PM Arrival to Lima's Jorge Chávez Airport. Meeting and private transportation with and English-speaking tour guide. Transfer to your hotel. (driving time: 1 hour).

Arrival at the hotel in Lima. Check-in and accommodation. Dinner not included

Overnight at the hotel in Lima.

07h30 Breakfast at the hotel in Lima and checkout.

08h30 Private transport with an English-speaking guide to discover the Historic Center of Lima, declared UNESCO World Heritage Site. The tour starts with the beautiful Plaza Mayor, surrounded by the Government Palace, the City Hall, the Cathedral and the Archbishop's Palace. Then, we continue to Casa De Aliaga, one of the oldest Colonial mansions in Lima. We finish discovering the colorful Santo Domingo Convent.

The city of Lima, the capital of Peru, was founded by Francisco Pizarro on January 18, 1535, and given the name “City of the Kings”. Nevertheless, with time its original name persisted, which may come from one of two sources : Either the Aymara language “lima-limaq” (meaning "yellow flower"), or the Spanish pronunciation of the Quechuan word “rimaq” (meaning "talker" and actually written and pronounced limaq in the nearby Quechua languages). In 1988, UNESCO declared the Historic Center of Lima a World Heritage Site for its originality and high concentration of historic monuments constructed in the time of Spanish presence.

The Plaza Mayor is located where Francisco Pizarro founded Lima. Initially, there were small stores and commerce. Also, it was the scene of an excess of bulls and served like the site of execution of the condemned until death by the Court Of Santa Inquisition. In 1651, a bronze battery was placed in the center of the seat that lasts to date. It was in the Plaza Mayor where it was proclaimed, in 1821, the Act of Independence of Peru.

The De Aliaga House is as old as Lima itself. When conquistador Francisco Pizarro founded the capital city on January 18, 1535, he gave the plot adjacent to that of the Government Palace to his trusted ally Jerónimo de Aliaga, so they could be neighbors. Eighteen generations of the Aliaga family have resided in the same mansion ever since — it's been renovated continuously, but it's the oldest house in the Americas. 

The De Aliaga House has a wide-ranging collection of Peruvian art and artifacts, including the sword Jerónimo de Aliaga used in the conquest of Peru, and reflects various eras of decor, going back centuries. Walking through the house's heavy wooden doors means stepping into layers of history…

One of Lima’s most storied religious sites, the Iglesia de Santo Domingo and its expansive convent are built on land granted to the Dominican Friar Vicente de Valverde, who accompanied Pizarro throughout the conquest. Originally completed in the 16th century, this impressive pink church has been rebuilt and remodeled at various points since.

It is most renowned as the final resting place for three important Peruvian saints: San Juan Macias, Santa Rosa de Lima and San Martín de Porres (the continent’s first black saint). The convent – a sprawling courtyard-studded complex lined with baroque paintings and clad in vintage Spanish tiles – contains the saints’ tombs. 

12h30 Lunch in Lima (not included). 

14h00 Private transport with an English-speaking guide to discover Lima’s most important museum: Larco Museum. 

Founded in 1926 by Rafael Larco Hoyle, the Larco Museum showcases remarkable chronological galleries providing an excellent overview on 3 000 years of development of Peruvian pre-Columbian history. Housed in a unique vice-royal mansion of the 18th-century itself built over a 7th-century pre-Columbian pyramid, this pleasing museum features the finest gold and silver collection from Ancient Peru and a famous erotic archaeological collection.

16h00 Private transport with an English-speaking guide to Lima’s Jorge Chávez Airport (drive duration : 45 min). Boarding procedures for the flight to Arequipa (2 335 m).

18h45 Departure to Arequipa by Latam Airlines flight LA 2121 (flight duration : 1 h 20 min).

20h15 Arrival into Arequipa’s Alfredo Rodriguez Ballón Airport. Private transport with an English-speaking guide to the hotel (drive duration : 30 min).

21h15 Arrival at the hotel in Arequipa. Check-in and accommodation. 

Dinner in Arequipa (not included).

Overnight at the hotel in Arequipa. 

08h30 Breakfast at the hotel in Arequipa.

09h30 Private walking-tour with an English-speaking guide to the stunning Historic City of Arequipa, the “White City”. This morning we discover the busy Market of San Camilo and the pretty Plaza De Armas with the stunning Church of La Compañia De Jesús. Then we continue to the Andean Sanctuaries Museum to meet face-to-face with the “Ice Maiden” Juanita !

