ChasquiES
The person behind your Peru

Forty years.
Still curious.

I’m Fernando Novoa. Traveler, collector of good stories, and the friend who’s already been there.
My passport is asking for a pension. I’m not quite ready.

Fernando NovoaFounder & curatorBased in Miraflores, Lima
Meet your curator A LITTLE WISDOM.
A LOT OF MILES.
Fernando Novoa smiling beside white flowers, from his personal collection.
Fernando sharing a café table with a travel companion.
ON THE ROAD
40+
YEARS & COUNTING
One rule.
Earned the long way.

The curator’s rule

“I only recommend places
I’ve experienced myself.”

A beautiful photograph can make me curious. It cannot earn my recommendation. Somewhere I’ve walked, eaten, stayed or spent enough time to understand—that’s where the story begins.

Editorial illustration: a ginger cat has made itself at home in a half-packed suitcase.
A life in departures

A suitcase, half open.

For forty years, I’ve lived with a suitcase half open. I’ve crossed continents, tasted things I couldn’t pronounce and confidently walked in the wrong direction more than once.

Then there’s Peru. Its coast, its mountains, its jungle. The towns we keep promising ourselves we’ll visit “someday.”

After all these years, I’ve learned two things: someday deserves a date, and my passport deserves a pension.

A FEW STOPS ALONG THE WAYIndia · China · Korea · Italy · Spain · Germany · The Netherlands · The United States · Brazil · Mexico · Chile · Argentina · Colombia—and always, Peru.

A night-time city skyline from the China photographs supplied by Fernando.
Look beyond the screen

A lesson from China.

Not long ago, I traveled to China with two business owners. Six weeks looking for suppliers. They arrived with ambitious plans—and the quiet fear that comes with putting your savings into something you cannot yet trust.

China has given me some of my safest experiences as a traveler. Buying from someone online is a different journey altogether. A convincing website can introduce you to a factory that exists mainly in someone’s imagination.

The photographs are magnificent. The samples are perfect. You transfer the money. And sometimes, what arrives is a shipment of rocks.

Excellent rocks. Very consistent quality.
Unfortunately, not what you ordered.

A candid photograph of Fernando and a companion at a café, supplied from his travel collection.
The difference is showing up

So we went there.

There are extraordinary manufacturers: established businesses, skilled people, real production lines and years of work behind their doors. The challenge is knowing whom you’re dealing with.

We visited factories, asked questions, examined products and met the people who would actually make them. A visit cannot remove every risk. It gives you the chance to look closely, ask again and decide with your eyes open.

Over those weeks, I watched my companions’ worry give way to excitement. They found possibilities beyond what they had imagined. That change—from apprehension to possibility—is one of my favorite things to witness.

We’ve taken that same approach to sourcing work for Falabella in Italy, and for Ripley in Colombia and Brazil: go, look, understand, then recommend.

The friend who’s already been there

My lessons.
Your better holiday.

A holiday carries an investment, too. The money you’ve saved for months. The only week your family can be together. A journey you’ve imagined for twenty years.

We’ve all seen the hotel room photographed with a lens so generous it looks suitable for a wedding reception. You arrive. There’s room for a bed, a suitcase—and one person holding their breath.

A lovely website rarely tells you whether you’ll hear the elevator all night, or whether breakfast deserves an early alarm. Those details become your trip.

I’m the friend who knows what to ask. Who has taken the wrong turn, ordered the disappointing dish and occasionally paid a very educational price for optimism.

I’d like those lessons to be useful to someone besides me. Through Chasqui, I want to put that experience within reach, so you can spend less of your holiday figuring things out—and more of it actually being there.

Fernando Novoa
Founder, traveler & curator of Chasqui
Editorial illustration: two adult travelers laugh over an unwieldy paper map at a coastal café.
What travels with you

A little judgment.
A lot of care.

You should feel free to ask, “Is it really worth going?” And trust the answer.

First-hand perspective.

My recommendations begin with places I’ve experienced. I tell you what I know, and we check the details that may have changed.

Your kind of wonderful.

A place can be extraordinary and still be wrong for your trip. Your interests, pace and budget shape the recommendation.

A person who cares.

From a corner of Miraflores to a community in the Andes, I want you to feel the pleasure of having someone care how it turns out.

Your local ally in Peru

Your Peru.
A little more personal.

Tell us what you’re dreaming of, when you’re coming and what matters to you. Let’s start with a conversation.

Talk to Chasqui on WhatsApp ↗
Come home with stories
worth telling.
We’ll leave the rocks
where they belong.
Discover Chasqui →
About this story & its photographs

Fernando’s account, adapted from his own story. Portrait, breakfast and China skyline photographs supplied by Fernando; the suitcase and coastal café scenes are AI-generated editorial illustrations, not photographs of clients, inspected hotels or named businesses. No personal photo has been generatively altered.

Chasqui’s assistant is intended to be free for travelers. Chasqui may earn a commission from providers on bookings it generates. Ask us about availability and current service coverage when planning your trip.