Tripology

An Exciting Interview with Arthur Frommer

Incas and Amazon for Families

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Detailed Trip Description

The Amazon and the Andes are yours on an amazing two week adventure. In Peru your family will enjoy delightfully contrasting, highly educational experiences on a beautifully paced, expertly guided program. Focus first on the natural environment and wildlife of the Amazon ecosystem and then on the culture, history, and archaeology of the Incan Empire. Every day is full, every day is different, every day is fun. First, you'll be based at extraordinary lodges along the Tambopata River, a tributary of the Amazon. Some of you will climb up into high observation towers and swing in rope harnesses. Next, travel to Cusco and into the Sacred Valley of the Incas. You'll be walking, boating and exploring. You'll spend a half-day rafting on the Urubamba River, and you may choose to trek part of the Inca Trail. You will also visit the mysterious ruins of Machu Picchu on this exciting adventure.

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Trip Itinerary

Day 1 - Lima

 
Hotel

Upon arrival, you will be met at the airport and taken to your accommodations in Lima.

Lima Hotel picture

Day 2 - Lima

 
Sightseeing

Your guide will meet you at your hotel for a look at the city of Lima. You’ll see beautiful churches, parks and plazas, an interesting monastery with spooky catacombs below.

Lima Sightseeing picture
Food and Dining

You will have lunch at a typical Peruvian restaurant.

Relaxation

The rest of the afternoon is at your leisure.
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch.


Day 3 - Lima

 
Lima/Refugio Amazonas.
Commercial Flight

Talk about contrast! When your big jet from Lima lands in Puerto Maldonado, you'll be greeted by your naturalist guide - Renzo, Daniel or Guillermo or someone equally smart and in love with the jungle.

Canoeing

It's 3 hours in the world's longest motorized canoe to Refugio Amazonas (in English, Amazon Lodge). It's an ecotourism project and you'll learn why. Meet the local Eseiaja Indians who own and run things.

Lima Canoeing picture
Sightseeing

This afternoon, you’ll climb the Canopy Tower, and from the top you will get spectacular views of the river and the surrounding forest and have excellent opportunities to see birds. Start your six-day species count: hawk, eagle, parrot, macaw …
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner.


Day 4 - Peru

 
Tambopata Research Center.
Canoeing

This morning, enjoy a canoe or pontoon ride around the Tres Chimbadas oxbow lake to look for a family of giant river otters, turtles, hoatzin (aka. stinkbird!), and wading birds.

Adventure

Then, continue up the Tambopata River this afternoon for a few more hours into the pristine heart of the Tambopata National Reserve. After the first hour you will leave the final traces of human habitation behind as you enter the huge, completely uninhabited center of the reserve. You will notice right away the difference in the amount of wildlife here! You’ll see herons, kingfishers, cormorants, capybaras, and caimans, just to name a few.

Hiking

After arriving at the Research Center, you’ll hike the one-and-a-half-mile Bamboo Trail, which is famous for the loads of rare birds that live exclusively in this habitat.

Sightseeing

End your exciting day with a “frog walk” through the forest - you’ll spot American bullfrogs, horned frogs, tree frogs, and an amazing variety of colorful bugs!
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner.


Day 5 - 6 - Peru

 
Tambopata Research Center.
Sightseeing

Each morning at dawn, you will cross the river to visit one of earth's one-of-a-kind places where the bank of the river is an enormous (about 12 stories high) wall of clay.

Sightseeing

You will not believe how many pairs of parrots and macaws swoop in for a lick. If you get in position really early, and stay really still, you get to see and hear it all. They are raucous! During your days at the Research Center, you meet scientists, go in the wildlife blinds, hike through many different kinds of forests, and climb up an observation tower. Wild macaws, who as chicks were saved by scientists and then released, come to visit and you can feed them bananas.

Peru Sightseeing picture
Sightseeing

Continue your species count: huge Ceiba trees, strangler figs, saddleback tamarins, squirrel and brown capuchin monkeys, collared peccary, and you may see ocelot, puma and jaguar tracks, although these cats are very difficult to spot.
Meals: 2x Breakfast, 2x Lunch, 2x Dinner.


Day 7 - Peru

 
Refugio Amazonas.
Sightseeing

After a last visit to the clay lick, it’s back to Refugio Amazonas for a final night in this amazing rainforest. Keep looking: This time you may spot a jaguar!
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner.

Peru Sightseeing picture

Day 8 - Amazonas

 
Amazon/Cusco & the Sacred Valley.
Canoeing

Return to town by motorized canoe.

Commercial Flight

Fly from the rainforest up to Cusco, at 11,000' in the Andes.

