Machu Picchu and Amazon Rainforest - On this experience you will see much beauty and diversity in the surroundings, animal life, and cultures, whether looking out for flora and fauna from your jungle lodge or trekking the prehistoric trail of the Incas, located in the promised land of the lost city.
Arrive in the capital city of Lima, enjoy the archaeological hotspots and cultural assets of the Andean highlands, hike the ancient ruins of Cusco, find cheap buys at the Sacred Valley Markets, visit the Incan town of Pisaq, and the fortress of Olllantaytambo, walk the Inca trail to Machu Picchu, spot animal life from your jungle lodge.
Exploring the incredible tour of Moray (Salineras) on the road taking pictures and the landscapes, don't remember the magnificence from the rainforest, a wonderful jungle with unexplored areas surrounder the site.
The jungle abounds many plants and animals, orchids, the birds, and other different kind of animals. The weather is agreeable, is for that many tourists recommend this excursion.
Finally, the gladness is not over because we'll arrive to Machu Picchu and the lost citadel of the Incas, there we can purchase some reminders about our tour and explore the site before to reach Inca ruins.
The highlights of this trek is the ruins which we can have an exploration around the site, many travellers climb Huayna Picchu mountain because for there is possible take the best pictures from the lost citadel due to panoramics views from there.
Quick Itinerary:
Day 01: Lima
Day 02-03: Amazon Rainforest
Day 04: Cusco City
Day 05: Sacred Valley tour
Day 06: Maras-Moray-Salineras Tour
Day 07: Southern Valley Tour
Day 08-09: Machu Picchu Tour
Day 10: Cusco
Day 11: Departure
Crew: A Inca Trail Machu Representatives in Lima, Puerto Maldonado and Cusco and a professional bilingual Tour Guide.
Accommodation: 3* hotels (8 nights), jungle lodges (2 nights).
Meals: 10x breakfast, 2x lunch, 2x dinner.
Transportation: 3x domestic flight, transportation by private van, motorboat transportation, a train round trip (Expedition Class).
Interesting Information
The first day is an arrival day and no activities are planned so that you can arrive at any time. When you arrive at Lima airport, our representative waits for you holding a sheet with your name and takes you to your hotel.
The capital of Lima is also known as the "City of the Kings" as it was founded by Francisco Pizarro on the Day of the Three Kings (Epiphany) in 1535! The Plaza de Armas (main square) is the heart of old Lima. There you can find the Cathedral, Governmental Palace and Archbishop´s Palace.
Lima is a city with extraordinary museums from pre-Incan, Incan and Colonial artifacts. Definitely worth a visit.
Fly from Lima, the capital city, to Puerto Maldonado, deep in the peruvian jungle, the Amazon. Travel by motorized canoe through Madre de Dios river to our lodge settled deep in the jungle. On our journey to the lodge, you will have the chance to see bird species typical of the river or forest edge.
The jungle lodge combines native architecture and materials with low-impact, trying to preserve the environment and the ecology. The lodge rooms are simple but comfortable, with mosquito net for individual beds, flush toilets, showers, but no hot water, and kerosene lamps for lighting, there is no electricity. Local community members make up the majority the lodge staff, including multilingual naturalist guides.
Explore the amazon with local guides before flying to Cusco, located high in the andes.
Cuzco is considered the mecca of Peru. This gorgeous colonial town offers nearby ruins, cobble-stoned streets, museums, churches and a lively atmosphere.
The city have several good museums, including the Coricancha and the Archaeological Museum, which also house a small art museum, the Regional History Museum and the Religious Art Museum. For the most adventurous, will find optional activities such as white water rafting in the Urubamba River; horseback riding around archaeological sites (Sacsayhuaman, Tambo Machay and Puca Pucara) and mountain biking down to the Sacred Valley, Moray-Maras, and perhaps visiting an Inca ruin along the way.
After breakfast we travel through the abundant Sacred Valley and visit native communities. An invaluable origin of food for the Incas, the Sacred Valley of the Incas is an abundant agricultural area that continues to provide Cusco with a lot of its production especially corn. Discover their long-established lifestyle, look through artesania and learn a few words of Quechua. Spot the maize and grain vegetation along the river and that cover the terraces reaching high up the valley walls. As it lays 600 metres lower than Cusco, its average temperature is 5ºC higher so it has got a very pleasant climate.
