Many of you have asked about what vaccinations are needed for traveling to Peru. We think that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention really offers the best advice for this. Even your PCP will go to this site to make sure you are ready for travel. Below is the link and you will see some vaccinations are required and some are just suggested. If you are traveling the entire country I would do everything suggested, but if you are traveling to just Cusco you will have less worries. Malaria and Yellow Fever are not worries up in the mountains, but again, contact your physician to confirm. We are not doctors.
http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/destinations/traveler/none/peru
Also, for you trekkers specifically, travel insurance is strongly recommended. While we plan to take very good care of you and make sure nothing happens while you hike the Andes, some things are just not predicted. Rarely we have someone suffer from extreme altitude sickness, but this does occur from time to time and you might want to visit the clinic or hospital to get your body right. I think being safe and having some sort of insurance to help pay for any strange occurrence is not a bad idea. And travel insurance is not expensive.
We have recommended a great insurance agent for those in the US – Jill Roth from Ahart, Frenzi and Smith agency, but you can find other companies right online pretty easily. If you are interested in contacting Jill, her email address is jroth@afsinsurance.com.
Just remember, we are here to help with any problem and will work for you to have an issue free vacation but its always better to be safe and covered.