Epic Ancient Peru

Discover more about the Moche people with a trip to the temples of El Brujo, built between AD 1 and 600. The main temple, Huaca Cao Viejo, houses the famous mummy of the Lady of Cao, the only female Moche governor from this era. This fascinating museum showcases a variety of artefacts from the Moche era, and offers a detailed insight into their lives.

Your guide will drive you to the famous Túcume archaeological complex, also known as Peru’s ‘Valley of the Pyramids’. With over 200 hectares, this complex is home to twenty-six major pyramids and other monuments, all reflecting ancient Lambayeque’s sophisticated growth system and complex social structure. Your guide will brief you on the history and help bring to life what was once one of Peru’s most impressive cities built over 1000 years ago.

Visit the Royal Tombs of Sipan Museum, one of Latin America’s most modern and impressive archaeological museums. Boasting a collection of amazing Moche artwork found in the tomb of the Lord of Sipan, at the Huaca Rajada site, see silver and gold jewellery, fine weaving, emblems of religious and military power, and great quantities of ceremonial utensils.

Your guide will collect you on a private transfer to the town of Leymebamba. During the drive you will stop off at the Revash mausoleum and take a four hour hike (round trip) to the archaeological site, a wonderfully colourful structure found on a platform high up on a cliff. The cliff walls in the shelf area are adorned with geometric designs representing animal figures.

Enjoy a visit to the Leymebamba Museum, one of Peru’s most fascinating museums. Take a look at the collection of over 200 Inca-Chachapoyas mummies which are in an excellent state of preservation and the country’s largest collection of Kipus. You will then be privately driven back to your hotel.

A two-hour drive will bring you to Kuelap Fortress, a striking building which sits on a cliff edge. Surrounded by an impressive wall almost 2,000 feet long, this archaeological research point may have been a significant religious centre dedicated to the Chachapoyas gods. Kuelap’s gates or main entrances are built as narrow walled passageways that continue to narrow as they reach upwards into the fortress, so the complex would remain restricted. Enjoy lunch in the small town of María before returning to your hotel.

Start your tour toward the Paracas pier and sail to the Ballestas Islands. Peru’s answer to the Galápagos, these rocky islands are an important sanctuary for a variety of marine wildlife, including seals and sea lions, blue footed boobies, and Humboldt penguins.

The famous Nazca Lines are confounding geoglyphs left by the Nazca culture between 300BC-700AD. More than seventy giant animal and plant figures are etched into the sand of the pampas, some reaching 1,000 feet in dimension, however not a lot is known about their origin. The best way to see the Nazca Lines is from light aircraft – try to decipher the mystery yourself as you soar above these giant carvings.

Visit the Inca fortress town of Ollantaytambo.  The site was built just as the Spaniards arrived and is one of the most important vestiges of how the Incas inhabited and functioned in their cities, making it a fascinating place to explore. The fortress at the top of the hill is particularly interesting to investigate for the techniques the Incas used in its construction.

Your guide will bring you to the fascinating (and beautiful) sites of Maras and Moray. Maras is an open system of terraces that has been used for centuries to harvest salt from a stream of mineral rich water that comes from within the mountain. Moray is an ancient system of Inca terraces which were used to acclimatise new plants to the high altitude environment.

You will be picked up from your hotel in Cusco in the early morning and taken to the Cachora town, the starting point of the trek to Choquequirao. After enjoying lunch at a local house, start hiking amidst the wild flora until you reach Chiquisca, the location of your camp. Enjoy a refreshing cup of tea followed by dinner.

Wake up early and enjoy breakfast at daybreak before starting the hike to Marampata. After lunch you will start the last section of the route to Choquequirao through a subtropical jungle road, where wildlife includes condors, taruca deer, vizcacha rodents, foxes, skunks, pumas, hummingbirds, bears and the Andean cock-of-the-rock, Peru’s national bird. You will arrive late afternoon and watch the sunset at the citadel. 

After breakfast you will explore the citadel on a guided tour. It is believed that Choquequirao was the last refuge of the Incas after the Spaniards conquered Cusco and the neighboring towns between 1532 and 1533. Located on the foothill of the snow-capped Salkantay mountain, in the La Convención province, the Choquequirao urban complex was built among huge mountains and it is considered Machu Picchu’s ‘sacred sister’, due to their structural similarities. 

The complex houses numerous administrative and religious buildings, a ceremonial platform, warehouses, agricultural terraces, squares and houses, and some scholars believe it is a huge unfinished project.

Wake up early and start the trek to Cachora town, where you will enjoy lunch before transferring to Cusco to begin your journey back home via Lima.