DAY 01 – Welcome Lima / Overnight Lima
DAY 02 – Lima Colonial City Tour, Larco Museum & Dinner Show / Overnight Lima
DAY 03 – Gastronomic Experience / Overnight Lima
DAY 04 – Welcome Amazon Jungle Program Day 1 / Overnight Lodge
DAY 05 – Amazon Jungle Program Day 2 / Overnight Lodge
DAY 06 – Amazon Jungle Program Day 3 / Overnight Lodge
DAY 07 – Flight from Iquitos to Cusco Day 4 / Overnight Cusco
DAY 08 – Cusco Archeological City Tour / Overnight Cusco
DAY 09 – Yachaq’s Textile Cultural / Overnight Cusco
DAY 10 – Full Day Sacred Valley / Aguas Calientes Town
DAY 11 – Machu Picchu Citadel Excursion / Overnight Cusco
DAY 12 – Full Day Rainbow Mountain / Overnight Cusco
DAY 13 – Maras Moray Tour & Transfer out Cusco and flight back Home
DAY 01 – WELCOME TO LIMA, PERU
Upon arrival in Lima, you will be met by our representative and driver at Jorge Chavez International Airport, who’s will be transferring you to your hotel in Miraflores, Lima.
Our representative will assist you with check-in procedures and provide you with a detailed itinerary, vouchers covering all the services included in your tour, and additional information on the organization of your Peru trip.
Meals Included: None
DAY 02 – LIMA COLONIAL CITY TOUR, LARCO MUSEUM & DINNER SHOW
Get ready for a busy morning, starting with a guided sightseeing tour to the most attractive and important sites in Lima, the “City of Kings”. The tour includes Lima’s Historical Center, Casa Aliaga, passing by Plaza San Martin, Plaza Mayor, the Government Palace, the City Hall, the Cathedral and its Religious Art Museum, as well as San Francisco Monastery and its famous underground crypts are known as the Catacombs.
We continue to the Museo Larco a housed in an exquisite 18th century vice-royal mansion, built over a 7th century pre-Columbian pyramid and surrounded by beautiful gardens. The museum’s galleries exhibit the finest and most magnificent gold and jewelry treasures from Ancient Peru and the renowned erotic collection, one of Peru’s most celebrated attractions.
Then, spend a night out at La Dama Juana Restaurant, where you’ll enjoy a tasty Peruvian buffet and folkloric dancing.
Meals Included: Breakfast, Dinner
DAY 03 – GASTRONOMIC EXPERIENCE
Passengers will be picked up at their hotel and driven to the local Market Surquillo Fresh Produce in order to start the tour.
Visita Typical Peruvian Market
During the visit to the Modelo Market in Surquillo passengers will have the chance to see the ingredients used to prepare our most traditional Peruvian dish.
How to make Pisco Sour and Ceviche
Arrive at a traditional eatery where our Chef will give us a demonstration of how ceviche, a popular Peruvian dish is prepared. Also, we will be tasting different dishes and mixing Pisco sour, our world-famous cocktail.
We will continue to another well-known restaurant in Miraflores, overlooking the Pacific Ocean. There we will visit to taste a wide variety of traditional Peruvian dishes.
Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch
DAY 04 – IQUITOS – CEIBA TOPS
Reception at the airport or hotel and transfer to the Explorama dock. Twenty-five mile journey down the Amazon River to Ceiba Tops where private rooms with air conditioning provide Amazon adventure in comfort. Afternoon hike in the beautiful primary rainforest reserve surrounding Ceiba Tops that includes many huge trees festooned with epiphytes. After dinner your guide will take you on a short walk to a small lake where caiman can be spotted at night and you can find some of the insects and frogs that produce a cacophony of sounds after dark.
Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
DAY 05 – CEIBA TOPS
Morning boat ride to visit a small village of Yagua Native Americans where your guide will explain the Yagua culture and how it was affected by the arrival of Europeans and the passing of time. There will also be an opportunity to see some of the local crafts and for a demonstration of the blowgun which some of the Yagua elders still use for hunting. Afternoon boating excursion along the Amazon in search of either of the two species of freshwater dolphin, pink and gray, found in the river. There will also be an opportunity for fishing to see the some of the incredible diversity of fish in the Amazon River, including piranha, and where more species exist than in the entire Atlantic Ocean. Those who catch fish will be able to try them for dinner!
Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
DAY 06 – CEIBA TOPS
Morning excursion to Monkey Island. This private reserve protects free-roaming and acculturated primates which make them great subjects for photos. The owner of the reserve has been reforesting the area for many years including fruiting trees to provide food for the animals in a natural rainforest environment. At this time residents include woolly, saki, and titi monkeys as well as tamarins and marmosets. In the afternoon there will be a walking excursion to a nearby lake to see the Victoria Regia lilies which can grow to up to 2 meters wide. Their underside has ribs which trap air allowing them to float and long sharp spines to protect the leaves from predators from below. The underside design of this unique leaf provided inspiration for Joseph Paxton’s 1851 design of the Crystal Palace in London. Usually there are large white or purple flowers accompanying the huge lilies. Also on this trail we’ll see Ceiba Tops’ garden of heliconia flowers, emperor’s cane and other beautiful ornamental plants.
Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
DAY 07 – CEIBA TOPS – IQUITOS
Morning boating excursion to a rural village where many of the houses are built on stilts to accommodate the seasonal rising waters of the rivers that surround them. Farmers and fisherman in these villages live day to day on the resources they are provided from the surrounding forest. Families in river communities love to invite visitors into their homes and if school is in session the children are especially proud of showing off their school and skills for guests.
Afternoon transfer to Iquitos and to the airport to take your flight to Cusco.
Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch
DAY 08 – HALF-DAY ARCHEOLOGICAL CUSCO CITY TOUR
This morning you’ll enjoy a guided sightseeing tour of Cusco, with your guide to the first ruin site (Tambomachay). As you walk to and visit each archaeological site, your guide will explain the history, architecture, and local traditions. The four sites are Tambomachay, Puca Pucara, Q’enko, and Sacsayhuaman. After exploring the last ruin site, you will walk down to the Plaza de Armas in Cusco City. With examples of Inca history and architecture. Visit the city’s most important historical monuments that reveal the influence of different cultures: The Plaza de Armas, the Cathedral dating from Spanish vice-royalty times, built with great slabs of red granite renaissance style in contrast with the baroque style silverwork of its interior and, the Santo Domingo church built upon the foundations of the Inca temple Qorikancha, dedicated to worship the Sun God.
Meals Included: Breakfast
DAY 09 – YACHAQ’S TEXTILE CULTURAL
AMARU COMMUNITY – PISAC
Experience the magic of authentic Andean weaving, from the shearing process of the llamas and sheep all the way to the final product, the vivid colors of the clothing worn by the villages of Amaru come from natural dyes extracted from plants and other organic elements. The weavers create fantastic geometric shapes that enclose ancient Inca codes. The communities knit their identity, customs and desires – creating a conversation with them by means of visual patterns. The Amaru villagers will teach you how to speak this language through textiles as you build your own design with their help.
You will be greeted by an amazing community reception with traditional music and beautiful Incan flowers (kantu). After the welcoming ceremony, you will begin “Decoding the Andean Textile” this starts with an explanation of all the different organic materials use to make the natural dyes – which plants they come from, what is their symbolism, and what other uses they have (many have medicinal qualities as well). The second activity is the shearing, cleaning and the coiling of the sheep or alpaca wool that is used in textiles – followed by a demonstration of how the wool is dyed by boiling. The iconography that is used in the textiles is extremely important to the villagers of Amaru – and through the duration of this activity, a local guide will explain the most important motives of each symbol that is weaved in the textile. Once the demonstration is concluded, you will get the chance to purchase beautiful, local textile all locally made and authentically (table runners, scarfs, purses, belts, bracelets, etc).
