This holiday visits the places ticked below. You can design your own itinerary by adding destinations. Select the destinations you would like and click the red button to see full details of the holiday you have chosen.
Including stay at Refugio Amazonas Jungle Lodge
This holiday includes a visit to the jungle. Llama Travel offers three jungle lodges, with different itineraries and levels of comfort. Click on a lodge for a detailed itinerary.
Refugio AmazonasA comfortable lodge located close to the Tambopata Reserve. Cold water showers only.
Reserva Amazonica - supplement £220 (£250 single)A superior lodge with hot water showers. There is a 300-metre canopy walkway.
When staying in the Reserva Amazonica, you can choose which excursions to take when you arrive. A suggested jungle itinerary is included below.
The Tambopata Research Center is located in the Tambopata National Reserve where there is no human habitation, and is surrounded by primary forest. This offers an excellent opportunity for spotting jungle wildlife. The world's largest macaw clay lick is nearby, where hundreds of parrots and macaws of up to 15 species gather on clear mornings. The best months for the lick are July to November. The jungle itinerary includes 2 nights in the Tambopata Research Center and 2 nights in the Refugio Amazonas.
Day 1 (Tuesday) Lima Fly from the UK to Lima. You are met at the airport and escorted to your hotel (2 nights).
Day 2 (Wednesday) Lima Enjoy a free day in Lima, or alternatively take our half day Colonial Lima excursion. The city tour includes a visit to the catacombs of San Francisco and the cathedral of Lima where the conquistador Francisco Pizarro is buried. Afterwards, return to the modern district Miraflores and visit the pre-Inca site of Huaca Pucllana.
Day 3 (Thursday) Jungle Morning flight to the jungle town of Puerto Maldonado. After a 10 mile drive to the port of Inferno, take a beautiful two and a half hour boat ride up the Tambopata River to your lodge close to the Tambopata National Reserve. After an introduction to the lodge, have dinner before taking a night trip on the river to look for caimans.
Day 4 (Friday) Jungle Take a beautiful morning hike through the forest to Condenado oxbow lake, where you paddle to search for caimans, horned screamers, hoatzin and other lakeside wildlife. You walk back through the jungle to the lodge for lunch. In the afternoon, you have a fascinating visit to an Amazon farm in a nearby community, where every plant and tree serves a purpose. Then explore a patch of brazil nut forest that has been harvested for decades, and visit a camp used by brazil nut gatherers, to understand the jungle’s only sustainably harvested product. After dinner, take a night walk in the forest.
Day 5 (Saturday) Jungle A morning boat ride to a parakeet lick, where on most clear mornings different species descend to ingest the clay. After returning to the lodge, take a 20 minute walk to a peccary clay lick, where you may see herds of wild rainforest pigs and maybe other mammals. In the afternoon, take a short walk to the 25-metre scaffolding canopy tower. From the top of the tower, you have a wonderful view over primary forest and a chance to watch the flocks of toucans and macaws.
Day 3 (Thursday) Jungle Morning flight to the jungle town of Puerto Maldonado, followed by a boat ride down the Madre de Dios River to your lodge. Afternoon visit to the canopy walkway, linking 8 observation platforms, allowing you to see the jungle from a different perspective, 30 metres above the ground. Look for giant strangler fig trees, orchids, toucans and woodpeckers. Then walk through the forest, along a 200-metre bridge over fooded marshland.
Day 4 (Friday) Jungle Walk through the forest to Lago Sandoval, where you take a canoe ride on this giant oxbow lake. This is home to river otters, macaws and other colourful birds. Then walk to Concepcion farm, where you have a picnic lunch. Here, the garden has more than 200 medicinal plants which grow in the jungle. After dinner, take a night walk through the forest, listening to the sounds of the jungle and looking for nocturnal creatures.
Day 5 (Saturday) Jungle Visit Gamitana Creek, where you have a two and a half hour walk following the stream upriver. The creek is home to piranha, caimans, turtles and varied birdlife. Observe the local wildlife and try some native fishing techniques. Take a canoe ride downstream, before a picnic lunch at Gamitana Farm, where you take a guided tour. Then take a late afternoon boat ride, looking for caimans and other nocturnal animals, as night falls.
Day 1 (Thursday) Lima Fly from the UK to Lima. You are met at the airport and escorted to your hotel (1 night).
Day 2 (Wednesday) Jungle Morning flight to the jungle town of Puerto Maldonado. After a 10 mile drive to the port of Infierno, take a beautiful two and a half hour boat ride up the Tambopata National Reserve. After and introduction to the lodge, have dinner before taking a night trip on the river to look for caimans.
