Peru Adventures : Machu Picchu, Amazon River, Sacred Valley and more!

Hike, Bike and Paddle Peru’s Most Popular Attractions

On today’s episode, we climb Bucket List Machu Picchu, bike the stunning Sacred Valley and paddle in the Amazon River basin (and fish for piranhas!).  We explore the Incan empire of Peru and its history and learn about the local culture today.  We visit the Spanish colonial city of Cusco and hike up to Sacsayhuaman at sunset to peer down on Cusco at sunset.  It’s an incredible adventure!

I went with one of my all time favorite adventure tour companies, my affiliate Active Adventures .

Their 10 day adventure tour is absolutely amazing – see the full itinerary below!  I love how it is almost all inclusive so you pretty much know how much your vacation will cost.  They always have outstanding guides who really bring the culture to life for you.  We were lucky enough to have Wilson and Silvi, whom I can’t praise enough.   You eat outstanding meals – even while camping!  Active goes out of its way to make sure they show you the best a country has to offer.

NOTE:  Active offers my listeners an exclusive $200 OFF discount promo code but I am not allowed to publish it.  EMAIL ME and I will send it to you.

EPISODE 14:  I covered Machu Picchu on one of my earliest podcasts.  You can listen to my interview of Harry about his Machu Picchu adventure HERE.

Hiking to Machu Picchu

For many people, trekking the four days of the Inca Trail is high on their Bucket List, and for good reason!  Named one of the new Seven Wonders of the World, this remarkableremnant of the Incan Empire was only discovered by Westerners a little more than a century ago.  Fortunately, it was abandoned by the Incans in the 1500’s before the Spanish Conquest, so they didn’t know about it to destroy it.

An alternative path is the Lares Trail, and one of our group, Peter, hiked that and absolutely loved it!  It is a little easier than the Inca trail, and you get more interaction with locals.  Peter got to visit a school, which excited both he and the children, who sang to him.  While easier, both are still hard due to the daily distance, elevation gain and most importantly, the altitude (see below for more information).  This trail also take four days, although Peter beat us to Machu Picchu and was able to arrive before the crowds (you can take a bus up there!).

When to Visit Peru and trek to Machu Picchu

You can climb Machu Picchu every month of the year except for February, when the trail is closed for maintenance and because of the rain.  It’s fairly close to the equator, so the temperatures are relatively stable  throughout the year.

It is best to climb Machu Picchu from late March until May, and September until mid-December, shouldering the rainy season.  You can go during the dry season of June through August, but it is very crowded.

YOU MUST HAVE A PERMIT TO HIKE TO MACHU PICCHU AND YOU MUST HAVE A GUIDE!!!  I recommend using Active Adventures as they take care of everything for you.  Book early so you can choose the trail and dates you wish to hike.

I went in early October, and outside of some rain on one day, we had perfect weather.

How Hard is the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu

I’ll admit, it is pretty hard and you MUST train or you won’t be a happy hiker.  I would rate it a four out of five for difficulty.

I have done several shows on my companion podcast, the Adventure Travel Show, on training for adventures, and training for altitude, which is also an issue here:

Training for Adventure Travel

Training for Altitude 

If you want more help, call my friend and affiliate Becki from Trailblazer Wellness for a FREE phone consultation.  If you are a good fit, Becki can develop a custom adventure training program for you based on the time and equipment you already have that you can do at home using tutorial videos and online coaching.  Mention I sent you to save 10%.

Machu Picchu, the Sacred Valley and Amazon Rainforest 10 Day Itinerary

See the best of Peru’s main tourist attractions on the Active Adventure’s 10 day tour I took.  Note that they also have some cool tours that go to the Galapagos, which is pretty close by.  (Don’t forget to email me for the special promo code).

Tour starts and ends in Cusco:

Fly into Lima and then on to Cusco.  Get my Free Travel Planner (and access to ALL of the Travel Planners HERE).

NOTE:  It is super important to acclimatize to the high altitude.  I recommend getting to Cusco 3-4 days early.  Cusco is a fun and walkable city with lots of  exciting day tours nearby, like Humatay Lake and Rainbow Mountain.  I would also recommend bringing a prescription for altitude pills.  Drink LOADS of water to stay hydrated (also use plenty of sunscreen as you are much closer to the sun!).

Day 1: Arrive Cusco and meet the group.  Hike to Sacsayhuamán fortress for sunset.

Day 2: Cycle the Sacred Valley, visit the Pisac Market and hike the Pisac Ruins

Day 3 – 6: Hike either the classic Inca trail or the Lares Trail to Machu Picchu

Day 7: Free day in Cusco

Day 8: Fly to the Amazon River and take a motorized canoe down the Tambopata River; jungle hikes

Day 9: Jungle hikes;  we took a boat to see HUNDREDS of maccaws!!!  Magical!!!

Day 10:  Return to Cusco

Active Adventures

I chose Active for my Machu Picchu and Amazon River adventure because I knew they would exceed my expectations.  This was the fifth tour I have done with them and they did not disappoint.  Like always, they exceeded my expectations, which is why I recommend them so much and cover so many of their tours on my show.

Active Adventures offers the most popular Bucket List adventure travel tours in the world, many of which I have covered on the show.

