Discover the ancient pre-Inca kingdoms of Chachapoyas, Sipan, Chan-Chan and Kuelap

Friday, 09 June 2023

Fly to Lima

Depart on a BA direct flight arriving in Lima in the evening. You will be met at the airport by our guide and taken to your chosen hotel for a 4-night stay on a bed and breakfast basis. Your guide will show you the local area and answer any questions you may have.

Lima, "City of Kings" has an attractive historic centre containing valuable examples of colonial and republican architecture. Among the principal points of interest is the Main Square, on which three of the City's most important buildings from the past and present stand: The Cathedral, the Presidential Palace and the City Hall. Miraflores, a cosmopolitan district is five kilometres away south from the historical centre, wide and modern commercial districts, parks and green areas of great beauty.

Saturday, 10 June 2023

Guided tour of Lima

Today, our expert local guide will take you on a half day tour of the city to discover both colonial and modern districts of Lima. Following an earthquake in 1746, the city was elaborately rebuilt, and today wide streets, vast plazas and old houses with ornately carved balconies are a legacy of this period. The highlight is a visit to the Larco Museum showcases remarkable chronological galleries providing an excellent overview on 3,000 years of development of Peruvian pre-Columbian history. We also visit a market, where you can taste the local produce.

Sunday, 11 June 2023

Street Food Discoveries

Our half day morning tour explore the street food that Lima has become famous for, starting with a visit to Surquillo Market where we will see local vegetables, medicinal herbs and some others products from all over Peru including Lucuma with milk (a nutritious Peruvian fruit that contains beta-carotene, iron, zinc, vitamin B3, calcium, and protein). We continue to a local seafood restaurant for a cooking demonstration and to try the “leche de tigre” the Peruvian name for the citrus-based marinade that cures the seafood in a ceviche. Our guide will also take you to an ice cream shop with some extraordinary flavours to try. Our final stop is a visit to the Miraflores Handicraft Market. You can extend today’s tour for lunch at one of Lima’s oldest restaurants ‘La Tiendecita Blanca’ for an extra costs payable locally.

Monday, 12 June 2023

Pachacamac ruins

Today, enjoy a half day guided tour to the Pachacamac ruins, a sacred and ceremonial site dating back to the beginnings of Christianity, where thousands of pilgrims converged to pay tribute and consult the Pachacamac oracle, who they believed could see the past, the future and people's fate. The site comprises pyramidal temples and enclosures built by successive pre-Colombian civilisations and finally the Incas.

Tuesday, 13 June 2023

Fly to Trujillo

This morning take a domestic flight to Trujillo and transfer to your chosen hotel for a 2-night stay on a bed and breakfast basis. The rest of the day is at leisure.

The attractive colonial city of Trujillo has an enviable coastal location, colourful streets, a comfortable climate and, above all, its proximity to some of the most interesting sites in northern Peru including the world's largest adobe city - Chan Chán.

Wednesday, 14 June 2023

Chan Chan, Huanchaco & Huaca Dragon 

Today enjoy a full day tour (including lunch) in Trujillo including visits to Chan Chan, Huanchaco & Huaca Dragón. We start at Chan Chan, the world's largest mud city of pre-Columbian America and the ancient capital of the Pre-Inca Chimu Empire. A vast site, covering an area of more than 18 square miles. We will visit the best preserved parts, including the "Tschudi Palace" with its interior friezes and decorations. The ruins of the citadel are composed of: squares, housings, shops, labyrinths, walls, excellent roads, and pyramidal temples. We continue to Huanchaco, a picturesque fishing village famous for "Caballitos de Totora”, fragile Pre-Inca crafts made with pressed Totora (tall reeds) which are still used today. We also visit a Chimu pyramidal temple located 5 km to the north of Trujillo. In the afternoon we visit the Sun & Moon Huacas, ancient pyramidal temples dating from Moche empire (AD 100-800). The Temple of the Sun was built with more than 140 million adobe bricks.

Thursday, 15 June 2023

Fly to Cajamarca

Transfer to the airport and fly to Cajamarca, a picturesque city set in a wide valley relatively undiscovered by tourists. Cajamarca is a fascinating example of the ancient Andean cultures fusing with the colonial Spanish rulers. On arrival in Cajamarca, transfer to your hotel for a 3-night stay on a bed and breakfast basis. With a population of only 200,000, it is a delightful city to visit.

Friday, 16 June 2023

Guided tour of Cajamarca

We take a guided tour of Cajamarca today, starting at the historic centre where the buildings are quite remarkable, built of adobe and volcanic stone, dating back to the 16th century with traces of the Incas and all the way to the 19th century colonial architecture. We also visit the Cathedral de Jean, with its imposing entrance and the most interesting nearby Inca buildings and ruins, including the Ransom room, and archeological sites Temple of Huacaloma, Temple of Layzon and Baiios del Inca (thermal baths).

