After your arrival in Lima, a representative of Valencia Travel Cusco will be waiting to pick you up and take you to your hotel in Miraflores.
We will take you to the hotel and then join your guide for a briefing about the wonderful tour that awaits you. Today, begin the day with a tour of Cusco enjoy the sights of Cusco´s (the capital of the Incas). The indigenous and colonial heritages then spend the remainder of the day at leisure "by exploring Cusco's nightlife or sampling some of its many typical restaurants.
HALF-DAY CITY TOUR
We will pick you up at 1:00PM from your hotel to start the tour and visiting the following places.
• The Koricancha: Temple of the sun.
• The Cathedral: Marvel of the religious art.
• Sacsayhuaman: Majestic place with impressive works in stone, some up to 120 tons.
• Q´enqo: (Labyrinth) a religious center dedicated to the adoration of the Earth.
• Puca Pucara: (reddish place) that was used as a military control center.
• Tambomachay: (Temple of the Water) a center of adoration and worship of water.
The Entrances Fee; for visiting the attractions; in this tour are included.
Overnight at: Casa Andina Standard Cusco or similar
Check in time 12:00pm/Check out 10:00am (Early check-in and Late check-out have an extra cost but it depends up to the hotel availability).
Day 2
Sacred Valley
After breakfast, we will pick you up from your hotel at 8:00am. This is a full day excursion to the Urubamba Valley visiting the colorful Indian market in Pisac where you will be able to appreciate the mixture of color and tradition and have an opportunity to test your bartering skills, interact with the local craftsmen and purchase their hand-made souvenirs. Pisac is located at the entrance of the Sacred Valley. The Valley is (31km)/ (19mi) from Cusco, and at an altitude of (2,970m)/ (9,700 ft.). Followed by Pisac is Urubamba where we have the lunch at a restaurant. (NOT INCLUDED)
Then we continue through to Ollantaytambo, the oldest continuously occupied town on the American continent. The narrow streets of Ollantaytambo, along with their canals, have not changed much from the time of the Inca Empire. They evoke their ancestral inheritance and give you a feeling of what it would be like to live during this time. The last visit will be the Chinchero market. Chinchero is believed to be the mythical birthplace of the rainbow. Its major claim to tourism is its colorful Sunday market which is much less tourist-orientated than the market at Pisac. At the end, we will return you to your program hotel in Cusco at approximately 6:30 pm.
The Entrances Fee; for visiting the attractions; in this tour are included.
Overnight at: Casa Andina Standard Cusco or similar
Day 3
Cusco - Machu Picchu
We will pick you up at 8:30am (to be confirmed) and take you to the train station. The train leaves at 11:30 am. After a 1.5-hour journey of majestic views you arrive to Aguas Calientes (Hot Springs Town) where you will spend the night. There will be plenty of time to relax if you want to have a hot bath in the natural springs!
Things to do in Aguas Calientes:
• Visit the Machu Picchu 'Manuel Chávez Ballón' museum and orchid exhibition. This is open from 9am to 4.30pm, and is a 35 minute walk down the road from Aguas Calientes to Puente Ruinas. It is a very illustrative museum that gives you an interesting introduction to Machu Picchu.
• Thermal baths –10 soles per person.
Overnight at: Casa Andina Standard Machu Picchu or similar
Check in time 13:00pm/Check out 11:00am (Early check-in and late check-out have an extra cost but it depends up to the hotel availability).
Day 4
Machu Picchu
You will have breakfast and then your Guide will pick you up from your hotel (5:40am). You will take the bus up to majestic Machu Picchu to catch the sunrise and then begin your walking tour with your guide (approximately 2 hours) after this you can explore the mysterious city by yourselves.
After enjoying a magic time in Machupicchu, you will take the bus down to Aguas Calientes for lunch later we will board the train back to Ollantaytambo (Departure Time 14:30pm). Upon your arrival to the train station, we will pick you up and take you back to your hotel in Cusco.
Overnight at: Casa Andina Standard Cusco or similar
Day 5
Puerto Maldonado
Arrival & Reception by Guide
Our guides are tourism professionals or community members. Unless noted otherwise, our guides speak English. We assign guides at 10:1 ratio in Refugio Amazonas. This means groups smaller than 10 people will be merged with other groups under one guide. If you would like a private guide or a guide in a language other than English, please let us know.
Transfer Airport to Puerto Maldonado Headquarters
Upon arrival from Lima or Cusco, we will welcome you at the airport and drive you ten minutes to our Puerto Maldonado headquarters. 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 Pto Maldonado Headquarters to Tambopata River Port
Skirting Puerto Maldonado, we drive 20 kilometers to the Tambopata River Port, entering the Native Community of Infierno. The port is a communal business.
Transfer Boat - Tambopata River Port to Refugio Amazonas
The two and a half hour boat ride from the Tambopata Port to Refugio Amazonas will take us past the Community of Infierno and the Tambopata National Reserve´s checkpoint and into the buffer zone of this 1.3 million hectare conservation unit.