Recently they merged with Austin Adventures, so now have an even larger global reach.  My exclusive discount code works for Austin tours, too.  Email me for your $200 discount code.

The impressive stone work of the Incas, who without benefit of the wheel, metal tools or beasts of burden, managed to create these impressive structures that hold up to earthquakes (many of the later Spanish buildings collapsed).  You couldn’t slip a knife in the mortar-free crevices between stone slabs!

Amazon Rainforest of Peru

After we finished hiking Machu Picchu and exploring Cusco and the Sacred Valley, we flew to Puerto Maldonado, a frontier town in the Amazon basin.  

Here, we hiked during the day and night to see exciting wildlife such as monkeys, cayman, the Jesus iguana (named so because it can walk on water!), tartantulas, and most incredible, the macaws on the world’s largest clay lick.  

Just getting to our rainforest lodge, we saw a huge family of capybaras, the world’s largest rodent.  Males can reach 150 lbs!  The family was entering the river, including several babies.  It was cool!  See the video below.

We took an early dawn motorized canoe up an Amazon tributary river to see HUNDREDS of macaws and other tropical birds who gather each morning to nibble on the exposed clay on the river bank cliffs.  Whether for needed minerals or to balance out the pH of their diet (scientists still aren’t quite certain), each morning, birds flock from long distances to spends a couple of hours at this one site, the Chuncho Macaw Clay Lick.

Other Fun Excursions in Peru

In addition to our Active Adventures Machu Picchu, Sacred Valley and Amazon Rainforest tour, (and don’t forget to email me for my listener exclusive $200 Active Adventures promo code (Active won’t let me publish it) my sister Terry and did some exploring on our own.  Highlights are below and include:

• Palccoyo Rainbow Mountain
• Humantay Lake
• Arequipa, the “White City”
• Huacachina Dune Buggy and Sand Boarding (a HOOT!)
• Pisca Vineyard tour
• Colca Canyon to see the condors
• Visit Uru reed island (they build their island, plus their homes and boats from reeds!)
• Homestay on Amatani island
• See the wildlife in Paracas, the ‘poor man’s Galapagos’
• La Paz, the capital of Bolivia and the witches market
• Visit Isla del Sol off Copacabana, Bolivia
• Uyuni salt flat in Bolivia

Day Tours from Cusco

Palccoyo Rainbow Mountain

My sister Terry and I arrived several days early to acclimatize (I don’t do well with altitude, so I arrived a week early).  After a couple of days, we took day tours from Cusco to see the alternative Rainbow Mountain of Palccoyo.  This rainbow mountain is less crowded and is not as high, but is still 16,076′!  We didn’t see anyone until we were near the end of the trail and some others on the way back.  WAY better than the traditional Rainbow Mountain, IMO.

Humantay Lake

Another fun, but challenging day trip, is to climb up to  Humantay Lake to see the uniquely colored water.  It’s great practice for your Machu Picchu trek, but you can always hire an ‘Uber’ – a horse in this case – to carry you up:)

Bolivia Trip Extension

Terry and I were fortunate enough, as retirees, to be able to take off a month.  So we explored southern Peru and spent a few days in Bolivia, which we also absolutely loved.

We thought that, while certainly fascinating, the floating Reed Islands on Lake Titicaca are blowing it tourism-wise.  We thought that it would be a much better experience if they demonstrated more about how they lived instead of trying to sell you cheap trinkets.   It’s still worth a visit, but they could make the experience so much better AND make more money off of us for a more authentic and educational experience.

We did do an overnight homestay nearby, which we thought was worth it.

Uyuni Salt Flats of Bolivia

 Now THIS, we thought was totally worth it.  I made the mistake of thinking the Uyuni Slat Flats (the largest in the world) was close to La Paz – it’s an eight hour bus ride away.  Allow time to do the Three Day Tour.  We loved our one day tour, but should have allowed time to see the flamingos and lakes you can see on the multi-day tour.

The ‘llama’ I am riding above is about 8″ tall.  The salt flats are so vast that your eyes play tricks on you.  Our guide held the stuffed llama doll in front of the camera and I waved about thirty feet back.  We had a ton of fun creating ridiculous photos.

Other Fun Places to Go

La Paz, Bolivia

Allow a couple of days in La Paz.  You can visit the Witches Market and wander the streets. Or take a cable up for a scenic view (although we heard the neighborhood wasn’t so safe, so we didn’t).

Huacachina, Peru

We thought the dune buggies they were taking us on were to get us up the dunes so we could sand board down.  Yes, they did that, and it was fun, but what was really cool was racing up and down and over the dunes at a million miles an hour.  I haven’t laughed so hard in years!

Nazca Lines

Our bus was delayed due to some really long construction hold up, so we were too late to see the famous ancient geoglyphs that are the Nazca Lines.  I think from what people told us, that maybe we are lucky we didn’t cough up the money for the flights to see them from above.  They said they fly up and down so fast, that most people threw up.  You can see some from an observation area, I am told.

We got around Peru after our Active Adventures tour with a company called PeruHop (they also are in Bolivia and Ecuador, fyi).  It’s like a hop on hop off bus to the main attractions of the country.  It’s a safe and economical way to get around the country.  Really clever idea, although sometime you are on the bus a LONG time:)  Pretty scenery though!

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