ITINERARY
(Subject to change)

[Update: 18 April 2004]

Thursday, 03 June Arrive at Miami Int’l Airport by 1:00 PM
Depart Miami for Lima: 4:40 PM (AA flight #917)
Arrive Lima: about 9:15 PM
[Pass thru immigrations, collect baggage & clear customs]
Transfer to Hotel in Miraflores—likely @ 11:00-ish PM

Friday, 04 June
Day 1: Lima--Cuzco

8:00-ish AM—After breakfast at hotel, transfer to airport
11:40 AM—Depart Lima for Cuzco
12:40 PM—Arrive Cuzco and transfer to hotel
PM—Afternoon & evening for rest & acclimatizing
Hotel: Hostal Plaza de Armas (or similar)
Meals: Lunch on own at hotel, dinner together

Leisure day for acclimatizing and personal exploring
Late afternoon visit to ‘Alpaca Factory’ for sweaters, etc.
Hotel: Hostal Plaza de Armas (or similar) Meals: B, L, D

Full day tour by bus
Early AM visit to Pisaq market (for about two hours) Then, directly to Casa de Milagros, by bus. Casa de Milagros is located in Lamay in the Sacred Valley. This will be for a full afternoon (4-5-6 hours) for a service learning work project.
Late PM: Return by bus to Cuzco
Hotel: Hostal Plaza de Armas (or similar) Meals: B, L, D

Early AM Transfer to Cuzco Train Station
AM: Vistadome train to Aguas Calientes
Check in to hotel
PM: Guided tour of Machu Picchu
Later PM: Optional visit to Thermal Baths (hot springs)
Hotel: Hostal El Presidente (or similar) Meals: B, L, D

Early AM: Personal time for returning to Machu Picchu and/or exploring and shopping in Aguas Calientes
3:00 PM: Vistadome--return train to Cuzco
Transfer to hotel
Hotel: Hostal Plaza de Armas (or similar) Meals: B, L, D

AM: City tour including Sacsayhuaman and Alpaca Factory
PM: Leisure; personal free afternoon for more of Cuzco’s museums, cathedrals, shopping, strolling and coffee shop relaxing
Evening: Group dinner with local dances & music
Cuzco Plaza I Hotel (or similar) Meals: B, L, D

7:00-ish (+/-) AM: Scenic bus ride/travel to Puno with stops for photos and lunch.
4:00-ish PM—Arrive Puno
Hotel check-in
Afternoon/Evening: Rest/Leisure and Coca Tea for adjusting to elevation
Hostal Gran Puno Meals: B, L, D

Full day tour including the reed floating islands of the Uros people and then on to Isla Taquile—all in Lake Titicaca
Lunch with family on Taquile
Evening: Dinner w/ local music & dances
Hostal Gran Puno Meals: B, L, D

Early AM: Excursion to Sillustani ruins; the pre-Inca Chullpas
Late AM: Transfer to Juliaca/Airport
1:40 PM—Lan Peru flight #132 from Juliaca to Lima (via Aerequipa)
4:10 PM—Arrive Lima
Transfer to Miraflores & hotel
Hotel Ariosto Meals: B, L, D

4:00 AM—Transfer to airport (A REALLY EARLY MORNING for those who choose to share (culturally celebrate??) in Miraflores’ night scene!!!)
Depart Lima: 7:30 PM (AA flight # 2210)
Arrive Miami: 2:00-ish PM (one hour difference for daylight savings time)
Lunch in flight Meals: B, L

Cost: $1,095 (including most meals, all taxes and Explorama staff tips. Guide tips on own.) Meals noted in red on own.

Sunday, 13 June

Day 1 AM: Morning transfer to Lima airport for Aero Continente’s noon flight to Iquitos. Clear skies permitting, our flight north will offer spectacular views of the snowcapped and glacial-covered peaks of the rugged Andes Mts. Have your cameras ready!