Day 3 (Thursday) Jungle In the morning, climb the 25 metre canopy tower for wonderful views over primary forest and to look for clocks of toucans and macaws. Then visit a camp used by Brazil nut gatherers to understand the jungle’s only sustainably harvested product. You then take a 4 and a half hour boat ride upriver to the Tambopata Research Center. As you move away from the area of human habitation, wildlife becomes more abundant. After arriving at the lodge, take a walk through the forest, looking for howler monkeys and dusky titi monkeys. In the evening, scientists will give a lecture on the macaw project.
Day 4 (Friday) Jungle A dawn excursion to observe the macaw clay lick. Then take a walk through the rainforest, looking for monkeys and peccaries. After lunch, visit the pond platform to look for lakeside birds, including hoatzin and flycatchers. After dark, take a night walk to look for frogs.
Day 5 (Saturday) Jungle Take a 3 and a half hour ride back to the Refugio Amazonas. Then take a short afternoon hike to Condenado Lake to look for lakeside birdlife and caiman.
Day 6 (Sunday) Cusco An early boat transfer to Puerto Maldonado for your flight to Cusco, the historic capital of the Inca Empire nestled in the Andes at 3,300 metres above sea level. The afternoon is free to help you acclimatise to the altitude (3 nights).
Day 7 (Monday) Cusco Enjoy a free day in Cusco, or take the half day optional Inca Cusco excursion. This excursion takes you to several Inca sites in and around Cusco, including the fortress of Sacsayhuaman and Qoricancha, one of the most important sites in the Inca Empire.
Day 8 (Tuesday) Cusco Take the optional full day Sacred Valley excursion. You visit the bustling market town of Pisac, which sells some of the finest crafts in Peru. After a good lunch at a country restaurant, explore the superb Inca ruins at Ollantaytambo, and then continue to the colonial village of Chincheros, with amazing views of patchwork fields.
Day 9 (Wednesday) Inca Trail You depart Cusco early in the morning and you are driven to km 82 where you begin the trek. Starting at Piskacucho, you climb up to Llactapata after about 2km, following the Urubamba river. This was an important agricultural site, producing food for the Machu Picchu area. From here, the trail gently climbs to Huayllabamba, a small village at 3,000m, where you camp for the night.
Day 10 (Thursday) Inca trail This is the toughest day of the trail. From Huayllabamba, you climb for three to four hours, which can be very tiring, especially due to the altitude and the sun beating down on you. The first pass at 4,215m, Warmiwañusqa (dead woman's pass), offers a superb view of the snow-capped Vilcabamba range of mountains. From here, you descend into the valley of the Pacamayo River where the camp is set up for the night.
Day 11 (Friday) Inca Trail On the third day, you climb up to the second pass. Halfway to the top are the ruins of Runkurakay. The trail then continues to 3,920m before descending to the fine ruins of Sayacmarca. You pass through an Inca tunnel in the mountain, before coming to the third pass, at 3,700m with a superb view of the cloud forest below. Near here are the ruins of Phuyupatamarca. You then descend the steep Inca steps to the spectacular Inca terraces of Wiñay Wayna. Here, hot showers are available at the visitors’ centre and there is a shop selling snacks and drinks, including beer.
Day 12 (Saturday) Cusco You set out from Wiñay Wayna before dawn in order to get to the Intipunku (Sun Gate) for sunrise. As you climb the final few steps and arrive at the Sun Gate you are greeted by your first, spectacular view of Machu Picchu. The trail down to the ruins themselves takes about half an hour. Take a guided tour of the site of Machu Picchu before heading down to the town of Aguas Calientes before taking the train back to Cusco in the afternoon (2 nights).
Day 13 (Sunday) Cusco A free day in Cusco to unwind after the trek or further explore the area. Get to know Cusco better; there are 500 Inca sites around the city, alternatively revisit the Sacred Valley or try one of the many adventure sports on offer.
An excellent day trip is to visit the town of Maras which is famous for its salt pans. The soil in the region has large amounts of salt in it, and salt evaporation ponds have been used since pre-Inca times. Close to the town of Maras are the very different Inca ruins of Moray, which were used as an agricultural experimentation centre. The ruins consist of many levels of terraces in concentric circles at different elevations, and each different level was used to try out different crop strains
Day 14 (Monday) Lima Morning flight to Lima. Afternoon free. Go shopping in the fashionable district of Miraflores, perhaps visiting Larcomar on the cliff tops above the Pacific Ocean. Lima today is home to some of the finest cuisine in all of Latin America, and the city has some excellent seafood restaurants, with ceviche being the most famous dish (1 night).
Day 15 (Tuesday) Fly overnight to the UK.
Day 16 (Wednesday) Arrival in the UK.
Please note: jungle excursions may vary due to weather conditions.
Lima: Bed and Breakfast
Cusco: Bed and Breakfast
Jungle Lodge: Full board
Inca Trail: Full Board