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Peru has deserts, mountains, and immense jungles and has been compared to a continent containing many countries, climates and types of people. It is the third largest and fourth most populated country in South America.
It is roughly divided into three regions: the Coast which is a desert plain running the length of the sea shore, the Sierra or Highlands consisting of the Andean mountains and the Jungle and entanglement of tropical forests. Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile and the Pacific Ocean border Peru.
Peru is a world of intense light, of daunting vastness and family warmth. In the dust of stone and adobe cities, the powerful cultures flourished long before the first Inca ruled.
Make your own voyage back in time… to the most successful empire the world has ever known, to the stone and sky realm of the Inca kings.
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 Lima Machu Picchu The Nazca Lines Cusco Lake Titicaca Iquitos
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| LIMA - “The City of Kings” |
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Capital of Peru, Lima was once also the seat of major pre-Inca cultures. Lima is a bustling city, located between the Andean ranges, the Pacific Ocean and built right on the coast. It has a contrasting combination of old colonial and very modern buildings. Discover the narrow streets, hidden squares, ancient manor houses and baroque churches dating from colonial times that made this city the favourite of the Spanish Crown. |
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| MACHU PICCHU AND THE INCA TRAIL - “Lost City of the Incas” |
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The most satisfying way to arrive at “Lost City of the Incas” - Machu Picchu - is as the Incas did themselves ... afoot on the Inca Trail. At nearly 14 000 feet, the 27 mile Inca Royal Road descends in its final reach to tunnel through the breathing green of the Amazonian rain forest. It is a journey of foaming cataracts, and pressing jungle. At the end of your guided trek, you arrive at the final granite stairway - Inti Punku, entrance to Machu Picchu.
Machu Picchu is undoubtedly the most spectacular sample of the Inca architecture. Located on the bank of the Urumbamba River, Machu Picchu rises suddenly on top of the magnificent Vilcabamba Mountain. It is a harsh city of stone built in forbidding rock heights 110kms off Cusco and thousands of feet above the Urubamba River. It is the “University of Worship” that is a place built for magical and religious purposes.
At Machu Picchu, man becomes aware of his insignificance and greatness.
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| THE NAZCA LINES - “Who was meant to view them?” |
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Spread across a dry plain near the coastal city of Nazca, lies one of the greatest mysteries of mankind. A great mosaic of giant stylised shapes - a monkey, a fish, a spider, and a hummingbird among many others and geometrical figures drawn by the pre-Inca Nazca culture, all decipherable only from the air.
The meaning of these lines, no one knows. A flight over the Nazca lines is an unforgettable experience, which provokes deep reflection.
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| CUSCO - “Imperial City” |
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The former capital of the four “suyos” or regions that formed the Inca Empire is founded in the east of Peru. Founded in 1534 over Inca foundations, it is the oldest city in the hemisphere and the gateway to Machu Picchu. Also known as the “Imperial City”, it has a charming mixture of Inca and colonial architecture. These gives the city unique characteristics of beautiful and impressive contrasts amalgamated with history. |
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| LAKE TITICACA - “Sacred lake of the Incas” |
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With snow covered peaks rising above distant shores, the vast blue lake of Titicaca presents one of the most breathtaking panoramas of the Andes. The 3,135 square km lake is located in the “altiplano” which extends for hundreds of miles across Bolivia and Peru, where the traditional Indian Culture still prevails.
Inca legend tells us that “Children of the Sun”, Manco Capac and Marna Ocilo, emerged in a shower of spray from the deep waters of Lake Titicaca to found the Inca Empire in Cusco. Anyone fortunate enough to look upon Lake Titicaca cannot help but feel the same sense of awe which led the Peruvians to believe their culture had been born from its waters.
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| IQUITOS, THE AMAZON RIVER AND THE JUNGLE |
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The city of Iquitos was the hub of the rubber boom of the 19th century and its great mansions and public buildings are reminders of those glorious yet heady times.
Iquitos also has extremely lively nightlife, as well as unique and delicious cuisine based on fruits and vegetables of the jungle and fish caught in the rivers.
A short distance upriver from the city, the waters of two great Peruvian Rivers, the Ucayali and the Maranon, meet to form the mighty Amazon River. A river so great that in its lower reaches, it carries more water than all the other rivers in the world combined.
Exploring the jungle is ideal from the deep Amazon City of Iquitos. From here trips down the river to the hidden lodges and village tribes commence. |
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