THE KHIPU TOUR – 17 DAYS COAST – HICHLANDS – JUNGLE

Doorway to another world. A wealth of cultures, all of which led up to the Inca. Mystical beliefs, adoration of the Gods of Nature, Sun, Moon, Rainbow and so much more.

 

 

DAY 1 – LIMA    

We will collect you upon your arrival at Jorge Chavez Airport for transfer to your hotel.

DAY 2 – LIMA     B+L

We start a visit to Lima with a tour of the colonial city after breakfast. Lima was founded by Pizarro in 1535 and he named it the City of the Kings. We see the Plaza Mayor, the Government Palace, Municipality and Cathedral. We then walk a few blocks more to see one of the most attractive churches of all, San Francisco, and have the chance to visit the Catacombs.

Lunch will be in one of the nicest neighbourhoods of Lima, Miraflores.

We then go and visit the extraordinary collection of textiles, gold and silver pieces of Pre-hispanic cultures, at the Gold Museum.

You are free to roam around and you will have time to buy ingredients for your picnic on the bus trip tomorrow.

In the evening we meet for those who want to go to the sauna before dinner and taste the local wine! Then a visit to one of Limas top discos.

DAY 3 – LIMA – HUACACHINA     B+D

Around the Ica region we can visit the distilleries and wineries and see how the national drink is made and have a taste of the fundamental ingredient for the famous pisco sour. We can also buy some bottles for the evening ahead!

Tipsy and happy it is off to Huacachina for a sandbuggy tour into the desert. If that is not romantic enough wait until you have camped with a huge fire and a barbecue.

DAY 4 – HUACACHINA     B+D

After breakfast at sunrise, we strike camp and return to the soft imposing dunes and our Oasis at Huacahina. The Oasis is fed by underground waters which used to have curative properties and the legend goes that a mermaid lies in the depths of the waters appearing each year to take a young handsome man away for her pleasures.

  We relax at our hotel pool, perhaps with some cocktails made with Pisco, grab a bite to eat and then go Hugo´s restaurant for an early dinner.

DAY 5 – HUACACHINA – NASCA     B+D

After a light breakfast, we will see the most enigmatic geogliphs, drawings on the most arid places in Peru. The Nasca lines are world famous and best seen from the air, so up we go in our little Cessna!

DAY 6 – NASCA – MAJES     B+L

Today early start, we have a long bus ride ( 9 hrs.) to Majes, you will be able to appreciate this abrupt landscape along the Pacific Ocean, being the last view Camana.

Camana is not the most attractive town for a lunch break, but it is a rice producing region and a beach resort for many Arequipenos in the summer months – December to March. Arriving late evening to Majes.

DAY 7 – MAJES – AREQUIPA     B+L

Majes has a project to irrigate 150,000 acres of dry land and build two hydroelectric power plants, it is also a successful rice producing town as well as shrimp, pisco and wine.

Toro Muerto offers us the very impressive petroglyphs which are engraved volcanic stone spewed out possibly from the Coropuna and Chachani volcanoes during the tertiary period. This stone was carved using various techniques according to the different cultures that resided or passed by. It is said to have been a major highway to the Andes and a resting place.

For lunch it is shrimps on the menu!

We then head to La Ciudad Blanca – the White city.

DAY 8 – AREQUIPA     B+L

Imposing volcanoes encircle La Ciudad Blanca. Most of the arquitecture is in the Mestizo- Baroque style. Many church carvings have indigenous motifs.

Thanks to the white lava spewed from the nearby volcanoes which is white, most colonial Casonas where built out of this porous rock known as sillar.

Ari quepay translated from the Quechua language means- here we stay!. And that is what we will do!

We do a walking tour of the city and your guide will show you the Plaza de Armas, Catedral, Claustros de la Compania, and finally the Monasterio de Santa Catalina.

After lunch you have time to roam around the city and maybe check out the camelid garments shops and "La Iberica" chocolates that Arequipa has to offer.

In the evening we can check out the local discos.

DAY 9 – AREQUIPA – CUSCO     B+D

It is flying today to Qosqo, ( a Quechua word which means the navel of the world).

A city dating back to 5000 years B.C. Here we must surely marvel at some of the Inca culture still clearly to be seen.

Your guide will pick you up and show you around the city together with the Plaza de Armas, Catedral, Qorikancha, and the ruins above Cusco.

Later we could go out for cocktails, before going to a local disco for a bop at these heights. Not a daily occurrence for any of us!

DAY 10 – CUSCO – SACRED VALLEY – OLLANTAYTAMBO     B+L

Bus ride to the Sacred Valley, starting with Pisac, our first stop was built by the Inca Pachacutec to protect Qosqo from the Antis (the Antis are the eastern part of the Inca empire, nowadays the upper part of the Amazon region). We then continue to see the Sacred Valley, known as Vilcamayo to the Incas, this offers various micro-climates and is therefore a superbly fertile area, mainly planted with potato and maize crops alongside the Rio Urubamba, which flows down to merge with Amazon.

We stop for lunch half way at Urubamba town, then continue this beautiful valley heading to Ollantaytambo, you will hardly believe the fortress there which simply clings to the cliff!

Tomorrow we are ready to take one of the nicest trains of the world!

DAY 11 – OLLANTAYTAMBO – MACHUPICCHU – CUSCO     B+LB

We catch the earliest train to the famous citadel. The Machupicchu Sanctuary is a citadel constructed totally of granite stone. It was built in a sub-tropical climate which is home to more than 200 species of orchids, 700 types of butterflies and 400 types of birds.

The citadel is divided into two zones, the agrarian, built on terraces and the urban, composed of temples and observatories. Whoever is eager to climb up Wayna Picchu can do so. Just make sure you catch the train back at the appointed time!!

DAY 12 – CUSCO B

Today you can sleep in, relax and maybe buy your last gifts or souvenirs here in Cusco.

DAY 13 – CUSCO - PTO MALDONADO     B+L+D

After breakfast we catch our plane and riverboat that will take us to the land of the Antis. The rainforest, land of the Paititi and El Dorado, was called the Antisuyo by the Incas. It was the land that the Inca could not conquer.

The Amazon basin is about six times the size of England and produces pecan nuts, fruits and much oil, etc... On arrival to our lodge we will be offered lunch. Then our guide will tell us all about our programme. This includes visiting the monkey island, where we will be able to appreciate various types of monkeys and flora.

DAY 14 – PTO MALDONADO     B+L+D

After breakfast our guide will take us for a walk telling us all about the flora and fauna of the region arriving to Apu Victor Lake, where there is a tower and we can appreciate at a distance how intense the jungle is. Then if the weather smiles at us, we might go out fishing.

DAY 15 – PTO MALDONADO - CUSCO B+D

Boat back upstream to catch our flight back to Cusco. Before our last days in Peru, take advantage of the souvenirs you would like to buy and a GOODBYE lunch or dinner with your tour conductor.

We hope you have enjoyed this tour!

DAY 16 – CUSCO - LIMA   B

Flying back to Lima, be good, don’t fall in LOVE!!..so you will be able to catch your flight back home tomorrow.

DAY 17– LIMA - BACK HOME   B

We wish you a safe flight home...