Lima? I have 2 full days in Lima and 3or 4 full dyas in Cusco (including an extra day after the trek)

I was hoping to get a shot of Machu Pichu at night with the starts out, you know the classic shot of Machu Pichu... can you reach that location at night, or is it within the boundary? I don;t mind jumping fences etc...

From what I can gather i'm about a mile or so from the Sun Gate at my camp...
 
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You will need the assault rifle if you plan on walking around Rio with a camera. I wouldn't even wear a $1 watch. Daytime robberies are rife and very sudden. If you are going out with a group stick close. Hope you have a nice time in Rio.
 
Got a guide in Rio from the favellas, he's taking us round so hopefully should be fine! Taking old mobiles with us to give away if we're gonna get mugged etc
 
Bipod said:
You will need the assault rifle if you plan on walking around Rio with a camera. I wouldn't even wear a $1 watch. Daytime robberies are rife and very sudden. If you are going out with a group stick close. Hope you have a nice time in Rio.
Click to expand...

Would do the same in Lima as well (Cusco is fine)
 
keety said:
can you reach that location at night, or is it within the boundary? I don;t mind jumping fences etc...
Click to expand...

The final camp is about a mile from the sungate. There was no barrier or fence etc at the gate when I was last there three years ago. It's at the opposite end of the site to the main tourist entrance so is very quiet. The three times I've been through in the day time I can't recall seeing any officials at the gate - you literally just walk in as the only access is from the trail.

If you go at night, I'd definetely Recee it in the daytime, definetely go with someone and tell someone in camp where you are, and definetly not get caught - if they kicked you out of the site via the main entrance you'd have had a total shocker with no access to your camp/group/tent back on the trail. It's also very steep drops / falls off the trail in the dark.

If you seriously wanted to go at night I would think about taking/paying one of your guides.
 
The last time I was there we had to wait at the last camp until they opened a gate (2013 was my last visit in august), they said it was because someone had fallen in the dark so would not allow us through until sunrise. Earlier in the year there had been a lot of land slides and parts of the trial were blown out, I'm sure its probably sorted now though and that was probably why they would not let us through until sunrise.

There was no access to Machu Pichu at night, the only way I found to do it was to stay at the sanctuary lodge which is basically within the grounds and you are allowed in earlier and can stay later. I intend to go again and do this but I think from memory the place is very expensive to stay. You can pay to climb the sugar loaf mountain also (although probably fully booked) but I would not bother unless you really want a different perspective of the site.

I loved Lima personally, I had no issues at all walking around with a DSLR etc. If you like mario testino, he has a gallery in Barranco which although small has some great images. I did not feel unsafe at any point there, we were told to be careful in some areas but apart from seeing armed security and police a lot which is common across south and central America we did not see a hint of trouble.

Cusco has lots of lovely little streets and building if your into photographing that sort of thing, there are lots of people in traditional mountain dress begging for money for photos too, the Pisco museum is worth a look for a few drinks...

We bought a pass to the major attractions which allowed us into pretty much everything in the region, but there are lots of tour places around the central square who seemed fairly cheap as you may need a car to explore, although there's enough in Cusco without.

We used Condor travel who were amazing so I would highly recommend them if you want any tours etc.

Your have an amazing time, very jealous.

Have fun.
 
I have done the high level route on the Inca Trail and the best advice I can give is watch the altitude. Even walking up the street in Cuzco when you land gets you out of breath and that is without lugging around a load of camera gear. I would get a really good compact and make sure you take plenty of headache tablets. Enjoy your trip
 
Well I'm back....

Couldn't get to Machu Picchu at night... last gate is locked and impassabale and after doing the walk the final walk to the sungate I don't think i'd fancy doing it in the dark.

Had an extra 10km to walk as they're doing sewage works up to km82... found the walk reasonable, altitude didn't cause me any issues but did for just about everyone else in the group. Added to that my pack weighed in at almost 16kg.... compared to everyone else who was around the 7kg mark... I should have been a porter!

Got a few (7k) photos of the trip and slowly working my way through them... quick review


Lima - A bit like Croydon. It seems to be a transport hub, people go to Lima to go to other places.Beach is a waste of time (went surfing)... there's a reason the ancient locals never worshiped the sun in Lima..... didn't see it once (apart from descending into the cloud in the plane)

Cusco - Interesting place, got quite a few portrait'y shots from here

Sacred Valley - Again, Interesting, lots to see and do

Inca Trail - Cracking walk, toilets and showers need sorting (especially after some idiot scottish bloke mistook the shower for a squat toilet)

Machu Picchu - A lot bigger than I was expecting.SLightly dissapointing when you get there, havin walked for 4 days, for the first site to great you to be a fat American eating an Ice Cream....

Rio - AMAZING. Got a superb picture of the sunset from the top of Sugarloaf mountain, which is doubly impressive as I was s*** faced when I took it (50p a beer up there!)
Did a cracking favela tour, walked through the favela , down the back streets, in houses, had a chat with some dealers, met some other guys with pistols sticking out of their belts et and even learnt a bit of the weird martial art/dancing thing they do...
 
Totally... Carlos, our guide, has done the tour for 26 year and lived there for his entire life (50 years).... it wasn't the usual "drive through it in a bus" job.... he knew everyone, told us who not to take the photos of (dealers) and yeah, just generally nice people (I got a snog and cuddle off a 70 year old woman)....
 
That sounds very much like me, the porters were taking it turns picking up my bag and laughing how heavy it was, well more likely that some idiot had such a heavey bag. The favela tour sounds awesome, I definitely need to check that out next time I'm in South America. Your making me want to plan a trip...
 
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