With its one million inhabitants, Arequipa is the second biggest city of Peru. Located at an altitude of 2 335 m and surrounded by beautiful volcanos, this “White City” is practically completely built out of sillar, a kind of white volcanic stone.

Founded on 1540 by Manuel De Carbajal as “Villa Hermosa de Nuestra Señora De La Asunción”, its historic heritage, natural scenery and cultural sites make Arequipa a major tourist destination. Its historic center is a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2000.

Probably the most popular market in the city because of its proximity to the Plaza De Armas, San Camilo is also possibly the most authentic market of Arequipa. Full of food courts, butchers, local spices, fruit stalls, artisan crafts and even fortune tellers, San Camilo Market is a small window into what daily life is for some of the people who live here.

Plaza De Armas – unblemished by modern interference – is a museum of the city’s sillar architecture–white, muscular and aesthetically unique. Impressive colonnaded balconies line three sides of Arequipa’s main plaza while the fourth is given over to Peru’s widest cathedral, a humongous edifice with two soaring towers. Even this is dwarfed by the dual snowcapped sentinels of Misti and Chachani volcanoes, both visible from various points.

Proving that small can be beautiful, the façade of the Jesuit Church of La Compañía is an intricately carved masterpiece of the churrigueresque style hatched in Spain in the 1660s. The equally detailed altar – completely covered in gold leaf – takes the style further and is eerily familiar to anyone who has visited Seville cathedral.

The former sacristy of the church – now known as San Ignacio Chapel – is a beautiful example of colonial Arequipan art. The luxuriant decoration reproduces a tropical atmosphere, with extensive vines alternated with exotic flowers, nuts and brightly colored legendary birds. Clearly, the constant relationship of the Jesuit in Arequipa with the missions in the rainforests was the determining factor for this kind of ornamentation. 

Discovered atop Ampato Mountain in 1995 by anthropologist Johan Reinhard, Juanita is a frozen 12-year-old Inca girl who was sacrificed to the Gods in the 1450s.

Considered the best-preserved of all the Inca ‘mummies’, Juanita is a representation of the true privilege it meant to be selected as a sacrifice. She – like other human sacrifices – would have been led up the cold mountain with priests, carrying with them coca leaves, food and offerings that formed part of the ritual. After a blow to her head, she was bundled with burial items that would have accompanied her, including miniature llamas.

12h30 Lunch in Arequipa (not included).

14h00 We continue our private walking-tour with an English-speaking guide to the Historic City of Arequipa. discovering the colorful and impressive Monastery of Santa Catalina!

Built as a city In the city around 1580 and expanded in the 17th century, the Monastery of Santa Catalina de Siena was probably one of the biggest in the world: it housed around 450 people (nuns and servants) for over 400 years in a cloistered community. 

Beautifully renovated, the walls are painted in fresh tints and the narrow streets and picturesque squares are full of colorful flowers. We can still smell the atmosphere of the dark Middle Ages visiting the odd living rooms or the dining hall, with original furnishing…

16h00 Rest of the day at leisure to walk around Arequipa. This city is also the place to shop top-quality products made of baby alpaca, one of the finest wool in the world. Dinner in Arequipa (not included).

Overnight at the hotel in Arequipa. 

09h15 Breakfast at the hotel in Arequipa and checkout.

10h15 Private transport with an English-speaking guide to Arequipa’s Bus Station (drive duration : 20 min). Boarding procedures for the bus to Chivay (3 600 m).

11h00 Bus departure to Chivay, the main village of the beautiful Colca Valley. The 160 km scenic road makes a half circle around the city’s two sentinel volcanoes, Misti (5 822 m) and Chachani (6 075 m), before traversing the high plains of the vast, barren Salinas Y Aguada Blanca National Reserve.

Created on August 1979, Salinas Y Aguada Blanca National Reserve stretches over 366 936 hectares. Among majestic volcanos – as Misti or Chachani – nature has crafted the high Andean plains, inhabited by beautiful llamas, alpacas and vicuñas. The reserve also contains beautiful lagoons and wetlands, the habitat of birds including flamingos and crested ducks.. 

15h00 Arrival into Chivay’s Bus Station. Private transport with a Spanish-speaking driver to the lodge (drive duration : 30 min).

15h30 Arrival at the lodge in Colca Valley. Check-in and accommodation.

Lunch in Colca Valley (not included).

Acclimatization afternoon : since we are 3 600 m high, it is the key to avoiding “soroche” or altitude sickness. The following are ways to optimize our adjustment to altitude:

-Take it easy. Light activity is better. Avoid sleeping during the day because respiration decreases during sleep, exacerbating the symptoms. 

