Taste of Peru

This morning you will transfer to the airport for your flight to Juliaca, the gateway for Laek Titicaca. When you land, you meet up with your tour leader before taking a relatively short drive to Puno on the shores of Lake Titicaca at 3800m. At this altitude the sun is very hot in the daytime but temperatures at night can drop below freezing in the winter months of June, July and August. The rest of the day has been left free to allow you the chance to take things easy and help your body acclimatise as much as possible. For those that want there are a number of optional activities (additional charge) that you may like to do in the afternoon such as visit the Yavari iron ship, built in Scotland at the turn of the 19th Century, and carried in pieces to Lake Titicaca from the Pacific shores of Chile to be reassembled on the lake. Hotel - 2 nights (B)

A long (7 hour) but classic journey across the expansive ‘altiplano’ offers panoramic vistas of this huge, high plateau dotted with llama, alpaca and the adobe dwellings of lonely herders. Your route takes you over the La Raya pass (4321m) to Racchi, site of the Inca Viracocha temple. The temple was one of the largest roofed structures built by the Inca, and Racchi remains an important centre for folklore and tradition, hosting an annual folklore festival in mid-June. Continuing your journey the scenery changes as you enter the lower fertile valleys still worked by beasts or groups of industrious villagers - their timeless agricultural methods prove the value of the knowledge of long ago. On arrival in Cusco you check into your hotel and enjoy a first evening in this fascinating city. Hotel - 1 night (B)

Early this morning you transfer to Ollanta station to board the train for the spectacular ride to Aguas Calientes – the jumping off point for the stunning ‘lost city’ of Machu Picchu - the most dramatic and enchanting of Inca citadels, constructed from white granite in an extravagantly-terraced saddle between two towering peaks. No description of this mythical place can do it justice. It was rediscovered in 1911 by the American explorer, Hiram Bingham, who believed it to be the lost city of Vilcabamba. In the 1940s archaeologists decided that the city was conceived and built in the mid 15th century by Pachacuti, the first Inca emperor to expand beyond the Sacred Valley towards the forested gold-lands. Basic Hotel - 1 night (B)

The imperial capital was laid out in the rough shape of a puma. Today, its orderly streets bear witness to the extraordinary skill of Inca stone-masons - many are still lined with precisely interlocked stonework which serves as the foundation for later buildings from the colonial era, creating an atmospheric pastiche of contrasting architectural styles. With your local guide, you explore the inner city on foot. You also visit the impressive Inca ruins of Sacsayhuaman just outside the city. This fortress of giant carved stones, some of which weigh over 300 tonnes, fit together with a watchmaker’s precision – with no need for mortar to bind them. The rest of the day is free to soak up the historic atmosphere, visit some of the museums, the famous market or wander through the artists’ district of San Blas. (B)