Upon arrival in Iquitos, we will be met by our guide from Explorama Lodge. We will transfer to the Victoria Regia Hotel--named after the giant ‘regal victoria’ water lilies that we will hope to see on one of our jungle excursions. (The lilies, in turn, were named after England’s Queen Victoria.)

PM: After checking into our hotel, we will set out on a brief walking tour of this historic city, known as the Gateway to the Amazon. The Plaza de Armas will be our focal point of orientation. From here we will see many of the beautifully tiled buildings erected by and for the infamous rubber barons of the late 19^th century.

If time allows, we will then take a brief water-taxi excursion to the Pilpintuwasi Butterfly Farm. Aside from the obvious, a butterfly farm, Pilpintuwasi is a rehabilitation sanctuary for several endangered and/or threatened species of rainforest fauna. In the past, a red huacari monkey, an anteater, parrots, macaws, a tapir and a jaguar have provided for some wonderful photo ops!

Our evening dinner will be served on the balcony of the Iron House (designed by the famed architect of France’s Eiffel Tower) overlooking the Plaza de Armas. (B, L, D)

Monday, 14 June

Day 2 AM: Following breakfast in our hotel, our Explorama guide will take us on a walking tour of Iquitos’ famous Belen Market—with stall after stall of fresh produce, medicinal herbs and concoctions, fresh fish and much, much more—all from the Amazon and its rainforest. Here in a Belen shop, we will also purchase (inexpensive--$7-$10) high-top rubber boots (for wearing on our jungle treks).

We will then transfer to the Explorama dock for our riverboat journey to Explornapo Lodge, via the community of Mazan, arriving in time for lunch.

PM: After settling into our thatch-roofed rustic cabins, our afternoon excursion (with FJA—full jungle attire) will be an ecology-medicinal plant walk, deep into the rainforest. This excursion, of about two hours, will culminate at Explorama’s research center, ACTS—the Amazon Center for Tropical Studies. Here, after a brief chance to refresh and use bathrooms, we will continue on for the brief walk to Explorama’s Canopy Walkway. This series of suspension bridges between the treetops (the longest canopy walkway in the world) is, truly, an architectural marvel! From these bridges and treetop platforms we will experience the beauty and the mystery of the threatened; the fragile; the healing; the awesome Rainforest of the Amazon. Our plan will be to remain (weather conditions permitting) on the walkway thru dusk, with, hopefully, a chance for the humbling; the personal-quieting experience of an Amazon sunset … from here, the roof of the world. Flashlights in hand, our guide will lead us back to Explornapo Camp—for showers and then dinner. Tonight, we will most surely appreciate the myriad sounds of the jungle night as we, exhaustedly, tuck ourselves into the security of our mosquito-netted beds … here in the Rainforest of the Amazon.

(B, L, D)

Tuesday, 15 June

Day 3: Before the break of day, we will awake for a ‘greeting of the dawn’ excursion via open boat. Especially for the photographers among us, these early morning ‘safari excursions’ provide the very best of wildlife sighting and photo opportunities.

AM: After breakfast we’ll have another boating excursion to a black water lake where we will have good opportunities to see the magnificent Victoria Regia water lilies. As well, these black water lakes are often great places to spot the elusive hoatzin’s—seemingly prehistoric looking birds, kind of like a cross between a turkey and a partridge. They really don’t fly all that much, they seem just to beat the air to death with their wings!

PM: We will have a leisurely afternoon visiting Explorama’s Renu Peru Medicinal Gardens. Here we will have a session with the shaman who oversees the nurturing of the many medicinal plants being cultivated for practical and pharmaceutical research purposes. As well, we will have opportunity to experience and/or participate in a traditional ritualistic shamanic healing ceremony.

The remainder of the afternoon will be at our leisure, possibly (and greatly encouraged) for trying our hands (and balance!) at paddling genuinely crafted dugout canoes—the primary transportation mode (aka the mini-van of the Amazon) of all the locals, the riverenos.

