Southern Peru holiday, tailor made

Planet

We take care to minimise the environmental impact of our trips and include shared tours and public transport where appropriate. On this tour you will travel overland all the way from Lima to Cusco via Paracas, Nazca, Arequipa, Colca and Puno, using a combination of comfortable public buses and shared tourist transportation.

By visiting Paracas you are encouraging the development of a responsible eco-tourism industry in an area which was until recently dominated by industrial fisheries. New tourism initiatives mean more regulations from the government and protection for the fragile eco-systems of the Ballestas Islands.

The Amazon Rainforest lodge you will visit on this tour is located in the “La Torre” sector of the Tambopata national reserve buffer zone and is surrounded by an area of private conservation (ACP) with pristine forest and natural bamboo patches. The lodge is constructed with traditional materials from the Amazon. The palm leaf thatching, timber and bamboo maintain an architecture that blends in perfectly with the surrounding nature and the gardens full of medicinal and ornamental plants. The lodge is a family business run by naturalists who prioritise social and environmental responsibility as well as high quality service. With this goal they finance and advise upon rural and eco-tourism projects with the inhabitants of the “La Torre” area.

In addition to encouraging visits to responsibly run Rainforest Lodges, we make regular donations to ARBIO – a non-profit organisation based in Puerto Maldonado. Their goal is to protect the rainforest around the city as it grows and encroaches on the surrounding forest with the development of the new Inter-Oceanic Highway.

People

We work with local operators and accommodation owners who share our commitment to responsible travel wherever possible.

This holiday includes an overnight stay in a community run lodge in the Colca Canyon, as well as a homestay experience on Taquile Island in Lake Titicaca. You will meet local people and eat locally sourced and prepared traditional foods. Your participation will directly benefit local communities economically and also socially, as traditional ways of life and customs are validated. We are respectful towards the communities that we will take you to visit, and you will always be accompanied by a local guide. The family run tour operator you will travel with in the Colca Canyon organises and finances regular events such as travelling clinics and environmental projects in Colca, so that the wider community benefits from tourism, not just those directly involved.

Our local operator in Cusco is owned and run by a local family who take pride in employing local people and in giving back to the wider community. They organise regular events to support isolated communities in the Cusco area, including emergency relief campaigns to areas affected by flooding during the rainy season.