The tour shows us around the major archaeological sites placed in Pisaq and Ollantaytambo. The town of Pisaq is a valuable archaeological site in the area of Cusco. There is also a market in Pisaq that is full of life, its open on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays in the morning. You will feel a colorful mood here of communities, cultures and trading. You can buy authentic pre-Columbain artesania and fabrics. Every Sunday there is a procession of the mayors, at 9.30am they go to the church to attend the classic mass in Quechua. Then we stop in Urubamba, considered to be the capital of the valley, where we have a buffet lunch offering Andean cuisine (not included in the tour). Afterwards we continue to Ollantaytambo, the delightful and important location, 60 kilometres from Cusco where Inca Pachacutec constructed his fortress, it is a charming scene and the hills that encircle it conceal some of the most dramatic ruins in the Valley. It includes buildings such as the Temple of the Sun, the Royal Hall, the Inca huatana and the Banos de la Princesa (Princess Baths). It was also one of the few places that the Spaniards lost one of their fights. Then we make our way back to Cusco, but there is one more Incan site awaiting us on the way. The site is Chinchero where we enjoy our last guided tour. The debris of what was the royal hacienda of Tupac Inca Yupanqui, as well as the fascinating colonial temple constructed on Inca foundations. There is also a sunday market here, where you can get beautiful artesania and local goods. Later on we make our way back to Cusco.
We journey out of Cusco in our private transportion. Maras is a lovely little town that has preserved the best part of its architectural colonial style. You can see astonishing exteriors made of thin stone, lintels with sculptures in which the figures project slightly from the backround. we then continue to Moray. The Moray ruins are situated at 3,450 m.a.s.l. We discover the agricultural terraces of Moray with their complex system of irrigation and terraces. These terraces served as a natural green house to cultivate an exceptional diversity of plants at an altitude that would typically only grow in the tropical Andes. It has also been propositioned that it had a cosmogenic significance. You receive a guided tour of the site.
Then we continue to Salineras, northeast of Maras where we can find the "Trabajos de Sal" which are made up of 3,000 small pools about 5 square meters (53.8 ft) in size. Every three days , during the dry season, workers fill the pool wih salt water that comes from natural springs at the top of the Maray complex, and when the water evaporates from the pool the salt is collected. This is carried out for a month until the pools reach a volume that is 10 centimeters (4 inches) in height. The salt is grinded, then iodine is applied, packaged and sent to the markets to be sold. The salt mines date back to pre-Incan times!
In the afternoon,we return to Cusco.
Collected from your hotel, today we get on a private vehicle and travel for an hour until we reach the first stop of today´s tour situated in the Southern Valley following the "Sun Route" that terminates in Puno (but we do not follow the route until its end). The first place we visit is Tipon, which is considered the royal garden authorizd by Wiracocha. It is one of the most intricate instances of agricultural terraces built by the Incas. We visit the archaeological megalith production center where initiation ceremonies were realised in Inca times, there you will observe a unique irrigation system with vertical and horizontal irrigation channels on terraces. These high terraces run up the narrow valley and are irrigated by an aqueduct from Pachatusan, the mountains above the site. Additionally there are other buildings, consisiting of baths, a temple complex, canals and aqueducts. Tipon is one of the lesser haunted sites in the Cusco region but is just as exciting as the those in the Sacred Valley. The Tipon Archaeological Complex is situated 24 km southeast of Cusco.
After a guided tour of Tipon we continue towards the only pre-Incan site of Cusco, the city of Pikillaqta, it is located 30 kms from Cusco and wasonce one of the most impressive regional centers of the culture Huari. This clay complex was created around 600 to 700 AD. Today it is still considered one of the most significant pre Inca sites in Cusco. It is made up of more than 700 structures: 200 kanchas (apartments), 504 qolqas (storages) and other constructions that should have accommodated about 10,000 people. The culture was seated in Ayacucho and its centres were occupied by Incas for many years. Today Pikillacta is a national archaeological park of great importance. The word Pikillaqta is made up of Quechuan words "piki" = flea and "llacta" = town, so that the meaning of the city´s name was the “City of the Fleas”. It does not want to say that fleas lived in the city nor that its inhabitants were lousy. The name was derived from the fact that each inhabitant lived in cramped conditions, in a very small room. Some investigators supposed that Pikillacta turned into a city of “mitimaes” during Incan times ("Mitimae" comes from the Quechuan word "mitma" meaning "resettlement". So mitimaes were originally groups of families taken by the Incas from their native places to loyal or conquered towns to perform political, cultural, social, and economic functions). Just a short walk form here is the small Inca site known as Rumicola, a travel stop for the Incas.
