Peru

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum is barred from Peru after her government granted asylum to Peruvian ex-premier.

Peru has declared Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum a “persona non grata” who is unable to enter the country, days after severing ties with Mexico amid an escalating diplomatic dispute.

Peru’s Congress voted 63 to 34 on Thursday in favour of symbolically barring Sheinbaum from the country after her government granted asylum to former Peruvian Prime Minister Betssy Chavez, after she fled to the Mexican embassy in Peru’s capital Lima.

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The designation of “persona non grata” is typically reserved for foreign diplomats and compels them to leave a host country, and is seen as a rebuke to their government.

President of Peru’s Congress Fernando Rospigliosi said the move was a show of support for the government and its decision to break off relations with Mexico, according to Mexico’s El Pais newspaper.

During a debate on Thursday, Ernesto Bustamante, an MP who sits on Peru’s Congressional Foreign Relations Committee, also accused Sheinbaum of having ties to drug traffickers.

“We cannot allow someone like that, who is in cahoots with drug traffickers and who distracts her people from the real problems they should be addressing, to get involved in Peruvian affairs,” Bustamante said, according to El Pais.

Chavez, who is on trial for her participation in an alleged 2022 coup attempt, earlier this week fled to the Mexican embassy in Lima, where she was granted political asylum.

Peru’s Foreign Minister Hugo de Zela called the decision by Mexico City an “unfriendly act” that “interfered in the internal affairs of Peru”.

Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has maintained that it was acting in accordance with international law, and the move in “no way constitutes an intervention in Peru’s internal affairs”.

Lima has yet to offer safe passage for Chavez to leave the embassy and travel to Mexico.

Chavez, a former culture minister, briefly served as prime minister to President Pedro Castillo from late November to December 2022.

Charges against the former minister stem from an attempt by President Castillo in December 2022 to dissolve the Peruvian Congress before he was quickly impeached and arrested.

Chavez, who faces up to 25 years in prison if found guilty, has denied involvement in the scheme. She was detained from June 2023 until September of this year, and then released on bail while facing trial.

Pedro Castillo — seen here at the 76th Session of the U.N. General Assembly on September 21, 2021, speaking as the president of Peru — is facing charges in connection to his attempt to dissolve the country’s congress in 2022 and rule by emergency order. The prime minister during his time in office, Betssy Chavez Chino, has sought diplomatic asylum from Mexico. Pool File Photo by Mary Altaffer/UPI | License Photo

Nov. 4 (UPI) — Peru is severing diplomatic relations with Mexico over its granting of diplomatic asylum to a former prime minister accused of being involved in a coup attempt in 2022.

The Peruvian Foreign Ministry announced it was ending diplomatic relations with Mexico in a Monday evening communication, accusing the North American nation of “interfering in an inadmissible and systematic manner in Peru’s internal affairs.”

According to the communication, Mexico informed Peru that former Prime Minister Betssy Chavez Chino had sought refuge at its embassy in Lima and was granted political asylum.

Peru’s Foreign Ministry said it was “an unfriendly act that adds to the series of unacceptable interferences by the Mexican government toward Peru” and demonstrates its “profound lack of interest in maintaining a relationship” with Lima.

“Consequently, the government of the Republic of Peru has decided to break diplomatic relations with the United Mexican States,” it said.

Chavez was prime minister under President Pedro Castillo, who was impeached after trying to dissolve Congress and impose an emergency government to rule by decree in December 2022. He has been held in preventive detention since then on corruption and rebellion-related charges.

The former prime minister had been jailed from June 2023 over her alleged role in the coup until September, when she was released by a judge who ruled her right “not to suffer arbitrary detentions” had been violated.

Mexico’s Foreign Ministry said Peru’s decision to sever diplomatic relations was “excessive and disproportionate.”

In defense of granting Chavez asylum, Mexico said it did so in adherence to international law, in particular the 1954 Convention on Diplomatic Asylum, which both countries are party to.

“Mrs. Chavez Chino has mentioned that she has been the subject of repeated violations of her human rights as part of a political persecution of the Peruvian state since the moment of her capture in 2023,” the ministry said in a statement.

Mexico said its decision followed a “thorough evaluation and in strict compliance with the procedure established for this purpose in the Law on Refugees, Complementary Protection and Political Asylum” as well as in accordance with Mexican law.