-Stay properly hydrated. Acclimatization is often accompanied by fluid loss, so we need to drink lots of fluids to remain properly hydrated. 

-Avoid tobacco and alcohol and other depressant drugs including, barbiturates, tranquilizers, and sleeping pills. These depressants further decrease the respiratory drive during sleep resulting in a worsening of the symptoms. 

Dinner in Colca Valley (not included).

Overnight at the hotel in Colca Valley. 

06h00 Breakfast at the hotel in Colca Valley.

07h00 Private transport with an English-speaking guide to the Colca Canyon, one of the deepest of the world. After viewing magnificent Andean condors from Cruz Del Condor Mirador, we visit the right shore’s beautiful colonial towns : Pinchollo, Maca, Achoma and Yanque. 

With a depth of 3 270 m, Colca Canyon is the world’s second-deepest canyon, a smidgeon shallower than its near neighbor, the Cotahuasi, and twice as deep as the more famous Grand Canyon in the United States.

The Colca Canyon is home to the Andean condor – Vultur gryphus – a species that has a wingspan of about 2.5 m and typically lives about 60 years. Commonly referred to as the "Eternity Bird”, they can be seen at close range as they fly past the canyon walls. At the Mirador of Cruz Del Condor – a popular tourist stop to view condors – the canyon floor is 1 200 m below.

The Colca Valley is a colorful Andean valley with pre-Inca roots, and 14 towns founded in Spanish colonial times, still inhabited by people of the Collagua and the Cabana cultures. The local people – proud of their origin – maintain their ancestral traditions and continue to cultivate the pre-Inca stepped terraces, called andenes.

This beautiful valley is also well known for crafts : goods knitted from baby alpaca fiber and a unique form of embroidery that adorns skirts (polleras), hats, vests, and other items of daily wear and use.

12h00 Arrival at the lodge.

Lunch in Colca Valley (not included).

Afternoon at leisure in Colca Valley :

- 3-Star Superior hotels: Killawasi Lodge invites guests to take part in a 3-hour easy hike with a Spanish-speaking guide to the Oqolle amphitheater and the Uyu Uyu archaeological site. This beautiful walk finishes at a relaxing hot spring located nearby the lodge. 

- 4 and 5-Star hotels: It is time to relax in the thermal pools of the Colca Lodge Spa & Hot Springs. The hotel’s Spa offers a range of soothing massages and advanced facial and body treatments (massages and treatments are to be paid extra).  

Dinner in Colca Valley (not included).

Overnight at the hotel in Colca Valley. 

Breakfast at the hotel in Colca Valley and checkout.

Morning at leisure to relax at the hotel in Colca Valley.

11h30 Private transport with a Spanish-speaking driver to Chivay’s Bus Station (drive duration : 30 min). Boarding procedures for the shared transport to Puno (3 830 m).

Lunch in Chivay (not included).

13h15 Shared transport with an English and Spanish-speaking shared guide to Puno, lively city located on the north-westerly shore of Titicaca Lake. The 315 km scenic road travels through the Salinas Y Aguada Blanca National Reserve to the Altiplano, the most extensive area of high plateau on Earth outside Tibet (drive duration including photo stops : 5 h). 

The Altiplano or Qullaw (”place of the Qullaw” in Quechua) originates northwest of Lake Titicaca in southern Peru and extends about 965 km southeast to the southwestern corner of Bolivia. It is a series of inter-montane basins lying at about  3650 m. Lake Titicaca occupies the northernmost basin; to the south are Lake Poopó and the Coipasa and Uyuni salt flats. The basins are separated by spurs reaching eastward from the Cordillera Occidental of the Andes. 

The people inhabiting this magical high plateau preserve a worldview that is deeply connected with nature and the balance of all its elements. Their traditions include yanapacuy, ayni, minka, tinkan and knowledge about the use of medicinal plants. Their economy is based on breeding domesticated South American camelids for meat and for wool, which is used to make clothes or sometimes sold in yarns.

19h30 Arrival into Puno’s Bus Station. Private transport with an English-speaking guide to the hotel (drive duration : 15 min).

15h45 Arrival at the hotel in Puno. Check-in and accommodation.

Dinner in Puno (not included).

Overnight at the hotel in Puno.

06h00 Breakfast at the hotel in Puno and checkout.

07h00 Short drive to the port and private motorboat with an English-speaking guide to Llachón-Santa María, a peaceful and beautiful village on Capachica peninsula. We navigate on the deep blue water of Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world.. On our way we discover Uros Titino, man-made totora reed islands which are more authentic than the larger ones located near Puno as they are still inhabited by a native floating tribe!

