Upon your arrival in Lima, your local guide will be waiting for you at the airport to warmly welcome you and help you with the check in at airport hotel in Lima. To give you details about your itinerary and answer any question or request you might your local guide will come up with a short briefing. Overnight at airport hotel in Lima (4 stars hotel accommodation)
Your Local guide will pick you up from Airport hotel in Lima and help you with the check in for flight Lima/Puerto Maldonado, flight takes about 2 hours ; Puerto Maldonado, capital of the southern rain forest in Peru. Upon arrival at the rain forest airport, our company representative, will warmly welcome you and take you to the company office in town. We will take some time to separate a 4 day pack out of our big luggage, so we don’t have to take too much luggage to the lodge. We will drive through this bustling Upper Amazon Basin city to the Tambopata River boat dock. Here we board a powerful motorized dugout canoe and set off to the nearby confluence of the mighty Madre de Dios River, where we head downstream for approximately three hours to the Peru-Bolivia border at the mouth of the remote Heath River. Even beneath the vast sky of this major amazon tributary we glimpse the diversity of the riverine environment, with its forest-capped red-earth cliffs, alternating with low banks thick with Cecropia trees and giant grasses. Now, after brief frontier-crossing formalities, we motor for about two more hours up narrower and wilder waters, suddenly enjoying the intimacy of mysterious forest looming close to either side. Occasional views of native villages and children splashing by the banks, are interspersed with long, quiet stretches where w may spot herons, hawks, cormorants, Orinoco Geese, and perhaps a family of Capybaras – the world’s largest rodent, weighing up to 55kg./120lb, and looking like an enormous Guinea Pig. We reach our simple, charming and comfortable quarters at the Heath River Wildlife Center in time for dinner. Please note that the lodge is located on the Bolivian passport control.
Today we make an early start to visit the lodge’s most spectacular feature: the Heath River parrot and macaw lick. Here these colorful birds gather to eat a type of clay from the cliff-like river banks that neutralizes certain toxins in their diet. They congregate early each morning, sometimes by the hundreds, jostling and squabbling over the best eating spots on the clay lick. This noisy and unforgettable show can go on for two or three hours, and may begin with up to five species of parrot and two varieties of parakeet, followed by Chestnut-fronted Macaws and their larger, more boisterous cousins, the red-and-green Macaws. This extraordinary wildlife display occurs at only a handful of sites in the Upper Amazon Basin, and nowhere else on the planet.
Our floating hide platform provides comfort and complete concealment, so that we can eat a full breakfast here during pauses in the bankside spectacle. For ultra-close up viewing, our guides carry a tripod-mounted spotting scope, which can also be used to get telephoto pictures with even the simplest camera. On our return we can land partway downriver and walk back along a section of the lodge’s extensive network of forest trails. We encounter numerous gigantic Brazil-nut, kapok and fig trees, along with the scary strangler fig, whose life strategy is as sinister as its name suggest. Our guide will point out and explain the medicinal and commercial uses of dozens of plants and trees, while we keep our eyes and ears open for birds, or one of the eight species of monkeys found in this region. We might come upon a small herd of White-lipped or Collared peccary – two kinds of wild pig that are quite common in this area. For purposes of territorial marking they deplay a “stink gland” so potent that they are often smelled before they are seen.
After lunch we typically hike or bicycle along a major trail to point where the forest abruptly gives way to a spacious plains of the Pampas del Heath, part of Bolivia’s Madidi National Park. This unique environment – the result of very poor soils, plus an extreme seasonal cycle of dryness and flooding-is the largest remaining undisturbed tropical savannah in the Amazon, and is home to rare endemic birds and mammals, such as the Swallow-tailed Hummingbird and the highly endangered Maned Wolf. Shortly beyond the edge of the forest we can climb a raised platform that allows us a grand view of this vast expanse of grassland and shrub, studded with palm trees. We continue another hour or so to a swampy area thick with Mauritia flexousa palm trees, whose oil-rich palm nuts and hollowed-out dead palms provide vitally important food and shelter for nesting pairs of Red-bellied and increasingly rare Blue-and-yellow macaws. We aim to arrive toward dusk, when the macaws are returning from their day’s foraging to congregate in this very special breeding site.
We return to the lodge by night, using our flashlights, and perhaps pausing here and there in total darkness, to listen to the ever-changing orchestra of animals, frogs and insects, and to experience the magic of the night-time rainforest. We may come upon such bizarre nocturnal creatures as camouflaged frogs disguised as dead leaves, toads the size of rabbits, hairy tarantulas peering out of their dirt holes, night monkeys lurking among the tree branches, and teemingly unpredictable array of other night life. After dinner some guests may choose to visit one of our mammal lick hides, in hopes of seeing a Lowland Tapir, the rainforest’s largest mammal. Hardy adventures can choose to camp here with their guide, in order to experience a full night in the heart of the rainforest and increase their chances of a major wildlife sighting.