“Mexico reaffirms, as has been recognized by the General Assembly of the United Nations, that the granting of asylum cannot be considered an unfriendly act by another state.”

Move comes after Betssy Chavez, who is on trial on coup charges, fled to the Mexican Embassy in Peru.

Peru has severed diplomatic relations with Mexico after accusing it of granting asylum to a former Peruvian prime minister who is on trial over an alleged coup attempt in 2022.

The announcement on Monday came hours after former Prime Minister Betssy Chavez – who served under former President Pedro Castillo – fled to the Mexican Embassy in Peru.

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“Today we learned with surprise and deep regret that Betssy Chavez, the alleged co-author of the coup attempt by former President Pedro Castillo, is being granted asylum at the Mexican Embassy residence in Peru,” Minister of Foreign Affairs Hugo de Zela told a news conference.

“Given this unfriendly act, and considering the repeated instances in which the current and former presidents of that country have interfered in Peru’s internal affairs, the Peruvian government has decided to sever diplomatic relations with Mexico today,” he added.

There was no immediate comment from Mexico.

Chavez’s lawyer, Raul Noblecilla, told local radio station RPP that he had not heard from his client in several days and was unaware of whether she had requested asylum.

Chavez, who served in Castillo’s cabinet as Minister of Culture, was appointed as prime minister in November 2022 amid a months-long standoff between the president and the Congress.

Castillo – a former rural schoolteacher and trade unionist, dubbed Peru’s “first poor president” – was impeached by lawmakers the following month when he attempted to dissolve the Congress.

Relations between Lima and Mexico deteriorated sharply afterwards.

Following his impeachment, Castillo was on his way to the Mexican embassy in Lima to request asylum when he was arrested and charged with rebellion and abuse of authority.

Chavez was charged alongside him.

In December 2022, Peru expelled Mexico’s ambassador after Mexico granted asylum to Castillo’s wife and children.

Castillo’s successor, then-President Dina Boluarte, also temporarily recalled Peru’s ambassador to Mexico City in February 2023, accusing then-left-wing president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of meddling in her country’s affairs for expressing support for Castillo.

The former president and Chavez went on trial in March of this year.

While Castillo has been in preventive custody since his impeachment, Chavez was released on bail in September.

Prosecutors had sought a 25-year term for Chavez for allegedly participating in Castillo’s plan to dissolve Congress.

They have sought a 34-year sentence for Castillo.

The pair has denied the charges.

With a new US tariff regime in place, the region’s economies face their greatest disruption in at least a generation.

When US President Donald Trump initiated a new regime of tariffs on global imports reaching the US, investors reacted by retracting forecasts and rethinking investment dynamics while companies globally started preparing their doomsday scenarios.

The effects in Latin America were no different. Brazil, the worst affected economy, now faces tariffs up to 50% on its exports and services provided to the US: the second highest tariffs Trump has applied to any country, equal to those imposed on India and behind only those hitting China.

Most Latin American companies and economies are not affected as severely as Brazil, but Venezuela’s oil-exporting economy is now also affected by secondary tariffs on third countries doing business with it. The entire region also must reckon with the prospect of reduced global commerce flows and reshaped trade and investment dynamics.

Most Latin economies principally export agricultural products, commodities, textiles, and—in the cases of Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina—manufactured goods. The region’s economies find themselves navigating the greatest disruption in at least a generation. Ultimately, however, some sectors may benefit from trade diversion and new marketing openings.

Venezuela

Aside from Cuba, Venezuela is the only Latin American country heavily sanctioned by the US, which has frozen most of its direct trade in both directions. However, Venezuela still exports oil and gas to a variety of countries. These are now affected by 25% secondary tariffs for purchasing oil and commodities from the big exporter.

“Venezuela remains a rich country with substantial natural resources, enormous potential for investment and a low entrance ticket at the moment for those with patience to ride the current waves and a strategic approach to their portfolio,” says Horacio Velutini, director at Conapri, the agency for investment promotion in Venezuela, and former CEO of the Caracas Stock Exchange.

