This Gourmet Tour in Lima will allow you to travel around Peru through its incredible culinary biodiversity while learning more about its numerous ecosystems. You will live a true gastronomic journey through three natural regions of Peru, selva (jungle), sierra (highlands), and costa (coast).
At 10:45 am we will pick you up from your hotel, you will then begin with biodiversity work where you will get the chance to discover numerous ingredients from different parts of Peru that you have probably never heard of. Some fruit tasting will be on the menu, which will be followed by a chocolate tasting session and a fun quiz! Next, accompanied by your private foodie guide, you will be heading to the first restaurant where you will taste the delicacies from the Amazon. You will have the opportunity to taste delicious bites from the jungle. All this from Lima – how cool? To punctuate the journey on a high note, the Pacific Coast will be the vedette. You will indulge yourself in a mostly fish and shellfish round of bites before getting some dessert. After this food experience, we will return to our hotel. Breakfast and lunch included.

3 hours prior to your flight departure time to Cusco, pick up from your hotel and transfer to the airport of Lima. The flight is for 1 hour and 20 minutes. Upon your arrival in Cusco city, we will pick you up for a transfer to your hotel. In the afternoon at 2:00 pm, we will start exploring the ancient typical alleyways in the historic center of Cusco city. We will pass by narrow intricate typical alleyways while learning the stories behind each alley, after the walk, we can stop at one of the local cafes to enjoy some local drinks (optional), we will then back to your hotel.

At 9:00 am, we’ll come to your hotel to pick you up we will then drive for about 15 minutes to reach our first place, which is Sacsayhuaman, a place built in the 15th century whose construction rocks weigh over 200 tons and were brought from about 500 meters/ 1,640 ft away. Sacsayhuaman is an impressive Inca temple on a steep hill that overlooks all of Cusco city.

The ruins are humongous, but archeologists believe that the original site was as much as four times larger. What remains today are the impressive outer walls constructed in a zigzag formation across three levels. As with many Inca sites, the walls are made from massive, irregularly-shaped limestone boulders that stick together like a jigsaw puzzle without any additional support. The stones are laid together so tightly that a sheet of paper will not fit into many of the cracks.

After exploring Sacsayhuaman, we will return to the city of Cusco where will visit the Inca Museum, a perfect museum to get immersed in the Andean Culture, we will then walk on the typical alleys to reach the Temple of the Sun Coricancha, the most important religious site of the Incas in the lower Cusco, this sumptuous temple’s walls and floors were allegedly once covered by sheets of solid gold, this temple was once one of the most important religious sites of the Incan people in the city of Cusco. On this tour, we will also visit a local market where you will taste fresh-baked Chuta bread, and you will see bizarre stuff for different purposes. Once we finish the tour here, we will go back to the hotel.

At 7:00 am we come to your hotel to pick you up and go exploring the highlights of the Sacred Valley. Today we will visit Maras salt pans, which was the main salt source to provide to Cusco and other settlements in Urubamba Valley like Machu Picchu during the Incan times. Our next place to visit is Moray, a unique Incan farming testing center, where the Incas built terraces in rounded shapes especially to generate types of microclimates, which were used to acclimate different sorts of plants. After Moray, we will drive to Ollantaytambo ruins, famous for the temple of the sun whose construction rocks (100 tons) were brought from 5 miles away. Today, lunch will be taken at one of the restaurants in Ollantaytambo or some snacks can be grabbed, your guide will recommend some good ones, and based on that you will select one. At 3:37 pm, the glass roof train leaves for Machu Picchu, whose journey is for 1 hour and 45 minutes. Upon our arrival in Machu Picchu town, we will have a short walk to our hotel. At night, dinner will be at one of the local restaurants, your guide will make some suggestions of good places.

The most important day has arrived because it is the day of Machu Picchu, we’ll wake up very early to have breakfast organized at the hotel, we will then go to the bus station and take the bus for 25 minutes to get to Machu Picchu sacred Inca city. “What a moment” you will be very amazed at having the stunning place right in front of you, so we’ll seal your feat with an epic picture with Machu Picchu at the background. After enjoying the views from the lookout point, you will start enjoying the tour for about 2 – 3 hours exploring the highlights within the Machu Picchu citadel. After the tour, we’ll take the bus from Machu Picchu Inca citadel back to Aguas Calientes town (Machu Picchu Pueblo) where we will have lunch (not included) at one of the local places. We will then take the train back to Ollantaytambo train station where our transfer will be waiting for you to transfer you back to the hotel in Cusco.

At 7:00 am pick up from your hotel, we will then drive for about 3 hours to get to the trailhead (4,450m/ 14,596ft), from where we’ll start hiking to Rainbow Mountain for 2 hours, along the trail, we will enjoy amazing views of the Peruvian highlands like tall spiring snowcapped peaks, llamas and alpacas grazing. Upon arrival at Rainbow Mountain, we’ll spend about 30 – 45 minutes enjoying this unique place. It was formed by weathering, environmental conditions, and sedimentary deposits over time, the mountain’s unique mineralogy created a marbling effect, with layered hues of gold, lavender, red and turquoise towering into the sky.

Rainbow Mountain is located at 5,050 meters above sea level (16,564 ft), this place is usually windy, sometimes in the morning could be foggy with light rain with light snow, thus, it’s very important to come prepared for this tour with proper warm clothes like a down jacket, rain jackets, rain pants, gloves, warm hat, etc. After having enough time, we’ll return to the bus station/car parking, on this way back the trail is all downhill. We will have lunch around 1:30 pm, after that, we will take our transportation back to Cusco.

Note:

– You can rent horses to ride from locals, there will be many of them along the trail to rent, the cost is between 60 PEN ($20) to 90 PEN ($30). This may help you to reach the mountain easily, however, the horses do not reach the mountain itself, they will drop you off 30 to 40 minutes away from Rainbow Mountain.
– If this tour looks tough for you or don’t want to hike at very high elevations, we have the best options to offer instead, if so, please refer to your tour designer to get further details.

2 hours before your flight departure time, pick up from the hotel and transfer to the airport. End of the adventure