Close by the city we pass the Lucre Lagoon or Huacarpay at about 3200 meters high (10500 feet). This was a habitiat for wild animal groups, like wild ducks, geeses and flamingos owing to the appropriate ambience created by totora canes and terraces cultivated in the rugged esteriors of the mountains. They also fished trout and atherine.
Andahuayillas is a very comforting little town with a charming colonial church and not a harsh climate as it is encircled by mountains on the berth of the Vilcanota River, which is called the Urubamba River in the lowest districts. The earth there is abundant and its people are quiet and compainionable.
The most significant appeal for tourists is the church: San Pedro de Andahuayillas which is called the "Sistine Chapel" of America because of the quality of its work of arts! Inside the church you find golden altars, painitngs and colored ceilings galore! The chapel is simplistic and modest on the outside, though on the inside you will be thrilled by the numerous outstanding works! Additionally some of the paintings from the celebrated "Escuela Cusqueña" can be enjoyed.
In the afternoon we return to Cusco.
Day 01: Cusco - Aguas Calientes
Leaving from Cusco in the morning we travel to the village of Ollantaytambo in the Sacred Valley where we get on the train to Aguas Calientes. With exquisite landscapes throughout the journey, the train trip is an adventure in itself. Trailing the route of the river descending the Sacred Valley you reach Aguas Calientes by lunchtime, where you are accompanied by our represantative to check in to your hotel. Afterwards you have the afternoon free. We recommend the Machu Picchu museum and orchid exhibition, a 35 minute walk outside the village or you can just unwind in the hotsprings that the village is named after.
Day 02: Machu Picchu!
We wake up early and take the bus up to Machu Picchu to enter as the site opens. We have a 2 hour guided tour of the site, in which you will acquire knowledge about the Incas and see all the most significant areas of the fortress. After the tour you have free time to survey the location by yourself and if you have permits to ascend Huayna Picchu or Machu Picchu mountain. In the afternoon you will take the train back to Ollantaytambo from where you will be transferred by our driver back to Cusco.
Today is a free day to explore the fascinating capital of the Incan empire.
Cusco is the continents earliest constantly occupied city and the center of the South American travel net. The city draws in visitors who come to experience a unique location and an ancient culture very unlike anything they know from their modern way of life. A week could easiliy be spent here and in the surrounding areas. Inca stone walls border many of the streets and important Inca ruins are close by. This city is immersed in history, culture and fables.
Yearly Cusco brings in thousands of visitors who come to explore its imperial but heartbreaking past. It is an excellent base for optional travel around the area.
You can explore some of many very good museums such as Inca Museum, Qoricancha Museum, Archaeological Museum (which also houses a small art exhibition), Regional Historic Museum and Religious Art Museum.
Cusco has got numerous colonial churches too. The most important of them is the Cathedral on the main square. Its construction started in 1559 and it took 100 years to finish! The Cathedral can pride on the biggest depository of Colonial art of the city! A vault containing remains of the famous Incan historian - Garcilaso de la Vega is just past the entrance. Other churches that are worth seeing are La Compañía, La Merced and San Francisco.
The city is also a perfect base for those more adventurous as it offers a range of optional outdoor activities such as white river rafting on Urubamba River, horseback riding around nearby archaeological sites (Sacsayhuaman, Qenqo, Tambo Machay and Puca Pucara) or mountain biking down to Maras-Moray-Salineras and perhaps visiting some Incan sites on the way.
It is also home to fine dining restaurahnts, charismatic cafes and entertaining nightlife.
Transfer to Cusco to take a flight back to Lima (not included in the tour).
End of service!
Please note: A return flight to Lima can be arranged upon request
Also if you want to extend your trip let us know and we will be happy to help you!
Meals budget: Please allow USD 100-150 for meals not included.
Single room: Please note that if you have booked the "Single Room" option for this tour, you receive your own single room for all overnights, Amazonian jungle included.
Local flights: Two local flights are included in the cost of your tour unless noted otherwise! It is very important that we have got your passport details at the time of booking in order to process all air tickets! Internal flight tickets are issued locally and will be given to you prior to each flight departure!
