Machu Picchu, Cusco and the Amazon Jungle, 10 Days

Price

$1,695 per person** (based on 2 people sharing)

This excellent 10 days Peru tour combines the pristine Amazon Jungle with all of the best Inca highlights in Peru. Spend several days in a comfortable eco-lodge in the remote, but beautiful jungle region of Tambopata, where your expert guides will reveal a wonderful world of flora and fauna you never knew existed. After, you will fly to the Andean City of Cusco, where you will tour the Inca ruins of Cusco and the Sacred Valley, before visiting mighty Inca citadel of Machu Picchu.

Day 1 – Arrive Lima

Today your international flight will arrive into Jorge Chavez International Airport in Lima (most flights arrive in the evening). You will spend the night in the Costa del Sol Ramada Jarvis Hotel, conveniently located near to the main airport terminal building. Using this hotel will avoid two lengthy transfers into central Lima, and allow you the maximum time for a good nights sleep after your international flight.

Day 2 – Amazon Jungle Tour

After a leisurely breakfast you will return to Lima Airport for your morning flights to Puerto Maldonado, deep in the Amazon Jungle.  Your guide will meet you at the airport, and accompany you as you travel along the Tambopata River, to your Jungle Lodge (1h30m), boxed lunch included. After a refreshing welcome drink, you will be taken to your accommodations where you can rest and refresh.

The lodge is modern and comfortable, with raised wooden walkways that interconnect the accommodations, restaurant, lounge and bar areas. All rooms come complete with private bathrooms and high quality mosquito netting. Electricity is provided by generator for a few hours each day, but in the evenings light is provided throughout the lodge by cozy oil lamps.

In the afternoon you will take a 20 minute walk to a local canopy tower. A bannistered staircase running through the middle provides safe access to the 30 meter high 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.

After dinner at the lodge you have the option to listen to an eco-tourism presentation on the Infierno Eco-tourism project.

Day 3 – Amazon Jungle Tour

After breakfast you will visit the Tres Chimbadas Oxbow Lake, which is either a 30 minutes by boat, or 45 minutes on foot. Once there you will paddle around the lake in a catamaran, searching for the resident family of nine giant river otters, and other lakeside wildlife such as caiman, hoatzin and horned screamers. Otters are most active from dawn to eight or nine AM.

After your buffet lunch at the lodge you will have the opportunity take an Ethnobotanical 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.

In the evening after a relaxing dinner, your guides will take you out for a night time jungle walk, when most mammals are active. Keep your eyes open for insect life, and listen closely for the strange sounds of the night time jungle.

Day 4 – Amazon Jungle Tour

Today you will visit a Parrot Clay Lick. 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 active at dawn, during the late mornings and mid-afternoons.

Following the clay lick, your guides will take you on the Ceiba Trail Hike. This short trek is a two hour hike crowned by the largest tree in the vicinity: a giant Ceiba tree. During the hike you will focus on the natural history of the rain forest and its principal taxonomic groups.

Following lunch at the lodge, you will take a thirty minute boat drive downriver to the most complete jungle 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. You will have the opportunity to see and taste some of the strangest and best fruits of the Jungle.

Day 5 – Amazon Jungle Tour / Cusco

After breakfast you will return by boat to Puerto Maldonado, where you will be taken to the airport for your mid-morning flights to the Andean City of Cusco (50 minutes). On arrival in Cusco, we will meet you at the airport and transfer you to your hotel for the afternoon. You will have the afternoon free to relax and acclimatize to the altitude.

Cusco, a UNESCO World Heritage site is an architectural and cultural jewel of a city set in the South-eastern Andes. The city is the former capital of the Inca Empire, and stands at 3350m above sea level. It is a fascinating mix of colonial churches, monasteries and convents, and extensive, pre-Columbian ruins. Almost every central street has remnants of Inca walls and much of this ancient stonework now serves as foundations for more modern dwellings.

Day 6 – Guided Tour Cusco

Today you will have the morning to relax before we collect you for an afternoon tour of Cusco and surrounding attractions. The Cusco city tour includes attractions not only within the city, but those of Saqsayhuman, Q’enco and Tambomachay located on the outskirts of Cusco. Within the city the tour gives you the opportunity to visit Cusco’s Cathedral and Korikancha – The Inca Temple of the Sun.

Day 7 – Guided Tour of the Sacred Valley

Today you will take a full day tour to the Sacred Valley of the Incas, where you will visit the market town of Pisac and the small village of Ollantaytambo. In Pisac you will visit the beautiful mountain top ruins which include a small Inca village and a well preserved royal temple, before heading along the valley and lunching in Urubamba. In the afternoon you will climb the hillside fortress at Ollantaytambo, where the Incas fought one of their last battles against the Spanish Conquistadores. On your return to Cusco there is the opportunity to visit the small yet stunning church of Chinchero.

Day 8 – Guided Tour of Machu Picchu

Today you will catch an early train from Ollantaytambo to Machu Picchu. After your transfer from Cusco to Ollantaytambo, you will take a scenic two hour train ride along the beautiful Sacred Valley before arriving to Machu Picchu. You will take a two hour guided tour of Machu Picchu, including stops at the Caretakers Hut, the Temple of the Sun, the Royal Tomb, the Three Windowed Temple and Intihuatana (the Solar Clock). You will stay overnight near Machu Picchu in the small village of Aguas Calientes.

Day 9 – Machu Picchu

A sunrise return to Machu Picchu awaits you today, and the option of an extended guided tour to some of the citadels hidden secrets. You can discuss with your guide what suits you best, but many visitors choose to hike to the Sun Gate (Intipunku) high above Machu Picchu or alternatively a leisurely climb up Huayna Picchu, the ubiquitous mountain overlooking the citadel. In the afternoon you will return to Cusco.

Day 10 – Depart

Today you can enjoy a leisurely breakfast before we collect you from your hotel and transfer you back to Cusco Airport for your onward flights.

What’s Included

Recommended 3 star accommodations
Airport transfers
Amazon Jungle tour, including meals, accommodations, excursions and purified water
Guided tour of Cusco (including full Cusco tourist ticket)
Guided tour of The Sacred Valley, including buffet lunch
Two days guided tour of Machu Picchu

What’s Not Included

Domestic or international flights

**Prices quoted in US Dollars. Prices are based on two people or more sharing, using our recommended 3 star hotels, low season rates and gtravelling in our standard group tour (max 16 people). Alternative hotels and itineraries are available for this tour; contact one of our travel advisors for pricing information. Surcharges may be applicable to certain credit cards used for payment. Our Terms and Conditions apply to all purchases.