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Peru - Amazon to the Andes
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| May 16 - 17 | Fly from Quito and the extension in the Galapagos Islands or from other points to Lima in the Peruvian lowlands for overnight on May 17. |
| May 18 | Fly to highland Cusco and traverse the Andes to Cock-of-the-Rock Lodge for two nights. |
| May 19 | Visit an active Cock-of-the-Rock lek and explore cloudforest trails. |
| May 20 | Journey down the Madre de Dios River to Manu Wildlife Center. |
| May 21 - 24 | Explore Manu Wildlife Center, including the Tapir hide and the Macaw hide. |
| May 25 | Fly from Boca Manu to Cusco, and explore beautiful Cusco in the afternoon. |
| May 26 | Visit Inca ruins in The Sacred Valley of the Incas, Sacsayhuaman and Ollantaytambo. |
| May 27 | Travel by train to Machu Picchu, spend all day in these incomparable ruins. |
| May 28 | Visit Machu Picchu in the morning, and travel back to Cusco in the afternoon by train. |
| May 29 | Fly to Lima and onward, with dayroom or overnight in Lima. |
| May 30 | Arrive home. |
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May 16 - 17, Saturday - Sunday Flights to Peru with overnight in Lima
Fly from Quito and the extension in the Galapagos Islands to from other points to arrive in Lima by May 17. You will be met at the airport with a driver for a transfer to our hotel. Meals on your own today to accommodate varying schedules. Overnight in Lima on May 17 at Hotel Jose Antonio, where Ricardo Clark will meet you.
Lodging on May 17: Hotel Jose Antonio, Lima
May 18, Monday Cusco and the Peruvian Highlands
The early morning flight at 6am into Cusco will bring us into the Cordillera Vilcabamba in the great and dramatic Andean Range. Upon arrival in Cusco soon after 7am, meet with our very experienced Peruvian local naturalist/guide. From Cusco in our expedition bus, travel through traditional Quechua communities in the dramatic high Andes. Stop for a picnic breakfast complete with tables and chairs. We will ascend up through scenic inter-montane valleys before arriving at the last Andean pass, Ajcanacu. At the pass, if the weather is clear, we will be treated to expansive views of the vast Amazon Basin stretching eastward to the Atlantic. From this vista we can look down on the Manu Biosphere Reserve and see more pristine rainforest than is preserved in all of Central America. Manu is said to be the most undisturbed rainforest left on Earth. It has been designated an IUCN "World Heritage Site" to recognize and hopefully maintain its splendor. To date over 1,100 bird species have been counted within the reserve. Manu hosts a wide variety of habitats ~ an entire virgin watershed stretching from Andean grasslands, elfin forests, and cloudforests down to high and low elevation rainforests). At this high point in the Andes, there is a chance to see Andean Condors. Moving onward, we descend the eastern slope of the Andes into misty, orchids and epiphyte-draped cloudforests; many species here remain undescribed to science. We pass many cascading waterfalls before reaching our lodge at 1600 meters. The simple but very comfortable Cock-of-the-Rock Lodge is lit by lanterns, with excellent meals and cabins with private baths gas heated on-demand hot showers.
Lodging: Cock-of-the-Rock Lodge, Cusco
Cock-of-the-Rock
May 19, Tuesday Cock-of-the-Rock lek and exploring the cloudforest
This mid-elevation tropical humid forest is prime habitat for the shy, elusive and endangered Spectacled Bear, South America's only bear. Birding possibilities are great with many colorful hummers and tanagers, including the aptly named Paradise Tanager. The highlight: at dawn we will visit one of the two nearby Cock-of-the-Rock leks to watch the strange mating dance of these spectacular birds. We'll hope for a busy day; up to 20 males can congregate at this spot to display! There is no other place in the world where this many Cock-of-the-Rock display without concern for our presence. After breakfast we can bird in the cloudforest to find such brilliant delights as the Golden-headed Trogon. Brown Capuchins are always very photogenic here and we have a good chance of finding some Woolly Monkeys.
Lodging: Cock-of-the-Rock Lodge, Cusco
May 20, Wednesday Down the Alta Madre de Dios to Manu Nature Center
This morning will provide a second opportunity to visit the Cock-of-the-Rock lek. After breakfast, we leave these mid-elevation cloudforests and meander down to 500 meters through the upper tropical zone forest. This zone has disappeared on much of the Andean slopes in South America because of its suitability for cash crops, such as tea, coffee and coca. So we can feel particularly lucky for the opportunity to see part of this forest type remaining. We will say fairwell to our safari truck and driver, send unnecessary luggage back to Cusco, and board a motorized dugout canoe. We will travel about six hours down the Alto Madre de Dios River to its confluence with the Manu River to the town of Boca Manu. We continue two more hours downriver in the Amazon lowlands to the Manu Nature Center. The river trip will hold many surprises and we'll be attentive for any wildlife on the beaches. By nightfall we will reach the Manu Wildlife Center. The very comfortable cabins, each for two people, have private baths, including gas heated on-demand hot water. Enjoy a great dinner and a good night's sleep with the sounds of the jungle ouside.
