ITINERARY MACHU PICCHU SOLSTICE & THE NASCA LINES

See Machu Picchu Solstice for full journey description.

B= breakfast, L= lunch, D= dinner included.

Day 1:
Arriving in the afternoon or at night, depending on your flight, you will be met at the airport by one of our Lima guides, look for the red bandanna. They will take you to the Lima Sheraton Tel. (51Peru- 1) 315-5022.

IMPORTANT: Air travel to South America often experiences delays; missed connections are not uncommon. Carry these contact numbers with you so that we don't lose you!
Lima contact:
Peru Travel Service, Vilma (51Peru-19) 875 2207, or Betty (51-19) 875 2206;

Cusco contact:
Sacred Heritage coordinator, Graciela Leon (51-84) 984 -7477

Day 2:
With our Lima guide you will return to the airport, usually just before 5:00am, for your flight to Cusco. Sorry about the early hour but it must be in order to catch the train to Machu Picchu where you start your journey at the lowest altitude. From there we slowly make our way up to the heights, allowing most people to adjust easily.

From Cusco we drive 2-hours down to the Urubamba Valley and the very Andean village of Ollantaytambo where we will catch the 2-hr train to Machu Picchu. That afternoon you will be in the ruins (or take another nap if you haven't already along the way). Below the ruins, down by the river, we will stay in Aguas Calientes, a great little tropical fiesta village. Here we stay two nights at Gringo Bill's tel 51/(84) 21-1046. B-

Day 3:
This will be a full day of Machu Picchu. Through many millennia Machu Picchu has served as an initiatory center for students of a higher learning. The ancient sacred site is fed by a grid of powerful natural energies patterned by the surrounding peaks above and from extensive caverns below. While many succeeding cultures built at Machu Picchu, its origins are seen in the megalithic (gigantic stone) structures left by an ancient highly advanced people many thousands of years vanished. (See: Expanded History) Our guide in the ruins, Kucho, shares information of the traditions taught to him by a by a local Andean master shaman. B-D-

Day 9:
We have this whole day in this traditional Andean village with out getting in a vehicle and running off somewhere. The morning will be filled with the Yatiri building a ceremony called 'Offering to the Pachamama (Divine Mother)'.

Day 10:
A 1/2-hr drive from town we will go through a fantastic area of white bad-lands, an area of high magnetic charge where the locals say many spirits hang around. There at the mesa of Cutimbo we will visit the megalithic ceremonial power towers built by the highly advanced ancient ones. Returning to Puno we pick up your bags, then a 40 min. drive to the airport in Juliaca to catch an afternoon flight to Arequipa, a beautiful colonial town under massive volcanoes. We will stay the night at Casa de Melgar (51 54) 22-2459.

Day 11:
A 9-hr bus ride takes us down to the beautiful coast then north to Nasca. After dinner in Nasca we will leave town and return to the desert to stay three nights at an oasis in an old hacienda, the Hostel Wasi Punko Tel (51 56) 52-3080

Day 12:
First thing in the morning we will be flying over the lines for the aerial view and only way to see the size and scope of the zoomorphic figures and the long lines covering many miles. Then in the afternoon we will be out on the sacred hills that radiate the long lines drawn in the desert, this is to truly be in touch with the energy of this massive sacred site.

Day 13:
In the cool and calm of the desert morning we will go to the Cahuachi pyramid and temple complex where in ages past tens of thousands of pilgrims had come to celebrate the energy and spirituality of Nasca. After lunch we will visit viewing tower in the midst of Nasca's gigantic zoomorphic drawings to get a closer look and then we'll go nearby to another sacred hill radiating the lines to get good and plugged in to the power of the place again. On the Dec/Jan journey this is New Year's Eve, which we will start to celebrate with dinner in town then we will go out into the gigantic calendar figures to turn midnight .

Day 14:
Late morning we will leave for the 7hr bus ride to Lima . We will stay the in one of the nicest parts of the city, Miraflores, with its plaza and ocean views. We will have one night at El Patio (51-1) 444-2666 B-D

Day 15:
We will enjoy an easy day to start with; a leisurely breakfast in the plaza, more ocean views, shopping, museums if you choose. On this night we return you to the airport to meet your departing flights.