Peru Photo Safari: the Amazon, the Andes, and Lima

Welcome to Peru!  Please arrive at the International Airport Jorge Chavez of Lima

in the morning, to be able to connect with a short flight (1.5 hours) over the Andes to the town of Puerto Maldonado, located in the Amazon basin.  The Amazon area of Puerto Maldonado is known as a hotspot of biodiversity in the world. Our local nature guide waits for you at the airport and guides you into another world. You drive to the local river port and enter a motorized canoe that takes you to our jungle lodge. Here, you have lunch and, in the afternoon, you start to explore the area in search of wildlife.

Today you enjoy a full-day of nature and jungle exploration with your local guide. For all meals, you return to your jungle lodge (we have several options of jungle lodges to offer, from top-comfort to more basic, some are also specialized around certain fauna, for example parrot clay clicks, jaguar spotting or wild river otters. Let us know what you are looking for and we will help you decide on the best lodge for you.)

After breakfast, we return with our motor canoe through the river back to Puerto Maldonado for a short flight to Cusco. Here, our staff is waiting for you to take you to your hotel in the beautiful historical center of the town. Our local guide takes you on a private walking tour and explains you about the past and present, while you explore the plazas, small streets, and markets of this fascinating town.

We take you around the Sacred Valley of the Incas to take pictures of the most beautiful sites of this fertile valley. Later in the afternoon, you travel by train to Aguas Calientes, the town just below Machu Picchu where you spend the night.

After a very early breakfast at the hotel, your Machu Picchu guide picks you up and together you walk to the bus stop for a 30-minute ride up to the Machu Picchu Sanctuary. Your enjoy a 2-hour (approx.) guided tour of the impressive ruins, following one of the pre-established circuits along temples, Inca houses, fountains and beautiful viewpoints.  After this, you have the option of climbing the steep stairs of Huayna Picchu, a steep and vertically quite challenging hike that takes about 2 hours which affords great views of Machu Picchu (tickets for Huayna Picchu are limited and subject to availability; therefore, it is good to book with enough time in advance).  After this, you return by bus to Aguas Calientes for lunch and to catch your train. The ride from Aguas Calientes to Ollantaytambo takes about 1.5 hours, and then a private vehicle drives you back to Cusco (an additional 1.5-hour drive). Upon arrival in Cusco, (approximately 7 or 8pm), we take you to your hotel.

You have a free day to enjoy Cusco and make photographs in this amazing city that was once the heart of the Inca Empire. Today, if you like a physical challenge, you have the option to choose an excursion to visit the colorful rainbow mountains of Cusco, visit a community that preserve the native potatoes, hike to the scenic Humantay Lake, take part in a cooking class, have a massage, or other activities.

A fantastic experience is waiting for you today!  You travel with the luxurious Belmond train from Cusco through the gorgeous Andes mountains and over the altiplano region to Puno, the town located at the shores of Lake Titicaca.  On the train, you receive an excellent lunch service and you enjoy and take pictures from the bar and open-air observatory wagon at the end of the train. Upon your arrival at the Puno station, around 6pm, your local guide waits for you to take you to your hotel and to brief you on the next day.

We take you on a private boat trip through the highest navigable lake in the world to visit the islands of the Titicaca Lake and learn about their ancestral cultures. First, we explore the fascinating floating reed islands of the indigenous Uros people. Our local guide explains you about the history and ways of life of these peculiar islands, made out of Totora reeds. Then, our trip continues to the island of Taquile, Unesco’s Cultural Heritage site and voted as one of the most beautiful islands of the world.  We make a short exploration hike on the island and have lunch in a beautiful spot outside, overlooking the lake. In the afternoon, we navigate to the peninsula of Luquina Chica, an Aymara community that lives at the shore of the Lake. You are welcomed there by one of the families to spend a night at their home: an ideal way to get more insight of the local customs.

Depending on the time of your flight back to the capital, you can spend some time with your host family in this beautiful Andean rural setting.  Then you are picked up to travel to the airport of Juliaca.  If time permits, you can choose to stop at some interesting sites, such as the Temple of Fertility and the pre-Inca Sillustani funeral towers, located next to the Umayo Lake. These towers are part of one of the largest and most important necropolises in the world. Upon arrival in Lima, you are taken to your hotel. Enjoy your last night in the culinary capital of Latin America!

We bring you back to the airport for your international flight back home. We hope you had a great journey of exploration and beautiful pictures to take home!