Lodging: Manu Wildlife Center, Manu
Blanquillo Macaw Lick
May 21 - 24, Thursday - Sunday Manu Wildlife Center
We will awake to a bird song-filled dawn at the fabulous Manu Wildlife Center, jointly owned by Manu Expeditions and the Selva Sur Conservation Group. Enjoy five nights in spacious and comfortably rustic cabins with hot water showers! Lighting is by lanterns, candles and flashlights. Without a noisy generator, wildlife is much more abundant on the lodge grounds. The birding is wonderful and primates are often viewed feeding in trees around the lodge. Manu Wildlife Center does have power in the bar/lounge for charging electronics, and has laundry service.
The Manu Wildlife Center is situated just upriver from the Blanquillo Macaw Lick. There will be the opportunity on one morning to visit this natural macaw clay lick and observe the spectacle of hundreds of parrots and macaws at close quarters from a big floating blind. Travel by boat 25 minutes downriver before dawn to the lick area, then after a short walk enter a large blind with chairs and a viewing area positioned in front of the mineral-rich clay cliffs that macaws usually visit every morning to eat clay. Before macaws arrive we will see large flocks of small parrots including the beautiful Orange-cheeked Parrot. Then have a delicious pancake picnic breakfast in the blind. The macaws, mostly beautiful Red-and-Green Macaws with a few Scarlet and Blue-and-Gold macaws, should arrive between 7:30 and 8:30am and, if not disturbed, should be down to eat on the clay between 8:00 and 9:30am. We will spend midday around the wildlife center, relaxing or exploring the biodiversity-rich grounds and nearby trails. Because the grounds are more open than deeper inside the forest, wildlife is often very visible and photogenic here. In the afternoon we can explore the extensive trail systems around the wildlife center. And after dinner each evening, you may choose to join our nightspotting walk. Rich with frogs and bizarre nocturnal insects, each walk will turn up some worthwhile surprise.
During our stay we will visit both Cocha Blanco and Cocha Camungo, both ox-bow lakes in the area where we will see lakeside birds including Hoatzin, Sungrebe, Agami Heron, Greater Large-billed Seed-finch, Silvered Antbird, Rufous-sided Crake, Gray-breasted Crake and we may be lucky and see one of the two Giant Otter families that live in the area. The area's tallest canopy tower uses a truly massive emergent Kapok Tree to give us a worthwhile view of the forest canopy and above, a chance to see where the heart of the rainforest's primary productivity occurs. While up on high, we will likely see flocks of macaws and the occasional toucan fly by.
Manu Wildlife Center also has a Canopy Tower in a kapok tree accessible via a spiral staircase. The beauty of canopy access is the ability to peer out from the level where the majority of tropical rainforest diversity resides. The botanical diversity up here in the canopy is mystifying! We will explain rainforest ecology and indigenous use of medicinal plants in-between flocks of parrots and passing toucans. The area around this lodge has the most varied diversity of forest types anywhere in the accessible Manu area, and thus the highest biodiversity - which means the most species of birds, mammals and plants. Large stands of Bamboo hold endemic species only found in localized areas within Peru. This, coupled with the extensive Tierra Firme and Mature Transitional Floodplain Forest, means a mind-boggling variety of birdlife. This lodge area may hold more species of birds than any small area in the world. The density of mammals, too, is as high here as anywhere in the Neotropics. Highlights among the 13 species of primates are Emperor and Saddleback tamarins, Goeldi's Monkey, Monk Saki and Black Spider Monkeys. And Jaguars are sometimes spotted most unexpectedly while walking the trails quietly.
Brazilian Tapir
A visit to the Brazilian Tapir Clay Lick, a large mammal lick, located about 3 km (1 hour walk) from the lodge, could turn up guans and currasows, plus peccaries, a forest deer, or rarer mammals. We will have the opportunity to stay at the lick after dark to see what nocturnal creatures come in. Tapir, the largest South American mammal, is a frequent visitor - up to 12 of these 500 pound odd-toed ungulates visit sometimes in a night! At night, tree frogs and insects together build a profound chorus. The blind is equipped with about 10 mosquito-netted mattresses so that you can rest while waiting for the first Brazilian Tapirs of the evening. We will plan to return in the late evening, hopefully after seeing at least one Brazilian Tapir.