“We’ve had a highly controlled economy since 1920, heavily dependent on petrol exports, which created the space for never-corrected macroeconomic imbalances,” he notes. The US sanctions began in 2015, but “despite curbing Venezuelan exports to the US, they had the opposite effect of what was intended. New markets opened and the poorest people of the country ended up most affected with the loss of revenue and social and infrastructure programs. Venezuelan entrepreneurs started more heavily investing in their own country, and we see this in the movements of the Caracas Stock Exchange.”

According to Velutini, the privately held bourse currently has a market capitalization of some $7 billion, with an annual exchange volume of between $300 million and $400 million, mostly from Venezuelan investors.

Despite sanctions, some international corporations, including US ones, continue to operate in Venezuela. These include Chevron, under a special authorization from the US government to participate in a joint venture with PDVSA, the Venezuelan state oil company, and Italy’s Repsol.

The sanctions and the political standoff between Caracas and Washington have undoubtedly damaged the Venezuelan economy, Velutini allows.

That said, Venezuela’s GDP has grown for 17 straight quarters, the latest forecast by the Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV) indicates 9.3% growth in 2025 and 5% growth in 2026, he adds. Sources outside Venezuela are less enthusiastic: the UN estimates 5.8% growth this year, while the World Bank projects 2.3% in 2025, and 2.5% in 2026-2027. The IMF has a much grimmer outlook for 2026, projecting the country’s economy to shrink by 5.5%.

Brazil

Latin America’s largest economy and the world’s tenth largest is in a political as well as a trade-based face-off with the US. The Trump administration has been unwilling to negotiate down its 50% tariff on Brazilian goods unless the government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva drops charges against former President Jair Bolsonaro, now convicted by the Brazilian Supreme Federal Court (STF) to 27 years in prison for plotting a coup to remain in power.

Brazilian businesses are struggling to adapt to the new tariffs; China has surpassed the US as the biggest importer of Brazilian goods, while the US sank to the second-largest importer.

“Most meat exports, coffee (Brazil is the world’s largest world exporter of the beans), semi-finished steel products, marble and granite, are affected,” says Daniel Teles, a partner at Valor Investimentos, who works in partnership with Brazilian investment house XP. “Orange juice is one example with detrimental effects on both countries. The US does not produce enough to supply the local market, and the tariffs on their largest exporter will inflate prices for US consumers.”

The principal challenges are lack of clarity going forward along with possible reciprocal tariffs and increased logistic costs.”The US strategy is clear,” says Teles. “They want to reindustrialize the country, increase growth through both local employment and taxation, and curb activity by countries still trading with Russia and other rivals.”

As Brazil scrambles to respond, its trading patterns are being significantly altered.

“Despite the first negative effects, we already see some positive market responses,” Teles says, “such as efforts to redesign logistic flows and a frantic search for new markets, along with expanded trade to current secondary markets. China had already overtaken the US as Brazil’s largest trading partner. This should now increase over time because of US barriers. Kazakhstan, the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, including Saudi Arabia, the EU, and Egypt have untapped potential, too.”

Other Latin countries face similar uncertainties, but not as severe. Mexico has a plant structure similar to Brazil’s but is less affected by the new tariff levels. Argentina has a dollarized economy, helping it absorb the new rates. Uruguay and Paraguay attract foreign direct investment both in the form of companies and wealthy individuals trying to escape heavier taxation elsewhere and, thus, are not as affected by US tariffs as its neighbors.

“In the short term,” Teles predicts, “much of the current uncertainties, including the diplomatic tensions and the risk of further sanctions and tariffs, should remain.” Nevertheless, the Brazilian stock exchange reached an alltime high on September 8, the economy is growing, and official interest rates in Brazil remains at 15%, low enough to attract investment.

Paulo Oliveira, CFO of Formosa Supermercados, which operates grocery and convenience stores, says, “What we see is companies affected by the tariffs absorbing the first impact and lowering their profits, but also trying to sell extra production within the Brazilian market, leading to price drops in coffee, meat products, and several vegetables.”

There will be “significant losses” in prepared containers not yet shipped to the US, Oliveira says, adding that an average of 2,000 containers per week “will now need to find new buyers. Producers of mango and grape from the northeastern part of Brazil, who had the US as their primary market, suffered significant losses and are having to rethink the sales of the current harvest and how they will manage the next cycle.”

