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) On own for all meals
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. Arriving in Puerto Maldonado, the capital of Madre de Dios, join the transfer of 1 hour by bus and 1 hour by boat to the lodge. Your first tasting of our Amazonian cuisine will be during the boat trip, while you leave the city behind and enjoy the incredible landscapes during the tour. 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. . A half-hour walk from the lodge takes us to the 35-meter-high canopy tower, a staircase with railings will provide us with safe access to the top of the tower, from which we can contemplate the impressive forest of the National Reserve of Tambopata. From the top, it is also possible to see different species of birds such as toucans, macaws, and raptors among other species. We reach our simple, charming and comfortable quarters at the Refugio Amazonas Lodge for 3 nights. Breakfast Lunch Dinner
Today we make an early start to visit the lodge’s most spectacular feature: the 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.
You can navigate around Lake Condenado, looking for wildlife such as the hoatzin or Shansho, which is said to be a pre-historic bird! Alligators, Martin fishermen among other species, if we are lucky will be able to observe a family of otters that inhabit its waters and are difficult to see. You will be able to discover the difference between the ecosystem of a lake and a river and who knows, maybe you will be rewarded with macaws flying over the treetops. 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.
You will have the option of taking a night walk through the when most of the mammals are active but difficult to see. Easier to find are frogs with shapes and sounds as strange as their natural stories and 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. Breakfast Lunch Dinner
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.
Do you know Brazilian Nuts? That dried fruit? Today you will know its origin, we will visit a Brazil Nut camp very close to the hostel, and you will be able to see the immense chestnut trees where they come from and how the local people harvest them once a year between the months of the rainy season. The chestnut is one of the main sources of income for the local population of Puerto Maldonado, making it one of the sustainable activities with the greatest impact.
Do you want to know what else nature provides us? In this activity, you will meet him. The medicinal plants’ trail will take us to know the great variety of plants and trees that the local population has used for years to heal their body and soul, perhaps you have heard of some of them such as Sacha-Ajos, Uña De Gato, Sacha – Charcot, ParaPara, Ayahuasca, are just some of them. After dinner Researchers from the Wired Amazon Project will tell us through a Night Lecture about the opportunities and challenges of this project in the Tambopata National Reserve. Breakfast Lunch Dinner
We leave early 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 return to Puerto Maldonado, where we will pick up our luggage and then transfer 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) Dinner
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) Dinner
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. Dinner
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) $20.00 per person - Dinner
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 $20.00 per person - Dinner
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. $20.00 per person - Dinner
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. On Own for all meals
