PERU ADVENTURE TOURS
Peru is synonymous with mountains. Seen from above, Peru’s territory resembles a colossal sheet of wrinkled paper. This is due to the presence of the magnificent Andes, which cut across Peru from north to south, molding the landscape and the people. Peru adventure tours. The Andes form the largest concentration of snow peaks in the Americas. It is an intricate system of large and small mountain ranges – approximately 20 of them – crowned by a thousand summits that tower over 5,000 m.a.s.l. and more than 30 that rise above 6,000 m.a.s.l. These make Peru a paradise for hikers. Practically the entire sierra, including valleys, plateaus and mountain ranges include trekking circuits of various degrees of difficulty.
Inca Trail to Machu Picchu
Part of the 23,000 kilometers (approximately 14,000 miles) of roads built by the Incas in South America, this is Peru’s most famous trekking route and possibly one of the most spectacular in the Americas. Every year, some 25,000 hikers from around the world walk along the extraordinary 43 kilometers of this stone-paved road built by the Incas leading to the unassailable citadel of Machu Picchu, located in the depth of three Cusco jungle.
The journey starts at Km 88 of the Cusco-Quillabamba railway and takes 3 or 4 days of strenuous walking. The route includes an impressive variety of altitudes, climates and ecosystems that range from the high Andean plain to the cloud forest.
One of the main attractions along the route is the web of ancient settlements built in granite rock by the Incas like the Wiñayhuayna and Phuyupatamarca immersed in an overpowering natural scenery. Hundreds of species of orchids, multicolored birds and dreamlike landscapes provide the ideal backstage for a route that every hiker should walk at least once.
White Cordillera Mountain Range (North and South)
Located 410 kilometers northeast of Lima (7-8 hours by bus), the White Cordillera is the world’s highest tropical mountain chain. It stretches 180 km from north to south and splits the eastern and western headwaters of the Andes in this region. Easily reachable by a paved road off Pativilca (210 km north of Lima) that leads to the Callejon de Huaylas, the White Cordillera welcomes every year thousands of mountaineers eager to conquer its summits or walk through its beautiful protected area within the Huascaran’s National Park, a paradise of snow-capped mountains, 663 glaciers, 269 emerald-green lakes and 41 rivers, 33 archaeological sites included.
Its flora and fauna are the added attraction, featuring almost 800 varieties of blossoming flowers including the Puya Raimondi and the ancient quenuak and cacti forests unique to these mountain scenarios. Andean condors, vicuña, puma, taruca or Andean deer and well over a hundred species of birds can be spotted in the area.