Peru Positive Impact (12 days)

Welcome to Peru!!! You will arrive at Jorge Chavez International Airport, where a member of our staff is waiting to welcome you and to take you to your hotel (flights usually arrive in the early evening).  You spend the night at Los Girasoles hotel.

In the morning, we take you back to the airport for a short flight (1h10min) high into the Andes mountains to the capital of the ancient Incan Empire, Cusco. We then take you to the hotel for your check in. Cusco is located at 3400 m.a.s.l. so we start slowly this afternoon to acclimatize. Later in the afternoon we take a nice walk through the beautiful historical center of the city along the small Inca streets and take a look inside the cathedral and the Coricancha Temple (the temple of the Sun, that was covered in gold at Inca times). For dinner, you can try some of the Novo-Andean cuisine in one of the many great restaurant options in this town.  We spend the night at Los Niños Fierro, a hotel which profits support projects to help local street children. (B)

In the morning we walk to Cusco’s San Pedro market where local people buy and sell their products. We are escorted by a Peruvian chef who helps us choose the best ingredients for our Peruvian cooking lesson this morning. Together we prepare a typical lunch menu.  The organization of the cooking class also helps an NGO that assists in training local people to find better job opportunities.  Lunch is included (you prepare it). In the afternoon, we walk to the higher part of Cusco and the little visited area of the Temple of the Moon with an Andean medicine man. We get some insight on the local cosmovision and traditions while participating in an offering to thank Pacha Mama (Mother Earth) for everything she gives us. (B, L) You stay overnight at Los Niños Fierro hotel.

After breakfast, we travel to the fertile Sacred Valley of the Incas. We first visit the impressive ruins with enormous Inca stones at Sacsayhuaman. Our next stop is the local community cooperative of Awanacancha where you have a chance to see different types of llamas and alpacas. From here, we travel by the ruins of Pisac and higher to the community of Paru Paru. This community is known as the ‘guardians of the native Peruvian potatoes’. The community members welcome us and show us some of their agricultural traditions and how they dye textiles by cooking them with local herbs. They offer us a nice lunch with fresh trout from their high-altitude lakes in a beautiful location. In the afternoon, we return to the low part of the Valley, where and you can take a look at the market of Pisac (nice souvenirs here) and we end the day at the school of Niños del Arcoiris, where we have dinner and spend the night in beautiful bungalows. (B, L, D) Hotel Niños del Arcoiris

After breakfast, we visit this inspiring school project and then we go to the Llama Pack Project NGO, which is also a very cool initiative that does great work for the conservation of llamas, the environment and the local culture. We take a walk surrounded by nature with them while they explain us about the work they do. We have a picnic lunch and after this we go to the authentic Inca town of Ollantaytambo. Some of the inhabitants here still live in the stone houses the Incas once built and the old Inca water system that runs through the small streets is still intact.  We check out the fortress in Ollantaytambo and we will try a traditional Pachamanca meal -food cooked under the earth -for dinner. (B, L, D)  We stay at Niños del Arcoiris hotel.

We pick you up at the hotel and take you to the Ollantaytambo train station for a scenic train ride along the Urubamba River until we arrive at km. 104, where our trek starts, also known as Chachabamba. Around 7:20am, you start hiking Machu Picchu. Your guide explains you everything about the history of this special path, the fauna and flora, and the hidden Inca ruins that you pass on the way, such as wiñayhuayna, ‘the Forever Young’ archeological site and the famous Sun Gate, from where you can have a first view of Machu Picchu. Around 3pm, you arrive at the “Lost City of the Incas” and you can enjoy the view from the high terraces. In the afternoon, there are fewer people. Around 5pm, you take one of the last buses down to the small town of Aguas Calientes where you have dinner and spend the night at La Cabaña, a small 3-star hotel. (B, L, D)

• Starting altitude – 2100m
• Highest altitude – 2730m
• Walking distance – 10km
• Overall difficulty – Easy to moderately difficult (depends on your level of fitness)

In the morning, we take the bus up to the citadel (25-minute drive) and then you enjoy a 2.5-hour tour with your guide to explore more of this magical Inca city, where you visit its plazas, temples and sacred fountains. Around noon, we take the bus back down to Aguas Calientes for lunch. In the afternoon, we take the train back to Ollantaytambo and return to Cusco. We spend the night at Los Niños hotel. (B, L)

Today you take the beautiful, scenic train ride with the Belmond Titicaca Train through the Andes mountains and over the altiplano region towards the city of Puno, located at the shores of Lake Titicaca (3800 m.a.s.l). The ride is very comfortable and beautiful, you have lunch on board and there is a nice bar wagon and observatory wagon to enjoy the landscape and take pictures. Then you are taken to your hotel in Puno, the Qelqatani Hotel. (B, L)

You are picked up from your hotel in the morning with a typical “cyclo-taxi” and driven to the small lake harbor.  From here you travel with a slow boat on the lake to visit the islands and to learn about the different cultures. We go to the island of Taquile (Quechua speaking), a Unesco’s cultural protected site. Here we make a beautiful hike while you learn about the interesting traditions that have been kept alive here. After lunch, we pass by one of the floating reed islands of the indigenous Uros people where our guide explains about the very different life style here. We end the day in the community of Luquina Chica (Aymara speaking) where we are welcomed by local families for tonight. Dinner is included with your host family (they eat mainly vegetarian). (B, L, D)

During the morning you spend time in and around the community. You may take part in some of their daily activities (depending on what their needs are: agriculture, fishing, cooking,) or you can take a walk with your guide in the surroundings of the Lake to the neighboring village. After having lunch with your families, you return to Puno. In the afternoon, you have a bit of time to buy your last souvenirs in Puno. You stay at Qelqatani hotel. (B, L)

Today we fly back to the capital -Lima- in the morning from Juliaca (town that is 1-hour drive from Puno). After typical ceviche lunch we show you some of the most interesting places in our town. You spend the night at Los Girasoles hotel. (B)

Depending on the time of your international flights we take you back to the airport. ¡Hasta luego, queridos amigos! (B)