Peru and Bolivia in 15 Days with Rainbow Mountain and Uyuni

A driver with your name on a sign meets you outside customs and takes you to your hotel. Most flights from the US land late at night, so this day is for sleeping.

If you land in daylight, walk the Miraflores clifftop and eat ceviche for lunch, which is when Limeños eat it. Nothing else is scheduled.

Pickup between 04:40 and 05:00 with a boxed breakfast for the road. Paracas is about three and a half hours south.

The boat passes the Candelabra geoglyph cut into the sand, then circles the islands: sea lions on the rocks, Humboldt penguins, and so many cormorants and boobies that you smell the guano before you see them. Nobody lands on the islands. Sit on the left going out for the Candelabra.

A stop at a family winery near Ica to see how pisco is distilled, with a tasting.

Dune buggy ride and sandboarding in the dunes around the Huacachina lagoon. The buggies drive hard over the crests, so hold on and keep your camera strapped. A proper board for experienced boarders costs extra. We drive back to Lima on the Panamericana and reach your hotel late at night.

Pickup after breakfast. First stop is the Miraflores clifftop, Parque del Amor and Larcomar, where paragliders launch over the Costa Verde on clear days.

Across town to the Historic Center (UNESCO, 1988): Plaza Mayor, the Cathedral and the San Francisco convent, with its catacombs of stacked bones under the church floor. Afternoon free for lunch in Barranco or Miraflores.

Transfer to Lima airport for a morning flight to Cusco, about 1 hour 20 minutes. You land at 11,150 ft (3,400 m). Walk slowly, drink water and coca tea, and eat a light lunch.

Qorikancha, the Inca sun temple with a Dominican convent built over its walls. Then the van climbs to Sacsayhuamán, whose zigzag walls use stones heavier than a loaded truck, and on to Q'enqo, Puka Pukara and Tambomachay. Back near the Plaza de Armas around 18:30.

Pickup between 06:20 and 06:50. Pack a small overnight bag for Aguas Calientes and leave the big suitcase at the Cusco hotel, because the train has a luggage limit.

Chinchero, at 12,340 ft (3,762 m), has a colonial church on Inca walls and a weaving cooperative that shows natural dyes. Moray is a set of circular terraces sunk into the ground. At Maras, thousands of salt ponds step down the hillside, white against red earth.

Lunch at a buffet restaurant in the valley, with trout, quinoa and Andean potatoes.

A guided visit to the Ollantaytambo terraces, then the PeruRail Expedition train to Aguas Calientes along the Urubamba river, about 1 hour 40 minutes. The air gets warm and damp as you drop into cloud forest.

Consettur bus up the switchbacks, about 30 minutes. Your entry time is printed on the ticket, under your passport name.

About 2 hours 30 minutes with a licensed guide on Circuit 2, the route with the classic upper view and the main temples. Circuits are one way with no re-entry, so use the restroom at the gate.

Lunch on your own in Aguas Calientes, then the PeruRail Vistadome back to Ollantaytambo, with roof windows and a snack. A van drives you up to Cusco, about 1 hour 45 minutes.

Pickup between 04:00 and 04:30. About three hours by road to the trailhead, with breakfast on the way.

The trail climbs past alpaca herds to the viewpoint at 16,522 ft (5,036 m), with Ausangate's glaciers to the east. Most people stop every twenty steps on the last slope. Horses for most of the way are paid in cash to the community.

Lunch on the way down, back in Cusco between 16:00 and 17:00.

Pickup at 06:30 for the tourist bus to Puno, with an English-speaking guide on board and stops on the way.

The painted church of Andahuaylillas, then Raqchi, where one huge adobe wall of the Inca temple to Wiracocha still stands on its stone base.

Buffet lunch in Sicuani, then the climb to La Raya at 14,222 ft (4,335 m), the high point of the road, with vendors and a glacier view. The last stretch crosses the altiplano past Pukara, and you reach Puno in the early evening.

Transfer to the port and a boat across Puno bay to the Uros, islands built of layered totora reed that families renew every few weeks. A family shows how the islands are anchored and sells its own embroidery.

About two and a half more hours by boat to Taquile, whose textile art is on the UNESCO list. The main village sits at 12,960 ft (3,950 m), so walk up from the dock slowly. Lunch with the community, trout or quinoa soup.

Boat back to Puno in the late afternoon. The wind picks up on the lake after lunch, so a windproof layer matters more than a warm one.

Departure from Puno at 06:30 along the southern shore, past Chucuito, Juli and the adobe villages of the Aymara shore.

At the border you walk through two offices: the Peruvian exit stamp, then Bolivian immigration a few hundred yards on. Keep your passport, the hotel address in La Paz and your yellow fever card in one pocket.

On the Bolivian side the road follows the lake to the Tiquina strait, where passengers cross in small launches while the bus goes over on a wooden barge. You reach La Paz around 16:00 and drop down into the bowl of the city from El Alto.

City tour from 08:00. The Killi Killi viewpoint shows the whole bowl of La Paz with Illimani behind it. Then Plaza Murillo and the colonial streets.

The Valley of the Moon is a maze of clay spires carved by rain, 30 minutes south of the center. The paths are short and dusty.

A ride on the Mi Teleférico cable car over the city. The fare is Bs 3 for the first line and Bs 2 per transfer, paid by you.

Transfer to the terminal for the tourist-class night bus to Uyuni, with reclining seats and blankets. It gets cold after midnight, so keep a fleece and a hat in your day bag, not in the luggage hold.

The bus reaches Uyuni around 06:00. We meet you, give you breakfast and load the 4x4.

In Colchani the salt cooperative dries, grinds and bags salt by hand. Then out onto the Salar de Uyuni, about 4,086 square miles (10,582 square kilometers) of salt at 11,995 ft (3,656 m). The white is so bright that sunglasses are not optional.

Incahuasi is the rocky summit of an old volcano covered in giant cactus, in the middle of the salt. A short, steep path circles it. When the flat is flooded in the rainy season, drivers cannot reach the island and the route changes.

Night in San Juan. Lodges here are simple and cold after dark, and the stars are the reason to step outside.

A long day in the 4x4 on dirt tracks, past volcanoes and small lagoons where Andean flamingos feed.

Laguna Colorada, at 14,035 ft (4,278 m) inside the Eduardo Avaroa reserve, turns red from algae and is crowded with flamingos. The wind here is hard and constant.

Laguna Verde sits below the Licancabur volcano at about 14,100 ft (4,300 m), and the geothermal pools nearby are warm enough to sit in. Night in a basic lodge, often with shared rooms and no heating.

Wake at 04:00 for the Sol de Mañana geothermal field, about 15,900 ft (4,850 m), with steam vents and boiling mud pools. Stay on the marked ground, since the crust near the pools is thin.

A long drive north across the altiplano back to Uyuni.

Short flight from Uyuni to La Paz and a transfer to your hotel.

Free time for the markets or a coffee with a view.

Transfer up to El Alto International Airport, which sits at 13,325 ft (4,061 m), for your flight home.