POSTE RESTANTE

You can have mail sent to you poste restante care of any main post office (Correo Central), and, on the whole, the system tends to work quite smoothly. Have letters addressed: full name (last name in capitals), Poste Restante, Lista de Correos, Correo Central, city or town, Peru. To pick up mail you’ll need your passport, and you may have to get the files for the initials of all your names (including Ms, Mr, etc) checked. Rather quirkily, letters are sometimes filed separately by sex, too – in which case it’s worth getting both piles checked. Some post offices let you look through the pile, others won’t let you anywhere near the letters until they’ve found one that fits your name exactly.
An alternative to the official lista is to use the American Express mail collection service. Officially, American Express charges for this service unless you have one of their cards or use their traveller’s cheques, though they rarely seem to. The South American Explorers’ Club offers members a postal address service.