Is it safe in Ecuador and Peru?

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Aglease

You will be perfectly fine, especially in a big tour group. However, keep your wits about you. Sometimes thieves target big tour groups because they think they're an easy target. My advice, be wary of any people who come up and try to talk to you that aren't associated with your tour group. Don't handle large amounts of money out in the open either and never give money to beggars. If you're carrying a wallet keep it in your front pocket or if it's a purse or bag keep it around your front, not your back and if you have pockets that zip, that's the best place to keep your valuables like money or passport, just as long as the pocket is in the front of your pants or jacket. If you do need to carry a backpack, don't have anything of great value in it and never leave it unattended. Don't carry a lot of money at once, but carry enough that if you are robbed, the thief will be satisfied and leave you alone.

All the cities you're visiting are big tourist spots and have lots of Westerners. I'm not trying to scare you, just help you be less naive. You just have to be a savvy traveler and just be aware of your surroundings and the people around you all the time. That doesn't mean you have to be on edge, just aware, you don't want to seem oblivious. I've traveled to over 30 countries, including Peru and Ecuador and haven't had a single problem. The only place I've ever been mugged was right here in the U.S., Washington D.C. to be specific.

LuggageHelp

Well, from what I've heard you should go to your embassy instead of police if you have any trouble...police seems to be no trustworthy at all. Unfortunately I never went there.
Good Luck!

scrunge5440

With a tour group you should have ZERO problems. Even if you and your grandmother were on your own, as long as she was careful to stay on the established tourist tracks, you'd still be fine.

Don't worry, you are going to have a trip of a lifetime!

daniel c

peru is a beutiful place to be at the people are wonderful an there is good and bad people in peru just like in any other place in the world but the peruvian people is the nicest people i have ever meet have fun
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdMMzJd7Eio go there

rustyjr76

I've been to both Ecuador and Peru while in the military. As long as you stay with the tour group you should be ok. I remember that parts of Lima were off limits due to certain political upheavals, but that was ten years ago. Also, I found that many of the locals speak English. Try communicating with the locals in Spanish, even if you only speak a little bit. You will get a lot further with them if they think you took the time to understand their culture.

Barb

We actually just got back from Peru with a smaller tour group. We were even on our own quite a bit of it and had NO problems whatsoever and neither of us spoke very good Spanish. Our hotel was off the major tourist path in Cusco but we had no problems even while walking at night. The only place I heard of any was more Lima but it's the same as any other bigger city...keep your wallets close, don't hail taxis, etc. You should be fine and have a great time!! It's a beautiful country!

memorex

Take care that is safe. Last week I spoke with an old friend of mine who is from Ecuador and he told me that the only problem there was in the jungle zone, in his own words: "I wouldn't go there even if I was paid for". But nevertheless going to Quito and Galapagos (and other important cities) is OK.

Here in Peru, the worst case scenario would be if certain day students or union workers go out on strike for a reason but even if is possible, it happens on rare occasions. The last problem in Cuzco was last week when University students protested because they raised the price for bus transport (August 28th), before that on February there was a strike because of a new law and the protest was at the airport so on that particular day, the airport was closed.

In the long run, now is a good time to come to Ecuador-Peru and you have to take the opportunity because some years from now there could be political changes and it would be a totally different ball game!

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