Day 1
Flight to Lima, met at airport and escorted to facility.

Day 2
Sightseeing tour of Lima, which could include the older center with the palace, the cathedral and also even more interesting San Francisco Church & catacombs, the inquisition building, Miraflores, Museum of the Nation, Barranco, Chorrillos, fabulous Indian Market with Peru’s best souvenirs (choice, as time allows).

Day 3
Flight to Cajamarca, the city of destiny, where Pizarro marched his tiny band of 270 Spanish to trick and capture Inca Atahualpa. We will see the cell where the Inca was held captive and filled 3 times with gold & silver for his ransom before being executed. We will also see Ventanas de Otuzco, a cliff face with hundreds of funeral niches carved in solid stone. We get to bath in the Inca bath that night where Pizarro met the Inca, (you won’t believe the huge flow of thermal water).

Day 4
From our hotel at the plaza, where thousands of unarmed Incas were massacred, we can go up the stairs to the Inca throne overlooking Cajamarca. We can see an extremely colorful market in a city rarely seen by gringos. Then we take a tour of Cumbemayo, or the huge forest of towering stone pillows. There we see an ancient Chavin cave temple, and a sacred ancient canal dug in solid rock, which diverts water from the Amazon watershed, to the Pacific. This is much older than Inca, likely the era of Kuelap, with petrography carved in it. Then we go by bus to city of Celendin for the night. 

Day 5
We drive to Leymebamba where the mummies are, but along the way we cross the main tributary of the Amazon River, a lot deeper than the Grand Canyon. From the sweeping cold of the cordilleras above, we descend to a sweltering hot valley with really exotic tropical fruit. This was a Chimu colony where the coastal Indians used their irrigation skills to irrigate a zone with perhaps 5 inches of rain a year, where as the rim above (5 miles away horizontally) gets about 100 inches yearly.  We arrive at the best hostel of this frontier town.

Day 6
We will see the brand new museum that the Austrians donated for this unique discovery. The 219 mummies are here along with many artifacts being investigated by Peruvian Dr. Guillen, (the world’s best authority).  She has also set up the advanced new laboratory in Chiro for the Egyptians. She will likely address our group.   We saddle up to go to a Chachapoyan ruins with ornate decorations on a hill, reputed to be a palace.  This is an easy day trip to get us used to horses and walking for the big trip.

Day 7
Early we saddle up for an all day expedition (about 12 hours by horse) into the 15,000 sq. km zone that was unexplored a few years ago, and arrive at a huge pristine lake in the mountains, where we camp in a rustic facility. 

Day 8
The next day is exploring the area where the chulpa (mausoleum) is high on a cliff overlooking this trout filled “laguna”.  The mummies were prepared even better than the Egyptian mummies, and carried there from twice as far as the trip we just made. 

Day 9
We return to Leymebamba for the night.

Day 10
The next day we go by bus and climb to see a mitima village of loyal Incas transferred from the heartland. There is a very old church, museum and special things in town, and also we will see the former Chachapoyan city ruins outside of town.  From there we go to our Choctamal Lodge (gateway to Kuelap and Gran Vilaya), and have a well-deserved soak in the hot tub.

Day 11
Today we explore Fortress Kuelap with over 400 buildings and 5 gigantic levels of walls inside of walls, the largest and perhaps most mysterious structure of South America.    Our bus takes us to see a mitima Inca village, (the residents were transplants from Huanuco in the Inca heartland, - to pacify the rebellious Cloud People). The major business here since ancient times is pottery making, providing pots for the entire zone.  A five-minute walk takes us to a canyon deeper than the Grand Canyon. Gigantic waterfalls cascade into a virgin river, which hasn’t gotten around to “white water rafters”.  Overnight in a 3 star Colonial Mansion in the regional capital of Amazonas, Chachapoyas.

Day 12
The next morning our bus makes the trip out, through Peru’s “rice bowl”, and to the desert Pacific Coast.  This completes the world’s most extreme geography when we arrive at Chiclayo for the night.

Day 13
In the “Valley of the Pyramids” we will see Tucume where Thor Heyerdahl (Kon Tiki author) is excavating to prove a “Pacific Migration Theory” to validate the legend of the Moche king’s arrival from across the Pacific.  All of this ancient land parallels Egypt with its richest soil and even greater ancient irrigation projects watering thousands of acres. We’ll see the Bruning Museum with treasures from America’s richest gold tombs.

Day 14
Today we see the richest gold tomb of America. The Lord of Sipan is in another pyramid or giant mound complex.  This “Pharaoh’s” likeness was on pottery all up and down the coast, and so strange that it was thought to be mythical, ---- until his royal tomb was recently discovered.  Continuous excavations in the pyramids keep unearthing even more royal tombs as I write.  Afternoon flight to Lima.

Day 15
Flight to the USA.

Price:
US$ 1,775 p.p.  (3 passengers minimum)

One time price includes horses, guides, food, and about everything in Peru except souvenirs, alcohol, internal flights and airport taxes. This zone is so unpopulated and unaccustomed to tourist, that natives are honest, friendly and not used to tipping.  Internal flights are around $190 round trip.

Also, if anyone wants to they can extend their trip to see other zones while in Peru, (as Cuzco, Nazca, Paracas, Huaraz), this can be arranged as an extension tour.
 

See the photo presentation of the Laguna de los Condores Expedition - 8 pictures