peru & ecuador
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ritual that sees meats cooked using heated stones in a pit – (Belmond Hotel Rio Sagrado, Valle Sagrado) and renewing vows with a shaman (Belmond Sanctuary Lodge, Machu Picchu). While Perus ‘Lost City’ is its biggest draw (the UNESCO World Heritage Site pulled in $500 million in 2013), there’s defi nitely more to explore in the Sacred Valley and the historic heart of the Inca Empire, Cusco. “With traditional Quechua villages just
a stone’s throw from major attractions, it’s easy to fi nd truly authentic experiences off the beaten track in Peru,” says Justin Francis, Managing Director of Responsible Travel.
What’s new Accommodation: Pikaia Lodge
(
pikaialodgegalapagos.com) opened last October 2014 on Santa Cruz Island in the Galápagos. The luxury eco-hotel offers guests guided land and marine-based tours. Peruvian eco-hotel group, Inkaterra (
inkaterra.com), will open a new hotel in Urubamba in the Sacred Valley in 2015. Following the opening of the Wyndham Guayaquil (
wyndham.com) in 2013, the Wyndham Quito Airport Gran Condor opens in late 2015. The luxury Mashpi Lodge opened a couple of
years ago in the Ecuadorian Andes overlooking the forest, three hours west of Quito, with the latest techniques in sustainable building (and employing hydroelectric power). (
mashpilodge.com) The Anakonda Amazon River Cruise
(
anakondaamazoncruises.com) is the fi rst luxury cruise in the Ecuadorian Amazon Rainforest, with accommodation in 18 suites with private balconies. Marriott Hotels (marriott.
co.uk) will open a new Peruvian property, Courtyard Lima Mirafl ores, in August 2015. Metropolitan Touring pioneered expeditions to the Galápagos Islands in the 1960s, and now operates the 90-passenger Santa Cruz, the recently rejuvenated Yacht Isabella II and the newest boat,Yacht La Pinta which boasts the largest cabins of any Galapagos vessel and fl oor-to-ceiling windows. (
Metropolitan-touring.com) Last year (
casa-andina.com) Casa Andina opened a new Private
“Many visitors to the Galápagos stay on a boat. Those who suffer from seasickness should consider cruising during the day and
overnighting in hotels” SPENCER NEAL, HEAD OF UK TRADE SALES, INTREPID GROUP
Collection hotel in Trujillo city, Peru, starting point for the pre-Incan Moche Route archaeological tour.
Attractions: Tren Crucero (
trenecuador.com/ crucero/en), the tourist-only vintage train linking Quito to Guayaquil on Ecuador’s Pacifi c coast, will add more departures this year, taking passengers on three-night, four-day journeys through spectacular landscapes. The new Quito Tour Bus (
quitotourbus.com) runs a Hop On-Hop Off service, visiting 12 stops around the historical capital. Metropolitan Touring has launched two new cultural tours. ‘Live Quito like a local’ is a day-long tour into Quito’s old town while the two-day Journey to the source of Chocolate offers guests the chance to experience the authentic art of chocolate-making on a journey into the Ecuadorian Amazon. (
Metropolitan-touring.com).
Airlines and airports: Baltra Island in the Galápagos opened the ‘world’s fi rst ecological airport’ in 2013. Peru’s LAN Airlines (
lan.com) has opened local routes to Talara (northern beaches) and Ayacucho (south central Andes).
sellingtravel.co.uk
HEAD IN THE CLOUDS BY LAUREN JARVIS
“Stumbling into the shower at 4am, my sleep-deprived brain slowly registered the reason I was awake at silly o’clock: this morning I was making the climb to Machu Picchu. As a kid, Peru’s ‘Lost City of the Incas’ took on almost mythical significance. Like Atlantis or Shangri-La, it was a place of legend, hovering hazily between fact and fiction. At some point in my pre-teens I learned this city in the clouds was real, yet still it seemed impossibly out of reach. But now, after a long vertical climb, as much older and fitter locals scampered past while I wished I’d caught the bus, here I was: sitting on the edge of the world. The dawn mist lifted revealing Machu Picchu’s temples and terraces below, cradled by the peaks of the Andes. For once, reality more than lived up to the legend.”
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