Boxed Lunch
Orientation upon arrival, the lodge manager will welcome you and brief you with important navigation and security tips.
Caiman Search
We will be out at the river's edge at night, scanning the shores with headlamps and flashlights to catch the red gleams of reflection from caiman eyes.
Overnight: At Refugio Amazonas
Day 6
OXBOW LAKE - CANOPY - FARM VISIT
Oxbow Lake Visit
We will paddle around the lake on a canoe or a catamaran, looking for lakeside wildlife such as hoatzin, caiman and horned screamers, hoping to see the otters which are infrequently seen here. You will also be rewarded with overhead sightings of macaws.
Canopy Tower
A thirty minute walk from Refugio Amazonas leads to the 25 meter scaffolding canopy tower. A bannister staircase running through the middle provides safe access to the platforms above. The tower has been built upon high ground, therefore increasing your horizon of the continuous primary forest extending out towards the Tambopata National Reserve. From here views of mixed species canopy flocks as well as toucans, macaws and raptors are likely.
Farm Visit
Five minutes downriver from the lodge, lies a farm owned and managed by charismatic Don Manuel from the neighbouring community of Condenado. He grows a variety of popular and unknown Amazon crops just about every plant and tree you see serves a purpose.
Ethnobotanical Tour
Along this trail, we will find a variety of plants and trees that are used by the local population for a variety of purposes. We will learn about the medicinal and other uses of Ajo-Sacha, Yuca de Venado, Uña de Gato, Charcot-Sacha, Para-Para among several others.
Tambopata National Reserve Lectures
Nightly lectures prepared by the staff of Refugio Amazonas, cover conservation threats and opportunities /projects in the Tambopata National Reserve.
Overnight: At Refugio Amazonas
Day 7
PARROT CLAY LICK - BRAZIL NUT TRAIL
Parrot Clay Lick
A fifteen minute boat ride and sixty minute walk from Refugio Amazonas, is a clay lick used both by parrots and parakeets. From a blind, you will see parrots and parakeets descend on most clear days to ingest the clay on a bank. Species such as Dusky headed and Cobalt winged Parakeet descend at this clay lick. With luck, we will also see some of the following species in the early morning rush: Mealy and Yellow-crowned Amazons, Blue-headed Pionus, Severe macaw and Orange-cheeled (Barraband`s) Parrot. We visit the lick at dawn, when parrots are most active as well as the midmorning to early afternoon.
Brazil Nut Trail and Camp
A few minutes hike from the lodge, is a beautiful old growth patch of Brazil Nut forest that has been harvested for decades (if not centuries), where the precarious remains of a camp used two months out of the year by Brazil Nut gatherers can still be experienced. We will be demonstrating the whole process of the rain forest's only sustainably harvested product from collection, transportation to drying.
Mammal Clay Lick
Twenty minutes walking from Refugio Amazonas, is a peccary clay lick. These wild rain forest pigs show up in herds of five to twenty individuals to eat clay during the late morning. Chances of spotting them are around 15% but well worth the short hike. Other wildlife also show up including deer, guan and parakeets.
Night walk
You will have the option of hiking out at night, when most of the mammals are active but difficult to see. Easier to find are frogs with shapes and sounds as bizarre as their natural histories.
Overnight: At Refugio Amazonas
Day 8
: TRANSFER OUT - PTO. MALDONADO
Transfer Boat - Refugio Amazonas to Tambopata River Port
Transfer Tambopata River Port to Pto Maldonado Headquarters
Transfer Puerto Maldonado Headquarters to Airport
We retrace our river and road journey back to Puerto Maldonado to our office and the airport. Depending on airline schedules, this may require dawn departures.
Included:
Cusco
• All transfers in/out to the airport
• Round trip train tickets to Machu Picchu with Inca Rail Company
• Round trip bus from Aguas Calientes to Machu Picchu
• 4 nights’ accommodations at Casa Andina 3 star hotels
• 4 breakfasts at the hotel
• Guided tour in Machu Picchu
• Entrance fee to Machu Picchu
• City tour of Cusco
• Sacred Valley tour
Puerto Maldonado
• Programs based on double occupancy.
• Includes all meal on the itinerary, accommodations, and services
• All river transportation, and transfer from and to the airport of Puerto Maldonado.
Not Included:
Cusco
• International and local airfares
• Entrances Fee to the City Tour
• Entrances Fee to the Sacred Valley Tour
• Entrance fee to the hot springs in Machu Picchu (US$5).
• Meals where not otherwise stated
• Optional: Climb up the Wayna Picchu Mountain at Machu Picchu
• Gratuity
Puerto Maldonado
• Single supplement fee USD 400
• International or domestic airfares
• Airport departure taxes or visa fees, excess baggage charges
• Additional nights during the trip due to flight cancellations
• Alcoholic beverages or bottled water, snacks, insurance of any kind
• Laundry, phone calls or messages.
• Reconfirmation of flights and items of personal nature.
800 559 5192