In the evening, after dinner, we’ll take a night float excursion on the Rio Sucasari—the small tributary of the Rio Napo—where is located our wonderful Explornapo Camp. While our guide will be most persistent in helping us search for caiman (an alligator cousin, of sorts), simply to silently float at night under the starlit skies of the southern hemisphere is, in and of itself, a most memorable and humbling experience. (B, L, D)

Wednesday, 16 June

Day 4: AM: After breakfast, we will depart Explornapo (down the Rio Sucasari, down the Rio Napo and then up the Amazon) to Explorama Lodge. Enroute, our guide will choose one of the small river communities where we will stop for a village and home visit. Here, we will, more personally, learn about daily life for the riverenos—the people who live along the river. We will continue on to Explorama Lodge, check in to our thatched cabins and have lunch.

PM: Our afternoon excursion will be a visit to a recreated traditional Yagua Indian village. Here we will learn about how life once was when indigenous Indian groups, truly, lived in and from the rainforest and its resources. A time for bartering for local crafts is always a highlight as well as learning the techniques of hunting with a blowgun!

After dinner (and this is always my highlight) will be a most personal talk from Dr. Linnea Smith, La Doctora. Hers is a most remarkable story of, yet another life changed, by first, simply, visiting the Amazon! (Bring your books with you because Dr. Smith will be happy to sign them for you.

Following Dr. Smith’s talk with us, we will finish out the night with traditional music, dancing and beverages in La Tuhuampa (translation: the swamp), Explorama’s most wonderful leisure time facility—our local pub, here in the rainforest of the Amazon. This is as good as it gets to having a disco; a nightclub; dancing; an easy listening kind of place … here in the rainforest of the Amazon! (B, L, D)

Thursday, 17 June

Day 5: Following breakfast (and after having re-packed), we depart Explorama Lodge for a visit to Dr. Smith’s clinic—the Amazon Medical Project. And then, never to be missed, will be a brief stop at the local rum factory where we will gain an appreciation for the local importance of sugar cane and its numerous uses, not the least of which is producing the ever-popular and locally bottled ‘aguadiente’ or sugar cane rum—tasting session included! And, as for purchasing a small bottle or two to take home? Absolutely, by all means! Quite soberly, we leave the ‘rum factory’ and continue on our way to Iquitos.

Another brief stop, enroute to Iquitos, will be for visiting a true library (by Amazon definition) in the river community of Indiana (not as in Indiana Jones!). The story of this library in the Amazon, not unlike so many other stories, represents the fruits of yet another life so forever changed by the power that is .. the rainforest of the Amazon!

But as it is soon lunch-time, we stop at Explorama’s 5-star jungle resort—Ceiba Tops. Following a delightful smorgasbord lunch will be time to wander the beautifully landscaped grounds and even swim in Ceiba Tops magnificently beautiful pool—complete with water slide … here in the rainforest of the Amazon!

Upon arrival back into Iquitos, we ‘might’ have an hour or so for last minute souvenir shopping. Or, we might opt to, simply, enjoy a beverage from one of the numerous boutique-style little ‘tiendas’ while overlooking and contemplating the mighty; the greatly fabled and storied, Amazon!

Late afternoon, we re-board Explorama’s bus and transfer to the airport for Aero Continente’s early evening flight back to Lima. Upon arriving in Lima, we will transfer to our hotel. Since it will be late, a dinner and/or beverage time after checking in will be optional. (B, L, D)

Friday, 18 June

Day 6: AM: Following breakfast we transfer back to the airport for Aero Continente’s 1:00 PM return flight to Miami. End of program. End of Eco-Image services.

But, lots and lots of wonderful memories will remain. Very personal and valued experiences, accompanied by lingering senses of inner peace and contemplation, will continue, for each of us … for a very, very long time.

The Amazon—its rainforest and its warm and welcoming people—has a power to transform and change lives. No matter who we are, no matter from where we began or no matter to where we will return …. we will not be the same. The Amazon, and those who live in and from it, will have, most meaningfully, touched our lives. (B, L, D)