Peru and Amazon Rainforest - 9 Days

Arrival in Lima, the “City of Kings” famous for its Spanish Colonial architecture, extraordinary museums and cuisine. Lima is internationally recognized as the “Gastronomic Capital of the Americas”, and its cuisine is considered among the most diverse and exquisite in the world on par with French cuisine. Upon arrival a host will meet and assist you in transferring to the hotel and in registering.

Breakfast at your hotel. Today, you will tour Colonial and Modern Lima: This half day tour visits both the colonial and modern sections of this “City of Kings.” Colonial sites include the lovely Plaza de Armas with its Cathedral and Government Palace, and the exquisite Torre Tagle Palace modern day seat of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In modern Lima, drive along the exclusive residential areas of Miraflores and San Isidro.

Transfer to the airport for your flight to Puerto Maldonado. Upon arrival in Puerto Maldonado we will welcome you at the airport and drive you ten minutes to lodge town office. While enjoying your first taste of the forest in our gardens we will ask you to pack only the necessary gear for your next few days, and leave the rest at our safe deposit.

This helps us keep the boats and cargo light. Transfer to river pier for a forty five minute boat ride from the Tambopata Port to Posada Amazonas which will take us into the Community’s Primary Forest Private Reserve.

A twenty-minute walk from Posada Amazonas leads to the 30-meter scaffolding canopy tower. A banister staircase running through the middle provides safe access to the platforms above. From atop you obtain spectacular views of the vast expanses of standing forest cut by the Tambopata River winding through the middle. Now and then toucans, parrots or macaws are seen flying against the horizon, or mixed species canopy flocks land in the treetop next to you.

Evening presentation on the Inferno eco-tourism project is available every night from a staff member.

Tres Chimbadas Oxbow Lake: Tres Chimbadas is thirty minutes by boat and forty five minutes hiking from Posada Amazonas. Once there you will paddle around the lake in a catamaran, searching for the resident family of nine giant river otters (seen by 60% of our lake visitors) and other lakeside wildlife such as caiman, hoatzin and horned screamers.

Ethno botanical Tour: A twenty minute boat drive downriver leads you to a trail designed by the staff of the Centro Ñape. The Centro Ñape is a communal organization that produces medicines out of forest plants and administers them to patients who choose their little clinic. They have produced a trail which explains the different medicinal (and other) uses of selected plants. Night walk. You will have the option of hiking out at night, when most of the mammals are active but rarely seen. Much easier to find are frogs with shapes and sounds as bizarre as their natural histories.
Night Walk: You will have the option of hiking out at night, when most of the mammals are active but rarely seen. Much easier to find are frogs with shapes and sounds as bizarre as their natural histories.

Parrot clay lick: This clay lick is only a twenty minute walk from Posada Amazonas. From a blind located about twenty meters away you will see dozens of parrots and parakeets descend on most clear mornings to ingest the clay on a river bank. Species such as Mealy and Yellow- headed Amazon, Blue-headed Parrot and Dusky headed Parakeet descend at this clay lick. The clay lick is most active at dawn and during the late mornings and mid-afternoons.

Ceiba Trail Hike: We leave from the lobby at Posada Amazonas and embark on a two hour hike crowned by the largest tree in the vicinity: a giant ceiba tree. During the hike we will focus on the natural history of the rain forest and its principal taxonomic groups.

Farm Visit: A thirty minute boat drive downriver takes us to the most complete farm in the community of Infierno. The owner grows a diverse variety of popular and unknown Amazon crops. In his garden, just about every plant and tree serves a purpose.

Breakfast. Early morning transfer from the hotel to the airport for a short but spectacular flight over the snowcapped Andes to the oldest inhabited city in the hemisphere, Cusco, at an elevation of 11,440 feet.

Upon arrival a host will meet and assist you in transferring to the hotel and in registering.

Tour of Cusco and Nearby Ruins – Visitors are caught up in the excitement of touring the ancient capital of the Inca Empire, a delightful combination of Inca and colonial architecture. The tour visits important landmarks such us Cusco’s Cathedral, Santo Domingo Church, Plaza de Armas and Koricancha “The Temple of the Sun”. This tour of the oldest continuously inhabited city in the western hemisphere also includes the nearby ruins of Kenko, Puca-Pucara, Tambomachay as well as the Sacsayhuaman fortress, an imposing example of Inca military architecture.

   Cusco Dinner and Show

Cusco has enough entertainment to keep you busy for a week. Tonight you flavor a Novo Andean and International buffet, which utilizes regional ingredients to rescue the gastronomic roots of the Andes.

Dinner is followed by a folkloric show with whirling Peruvian dancers performing a variety of regional entertaining dances.

Breakfast. Full Day Excursion to the Pisac Indian Market and the Ollantaytambo Fortress – Morning departure for a drive through the fertile countryside of the Urubamba Valley to the colonial village of Pisac where an Indian Market takes place Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Other days you will tour the religious nucleus and archaeological site of Pisac. During your visit to the bustling marketplace you will have the opportunity to bargain with the natives for many different types of Peruvian handicrafts and jewelry.
Continue to the Ollantaytambo archaeological complex, the Incas built it as a fort that included a temple, agricultural terraces, and an urban area. There are two distinct sectors: The religious and worship zone, and the residential area. Ollantaytambo was an important administrative center with probable military functions if one considers the walls and towers. There are also traces of ancient roads and aqueducts. The town of Ollantaytambo is called a “Living Inca Town” since the inhabitants maintain very old practices and customs. Lunch is at a beautiful country estate on the shores of the Urubamba River.