Sightseeing

Your guide will meet you at the airport and head to the Sacred Valley. Visit a pottery workshop in Rumichaca, where you can participate in a pottery lesson.

Sightseeing

Then, visit the fantastic ruins of Ollantaytambo. Ollantaytambo is remembered as one of the few places the Spanish lost a major battle during their conquest. This is also a good site to see Incan city planning - each cancha (block) had one entrance to the central courtyard, and individual homes were entered from the courtyard.

Hotel

Overnight in a great local hotel in Ollanta for the next two nights.
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner.


Day 9 - Peru

 
Urubamba Rafting.
Rafting

In the morning professional rafting guides take you on the Urubamba River, where the pretty stretches of calm water are punctuated by awesome rapids. Listen up and paddle hard!

Voluntourism

Then, you're spoiled by an amazing riverside picnic banquet, and then you're welcomed enthusiastically by kids in a local children’s home: Casa de Milagros (Home of Miracles). They provide shelter, food, clothing, basic medical care, education, and arts programs that promote self-confidence and self-worth for children in need. Here you will have a unique experience - the only condition is that each passenger should have a donation of: clothes, shoes, medicines, or educational materials. Children can choose to become a pen pal with a child at the Casa de Milagros.
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner.


Day 10 - Machu Picchu

 
Ollanta/Machu Picchu.
Train

Imagine - you can travel to legendary Machu Picchu, by train, the lost city of the Incas, stumbled upon by accident in 1911. It remains a mysterious site, as there are no Spanish records, Incan legends, or oral histories. Elegant ornamental stonework hints at the possibility of Machu Picchu's importance as a ceremonial center. It takes about 1 1/2 hours from Ollanta Station to Aguas Calientes, on tracks that wind along the Urubamba River.

Bus

Once you arrive, it is a short winding bus ride up to Machu Picchu, and your guide will lead you through the vast ruins.

Relaxation

The rest of the day you can relax at your beautiful hotel or walk around the village of Aguas Calientes.

Shopping

There are many shops and street vendors where you can find such things as weavings, carvings, wind chimes, pottery, jewelry, and clothing to bring home.

Hotel

Stay overnight at the Machu Picchu El Pueblo Hotel for the next two nights. Meals: Breakfast, Lunch.

One-Day Inca Trail Trek Option:
Hiking

For those with some interest in light trekking, we can offer the one day Inca Trail Trek. Take the train towards Machu Picchu, and disembark at Km. 104 to cross the hanging bridge to the Chachabamba site. After a brief visit, begin a three to four hour ascent to the ruins of Wiñay Wayna, an important ritual site. The Inca Trail cuts across the ridge above Machu Picchu to finally reach the Gate of the Sun (Intipunku) for your first awe-inspiring glimpse of Machu Picchu. Total hiking time is about six hours. Bookings must be made at least 90 days in advance. Please call for more details.


Day 11 - Machu Picchu

 
Mysterious Machu Picchu.
Sightseeing

This morning you’ll have another winding ride up to Machu Picchu with your guide, who will again lead you through more of the huge ruins for a full, informative day.

Hiking

You’ll also have the option to climb the steep trail up Huayna Picchu for a great work-out and a true birds-eye view!

Bus

Return to your hotel this afternoon on the bus. Meals: Breakfast, Lunch.


Day 12 - Cusco

 
Pisac Market/Cusco.
Train

This morning you’ll take the first train to Ollanta, arriving at about 10 am.

Shopping

Continue to Pisac, where people come from all around to see the traditional market busy with bartering for food, clothing, and other supplies.

Sightseeing

On the way to Cusco, visit Awana Cancha Exhibition Center, where you can admire the llamas, alpacas, vicuñas, and guanacos. Here you can also learn about the weaving and dyeing systems of Andean textiles from some people from local communities, who will be happy to introduce you to their ancestral techniques.

Hotel

Stay overnight in Cusco for the next two nights.
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner.


Day 13 - Cusco

 
Cusco & Nearby Ruins.
Sightseeing

In the morning, enjoy a walking city tour, then visit a music workshop, where children will have the opportunity to learn how to play some local instruments like the quena or zampoña.

Sightseeing

In the afternoon visit the nearby ruins of Qenko, Tambo Machay, Puca Pucara, and Sacsayhuaman. More than 500 years and many earthquakes ago the Incas built grand walls of stone, using no mortar at all - and these still stand today. How did they do that??? You’ll have time this afternoon to wander a little bit on your own.
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch.


Day 14 - Lima

 
Cusco/Lima/Onward.
Airport Transfer

Today you will be transferred to the airport for your flight to Lima.

Hotel

You will have the use of a day room at a hotel in Miraflores.

Airport Transfer

Transfer to the airport for your flight home (or onward connection).
Meals: Breakfast.


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