Vaya Adventures Launches New Program Combining Machu Picchu with Manu Biosphere Reserve in Peruvian Amazon

Vaya Adventures, the expert in designing bespoke vacations in Latin America, makes it their job to uncover the unvisited and extraordinary.

That’s why Jim Lutz, Vaya Adventures’ founder, has designed an itinerary that brings visitors into Peru’s Manu Biosphere Reserve, a UNESCO World Heritage Site considered the number one park in the world for biodiversity (222 species of mammals and 1,000 species of birds alone). Each itinerary engages guests in the discovery and observation of exotic animals and birdlife deep in the reserve.

“I’ve been to many different locations in Ecuador,Peru,Brazil and Bolivia. There is nothing more spectacular than Manu, because it combines a journey from the Andes down into a rainforest region through multiple ecosystems. In just a few breathtaking hours you go from towering glaciated peaks to lowland rainforest,” Lutz explains. “It is one of the greatest and most unique travel experiences in South America, and it starts in Cusco. Very few people make the trip, but there is no place in the Amazon I would recommend more highly, and it can easily be combined with a trip to Machu Picchu.”

Vaya Adventures’ itinerary, Machu Picchu & Manu Wildlife Center, combines the high-altitude Andes with the Amazon rainforest. The first six days after arrival in Lima are spent in and around the iconic lost Incan city of Machu Picchu, with two full days exploring the marvels there.

Day 7 begins a five-day/four-night trip to the Manu Wildlife Center, one of the premier wildlife-viewing reserves in South America. Leaving Cusco, guests travel through traditional Quechua communities and the spectacular eastern ranges of the Andes to the village of Paucartambo, passing snow-clad peaks and small Andean farmsteads. After the last ascent, the journey descends into the Amazon Basin through the Manu Cloud Forest, with an overnight at the Cock of the Rock Lodge.  Embarking the next morning in a dugout canoe, guests travel along the Madre de Dios River, passing Diamante, the largest settlement of Amerindians in the area.  A professional naturalist guide accompanies the trip to help spot wildlife and birds enroute.  Weather permitting, one can see glaciers in the Andes towering 20,000 feet above.

Entering the clay-laden waters of the Manu River, guests stop at the park ranger station at Limonal to visit an overgrown oxbow lake, where a variety of parrots and macaws come to roost. From there the river journey continues to the Manu Wildlife Centre Lodge, the base for the next few days’ wildlife explorations.  Excursions from the lodge include the famous Macaw Clay Lick that daily attracts thousands of colorful macaws and parrots.

The per person double rate for this 10-day, year-round trip is $6,155. Fares for local flights are not included.