Welcome to Lima, the 'City of Kings'. You will be met at the airport and privately escorted to your hotel.

Morning colonial tour of Lima. The city has always been one of the most important cities in South America since it was founded by the Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro in 1535. Our sightseeing tour exclusively explores Lima's historic quarter and unlike the conventional tours it includes the visit to the ‘Casona San Marcos’. You will be able to retrace Lima’s colonial past as you explore the different rooms and courtyards of this house founded in 1605 by Jesuit missionaries.

After the suppression of the Jesuits the house became the Royal School of San Carlos. The first generation of intellectuals, playing a key role in Peru’s independence process, was educated here. Years later in 1867 the Casona was given to the University of San Marcos - America’s oldest and Peru’s most renowned university. Today, the restored ‘casona’ houses San Marcos University’s cultural center and is used as venue for graduation ceremonies and cultural conferences.

Flight to Cusco. This afternoon we walk through the major sites of interest in Cusco. We visit the famed Cathedral with its magnificently carved woodwork, ornate altar and many hundreds of canvases from the 17th-century ‘Cusco Painting School’. We continue exploring the cultural wealth of Cusco at the Temple of the Sun where we witness the incredible masonry of the Incas, an engineering feat that remains an enigma.

Afterwards we walk along Hatunrumiyoc Street which is named for the 12-angled stone clearly visible in the remaining walls of what was Inca Roca's palace. We make a last stop in San Blas artisan quarter. Its steeped cobblestone alleys not only offer spectacular views of the city but are lined with workshops and galleries, a great way to soak in Cusco's artistic atmosphere. San Blas church houses an imposing pulpit considered one of New World’s finest woodcarvings.

This morning we drive to the valley of the Urubamba River the so called Sacred Valley of the Inca. We proceed then to Pisaq where hundreds of visitors and people from remote communities dressed in their traditional and colourful attires meet to market and barter their products. Today, the market also has a tourist element, so there is an opportunity to buy souvenirs. Lunch will be served in a typical “hacienda”. Afterwards, we drive along the valley to Ollantaytambo, where the Temple of the Sun (formed of six gigantic monoliths, whose total weight exceeds 50 tons) and the Terrace of the Ten Niches stand out. Ollantaytambo was the site of the only successful Inca battle against the Spanish conquerors and the only town in the area to still retain its original Inca layout.

Morning transfer to Ollanta train station. (si es que están alojados en Pakaritampu 'transfer to the train station on your own. The train station is located at walking distance from your hotel'). The 1 ½ -hour train ride train takes you through the Sacred Valley of the Incas up to Machu Picchu. On arrival a small coach take you up the steep roads to the entrance of the citadel. Machu Picchu remained for centuries undiscovered by the Spaniards, only to be found in 1911 by Hiram Bingham. The uniqueness of its location and the genius that went into its construction make this Inca archaeological site truly one of the great wonders of the world. In the afternoon you will return through the mountainous switchback passes to Cusco, where you will be met and transferred to your hotel.

Flight to Puerto Maldonado. You will be met at Puerto Maldonado airport and transferred to the port on the Tambopata River. Here we board a motorized canoe for a 4 1/2 hour journey to the Heath River Wildlife Center. After descending the Tambopata River for 5 minutes to the confluence with the larger Madre de Dios River, our boat heads east, downstream on the mighty Madre de Dios River, passing small gold prospecting barges before reaching the Peru-Bolivia border. This stretch of the Madre de Dios River is particularly attractive, as more than 75% of the riverbank is still covered by towering, virgin rainforest, and periods of 15-20 minutes go by without a single sign of forest cutting. (For comparison, a similar length of river travel up the Tambopata River features only 10-15% of primary forest along the riverbank-the rest is in agriculture and freshly burned forest clearings). Here we transfer to a smaller motorized canoe and head up the narrow, intimate Heath River, which forms the wilderness border between Peru and Bolivia, to arrive at our 100% Indian-owned lodge.

We will provide a complete box lunch during the river trip. In the late afternoon, your Ese Eja Indian hosts will take you to explore the forest surrounding the lodge in search for the various species of monkeys and hundreds of species of birds that make the rainforest home. After dinner we explore the forest by flashlight, including a visit to a small mammal clay lick if it is active.

