10-Day Total Adventure Peru

This morning you take a spectacular journey to the river. The climb to a 4000 metre pass gives you spectacular views to the Vilcanota mountain range. Then you begin the stunning descent to the Apurimac canyon and the small community of Huallpachaca.

Here your guides will inflate your rafts and load them up with provisions for the journey ahead. Following a full safety talk and instruction in the art of white water rafting, you cast off from the bank into the waters of the mighty Apurimac. The grade II and III rapids this afternoon are excellent training for the days ahead. As the sun sets behind the canyon walls, you pull up at a remote beach to camp for the night.

Included: Swift water Rescue qualified, English speaking expert raft guides, all white-water & safety equipment, camping equipment (except sleeping bag), transport, lunch, dinner

Today the fun really picks up. After a delicious breakfast on the beach you pack everything away and load it into your boats once more. You work together with your guide and other rafters to steer a safe course through the huge boulders that line this river. Rapids such as Tres Marias and The Gates of Purgatory will really test your teamwork.

There are even a few portages when the only way down is to get out and walk around a particularly fierce rapid. The Apurimac was a sacred river to the Incas and thought to be a source of great wisdom. 500 years later it is still a river to be treated with the utmost respect.

Finally, exhausted and exhilarated, you will pull up onto another pristine sandy beach for a night full of stars. If you are lucky you may see Andean foxes or river otters.

Included: Swift water Rescue qualified, English speaking expert raft guides, all white-water & safety equipment, camping equipment (except sleeping bag), breakfast, lunch, dinner

Your last day on the water. By now you will be experts and rapids such as Babalua and Last Laugh that would once have seemed daunting are now just pure adrenaline pulsing fun. Finally you reach a break in the canyon walls and from here you take the beautiful drive past the Salkantay mountain range back to your hotel for the night.

Included: Swift water Rescue qualified, English speaking expert raft guides, all white-water & safety equipment, transport, breakfast, lunch

Your five day Inca Trail is carefully tailored to avoid the crowds. By leaving later than everyone else, and allowing an extra day, you spend the whole trail out of sync with other tourists. Thus you will literally have the trail to yourselves.

This morning you visit the old Inca town of Ollantaytambo. After a look around and some lunch you drive twenty minutes to the trailhead at Piscacucho (km 82). Here you meet the porters and cooks that will support your journey to Machu Picchu.

With the crowds now long gone, you hike an undulating trail above the Urubamba River to camp beside the spectacular ruins of Llactapata (2,788m/9,146ft). Your luggage is carried by the porters, your tents are put up for you and your food is prepared for you. All you have to do is shoulder your daypack and enjoy the walking.

Included: breakfast, lunch, dinner, camping equipment (except sleeping bag), Inca trail permit

After a hearty breakfast you climb gently up the Cusichaca valley to the small hamlet of Huayllabamba. This is the last inhabited place on the trail.

A little steeper now, you head up the beautiful Inca path, past hummingbirds and stunted cloud forest to your camp at Llulluchapampa (3,680m/12,073ft). This beautiful grassy area has outstanding views and you may even see the Andean deer that come to feed here.

Included: breakfast, lunch, dinner, camping equipment (except sleeping bag)

Today is the most challenging day but also the most exhilarating. You climb to Dead Woman’s Pass (4,212m/13,819ft) the high point of the trail before dropping into the Pacasmayo valley. Climbing once more you pass the Inca control post of Runkuracay to the second pass of the day (3,998m/13,117ft). On a clear day there are spectacular views towards Pumahuanca Mountain in the Vilcabamba range.

You continue on well preserved Inca trail to Sayacmarca. Located at the junction of two old Inca roads, historians still argue over its exact purpose. A few more gentle ups and downs and you arrive to your stunning campsite for the night, Phuyupatamarca, or ‘the place above the clouds’ (3,650m/11,975ft).

Included: breakfast, lunch, dinner, camping equipment (except sleeping bag)

This is the day you finally reach Machu Picchu.

As you step out of your tent the views are stunning. Perhaps you will see the sun rising over the snow-capped mountains of Salkantay (6,200m/20,341ft) and Veronica (5,800m/19,029ft). Or perhaps you will have an inversion, with clouds filling the valleys beneath you.

After saying a fond farewell to your porters it is time to put on your boots and head to Machu Picchu.

You descend beautiful Inca stairway through cloud forest to Wiñay Wayna, a vast set of Inca terraces full of swallows and orchids. A final contouring walk and you arrive at Inti Punku, the gateway of the Sun. As you step through the old stone gate-way, Machu Picchu appears, laid out before your eyes.

Stop here and enjoy the view before heading to take the twenty minute bus ride to Machu Picchu Pueblo and a well-deserved hotel and shower.

Included: breakfast, lunch, bus ticket, hotel

Relaxed after a comfortable night, you head back up to Machu Picchu for your full guided tour before the crowds arrive. There is time afterwards to hike to the Inca Bridge, Watchman’s hut or else just wander through the ruins soaking up the atmosphere.

In the afternoon you descend to the waiting train to enjoy one of the great train journeys of the world back towards Cusco

Included: breakfast, bus ticket, Machu Picchu entrance, train ticket, transfer

Back once more in the old Inca capital you have time to enjoy all that this city has to offer. Museums, chocolate making classes, souvenir hunting or even just sitting in one of the many cafes and watching the world go by. The new late flights out of Cusco allow you to really maximise your time and get the most out of this holiday of a lifetime.

For those with more time we can offer you extensions to the Amazon rainforest, Lake Titicaca, Colca Canyon and Arequipa or even to the little visited northern Peru.

Included: breakfast, transfer