Peru in Three Worlds

Day 1

Amazon fruits, first cocktails

Welcome to Peru! · Lima

¡Bienvenido a Perú! This adventure wastes no time. Tonight’s welcome dinner pulls the Amazon straight to your Lima table – from forest-foraged fruits to unfamiliar herbs and roots. Your destination is LadyBee, named in honor of a native, stingless species that symbolizes community and collaboration. Here, the chef (a friend of Salt Caravan) will personally guide you through this introduction to Peru. Get to know the rest of the Crew over a signature cocktail made just for the group and reveal your expectations. With a collection of travelers this adventurous, it’s sure to be an unusual journey.

Meals · dinner

Day 2

Lima's streets, Nikkei fireworks

Street food in historic Lima · Lima

Well rested after your first night in Peru, you’ll step straight into authentic local life with some help from your guide, Sofia. She’ll bring you to Lima’s historic heart for an all-senses food tour, taking in iconic hotel bars, Lima’s Chinatown (you heard us!), and the city’s largest market. It’s street food for Limeños, accompanied by Sofia’s insights into the city’s cultural heritage. If you’ve got room at the end of it all, a lunch of smoke-infused pollo a la brasa (Peru’s legendary rotisserie chicken) awaits. But Lima’s food story is also told by people who came from far away and never quite left their home flavors behind. In true Salt Caravan fashion, eat dinner with the Matsufuji family, who run one of the original Nikkei restaurants, where Japan’s and Peru’s culinary fireworks light up your plate in tandem.

Meals · breakfast, lunch, dinner

Day 3

Cacao, coffee, criolla cooking

Chocolate, coffee and the coast · Lima

This morning, dive headfirst into Peru’s cacao and coffee culture with a private tasting at El Cacaotal. All senses awake, walk through Barranco, Lima’s bohemian district, upping the cool factor with its colonial mansions, street murals, and ocean views. Tucked just back from Playa Barranco lies Horneando Ando, where you’ll step into a closed-door lunch experience of home-style Peruvian criolla cuisine. Feast on freshly prepared ceviche, the smoky depth of lomo saltado, and bright pejerrey sandwiches, washed down with citrusy pisco sours. With so much packed into the morning, the rest of the day is yours. Grab a drink on a patio, explore the neighborhoods, or just relax.

Meals · breakfast, lunch

Day 4

Lunch under the canopy

Into the Amazon · The Amazon

Enough of the city – today the adventure shifts gear with a quick flight to the Amazon’s doorstep. Enter via the river, the canopy stretching overhead, and head to lunch with a Brazil nut harvesting family at Fundo Lazo. After listening to stories set to the backdrop of buzzing jungle life, you’ll spot animals while gliding through the waters of Taricaya Reserve and venture out on a canopy walkway. All that’s left to do is return to your river-access-only ecolodge to nibble on fruits and fish from the forest, while chatting with your fellow Salt Caravan crew.

Meals · breakfast, lunch, dinner

Day 5

Breakfast on the river

Tambopata wildlife · The Amazon

The rainforest is wide awake at dawn, so you will be too – grabbing breakfast to go and hopping on a boat to watch the sun rise on the river. Hike to Sandoval Lake, where a naturalist picks you up in a rowboat to help you spot wildlife in one of the world’s most biodiverse regions. In the afternoon, hear how illegal logging and hunting are impacting native species at a wildlife rescue center where black spider monkeys and yellow-spotted river turtles are being rehabilitated and reintroduced into the wild. Back at the lodge, dinner honors the forest you’ve been exploring with just-picked plants and fruits sourced from your surroundings.

Meals · breakfast, lunch, dinner

Day 6

The biodiversity table

The people of the Amazon · The Amazon

Another boat ride this morning brings you to the home of the Ese’Eja, an indigenous people of the Amazon. You’ll be greeted as a welcomed guest, walking through the village and talking to villagers about how life here works in harmony with the nature around them. Step into the Shi’oi Handcraft House to see their crafts, honoring heritage and tradition. Then, follow Brazil nut harvesters to learn their sustainability efforts, essential to the Amazonian ecosystem, and realize that you have a friend among them. Sofia comes from a family of nut harvesters, so her first-hand stories may leave you feeling, as much as learning. After lunch on the boat, dinner at Warayo Lodge is a more lavish affair, with a 'biodiversity table’ full of the flavorful riches of the rainforest – and their stories. It doesn’t get more tree-to-table than that. Wrap up the evening with a conservation talk to learn about the challenges being faced by the people of the Peruvian Amazon.

Meals · breakfast, lunch, dinner

Day 7

Brazil nuts before the Andes

Conservation and Amazon farewells · The Amazon

Need a sleep in? Wake at your leisure to the sounds of the forest. Looking for more? Head out early for a guided morning walk to spot elusive Amazonian animals. After breakfast at the lodge, you’re heading straight to a Brazil nut processing plant, proudly run and operated by local women. It’s a day of digging deep into how conservation can sustain the local communities and the ecosystem. Then let it all sink in on a flight to Cusco and on to Ollantaytambo – you’re only halfway through this adventure and there is so much left to experience.

