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Travel
Essential Peru
A spectacular journey through Peru's varied landscape encompassing coastal desert, snowy Andean peaks, the high Altiplano and lush cloud forest. Visit the most famous sites including the mysterious Nazca Lines, the awe-inspiring Machu Picchu in its incredible mountaintop setting, Lake Titicaca, where you spend the night in an island homestay, and the stunning 3000m deep Colca Canyon. Free time is included in this tour, giving you the opportunity to choose how to make the most of your visit: rafting, hiking, history, shopping or just relaxing in beautiful Cuzco.
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Package Inclusions
- 13 breakfasts
- Accommodation
- Internal flight, train, boat and minibus transportation
- Iconic Machu Picchu by train with guided tour
- Native home stay on Amantani Island - experience the serenity of
- Lake Titicaca
- Colca Canyon - twice as deep as the Grand Canyon - and its soaring condors
- Beautiful colonial city of Arequipa and the Santa Catalina Convent, surrounded by 6000m volcanoes
- Drive into the Andes to seldom-visited highlands, ruins and the
- Apurimac River Valley
Trek Holidays
Trek Holidays has become Canada's largest wholesale adventure travel company and their staff have been to over 100 countries around the world. Trek works in conjunction with travel agents across Canada to prepare you for your arrival in a new destination based on their own personal experiences, videos, pre-departure booklets as well as reading lists.
- Day 1 Lima: Transfer to your hotel this afternoon. Those on land only arrangements will meet at the hotel this evening for the pre-trip briefing.
- Day 2 Ballestas Islands: Tour drives south from Lima along the Pan American Highway until mid-morning. Then, take a boat to the Ballestas Islands, a national park that contains one of the highest concentrations of marine birds in the world. There are sea lions, numerous species of birds and the Paracas Candelabra, a curious pre-Inca design on the hillside, only recognizable from the sea. Drive on to Ica, Peru's wine-growing region.
- Day 3 Nazca Lines: At the oasis just outside of Ica there are high sand dunes where you may have time to try 'sand-surfing' (optional). You arrive at Nazca in the afternoon with time to visit the famous Nazca Lines. These are one of the world's great archaeological mysteries, consisting of enormous drawings and patterns etched in the desert sand. You will climb the viewing platforms near the lines for an overview of some of the drawings. There will also be time for optional visits to the nearby Antonini archaeological museum, the Chauchilla pre-Inca cemetery, or the Nazca Aqueduct, which gives an insight into the Nazca civilization's ingenious subterranean irrigation system.
- Day 4 Andes: You turn inland from the coastal desert, climbing high into the Andes on today's long but spectacular drive. Vicuñas can be seen along this road, as this area is Peru's largest vicuña reserve. Flamingos are usually sited at high Andean lakes near the road. This new route is possible due to the recent upgrade of the Abancay/Chalhuanca road. The altitude here can make physical exertion difficult, so it is recommended to rest in the evening after the 12-hour drive.
- Day 5 Cuzco: On the way to Cuzco you visit the unique Inca Saywiti stone and Tarawasi ruins. Glaciated summits of the Vilcabamba Mountain Range and the descent into the Apurimac river valley demonstrate the dramatic contrasts of the Andes Mountains.
- Day 6 Cuzco: Free day in Cuzco to get to grips with one of South America's most beautiful cities. In the centre there is the Plaza de Armas and the Koricancha Sun Temple located in the Santo Domingo Church and monastery. Outside of the town are more Inca ruins, notably the fortress of Sacsayhuaman where the Inca armies made their last stand against the Conquistadores. A visit to the Rainbow Centre, rafting or Sacred Valley tours are also available through your tour leader.
- Day 7 Machu Picchu: For most people the highlight of the trip is the visit by train to one of the greatest ruins in the world, the lost city of Machu Picchu. This is one of the architectural and engineering marvels of the ancient world, in a mountain setting of staggering immensity. The Spaniards never found it; the Incas left no records about it, so Machu Picchu remains a great enigma, a city lost for centuries in the jungle. You will take a guided tour of the ruins and afterwards have time for the many spectacular walks - the steep Inca path up Wayna Picchu, to the Inca Drawbridge or even up to the Sun Gate for that iconic view.
- Day 8 Aguas Calientes: A free morning to enjoy the hot springs and buzz of this little town in the jungle below the ruins, take a walk in the cloud forest - or for those who want to explore more of Machu Picchu, there is the option to return for sunrise; much the most peaceful time of day to appreciate the site. In the afternoon board the train back to Cuzco.
- Day 9 Cuzco: A final chance to enjoy the sights and shopping of this beautiful city or take one of the numerous optional excursions available, including a visit to the Rainbow Centre.
- Day 10 Lake Titicaca: You take a 7-hour bus ride across the altiplano, the high plains separating the Andes from the jungle. Although it is quite a long drive, it is interesting and often spectacular. There are scheduled stops at interesting sites along the route to help break up the day and all along the route you get a feeling for the immensity of the Andean landscapes. You arrive in the afternoon at the shore of Lake Titicaca and board a boat for your trip to Amantani Island. Hiking around the island offers great views across the lake, whilst the night spent with a local family offers fantastic cultural insight into lives very different to your own.
- Day 11 Lake Titicaca: You explore the island in the morning before boarding your boat for the approximately three hour journey to Puno on the lakeshore. On the way, you visit the ancestors of the Uros Indians, who live on islands of floating reeds.
- Day 12 Colca Canyon: Today you head off across the altiplano again. This time you cross to the south west, heading back towards the coast to the high Colca Canyon. En route you have opportunities to see vicuñas and possibly flamingos before descending into what is considered to be second deepest canyon in the Americas (the deepest, the Cotahuasi Canyon, is also in Peru). There is time in the evening for a visit to hot springs a warming pleasure after the chill of Lake Titicaca.
- Day 13 Arequipa: An early start to view condors soaring on the morning drafts rising out of the canyon. Extensive terraces, stunning colonial churches, and burial tombs are viewed before you ascend out of the canyon on your way to Arequipa the White City surrounded by 6000m volcanoes, including near-perfect cone of El Misti.
- Day 14 Arequipa/Lima: In the morning you visit the huge and serene convent of Santa Catalina. Built in 1580 and only opened to the outside world in the 1970s, it offers a rare insight into the lives led by the nuns and has changed little through the centuries. There are still around 20 nuns living in the northern corner of the complex. In the afternoon you fly to Lima where you will transfer to your hotel in Miraflores.
- Day 15 Lima: Depart for your return flight home.
For reservations or additional information, call 1-866-286-9323 to speak with an experienced travel consultant.
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