Our second full day at the lodge allows us to choose from a wide range of activities available in this exceptional diverse tropical environment. Many people choose to make a second visit to the macaw clay lick. Later we can take a canoe tour around Cocha Moa, an oxbow lake that lies a short way downstream from the lodge. The reeds, fallen trees and forested shoreline of this lake teem with birds and other wildlife. Red Howler Monkeys may peer at us through the branches of the giant trees above us, while herons lie in wait among the fallen trees, cormorant-like Anhingas watch from the forest branches and an Osprey may circle overhead. Flocks of brilliant Red-capped Cardinals gather on dead branches, and a colorful primitive bird, the Hoatzin, hops its ungainly way along the swampy water’s edge.
In the afternoon we may travel an hour or so down river to visit the Ese ‘Eja native community of Sonene, where we can meet these descendants of nomadic forest tribes, and catch a glimpse of those traditional life ways that they manage to maintain in the modern world. We can also purchase their handcrafts, made from a wide range of seeds collected from the forest.
After dinner we can board our canoe once more, for an evening of spotting caiman, the Amazonian cousin of the alligator. This region is home to the endangered black caiman, and we nearly always pick out a few with our powerful spotlight as we patrol the river.
We leave at dawn for the return trip down stream. This is peak hour for wildlife so we keep a sharp eye on the river banks, often spotting families of the Capybara, and perhaps being rewarded with a rare jaguar sighting, or a tapir swimming across the current. We reach the Madre de Dios River, re-enter Peru, and set off upstream for Puerto Maldonado, where we are transferred to the airport for our flight to Cusco. Arrive in Cusco, pick up at the airport, and immediately we will take you the sacred valley of the Incas, to your hotel. The rest of the evening for you to rest, overnight at the hotel in Sacred Valley (3 stars accommodation)
Today, we will get the great experience by exploring the Sacred Valley of the Incas, to marvel ourselves at the best sample of Inca civil engineering in the whole Cusco region: Ollantaytambo; in terms of stone-work, even better than Machu Picchu, Ollantaytambo is a religious and administrative complex, this massive stone architecture jewel of the finest quality, is, unfortunately, frequently over looked. This tour includes a guided visit to the native weaver’s town-market of Chinchero; where you will get a fantastic and unique weaving demonstration, followed by an opportunity to purchase beautiful textiles at bargain prices, to later finish this full day excursion in Urubamba town, where hotel is located right in the heart of sacred valley Overnight at hotel in Sacred valley (3 stars accommodation)
Early transfer from hotel in Sacred Valley to train station in Ollantaytambo, to get the train to Aguas Calientes or Machu Pichu town. We will enjoy this exceptional train ride considered one of the most scenic in the world, as we prepare ourselves for discovering one of the wonders of the World. Upon arriving in Aguas Calientes, we will be taken to the hotel to drop our luggage and then continue to a guided 3 hour visit to Machu Picchu. After enjoying this tour, we will have time on our own to explore this impressive Inca site and then we will take the bus down to Aguas Calientes town, where we will get free time to stroll around town or rest a bit at hotel Overnight at hotel in Aguas Calientes.
A very fantastic day!!!, a great opportunity to do an optional: (not included) second entrance to Machu Picchu which can allow us lots of free time to enjoy the “Lost city of the Incas” this time on your own, the beauty and mystery of this magical citadel cannot be described with words. Afternoon train back to Cusco Overnight at hotel in Cusco (3 stars accommodation)
Today, we will take the Cusco City Tour visiting the most significant Inca sites in and around Cusco, such as: the Qoricancha (temple of the sun) which displays the best Inca stonework in the city, the Cusco Main Square, with its magnificent colonial architecture, free time to explore the old city.
Second day in Cusco, we will visit the famous massive stone temple of Sacsayhuaman, the living oracle of Qenqo, as well as the look-out point of Puka-pukara, to finish at the spring-shrine of Tambornachay. Then we will return to Cusco and overnight at our hotel.
Early breakfast and transfer to Cusco airport for catching our flight back to Lima; upon arriving at Lima airport, your Local guide will pick you up at the airport, and according to time availability, Local guide can take you on a short city tour of Lima colonial area, including a nice place where you can have dinner, before coming back to the airport; once arriving at the airport, your Local guide will assist you check in for international flight back USA. Your Local guide will stay with you until you check in and board departure gate to make sure everything is fine with flight and that you are well treated by Airline Company.