Rising before dawn we once again board the canoe for the journey up the Heath River to the Macaw and Parrot Clay Lick. Depending on the level of the river this journey can take up to one hour. During the river trip upstream, we nearly always see one or two families of Capybaras on the banks of the river at 55 kg (120 pounds), this simply gigantic relative of the guinea pig is the largest and most photogenic rodent in the world. Once at a specially-designed floating blind, our breakfast is served as we marvel at the medium-sized, emerald-green and electric-blue parrots and the large blazing Red-and-Green Macaws that arrive in two shifts to eat the clay.

Returning to the lodge after the a beautiful parrot display our native guides take us on an ethno-botanical walk through the forest, explaining how they use many of the forest trees and plants in their daily lives, either as medicines or for bows and arrows and in home construction. After lunch and a short rest we go first by canoe then a short walk to a natural forest of towering, 55-meter-tall (170-foot-tall) Brazil nut trees to learn how the slight, yet surprisingly powerful, men of the village harvest these nuts, which fall from the treetops encased in rock-hard brown spheres the size of small grapefruits. Our Ese Eja Indian hosts have harvested these delicious, valuable nuts for thousands of years, and now they will show you the mystery and splendor of this wonder of the Amazon.

Once again we rise before dawn and set off to have breakfast in the floating blind at the Macaw and Parrot Clay Lick. After the spectacle of the lick we return to the lodge to pack and then boat back upstream on the Madre de Dios River to Sandoval Lake Lodge, which is located on the banks of the lake that most experts consider to be the most beautiful in all the southern Amazon of Peru. A box lunch will be eaten during the journey.

Arriving at the trail head to Sandoval Lake Lodge we take a 45-minute walk through the forest to a small canal where we board a canoe and then transfer to one or more hand-paddled catamarans, each of which has a capacity for 20 people. Arriving on the lake in the cool golden light of the late afternoon, we enter into a flooded palm forest and drift beneath dozens (and often hundreds) of babbling Red-bellied Macaws as they return to the palm forest for the night.

This macaw species is found locally in parts of the Amazon, always living in flooded palm forests such as the beautiful palm stand at Sandoval Lake. At 500-800 birds, this flock of macaws at Sandoval Lake is currently the largest reported in the world for this highly-specialized macaw. We return to the lodge around nightfall for dinner.

After a dawn breakfast, we explore the western end of the lake in the hope of encountering the family of nine Giant Otters that live in the lake. For those with lots of energy, our guide will take us hiking through the forest, and will bring the forest to life with stories of the rain forest and the medicinal uses of the plants. Following lunch and an optional rest, in the late afternoon we once again board the catamaran and set off to explore the eastern end of the lake. Here we might see Brown Capuchin and Bolivian Squirrel Monkeys as they forage along the lakes' edge. After dinner we can return to the catamaran to look for large Black Caiman, the rarest of the crocodilians of the Amazon. If it is a clear starlight night, we will also be able to float in the middle of the lake and marvel at the brilliance of the night sky. There is a final after-dinner opportunity to look for Caiman on the lake, or to explore the lodge trails by flashlight.

After a dawn breakfast we return to Puerto Maldonado for the flight back to Lima.

Dinner at ‘Rosa Nautica’. This unique restaurant in Victorian-style is set on the water with views of the Pacific Ocean as well as the cliffs and provides the scenic location to drink a toast to a memorable trip in Peru. A typical Peruvian ‘Pisco sour’ will be served before dinner. The restaurant's four dining areas, and its sophisticated bar ‘El Espigón’, rising from the midst of the ocean, allow the visitor to enjoy a magical experience, which can only be possible in a place of fantasy, capriciously constructed in the middle of the sea. The menu features both Peruvian and international cuisine; still it is its refined seafood cuisine this restaurant is famous for.

At proper time you will be transferred to the airport for your international flight.

Original passport

Good binoculars and camera (we recommend a camera with an 18x wide zoom lens)

T-shirts and long and short pants

Pairs of absorbent cotton socks

Rain suit or long poncho (100% waterproof)

Long-sleeved cotton shirts

Sunscreen lotion (high factor)

A bottle or canteen to carry water on outings

A hat

One pair of shorts

Sunglasses

A pair of sneakers or hiking boats (with good gripping soles) and sandals

Insect repellent

A large, bright flashlight

Personal toiletries and medications

Rubber boots for the rainy season from November to April

Cash for drinks at the bar, airport taxes and personal expenses