Peru

Compared to most Latin American economies, Peru remains stable, with the key interest rate fixed at 4.5% and inflation not expected to surpass 1.7% this year. Most domestic output is centered in services, agricultural products, and mining commodities, especially refined copper, gold, and silver, as well as textiles.

The new US tariff rates mostly affect exports of blueberries, grapes, avocados, and textiles, according to Luis Pretel, senior auditing partner for financial products and commodities at Deloitte Touche & Tomatsu in Peru.

“The solution,” he says, “has been to diversify markets focusing on China, which is already a major player in Peru, as well as searching for new markets in Latin America. Thanks to the mega-port of Chancay, operated by China and inaugurated last year, exports to Asia have become simpler for the country.”

Peruvian companies are redesigning and improving their logistics processes, he notes, introducing digitalization, robotization, and AI, and crafting new cooperative and international agreements.

“Luckily, refined copper has been on the list of exemptions of US tariffs,” he adds, “and that industry is not affected by the current measures while gold and silver are stable in the international markets.”

That said, the government has lowered its GDP growth prediction for the year from 4.1% to 3.5%, anticipating diminished economic output and investments.

Pretel remains guardedly optimistic, however: “Ultimately, this will result in better logistic flows, new market openings, and Peru adapting through new strategies and a fully independent central bank, which will mitigate the political uncertainties and maintain local economic stability.”

The state of emergency lifts constitutional rights, including the right to protest, amid popular unrest over the rise in extortion and killings.

Peru’s Interim President Jose Jeri has declared a state of emergency in the capital, Lima, to stem a wave of protests that contributed to the recent downfall of his predecessor.

In a televised message on Tuesday, Jeri said the emergency in the city would last 30 days.

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“Wars are won with actions, not words,” the president said, adding that he is planning a new approach to fighting crime that he described as going “from defence to offence”.

Under the state of emergency, the government can send the army to patrol the streets and restrict freedom of assembly and other rights.

Al Jazeera’s Mariana Sanchez, reporting from Lima, said the announcement comes after six days of uncertainty over whether the interim government would push ahead.

In the decree formally declaring the emergency, the government did not mention how it intended to gather critically needed intelligence to curb extortion cases, which are estimated at 18,000 this year, up 30 percent from last year, Sanchez said.

The rise in extortions has also led to an increase in killings in recent years. Between January and September, police authorities reported 1,690 homicides, compared with 1,502 during the same period of 2024.

“The state of emergency will lift constitutional rights and people will not be able to protest,” Sanchez said.

Dina Boluarte was removed as president by Peru’s Congress on October 10 after an impeachment during which lawmakers said she had been unable to tackle the crime wave. Jeri, the parliament speaker, replaced her immediately and will serve as interim president until July next year.

Peru has been roiled by weeks of antigovernment protests over corruption and organised crime led by Gen-Z activists.

On Thursday, protests to demand Jeri’s resignation turned violent. One person was killed and about 100 were injured, including police officers and some journalists.

Jeri has said he will not resign.

Earlier, Boluarte had declared a 30-day state of emergency in March following the murder of a famous musician, but the move did little to reduce crime.

Paul Flores, a well-known cumbia singer, was killed when assailants attacked the bus he was travelling on in an apparent attempt to extort the operator.

NewsFeed

Peru’s interim president Jose Jeri has declared a 30-day state of emergency in the capital Lima and nearby Callao, saying the decision was to tackle surging crime. Anti-government protests last week left one person dead and over 100 injured.

State of emergency to be declared in capital as protests that led to last week’s ouster of former president intensify.

Peru’s new president, Jose Jeri, is refusing to resign amid Gen Z antigovernment protests, inflamed by the death of a popular rapper, as crime grips the nation.

The government said late on Thursday that a state of emergency would be declared in the capital, Lima, as the prosecutor’s office announced it was investigating the previous day’s killing of 32-year-old protester and hip-hop singer Eduardo Ruiz in a mass demonstration.

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Peru’s police chief, General Oscar Arriola, said that Luis Magallanes, a member of the force, was believed to have fired the bullet and had subsequently been detained and dismissed from his job. Arriola added that Magallanes was being treated in hospital after being physically assaulted.

Ruiz was the first person to die in the protests, which began a month ago with calls for better pensions and wages for young people and later became a lightning rod for broader frustrations with crime and corruption, culminating in the ouster of former President Dina Boluarte last week.

