Pre‐tour Nazca 5 days / 4 nights (August 15 – August 19) Day 01 Lima (arrival) ‐ Transfer to Hotel – Briefing Welcome to Lima, “the city of the kings”. At your arrival you will be received by us at the airport and brought to the hotel. After your check‐in you have a little welcome snack and a short introduction to the itinerary. On demand we can also take a little walk through the quarter where our hotel is. Overnight at Hotel 3*** Meals: Welcome Snack Day 02 Lima ‐ Pachacamac – Paracas – Paracas National Reserve – History Museum After breakfast, we drive on the “Panamericana” to Pachacamac and then continue to the bay of Paracas. Our first stop is the ruins of Pachacamac from where we have a great view over the Pacific Ocean. Pachacamac with its oracle was an important cultural and spiritual center before and during the Inca empire. It is the location in which the priests communicated with the gods with a holy piece of wood. After the visitation we continue our trip to the bay of Paracas where we will visit the National Park of Paracas. This nature reserve is the only one of its kind at the Peruvian coast and is considered by UNESCO as one of the most extraordinary and richest ecosystems. Here were also found the vestiges of a “Quena” flute, the first Peruvian musical instrument. You will be enchanted by impressing steep coasts, bizarre coast deserts and spectacular views to the peninsula of Paracas. Enjoy this unique landscape under bright sunshine and the extensiveness of the Pacific Ocean. The modern world already marvels at the legacy of the Paracas culture which inhabited this coastal region more than 2000 years ago: a diversity of color and the finest woven textiles which were found in their burial places as well as the famous elongated skulls. After having visited the nature reserve we continue to the Paracas History Museum where there are plenty of deformed and elongated skulls, which allegedly cannot be assigned to any human species. The highlight of this museum is that these skulls will be taken out of their glass cabinets, which doesn’t happen in any other museum! Overnight at Hotel 3*** Meals: Buffet Breakfast / Lunch 1 Day 03 Ballestas Islands ‐ Ica ‐ Regional Museum ‐ Cabrera Museum – Huacachina Oasis ‐ Nazca After breakfast, we drive to the Ballestas Islands aboard a comfortable speedboat which is also called “Little Galapagos”. We first behold the oversized geoglyph “El Candelabro”, the symbolism and cultural affiliation of which still puzzles experts to this day. We continue with our boat trip and will see dozens of sea lions which swim around the boat or bathe in the sun. Furthermore, we will see a variety of seabirds, for example the Guano Cormorants, Peruvian pelican, blue‐footed boobies, Atlantic puffins or the famous Humboldt Penguins. We return to the hotel and continue our journey to Ica. In Ica, we visit the Regional Museum with its extraordinary collection of deformed and trepanned skulls of the Paracas and the Nazca culture. After lunch, we visit the private Museum “Museo Gliptolitico” of Dr. Cabrera including a private guidance. The museum became world‐ famous by “The Stones of Ica” and the controversies which were caused by this and which last to this day. Form your own opinion about this in the Huacachina Oasis, where we can relax or experience desert adventures such as riding on a sand buggy through the dunes or sandboarding (optional). In the late afternoon, we continue to Nazca where we spend the night. Overnight at Hotel 3*** Meals: Buffet breakfast 2 Day 04 Nazca Lines ‐ Cahuachi – Cantayoc Aqueducts ‐ Antonini Museum After breakfast, we view the stepped pyramids of Cahuachi clouded in secrecy. There is controversy as by whom and exactly when these adobe pyramids were built. The 30‐km² archaeological site is officially assigned to the Nazca culture and should have served as a cultural center from about 500 BC to 500 AD. It is one of the greatest ceremonial sites known from pre‐Columbian times. The whole area viewed from the air is suggestive of once being flooded by a huge mud inundation which resulted from a catastrophic event in the past. Could it be connected to the weird “Cemetery of the Whales” in the Ocucaje desert about 300 km south of Lima on which surface the mortal and petrified remains of 15 whales are beached? Subsequent to this we see the Aqueducts of Ocongallo. In the afternoon, we have a flight over the mysterious and world‐famous Nazca lines and the geometric earth figures of Palpa. During the 45‐minute‐long sightseeing flight you can take unforgettable photos of the world‐famous geoglyphs: amongst others, the condor and the hummingbird, but also the so‐called lines and earth roads or “runways”, the “artificially cut” ridges with an airstrip or