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 Tarapoto of the northern margin of the Amazon Basin.  Check out the town and proceed to a real luxury resort, (bring bathing suits), check out the monkeys & parrots and walk along a tributary.

Day 4
Private bus takes us along the marginal jungle to Moyobamba, known for its  thermal baths, waterfalls, and orchids. We will enjoy another day in this tropical setting in a nice 3 star hotel.

Day 5
On the way to Chachapoyas we will see a waterfall higher than the Empire State Building. Then our bus begins our serious 2 or 3-hour climb up the Andes through the spectacular Utcabamba River Valley.  Reception and check into Colonial Mansion, then off to see  a mitima Inca village, (the residents were transplants from Huanuco in the Inca heartland, to pacify the rebellious Cloud People.) The village’s main business is pottery making since ancient times, providing 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 been run yet by white water rafters. 

Day 6
Our bus takes us to Levanto, the 7th and main “City of the Condors” as documented in “The Chronicles of the Inca”.  Levanto was the most significant city of the Inca invasion, and later Spanish Colonial Era, as capitol circa 1530 AD. Time stands still at the church on the sleepy village plaza, which is among Peru’s oldest with an ornate hand carved high alter.  Abundant white limestone blocks everywhere, suggests Levanto’s huge past, also a couple of fortified walled cities overlook Levanto. We will see an ancient canal providing water from many miles away.  Next the Inca Military Garrison, (the zone’s first restoration), still guards the crossroads hub of over 2000 miles of Inca highways.  Levanto is the city documented by John Hemming’s “Conquest of the Incas”, as the strongest fortified zone of the Andes, where Inca Manco tried to relocate here during the revolt against the Spanish.  We will stay the night at Los Tambos Chachapoyanos brand new lodge, built to resemble the ancient Cloud People’s style, but modern conveniences. This is jointly owned and staffed to benefit the local people. 

Day 7
In the morning, those who choose can linger, while others can enjoy an energizing 4 hour walk downhill on perhaps Peru’s best continuously maintained and used Inca road, to Chachapoyas (which goes on to Columbia). Panoramic views are great and you can see how the Inca’s surpassed even Rome’s best engineering feat of highway construction.  We join the bus and go to Leymebamba, the last outpost on the edge of the most gigantic “overlooked mountain zone of the Andes”.  Night at best hostel.

Day 8
We get to see the new $500,000 museum donated by the Austrians to house the 219 mummies and large collection of artifacts recovered in 1998, as documented by the Discovery Channel.  The mummies were better preserved than even the Egyptian ones to survive all these years in the damp cloud forest, behind a waterfall.  We get a taste of an expedition for all those wanting to go by horse back to the really neat Chachapoyan ruins of Congona.  Most will find it fun on this mild trek, even if not used to horses.  We stay another night at Leymebamba.

Day 9
Our bus takes us high above the Utcabamba River to another mitima village of transplanted loyal Incas.  Sights include an un-restored Cloud People’s ruins on a hilltop near the road.  In town is the last round house occupied and photographed with its residents at the turn of the century.  Also an ancient church reflects the Chachapoyan style, (and not later modified as Levanto’s). From there we go to see the ruins of Macro.  If you want to climb up 15 minutes to it, you will need sandals to ford the stones of the river, which is almost two feet deep.  Afterwards we go to our Choctamal Lodge, “Gateway to Kuelap and Gran Vilaya”, high up in the cloud forest.

Day 10
We have all day to see the fortress Kuelap, the largest structure in South America.  There are 5 levels of walls inside walls, and over 400 houses inside this strongest fortification of the Americas.  Afterwards anyone feeling fit can ride up to the Abra Yumal Pass, above the nightly freeze line, to look down at the clouds and Gran Vilaya.  Return for the night to our Choctamal Lodge.

Day 11
Bus to see the 8-foot high funeral statues of Karajia, perched on a vertical cliff.  Another site, San Antonio, you will see sarcophagus so high up they look like peach fuzz, which will amaze you as to how the ancients could do it.  This night is at a quaint comfortable colonial hotel with rooms overlooking topiaries in the main square.

Day 12
The next morning our bus makes the trip out, through Peru’s “rice bowl”, and to the desert 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
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.  Flight to Lima.

Day 15
Flight to the USA

Cost:  US$ 1,775 p.p.  minimum 3 passengers (which may be combined with others.)

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.

This tour comes in a 1 and 2 week version, with 1 week about half the cost but more restrictive. This can be part of an extension added to other destinations, which we can arrange, along with flights and internal transportation, if you wish. 

We will likely offer an additional one-week tour to our zone this year for about half of this cost. Also, if anyone wants to extend their trip to see other zones while in Peru, (as Cuzco, Nazca, Paracas, Huaraz), this can be arranged as an extension tour.

Now I ask you – where else could you see all the world’s most extreme geography, best climate, with the most fabulous undiscovered archaeology, - with about everything included in a one-price deal, at less than the daily cost of a hotel room only at Disney World?  You have the satisfaction of being one of the first to see the start of the unfolding of perhaps America’s top 3 archaeological zones before the hordes.  Besides this, your participation benefits the people of the zone in helping to preserve this pristine area from the impact of hordes of future tourists and wildcat exploitation.