Peru Adventure Travel: Amazon and Machu Picchu Tours, Walking, Trekking, and More

Explore the lost Kingdom of the Incas, experience the grandeur of Andes, and delve into the heart of the wild Amazon!

Most anthropologists believe that the Incan city of Machu Picchu was an important place, although no one knows just why or how. It may have been used for religious ceremonies, for astronomical observations, or even as a summer retreat when Cuzco, the Incan capital, turned cold.

Whatever the purpose, a Machu Picchu tour reveals a place of soul-stirring beauty. Curved agricultural terraces, wide plazas, thatched-roof houses, and temples set against the snowcapped Andes invite conjecture about the people lucky enough to have lived here so long ago.

But Machu Picchu isn’t the only ancient city you’ll be able to explore on your trip to Peru. Dramatically perched on a promontory nearly five thousand feet above the roaring Apurimac River is Choquequirao, an Incan outpost that is four times the size of its “sacred sister.” Although its existence has been known for some time, Choquequirao has only recently been opened to nonacademics. On your Peru tour, you’ll be able to trek to this saddle in the high Andes, where it’s believed that Incas worshipped the mountain gods, the river, and the natural elements.

In contrast to such “Lost Cities,” Cuzco is still very much alive today. See its vast Sacsayhuamán Fortress, a UNESCO World Heritage site, and marvel at how this massive city has survived earthquakes and the ebb and flow of colonialism. When you visit Cuzco, you’ll explore not only history but also Peru’s modern cuisine and culture.

Peru is more than cities, old and new, however. Wonder at the country’s natural bounty with an amazon tour into a primeval rain forest. Deep within the most biodiverse region of the Amazon Basin, nearly a thousand bird species and the elusive jaguar thrive. You may even raft through Black Canyon at the source of the Apurimac, or trek Peru’s Amazon lodges from Salkantay to Machu Picchu.

As you journey the rivers, trails, passageways, charmingly narrow streets, lively cities and immemorial ones on your Peru adventure tour, questions will arise, such as: Whose careful hands proudly built these ancient, white granite walls when they were fresh and new — and which still display some of the world’s finest stonework? In long-ago mornings, did mists swirl up from the Urubamba River and surround an Inca during his walk, just as they encircle me today?

Travel to Peru, and you’ll find the anthropologists were right: Something important does happen here.

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