On Wednesday, thousands massed around the country, with hundreds clashing with police outside Congress in Lima, as they called on recently appointed Jeri, the seventh president in less than a decade, to resign.

“My responsibility is to maintain the stability of the country; that is my responsibility and my commitment,” Jeri told the local media after visiting Peru’s parliament, where he said he would request powers to combat crime.

Jeri expressed regret over Ruiz’s death in a post on X, saying the death would be “objectively” investigated. He blamed violence on “delinquents who infiltrated a peaceful demonstration to sow chaos”.

“The full force of the law will be on them,” he wrote.

Reporting from Lima, Al Jazeera’s Mariana Sanchez said that Ruiz’s death had “added another layer to the ongoing political crisis” in the country and had “angered even more Peruvians who are frustrated with the corruption, with the insecurity in the country”.

“He was peacefully hanging out with his friends. Unfortunately, the bullet hit his chest. We want justice for him,” activist Milagros Samillan told Al Jazeera.

The prosecutor’s office wrote on X that it had ordered the removal of Ruíz’s body from a Lima hospital and the “collection of audiovisual and ballistic evidence in the area where the incident occurred, in the context of serious human rights violations”.

Newly appointed interior minister, Vicente Tiburcio, said that 89 police and 22 civilians had been injured during Wednesday’s protest and 11 people were detained.

BREAKINGBREAKING,

Unlike eight previous attempts to remove the president, almost all legislative factions expressed support for the move.

Peru’s Congress has voted to remove President Dina Boluarte, among the world’s most unpopular leaders, in a late-night session called hours after political parties from across the spectrum called for her impeachment, as the nation fights an intensive crime wave.

Politicians voted late Thursday into Friday to debate her removal from office on grounds of “moral incapacity” and summoned her to defend herself before Congress an hour later.

The stunning turn of events came just hours after a shooting at a concert in the capital inflamed anger over crime roiling the South American nation.

Legislators had voted to accept four requests for a vote to remove Boluarte from office over what they said was her government’s inability to stem crime. They exceeded the minimum 56 votes required for each request, setting up a debate and impeachment trial in the 130-member unicameral Congress.

They then requested that Boluarte come before them on Thursday shortly before midnight to defend herself, but when she did not appear, they immediately voted to oust her. In short order, 124 lawmakers voted just past midnight to impeach Boluarte.

Unlike eight previous attempts to remove her, almost all legislative factions expressed support for the latest requests.

NewsFeed

Police in Peru say they have arrested the main suspects in the murders of two women and a girl whose torture was streamed live on social media in Argentina, prompting outrage and mass protests.

Drug gang suspected in torture and murder of two young women, and a 15-year-old girl, in crime that shocks Argentina.

Clashes have erupted between demonstrators and police as thousands protested in Argentina’s capital, Buenos Aires, to demand justice over the torture and killing of two young women and a teenager, which was livestreamed on social media by a purported drug gang.

Thousands of protesters took to the streets on Saturday to denounce the killings that shocked Argentinians after it was revealed that the murders were perpetrated live on the Instagram platform and watched by 45 members of a private account, officials said.

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The bodies of Morena Verdi and Brenda del Castillo, cousins aged 20, and 15-year-old Lara Gutierrez were found buried on Wednesday in the yard of a house in a southern suburb of Buenos Aires, five days after they went missing.

Investigators said the victims, thinking they were going to a party, were lured into a van on September 19, allegedly as part of a plan to “punish” them for violating gang code and to serve as a warning to others.

Police discovered a video of the triple murder after a suspect in the disappearance of the three revealed it under questioning, according to Javier Alonso, the security minister for the Buenos Aires province.

In the footage, a gang leader is heard saying: “This is what happens to those who steal drugs from me.”

Argentinian media reported that the torturers cut off fingers, pulled out nails, and beat and suffocated the victims.

While most of the protesters who took part in the demonstration on Saturday marched peacefully, some confronted police who responded by aggressively pushing them away using their batons and shields, according to video clips and images posted by the La Izquierda Diario online news site.

As they marched towards the Argentinian parliament with thousands of supporters, family members of the victims held a banner with their names, “Lara, Brenda, Morena”, and placards with the images of the three.

