they have for centuries. Learn secrets of Peruvian cuisine at a cooking demonstration followed by a delicious lunch featuring dishes prepared by the chef... along with a lesson in making the Pisco Sour! A local shaman consecrates your journey and shares spiritual insights on the Sacred Valley and iconic Machu Picchu; enjoy a nature walk with your local guide. Tonight, the folk-arts group Kusiwasi performs The Apus of the Andes, based on Incan and Quechua lore. Meals BLD
6. TO MYSTICAL MACHU PICCHU BY RAIL Travel to Aguas Calientes, gateway to the Incan site of Machu Picchu, aboard the Vistadome train. Then drive higher into the Andes to explore the mist-shrouded Inca ruins that have captured the world’s imagination as the “Lost City of the Incas” ever since American historian Hiram Bingham brought them to international attention a century ago. Despite its popular nickname, most archaeologists believe that the complex, built in the classical Inca style, was more likely an imperial estate. But whatever you call it, this magnificent UNESCO World Heritage Site was recently named one of the “New Seven Wonders of the World.” Meals BLD
7. AGUAS CALIENTES AND ON TO OLD CUSCO Spend a free morning as you wish – perhaps returning to Machu Picchu for a guided sunrise tour, taking a nature walk through the hotel’s rainforest gardens, perusing local shops in Aguas Calientes, or indulging in a spa treatment (at an additional cost). Reboard the Vistadome train after lunch for the scenic journey to Ollanta, and drive to Cusco for a two-night stay at historic Hotel Monasterio, voted one of South America’s best hotels. Meals BLD
8. CENTURIES OF CULTURE IN CUSCO Back at about the same time that the Italians were kicking off the Renaissance, the Incas were busy turning Cusco into the planned central city of an empire almost as vast as that of ancient Rome. Built in the shape of a puma, Cusco boasted paved roads, grand palaces, running water and great prosperity... until Spain’s conquistadors built a colonial city on top of it. Much of that city, along with traces of the fabulous Inca capital beneath it, survives. Walk through its bustling market, and visit the ruins of Sacsayhuaman and Q’uenco, the Convent of Santo Domingo... built upon Incan walls... and the 16th-century Cathedral. Meals B
9. THROUGH THE ANDES BY RAIL Evoke the golden age of train travel in the style of Europe’s Orient Express as you meander through awe-inspiring Andes Mountain vistas aboard the elegant Andean Explorer; your vintage rail car is exquisitely decorated in the manner of the great Pullman trains of the 1920s. En route, have lunch and afternoon tea. After a stop at remote La Raya – 14,150 feet above sea level! – continue into the Andean plains to Puno on Lake Titicaca. Meals BLD
10. LAKE TITICACA & ISLAS DE LOS UROS According to Inca lore, the sun god sent his children springing forth from the waters of Lake Titicaca to found the Incan Empire. Floating, fascinating, man-made reed islands called the Islas de los Uros dot the lake, the largest in South America. Ride a powerboat to meet their residents, the Uros, and learn about their unique lifestyle. On Taquile Island, an Aymara family prepares a simple lunch and performs traditional dances. Meals BLD
PERU & BOLIVIA’S HERITAGE SITES Legacies of the Nazca, the Inca and the Spanish conquistadors... all preserved as UNESCO World Heritage Sites...
THE CITY OF CUSCO
You’ll discover a multi-layered city with its roots in a 15th-century Inca metropolis that astounded European visitors, who likened its gabled houses nestled on green hillsides to a Swiss alpine town. The Spanish thought its buildings were among the finest they’d ever seen, although that didn’t stop them from destroying most of the conquered Inca city. But you can still see the craftsmanship in the few Inca walls and foundations that remain even today.
MACHU PICCHU
OPTIONAL NAZCA LINES EXCURSION ($349 PER PERSON)
It’s an amazing sight, seen only from the air... hundreds of ancient geoglyphs ranging from simple geometric patterns to stylized animals like spiders, lizards and monkeys, carved by the Nazca people over a thousand years ago. An optional full-day excursion takes you flightseeing for a once-in-a-lifetime view of Peru’s Nazca Lines!
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It’s been a century now since an 11-year-old Quechuas boy named Pablito led Yale historian Hiram Bingham up to Machu Picchu for the first time, leading to the wider world’s discovery of the “Lost City of the Incas.” We may never know the site’s exact purpose, but because its hundreds of intriguing structures were tucked away in the mountains for centuries, safe from the conquistadors, they survive today to serve as a remarkable window to the Inca civilization.
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