In Andean belief, Titicaca is the birthplace of the Sun. In addition, it’s the largest lake in South America (8 562 km2) and the highest navigable body of water in the world (3 800 m). Banner blue skies contrast with bitterly cold nights. Enthralling and in many ways singular, the shimmering deep blue Lake Titicaca is the longtime home of highland cultures steeped in the old ways.

The Uros Floating Islands are unique due to their construction. They have been created entirely with the buoyant totora reeds that grow abundantly in the shallows of the Titicaca Lake. Partially edible (tasting like non-sweet sugarcane), the reeds are also used to build homes, boats and crafts. 

Intermarriage with the Aymara-speaking indigenous people has seen the demise of the pure-blooded Uros, who nowadays all speak Aymara. Always a small tribe, the Uros began their unusual floating existence centuries ago, in an effort to isolate themselves from the aggressive Collas and Incas.

11h00 Arrival to Llachón-Santa María. Short walk across this charming Andean community – with a unique style of clothing including vibrantly colored hats – followed by a tasteful “Pachamanca” lunch at a guesthouse.

The quaint Capachica Peninsula is home for several small communities. The pretty Llachón is one of the most popular, since its members – mainly farmers, fishermen and artisans – have developed over the last years community-based tourism.

Visitors of Llachón can enjoy exceptional landscapes combining water, sky and snowcapped mountains as they experience Andean ceremonies, traditional handicrafts and agricultural production with Quechua families.

“Pacha” means earth and “manca” means oven in Quechua, the main language family of the Inca Empire. So “Pachamanca” quite literally describes this traditional cooking method, where meat and vegetables are cooked on hot stones, buried under earth. 

The connection between “Pachamama” – Mother Earth – and the food she provided was extremely important to the Incas. Pachamanca was not an everyday cooking method : it was a highly ritualized and sacred meal for special occasions!

14h30 Private motorboat with an English-speaking guide to Ticonata, one of the most authentic and unheralded islands of Lake Titicaca (journey duration : 1 h).

15h30 Arrival to Ticonata. Check-in and accommodation at its rural eco-lodge, managed by local families. It is formed by “putucos”, conical houses built in sun-dried adobe bricks with thatched roofs. Please note that the eco-lodge facilities are basic : solar panel electricity system but only from 19:00 to 22:00, shared toilet and shower, no hot water or heating.

16h00 In company of our English-speaking private guide we discover the unique Ticonata and experience the way of life of the islanders, mainly farmers and fishermen…

Ticonata is a small beautiful island located on a hidden spot of the mythical Titicaca Lake. It offers visitors the chance to experience a night in a unique off-the-beaten-path destination combining great landscapes with authentic culture and traditions. 

Ticonata is also a great example of a successful sustainable tourism initiative. In 2004 the island was almost depopulated, as locals migrated to the city searching of better living conditions. Thanks to the “Ticonata Community-Based Project” and based on the “Ayni” – Inca principle of giving and receiving –, 25 families have returned to the island to build and manage a rural eco-lodge as well as to recover their ancestral art crafts, music and dances. 

19h30 Typical dinner, bonfire and coca leaf reading at Ticonata Island.

Overnight at the lodge in Ticonata Island.

07h00 Breakfast at the lodge in Ticonata and checkout.

08h00 This morning we have the chance of taking a scenic voyage on a traditional sailboat to Amantaní, another beautiful island of Lake Titicaca! We don't have to worry about our sailing raft in case of light winds: a motorboat follows us…

10h00 Arrival to Amantaní and walk around this peaceful island with our English-speaking private guide. 

The circular island of Amantaní is very quiet, boasts great views and has no roads or vehicles. According to the last census, it has a population of 3 663 Quechua speakers divided among about 800 families.  

Amantaní has two mountain peaks, “Pachatata” – Father Earth – and “Pachamama” – Mother Earth – with ancient Inca and Tiwanaku sites on top of both. The hillsides are terraced, mostly worked by hand, and planted with wheat, quinoa, potatoes, and other vegetables. Livestock, including alpacas, also graze the slopes.

12h00 Typical lunch at a guesthouse in Amantaní.

13h30 Private motorboat with an English-speaking guide back to Puno (journey duration : 3 h 30 min).

17h00 Arrival to the port and short drive to the hotel.

17h15 Arrival at the hotel in Puno. Check-in and accommodation.

Dinner in Puno (not included).

Overnight at the hotel in Puno.