Meals · breakfast, lunch, dinner

Day 8

A lunch cooked underground

The Sacred Valley

A night in a glampy ecolodge outside Cusco is just what your body needs to slowly acclimatize to the higher elevations. This morning, you’ll explore Maras, where generations of Andeans have harvested salt, and visit the Inca terraces of Moray, seeing how ancient civilizations used these ingenious solutions to grow food. Hungry? Your pachamanca lunch has you covered. Meaning “earth pot”, this meal simmers away underground for hours to infuse the food with smoky, rich flavors. Too full? An herbal liquor will remedy that – you just have to make it yourself! Guided by master distillers, use local botanicals, roots, and herbs to make a liquor that is only yours. A post-lunch siesta may be in order, but that would mean missing a guided exploration of Ollantaytambo. This immense Incan archaeological site was built by the visionary Emperor Pachacuti to serve as his royal estate, complete with massive stone terraces, giant megaliths, and well-preserved water canals.

Meals · breakfast, lunch, dinner

Day 9

Ancient crops, Pisco courage

Andean gastronomy · The Sacred Valley

Salt Caravan Crew, listen up! This day is all about food, and you’ll start where it starts: in the ground. Visit with farmers of the Huayllafara community, who’ll show you their traditional methods for growing ancient crops – sneaking in a taste here and there, of course. It’s a crash course in seasonal eating, as you meet and chat with farmers and locals. Then, combine your new insights with local ingredients at a cooking class (a few piscos will warm your courage). End the day with a four-course dinner at Chuncho, which dishes up ancestral Peruvian food made from 100% local produce.

Meals · breakfast, lunch, dinner

Day 10

Tea, then cacao

Tea, cacao and the cloud forest · The Sacred Valley

Prepare your lungs for ever-thinning air as you climb into the mountains, hopefully stunned by the ends-of-the-earth views at the high-altitude pass of Abra Malaga. Then, delve into the world of artisanal teas with Alcira Cuba Povea, a brew specialist and community leader in the Amazonian Andes. Float down through climate zones into the warm air of our friend Julia’s farm. Catch your breath here in more ways than one – each inhale fills your senses with floral aromas, fruits, coffee, and ooh, more chocolate! Have you ever had (let alone handmade) single origin chocolate this… singular?

Meals · breakfast, lunch, dinner

Day 11

Coffee, then a soak

Mountain town hot springs · The Sacred Valley

If you’re tired this morning, you’re in luck, because your first destination is a coffee farm! Let Alejandro show you around the plantation and follow the beans’ journey into your cup – a true perk of the Coffee Route. Parting with your new friends may be hard, but you’ve got a muscle-soothing dip in the hot springs of Cocalmayo to look forward to. Restored in earnest, witness the mighty Urubamba River transformed into power at Hidroeléctrica before hopping on a train to Aguas Calientes. Accept Sofia’s dinner recommendation or call it an early night. Tomorrow, you want to be the first at the gates of Machu Picchu.

Meals · breakfast, lunch

Day 12

A wonder before dinner

Machu Picchu · Cusco

This isn’t exactly off the beaten path, but there’s a reason Machu Picchu is on so many bucket lists. Believe us, this UNESCO World Heritage Site is worth checking off yours! An ancient feat of ecological ingenuity, the Incas understood sustainability long before the modern world had a word for it and it’s the kind of place that may leave you on a bit of a spiritual high. Come back down to earth over lunch in the thermal town of Aguas Calientes before rolling (by train) to the Incan royal estate of Ollantaytambo. A private transfer will whisk you to the Inca Empire’s historical capital, Cusco. Venture out to explore if you want – or answer the siren call of your hotel’s four-star sheets.

Meals · breakfast, lunch

Day 13

Market baskets with Seledonia

Cusco

After days in the wild, you may relish this city-street day, full of market life, food, and the smiliest person we know: Chef Seledonia. She’ll bring you straight to a locals’ market, with hardly a tourist in sight, and fill your baskets with must-have Peruvian ingredients, like multi-layered huacatay herb, spicy rocoto pepper, or tubers that put your grocery store potato to shame. Bring it back to her kitchen for a hands-on cooking class filled with homegrown know-how (and a side of pisco sour). After lunch, travel back in time to explore the Incan ceremonial site of Q’enqo and the commanding citadel of Sacsayhuamán with its enviable Cusco views. Then return to the streets for a guided walk through the bohemian neighborhood of San Blas. Dinner’s on you! If you’re feeling brave, perhaps it’s time to try cuy – Peru’s most famous (and fearless) dish.

Meals · breakfast, lunch

Day 14

Seven courses to say goodbye

Open to your whims · Cusco

You’ve trekked through Amazonian wilderness and climbed Andean heights. You’ve made your own coffee, chocolate, lunch, and liquor. It’s been a busy 2 weeks, so we’re giving you this day to follow the curious voice inside you that has something left to see. Will it be a cobblestone street pisco sour? A hunt for the perfect hand-crafted gift? One last historic stroll? The day is yours, and you can tell the crew all about it at tonight’s farewell dinner. That is, if you can draw your focus away from the seven-course masterpiece in front of you. Pulling from every corner of Peru’s flavor map, it’s the perfect way to wrap up your journey through Peru’s history, food, and hidden marvels.

Meals · breakfast, dinner

Day 15

One last breakfast

Farewell, friends… · Cusco

We wish it didn’t have to come, and you may too, but this is departure day. Take time to linger over breakfast, exchange contact info with any new Salt Caravan friends, and zip out to grab some last minute souvenirs, then it’s off to the airport. You’ll return to Lima to catch your flight back home – or wherever you’re off to next. We know your type, another adventure may just be calling! Until then… ¡Hasta pronto!

Meals · breakfast