With five nights at this amazing lodge we'll have maximum time in the field, doing walks and boat trips with a good chance of spotting Jaguar along the river banks, especially in the early morning hours.
Lodging: Manu Wildlife Center, Manu
May 25, Monday Flight to Cusco, afternoon in Cusco and down the Sacred Valley
We will be sorry to leave the lovely Manu Wildlife Center and its bountiful forests. We start early for the airstrip at Boca Manu (2.5 hours upriver) with our last look at early morning parrot flocks and riverside birds. Our spectacular 45-minute light aircraft flight over the Andes should deliver us to Cusco by midday. We have the afternoon free to enjoy the colorful small city of Cusco, time for sightseeing, shopping or just relaxing. Cusco is the oldest continuously inhabited city on the continent, with a thriving Quechuan population and dominant colonial architecture built on foundations of Incan stonework. Overnight Hotel Jose Antonio Cusco, lunch and dinner on your own with many excellent restaurant choices in downtown Cusco.
Lodging: Hotel Jose Antonio, Cusco
May 26, Tuesday Sacred Valley of the Incas, Sacsayhuaman to Ollantaytambo
We will spend the morning in the nearby Incan ruins of Sacsayhuaman, a dramatic structure that forms the head of Cusco's ethereal puma shape. Sacsayhuaman is worth exploration just to see the amazing stonework, yet has a huge depth of Inca history worked into its walls. From here we travel by coach down the fertile and dramatic Sacred Valley of the Incas towards the town and archaeological site of Ollantaytambo (pronounced O-yan-tay-tam-bo). But before we arrive in Ollantaytambo, we cannot resist a stop in at the Pisac market, as today is a market day. We will find the streets overflowing with artisans selling their goods. The market is both for travelers and locals; villagers from miles around pack up their llamas and donkeys in the wee hours of the morning in order to arrive and set up stalls where they sell vegetables and other produce to one another. Often, the preferred method of commerce is direct trade, as opposed to buying and selling, a tradition that goes back to before the Inca. Onward down the valley, Ollantaytambo is one of the finest archaeological sites in the Andes with a complex design aligned like a vast sun-calendar around the summer and winter solstice. The myths and legends that explain this area are illustrated across the faces of awesome peaks with ancient terraces and precariously perched ruins. The face of Huaca (called "the face of the Inca" by the present inhabitants) is said to be carved on the vertical mountainside across the valley from Ollantaytambo. Ollantaytambo is the only town in Peru's Sacred Valley of the Incas that survives much as the Incas laid it out hundreds of years ago, in the pattern of a great ear of corn. Dinner and overnight at the charming country inn, the Paucartampo.
Lodging: Paucartambo Lodge, Ollantaytambo
Temple of the Sun, Machu Picchu
May 27, Wednesday Machu Picchu and the Gate of the Sun
Machu Picchu is one of the most magical and mysterious places on Earth! Situated on the spine of a jungle cloaked granite peak towering some 2,000 feet above an entrenched meander of the roaring Urubamba river below, the site is frequently shrouded in misty clouds pierced through by the powerful equatorial sun, the Inca god Inti. Constructed from precisely sculptured granite blocks carefully joined with the projecting exposed stone of the surrounding mountain, the site may well be the finest architectural achievement of the New World.
We leave Ollantaytambo early for the train journey to the town of Agua Calientes and Machu Picchu in the clouds above. Our train winds along the rushing Urubamba, where sharp eyes might find a pair of Torrent Ducks or a White-capped Dipper fishing in a rapid. We disembark at the train's last stop, the town of Aguas Calientes. Here, we board a bus to ascend the switchbacks of the Hiram Bingham highway to the citadel ruins. Before lunch a guided tour of this mystical archeological complex will give us some orientation and the full history, before taking the afternoon to explore on our own. Machu Picchu is the most impressive site in which to learn of the rise and fall of the ancient civilizations of the Andes, with the tragic end of the Inca and the many competing theories seeking to explain this "lost city of the Incas". Dinner and overnight at the beautiful Pueblo Hotel in Aguas Calientes
Lodging: Pueblo Hotel, Aguas Calientes
May 28, Thursday Machu Picchu
Those who have an appetite for more of Machu Picchu can take the first bus back up to the ruins for an early morning of exploration or a good long hike to the gate of the sun or up Huayna Picchu. If birding, orchids and wildlife are more your interest, the forested grounds of the Pueblo Hotel offer an exploration of the world's largest private orchid garden and nearly a dozen species of highland hummingbirds. Guided nature and birding walks can bring this to life for you. After lunch, we return on the 3:00pm train. Overnight at the Hotel Jose Antonio in Cusco, dinner on your own.
