Our team welcomes you at the airport of Puerto Maldonado and takes you to our office, where you can leave the luggage you don't need in the rainforest. We then board a motorized canoe and travel up the Tambopata River for about three hours – with good chances of seeing capybaras, caimans, turtles, waterbirds and, with luck, monkeys. A box lunch (vegetarian on request) and cold drinks are served on board. After checking in at Finca Sachavacayoc and a short rest, we take an introductory walk into the rainforest, where your guide explains its plants and medicinal trees. After dark, a night walk reveals nocturnal creatures such as tree frogs, insects and the impressive bird-eating tarantula.

We set off at 4:00 am and travel upstream by boat for about two hours to arrive at the Chuncho clay lick before the birds. Breakfast is served on board, and along the way we may see capybaras, caimans and, with great luck, a jaguar or tapir. At the clay lick, one of the largest in the world, hundreds of red-and-green, scarlet and blue-and-yellow macaws and many parrots gather to eat the mineral-rich clay – a unique spectacle. After lunch at the lodge and a rest, we walk for about an hour to the remote oxbow lake Condenado. From a paddle canoe, we look for monkeys, caimans, hoatzins and macaws flying to their roosts – and with luck even an anaconda. Back at the lodge, there is the option of another night walk.

After breakfast, we travel by boat back past Puerto Maldonado for about two hours to the trailhead to Sandoval Lake. A walk of 2.5 km (1.6 mi) leads through a former giant bamboo forest, home to monkeys, sloths and macaws, to a small canal, where we board paddle canoes and glide through a swamp forest of aguaje palms onto the mirror-like lake. After checking in at the Sandoval Lake Lodge – the only lodge inside the Tambopata National Reserve – we explore the lake in the late afternoon in search of monkeys, black caimans and the giant otters that live here, while hundreds of red-bellied macaws return to their roosts in the palms. In the evening, there is the option of a night walk.

After breakfast, we take a last paddle through the palm swamps at the west end of the lake – on clear mornings, the sunrise is reflected in the water. We then return to Puerto Maldonado and the airport for your flight to Cusco (3,400 m / 11,155 ft), where your Incatrekkers guide welcomes you and takes you to your hotel. In the afternoon, take it easy to get used to the altitude and set out with your guide on a relaxed walk through the former capital of the Incas: the Plaza de Armas with its cathedral, Plaza Regocijo, Plaza San Francisco and the artists' quarter of San Blas, the famous twelve-angled stone and original Inca walls, the San Pedro market and the ChocoMuseo (optional workshop).

The tour begins at Qorikancha, the Temple of the Sun and the most important religious center of the Incas. By private transport, we then visit four Inca sites above the city: the mighty fortress of Sacsayhuamán with its huge stone blocks weighing up to 120 tons, the rock shrine of Qenqo with its carved altars, the military outpost of Puka Pukara and Tambomachay, the "bath of the Inca" with its elegant water channels.

We pick you up from your hotel at 7:30 am and drive to Chinchero, where Quechua weavers demonstrate their traditional dyeing and weaving techniques. We continue to Moray, whose circular terraces the Incas used as an agricultural laboratory, and to the salt ponds of Maras, where local families still harvest salt as their ancestors did. After lunch, we visit Ollantaytambo, a living Inca town with a mighty temple fortress and massive terraces overlooking the Sacred Valley. You spend the night in Ollantaytambo; the rest of the afternoon is at leisure.

We pick you up at 6:00 am and take the train along the Urubamba River for about one and a half hours to Km 104 (2,050 m / 6,726 ft), the start of the short Inca Trail. After the permit and passport check, we hike past the Inca site of Chachabamba and climb for about four hours to Wiñay Wayna (2,650 m / 8,694 ft), one of the most beautiful sites on the trail. Through cloud forest, we continue for about an hour to Inti Punku, the Sun Gate (2,720 m / 8,924 ft), where Machu Picchu suddenly lies at your feet. After descending to the citadel and enjoying the afternoon light, we take the bus down to Aguas Calientes for the night.

After an early breakfast, we take one of the first buses up to Machu Picchu and explore the most important temples and sectors of the Lost City on a guided tour of about three hours in the soft morning light. Afterwards, we return to Aguas Calientes by bus, have time for lunch and take the train back to Ollantaytambo, where our private transport takes you to your hotel in Cusco.

Enjoy a last morning in Cusco at your own pace – your guide is happy to suggest places to visit. Our private transport then takes you to the airport for your flight to Lima and your onward journey home.