Peru 14 day itinerary, tailor made

This trip takes you to some of the most ecologically significant parts of the country, including Machu Picchu and the Amazon Rain Forest. Throughout the trip you will meet communities and guides who will let you know all about their connection to the land and how their homes and lives are built around the protection and conservation of each place. By working with the communities and guides you are supporting a form of tourism that makes use of existing houses and communities and the food you eat at these places will all be produced locally.

In the part of the Amazon we visit Indigenous peoples have lived off of the natural resources of Tambopata’s tropical forests and savannahs without destroying them for thousands of years. In some parts of the region, they continue to live off the land. Traditionally, certain areas were set aside for hunting, and local people managed these areas responsibly to avoid depleting the wildlife populations they depended on for food. In modern times, however, Tambopata’s larger human population and greater access to firearms have resulted in unsustainable hunting levels in some areas. Fortunately, the damages of hunting have been alleviated by establishing protected areas in Tambopata, and promoting ecotourism. Nature tourism provides economic and employment opportunities for locals, allowing them to preserve the environment rather than hunt for sustenance. Today, local indigenous groups, like the Ese Eja, have worked to protect their ancestral lands, collaborating with Rainforest Expeditions on ecotourism and land preservation projects.

During the trip, we take care to reduce our environmental impacts wherever we can, for example by encouraging the use of public transport and using modern fuel-efficient private vehicles. Our Peruvian partner run workshops with communities to explain the importance of protecting their natural resources to bring income from tourism.

As with all our holidays, the accommodation you stay at has been chosen to meet at least our basic environmental requirements. These include actively reducing energy and water usage and providing advice on how guests can reduce their own footprint through individual actions like turning off air conditioning and reusing towels. All the places you stay at buy their food locally, cutting down transport emissions and helping local farmers.

In the UK, we work hard to ensure that our own operations are as green as possible. Our electricity supply is 100% renewable, we use energy-saving lightbulbs and recycle all our waste. Being web-based, we run a nearly paperless office, send all information by email and do not print brochures. Our Peruvian partners also share the same philosophy by using paper as efficiently as possible, working on energy-efficient laptop computers and separating their office waste for recycling. In Huaraz this is done in conjunction with a local NGO which works with disabled people to create products made from waste materials.