Saturday, 17 June 2023

At leisure

Your last day in Cajamarca, and more opportunities to discover the ancient Inca ruins and delightful colonial architecture.

Sunday, 18 June 2023

Fly to Chiclayo

Transfer to the airport and take a domestic flight to Chiclayo. On arrival you will be met by your Veloso Tours guide and transferred to your chosen hotel for a 3-night stay on a bed and breakfast basis. The rest of the day is at leisure. Perhaps visit the impressive cathedral.

Monday, 19 June 2023

Guided tour to Sipan

Enjoy a guided visit (including lunch) to the ancient site at Sipan, where Mochica chiefs lived between the 2nd and 3rd centuries of the Christian era. Here, observe many archeological findings including hair dresses, ornaments, emblems and other attires of gold, silver, golden copper and semiprecious stones and symbols of power.  We also visit the National Museum of the Royal Tombs of Sipan in Lambayeque.

Tuesday, 20 June 2023

Visit the Sican Museum

We take a half-day trip to visit the nearby Sican Museum that displays the daily aspects of the Sican culture including how they made pottery and metal crafts. There is also a fascinating display of Sican nobility tombs.

Wednesday, 21 June 2023

Travel to Chachapoyas

Today we depart Chiclayo and travel overland across the Andes to the Amazon to the incredible lost kingdom of Chachapoyas. The pre-Columbian Chachapoyas culture, conquered in the 15th century by the Incas, has left a landscape scattered with ruined settlements and burial sites which until recently have been overlooked by archaeologists. Situated in the cloud forests around the town of Chachapoyas in Peru's northern Amazonas Department, these sites are dominated by the mighty fortress-temple  of Kuelap perched majestically  on top of towering cliffs  overlooking the verdant Andean landscape. The Chachapoyas region has historically been isolated from the rest of Peru. Local traditions remain with daily life revolving around cattle and horses, and remnants of a glorious past can be spotted on every ridge and cliff.

On arrival in Chachapoyas, transfer to your hotel for a 4-night stay on a bed and breakfast basis.

Thursday, 22 June 2023

Cliff Tombs of Revash & Leimebamba

Today we take an adventure on horseback to the Cliff Tombs at Revash. Here, the ancient Chachapoya built tombs where they buried their noble dead. You can observe two adjacent sets of caves, featuring cottage-sized structures covered in still-bright mineral-oxide paintwork. Some of them look like cottages, with gabled roofs, others like flat-topped apartments. They are adorned with red-on-white figures and geometrical symbols which reflect the rank and lineage of the tombs' occupants.

We continue to Leimebamba, a settlement established by the Incas during their conquest of the region, and then continued as a colonial town under the Spanish. It retains much of this antique charm in its balconied houses with narrow streets where more horses than cars are parked. We also visit the Leimebamba  Museum, where we visit a delightful  collection of extraordinary artefacts recovered from another group of cliff tombs discovered in1997 at the remote Laguna de los Condores, high in the mountains east of the town. Perhaps the most striking thing about the tombs is that they contain burials from all three  periods of local history: the Chachapoya cultural heyday, the post-Inca invasion period and the post-Spanish conquest. Archaeologists are continuing to study the material, seeking to learn more about the Chachapoya and their relationship with their Inca masters.

Friday, 23 June 2023

The walled city of Kuelap

Drive to Kuelap, the great walled city of Northern Peru. We spend a full day visiting this  huge and mysterious site built by the Chachapoyas in the 6th century AD on a ridge overlooking the Utcubamba Valley. The city was eventually conquered by the Incas, but today you can observe and explore the ancient ruins and understand the Chachapoyas culture. Although the site looks like a fortress, with massive walls 62 feet high and only a few  narrow entrances, the archaeological evidence now suggests is was principally a religious and ceremonial site.

Saturday, 24 June 2023

Hike to the Gocta Falls

Today we enjoy a guided hike to the spectacular Gocta Falls, the world’s third highest waterfall. Amazingly, the Gocta Falls was not known to the world until they were discovered by a German explorer in 2006! Local people lived in fear of them and stayed away, owing to an ancient legend of a dangerous enchantress, the siren who lived in the falls. During the trek, you have a good chance of spotting the Andean Cock-of-the-Rock, Peru's national bird as well as hummingbirds, toucanets, capuchin and woolly monkeys.Hear the thunder of Gocta before we see the falls, a huge two-stage torrent of water falling from the towering limestone cliffs over 700m above.

Sunday, 25 June 2023

Fly to Tumbes

Monday, 26 June 2023

Relax at Mancora Beach

Relax on the beach and enjoy the facilities of your hotel.

Tuesday, 27 June 2023

At leisure at your beach resort

Time to relax at your leisure.

Wednesday, 28 June 2023

Mancora Beach

At leisure.

Thursday, 29 June 2023

Fly to Lima and back to the UK

Transfer to Tumbes airport and depart on the flight to Lima to connect with your overnight flight back to the UK. 

Friday, 30 June 2023

Arrive in the UK