Peru in 9 Days: Nazca, Machu Picchu and Two Andes Hikes

Our driver meets you outside customs with a sign and takes you to the hotel. Traffic from the airport to Miraflores runs 45 minutes to well over an hour, so do not plan anything tight.

The afternoon tour starts on the clifftop parks of Miraflores, Parque del Amor and the Larcomar walkway, with the Pacific below. The sky is gray for most of the year, and that is normal for Lima.

Then into the Historic Center (UNESCO, 1988): Plaza Mayor, the Cathedral, the Government Palace from outside, and the bone-lined catacombs under the San Francisco convent. Back at the hotel in the early evening.

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 on to Nazca on the Panamericana and check in late. The Nazca flight is tomorrow morning.

Transfer to the Nazca airfield between 09:00 and 10:00 for the overflight of the lines (UNESCO, 1994): the hummingbird, the monkey, the spider, the astronaut on the hillside. The agency times the flight at about 45 minutes. The small plane banks hard left and right so both sides see each figure. Skip breakfast or eat light, and take motion sickness tablets an hour before.

Regular coach from Nazca at 14:00, arriving in Lima around 23:00, with a transfer to your hotel. It is a long seat, so bring snacks and a sweater for the air conditioning.

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 between 04:00 and 04:30, breakfast in Mollepata, then the dirt road to Soraypampa at about 12,800 ft (3,900 m).

A steep, steady climb to Humantay Lake at 13,780 ft (4,200 m), turquoise water under the Humantay glacier. Your guide explains why the lake is treated as sacred, and many walkers leave a small cairn of stones.

Down to Soraypampa with Salkantay in view, lunch in Mollepata, and back in Cusco in the evening.

Free morning. San Pedro market for coffee and dried fruit, or San Blas for the workshops.

Transfer to Cusco airport for your flight to Lima and your connection home.