“Women must be protected more than ever,” Brenda’s father, Leonel del Castillo, was quoted by the AFP news agency as telling reporters at the protest. He had earlier said he had not been able to identify his daughter’s body due to the torture she had endured.

“It was a narco-femicide!” read a sign at the protest. Another declared, “Our lives are not disposable!”

The protesters also banged on drums as they marched and denounced the “inaction” of the administration of President Javier Milei against what they called the growing “narco” influence in the country.

An image posted on social media showed protesters burning an image of Milei and other political allies of his administration.

Antonio del Castillo, the grandfather of the slain 20-year-old cousins, was in tears, calling his granddaughters’ killers “bloodthirsty”.

“You wouldn’t do what they did to them to an animal,” he said.

On Friday, Minister of National Security Patricia Bullrich announced the arrest of a fifth suspect in the case, bringing the total to three men and two women. The fifth suspect, accused of offering logistical support in the killing by providing a vehicle involved in the crime, was arrested in the Bolivian border city of Villazon .

Authorities have also released a photograph of the alleged mastermind, a 20-year-old Peruvian, who remains at large.

Meta, the parent company of Instagram, has disputed that the livestream occurred on its platform, according to the AFP, citing a company spokesperson.

From a terrifying cliff climb, to trekking in the Andes, and trying (and failing) to get a selfie with a llama, our writer Sara Wallis had an extreme adventure in Peru

Clinging on to the side of a vertical cliff, 980ft high, I tried desperately not to look too far up or down – either view was terrifying. I’d not been in Peru for very long before I found myself literally on the edge, with my comfort zone far away on solid ground (ideally at a hotel spa).

Just below me, the 69-year-old Canadian lady in my group mused out loud that her travel insurance probably didn’t cover a ­pensioner scaling an iron ladder up a rock face. But here we all were, nearly at the incredible glass pod ­restaurant hanging off the top of the mountain, and a very long way from the bottom.

Having arrived in the stunning ancient South American city of Cusco a couple of days earlier, I was on a G Adventures group tour with like-minded travellers, all keen to tick Peru and the Inca wonder of Machu Picchu off their bucket list. We had been lulled into a false sense of security on day one with a peaceful exploration of the Pisac ruins, taking in staggering scenery, a rich history and curious llamas. But there is nothing more bonding for strangers than the Sacred Valley’s Via Ferrata (iron path), which I assumed was a gentle incline but turned out to be a thigh-burning, stomach-churning lesson in “doing your activity research”.

Grasping for the fixed iron rungs and at one point having to wobble across a tight-rope “bridge”, attached by a carabiner to a steel life-line, it’s no wonder G Adventures lists this as Your OMG Day. Video footage was immediately sent to my shocked kids. As a reward, we enjoyed a dizzying culinary experience at Skylodge, a transparent 1,310ft-high dining capsule. Travellers can – if they have nerves of steel – sleep overnight, but lunch was enough for me.

And we still had the small matter of getting back down. “Zip line or rappel?” asked the tour guide, as if he was offering tea or coffee. Hmm, launch myself off the ­mountain at speed or descend backwards from a rope? Abseiling down turned out to be another heart-stopping ordeal, but one I don’t regret for a second… although I did kiss the ground at the end.

Ancient Inca vibes

Having spent weeks examining my packing list, complete with deep critical analysis of water bottles and hiking socks, it’s fair to say I was keen to be prepared for my three-day hike to Machu Picchu. Rather than join the backpacking masses on the Inca Trail, G Adventures also offers an alternative, lesser-known Lares Trek option.

While it isn’t the exact route of the Incas, the Lares Trek takes in ­spectacular scenery and weaves through remote Andean communities. And this is the best bit – no one else was there… Mostly alone in this incredible landscape – unless you count alpacas, llamas and the odd sheep – we barely saw another human, let alone a backpacker. And which tourist wants to see another tourist? Not me.

Hiking past misty mountains, lagoons, valleys, waterfalls and glaciers, with falcons and condors flying overhead, this spectacular 20.5-mile trek is a hidden gem. Only me and Aussie traveller Biljana had chosen the Lares Trek, so for a few days it was just us and our guide Paulo – a man with the patience of a saint. “How many miles to go, Paulo? Please can you adjust my walking poles? Can we stop for another photo? Is it lunch time yet…” Ad infinitum.