the Palpa Mandala. The figures can only be viewed from the air. After this impressive flight, we visit the Antonini Museum, which holds in readiness some surprises. Our last stop today is the Aqueducts of Cantalloc (still working today after more than 2000 years) which spiral downwards into the desert soil and on the other hand consist of canals up to 11 km long, which run under the desert surface about 12 meters in depth and also puzzle mine engineers today. *Remarks: Due to unforeseen weather conditions the flight over the Nazca Lines cannot be guaranteed and in case of poor weather we’ll try again next day. In case of a delay in the overflight, Cahuachi will be visited the next day **Remark: Overnight at Hotel 3*** Meals: Buffet breakfast 3 Day 05 Nazca ‐ Lima ‐ Afternoon free We leave Nazca and visit the open‐air cemetery of Chauchillo where we stand face to face with mummies and mummy bundles. Our next stop is the Maria Reiche Museum before we return to Lima. The afternoon is free. In the evening, we have a welcome snack and briefing Lodging in Lima included in the Main program Meals: Buffet Breakfast 4 Main tour Peru 14 days / 13 nights (August 19 – September 02) Day 01 Lima (arrival) ‐ Transfer to Hotel – Welcome snack and briefing Welcome to Lima, the city of kings. At your arrival you will be received by us at the airport and brought to the hotel. After your check‐in, you have a little welcome snack and a short introduction to the itinerary. On demand we can also take a little walk through the quarter where our hotel is. Overnight at Hotel 3*** Meals: Welcome snack Day 02 Lima City tour ‐ Historic Center – Gastronomic Museum of Peru ‐Modern Lima ‐ National Museum for Archaeology – Larco Herrera Museum The city tour will guide us through Miraflores and San Isidro, the modern quarters of Lima, and through the historic center of the city which was declared a World Heritage site by UNESCO. The tour includes a visit of the Monastery of San Francisco, the most visited church of the city (1674). Its subterranean tunnels lead to catacombs which served as burial sites to the year of 1808. Then we visit the Gastronomic Museum with its exhibitions covering a period of 8,000 years. Our next stop is the Archaeological Museum, which especially distinguishes itself by its exhibition of textiles and where you can admire the famous Raimondi Stela. The museum offers a good overview of the early advanced cultures before the Incas, their development and chronological order. Subsequent to this we go to the Larco Herrera Museum. The collection there covers the 3000‐year‐old history of Peru before the arrival of the Spaniards. Its masterpieces are considered worldwide as icons of pre‐ Columbian art and have been exhibited in the most renowned museums. Objects finely processed with gold and adorned with semi‐precious stones are appealingly exposed in the rooms of the museum. Overnight at Lima 3*** Meals: Buffet Breakfast 5 Day 03 Flight to Ayacucho – City tour ‐ Ciudad Wari ‐ Huanta / Huanta Valley ‐ Lauricocha – Pikimachay In the morning, we have a flight to Ayacucho and transfer to the hotel. We make a City tour in the town of the 33 churches. After the City tour we visit the Huari Archaeological complex north of Ayacucho. The capital of the Huari‐culture dates from 600‐ 1000 AD, when the Huari culture spread across most of Peru. It was the first urban walled center in the Andes and was used for, administrative, ceremonial, residential and productive purposes. Up to 4m high stone walls, rectangular houses and streets can be seen. There are tombs with perfectly shaped stones, which were supposedly there long before the Huari, as well as subterranean canals and tunnels. The Huari complex is divided in several sectors and we will explore the most important. The Cheqowasi area consist of multi‐level underground chambers with rectangular, quadrangular and circular mezzanines, which were possibly mausoleums for rulers and nobles. The nearby Moradochayoc area reveals evidence of close contact with Tiwanaku, located some 1500km away in the Lake Titicaca basin. Amazing stone masonry reminds of the ones in Puma Punku near Tiwanaku, while its semi‐subterranean patios correspond to the Tiwanaku semi‐subterranean temple. In Capillapata, we see well composed trapezoidal and rectangular structures up to 400 meters in length and endowed with stone walls more than 10m in height. In the nearby Ushuaqoto, molded human figures have been found, indicating that it was an industrial or workshop center with its corresponding warehouses. If time is left, we will continue to Huanta. The present village with its pleasant plaza, is the place where the Pokras and Chancas warriors put up their last brave fight against the Inca invasion.