After, you will have an amazing lunch consisting of local cuisine prepared fresh with local ingredients.
Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch
DAY 10 – FULL DAY SACRED VALLEY
Start your exploration on the way to the Sacred Valley visiting Awanacancha, an Andean textile center whose key objective is to maintain the wealth of Incan textile art and keep their traditions alive.
Then head to the town of Pisac, famous for its ruins which lie atop a hill at the entrance the valley and separated along the ridge into four groups: Pisac, Inti Watana, Q’allaqasa, and Kinchiraqay.
Visit the Inti Watana group which includes the Temple of the Sun, baths, altars, water fountains, a ceremonial platform, and an inti Watana – a volcanic ritual stone used as an astronomic clock or Inca calendar to define the change seasons.
Continue to the Pisac Markets, which was the place of reunion for all artisans of the region to get together and exchange or buy and sell their products.
After lunch, we will travel to the ruins of the Ollantaytambo fortress to continue the tour. These spectacular ruins were constructed during the time of the Incas. At the end of the tour, you can enjoy a few moments you have left in the Town of Ollantaytambo before you take your train to Aguas Calientes town.
Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch
DAY 11 – SUNRISE MACHU PICCHU CITADEL EXCURSION
You will leave your hotel after breakfast and board a bus that will take you to the entrance gate of the citadel of Machu Picchu.
Machu Picchu is one of the most-visited sites worldwide. Machu Picchu dazzles all who visit it with its beauty and mystery. You will follow in the footsteps of the ancient Incas as you explore this magical citadel along with your local and experimented tour guide.
After the tour, you will stop at a local restaurant for a buffet lunch.
Afterwards, you will have a little time to explore the town of Aguas Calientes before boarding your train back to Cusco.
Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch
OPTIONAL
HIKE UP TO HUAYNA PICCHU, the mountain behind Machu Picchu. This hike is strenuous and recommended only for travelers comfortable with heights and who have a good fitness level.
A fair amount of climbing is required. Get fabulous views of Machu Picchu from the top. Total time for this excursion is 2.5 hours. You may want to extend your hike and go to the Moon Temple as well, which is close to Huayna Picchu. This adds an extra hour total to this excursion. Total time for the Huayna Picchu visit, including the Moon Temple, is 3.5 hours. (This hike requires advanced reservations).
DAY 12 – FULL DAY RAINBOW MOUNTAIN
This morning we will head to the south of Cusco, a trip that will take approximately 3 hours to the starting point of the excursion. Once we arrive in the community of Chilca we will have breakfast followed by an information session that will be provided by our guide.
The hike will take between 4 to 5 hours (normal – slow rhythm) with the first part ascending gradually until the control point.
From this point, the trail will ascend sharply by 45 degrees until Vinincunca. To have an even better view, we will climb up a small mountain, which is found at the Forefront of this natural wonder, and see how fascinating this área is. We will be here for about 40 minutes and then return to the camping área for lunch where a departure time will be confirmed for the return trip back to Cusco.
Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch
DAY 13 – MARAS MORAY TOUR & TRANSFER OUT CUSCO AND FLIGHT BACK HOME
Today you will set off in the direction of the Sacred Valley to the town of Chinchero, an authentic Andean village with lots of character, where we will find the colonial church that houses a large collection of painting from the Cusqueñan School of Art.
Next, continue to the salt fields of Maras and its seemingly never-ending terraces, where salt extracted from springs is stored. The use of Maras Salt dates back thousands of years and is inherited from generation to generation and managed communally.
Continue your excursion to admire the Moray terraces, believed to be a former gigantic agricultural laboratory, an astronomical observatory or a place of worship, or maybe all three. It is thought that Moray was used for plant adaptation to new climatic environments thanks to its circular terraces in immense cone-shaped depressions of 47 to 84 m that resemble giant fingerprints or contour lines.
At the scheduled time you will be shuttled from the hotel to the airport to board your flight back to Lima. Our representative will assist you with check-in procedures and then to your connecting flight back home.
Meals Included: Breakfast