Setting off from Ollantaytambo, the trek is shorter than the Inca Trail, but much higher, reaching the Pachacutec pass at 15,350ft on day two. You can’t help but feel the altitude, which makes the steep ascents even more challenging (the word breathtaking takes on a whole new meaning). But it’s worth the slow and steady climb to admire the snowy peak of Colquecruz at the top. Reaching the Lares Hot Springs at the end of the final day was a heavenly incentive – medicinal, mineral waters for those aching muscles.

The next day came the grand finale as we toured Machu Picchu, the 15th century Lost City of the Incas, perched majestically on a mountain ridge. Arriving on a scenic train from the town of Aguas Calientes, we wandered the site’s temples and terraces and saw the iconic Sun Gate. Spiritual, magical, historical – ­whatever you might make of it, the impact of the Unesco world heritage site is awe-inspiring.

Talk about in-tents…

If you’re going to do something, do it right and if that means a few home comforts, I’m here for it. Part of G Adventure’s Geluxe Collection, this premium tour offers intrepid adventure, but with a five-star twist. Have you still hiked to Machu Picchu if you’ve slept in a posh tent and eaten nothing but four-course restaurant-standard meals? Yes you have. Can anyone turn down a hot water bottle when you’re wearing five fleeces at night in the freezing Andes? I nearly cried with gratitude.

My hiking pal Biljana won’t mind me saying but neither of us are natural campers (hotels with walls and a bed, please). So our jaws dropped open when we saw our trek “digs”. Cots with air mattress, sleeping bag and blankets, with portable toilets and showers along the way, meant a proper rest to focus on the task at hand. Thoughtful touches included a little bag of hotel-style amenities, including shampoo and bug spray, while a team of porters (along with mules and donkeys) carried all our camping gear.

Chef Marco whipped up incredible meals along the way, from hearty porridge and soups to fresh fish, meats, salads and exquisite desserts including a celebration cake at the end. There was a glass of champagne waiting at the top of the highest peak, snacks on tap and hot coca tea to tackle the altitude and warm the spirits. The team would pack up our camp every morning, skip past us easily on the trail (cool as you like, hands in pockets, while we were puffing and panting), unload it all at the next location and create another oasis of luxury. On one occasion a mule did a runner and a porter went off in hot pursuit at dawn for several miles to lure it back. Heroes, legends, icons… and us? Happy campers.

Sweet potato

Mashed, spiced, baked, boiled, no matter what you’re eating in Peru, it will likely involve a potato, possibly even in your breakfast or dessert. Peru is renowned for potato diversity (more than 4,000 varieties) with a long history of cultivating the crop that goes all the way back to the Incas.

Quinoa, corn and trout are also Peruvian staples, while guinea pigs, or “cuy”, (cover your ears, pet lovers) are bred to be eaten as a delicacy on special and sacred occasions. OK, I bailed out of tasting a guinea pig wearing a crown at King Cuy, but I did get the chance to make my own empanada, a bit like a pasty, with a community in the rural village of Cuyo Chico in the Sacred Valley. By the time you’ve washed it down with a chicha morada, a spiced purple corn drink, you’re practically a local.

Drama llama

Llamas and alpacas have become the poster animals of the Andes. Commonly spotted on the trails, these iconic, gentle creatures will ­occasionally bother to turn their heads in your direction. Then, utterly bored, they will wander off just in time to ruin your selfie. By day four I could just about tell the difference – llamas are bigger, pack animals, while alpacas are fluffier, with a face like a teddy bear.

Speaking of which, a little footnote on that famous Peruvian bear, since everyone’s first question to me was: “Did you meet Paddington?” I did spot him waiting patiently by the train to Machu Picchu. I couldn’t tell you if he had a marmalade sandwich under his hat, but I was very glad to see this modest nod to the beloved bear, and not (yet) some awful tacky Paddington Land. Respect.

Book the holiday

• Several airlines, including Iberia and British Airways, operate flights from London to Cusco via Lima with fares from £650 return.
• G Adventures offers a nine-day Peru and Machu Picchu: Comfortable Camping on the Inca Trail (Lares Trek option), part of the Geluxe Collection, from £2,999pp with accommodation, meals, transport and guided tours. Flights extra. gadventures.com
• More info at peru.travel

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