Lodging: Hotel Jose Antonio, Cusco
May 29 - 30, Friday - Saturday Cusco to Lima and onward home
Fly to Lima at in the morning, in time for a visit to the National Archaeological Museum. We'll have dayrooms on May 29, as the flights back to the USA depart in the late evening. Have an early dinner and transfer to the airport at 8pm. American Airlines, Continental and Taca fly to the USA, all departing in the late evening and arriving back in the USA in the early morning to connect to your final destination on May 30.
Day Room or Overnight Lodging on May 29: Hotel Jose Antonio, Lima
Reservations: Please contact us to assure space availability and to let us answer your questions. Then, fill out our reservation form, and mail it to us with your deposit:
Cheesemans' Ecology Safaris
20800 Kittredge Road
Saratoga, CA 95070
Toll Free: (800) 527-5330
Local: (408) 741-5330
Fax: (408) 741-0358
Email: info@cheesemans.com
Costs, Payments and Cancellations: Upon receiving your deposit, we will send trip materials, including a travel guide with trip essentials, reading list, species lists, and maps. Deposits are refundable before the final payment date, except for $150. The $150 may go toward another tour if a reservation is made within six months of the departure date of this trip. There are no refunds given after the final payment date. Trip cancellation insurance applications are available. Trip options, if any, and singles are extra.
| Cost per Person | |
| Trip cost | Approximately $50001 |
| Single supplement | $12501 |
| Payment Schedule | |
| Deposit - to reserve your space | $500 |
| November 1, 2008 - second payment | $500 |
| February 1, 2009 - final payment | remaining balance |
1Price still to be finalized.
Included: Flight from Boca Manu to Cusco on May 25. All meals (except on May 17, lunch and dinner on May 25, dinner on May 28, and all meals on May 29 - 30). All guiding, hotels and lodges from May 17 to 29. Tours and transport as described in this intinerary.
Not Included: Airfare (see approximate airfare) to and from Cusco. Any airport taxes not included in the airfare. Meals on May 17, lunch and dinner on May 25, dinner on May 28, and all meals on May 29 - 30. Laundry and other personal expenses. Items not on the menu of included meals. Bottled beverages including mineral water. Room service. Gratuities to the bus drivers, porters, and others. The customary end-of-the-tour gratuity for our resident guides, we recommend an average of approximately $10 per day.
Travel Insurance: Unless you specifically decline travel insurance, Cheesemans' Ecology Safaris requires, at a minimum, insurance to cover emergency medical care and evacuation for the duration of the tour. We have had good experience with Access America. Visit their website for complete details and we will also send you their brochure with your trip materials. You can purchase a policy via their website, phone or by mail. If you choose, separate trip cancellation insurance to cover trip costs is also available. Whatever insurance you purchase, be sure to review the terms of all available policies carefully in order to buy the policy that you need.
Health: Consult your physician or travel clinic about vaccinations, inoculations, malaria prophylactic, and other medications. No vaccinations or inoculations are required to enter Peru, however, we recommend that they are up to date. We recommend drinking bottled water or bring a water filter. Bring any specific medicine that you require to cover the entire trip. If you use corrective lenses, bring an extra pair.
Climate: Temperatures can vary greatly, even in Amazonia. It is less humid in May than from November to April. The Andes can be surprisingly cool all year. Rain can be encountered during any season. We will send a packing list with your trip materials after you make a reservation.
Mailing List: If you would like to be on our mailing list or request information, please use our online request form or send us your name, address, email address and phone number. Please note we will never share your personal information with anybody!
Responsibility: Cheesemans' Ecology Safaris, Saratoga, California, act only as agents and shall not be responsible or become liable for any delay incurred by any person in connection with any means of transportation, nor for the loss, damage, or injury to person or property by reason of any event beyond the control of the agency or default of such agency suppliers. We reserve the right to cancel the tour prior to departure in which case full refund will constitute full settlement to the passenger. No refund will be made for any unused portion of the tour unless arrangements are made at the time of booking. All rates are based on current tariffs, exchange rates and fuel prices and are subject to adjustment in the event of any change therein. By sending your initial deposit, you agree to accept our payment schedule as a contract. If payments are still outstanding two weeks after the due date, your space may be forfeited. Baggage is at the owner's risk.
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