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Archaeological & Ecological
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Galapagos - Machu Picchu
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Machu Picchu - Galapagos
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Manu National Park
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Enchanted Isles of the Galapagos
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Galapagos & the Kingdom of Quito
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Inka's Empire Corporation.
All rights reserved.
Luxury Nazca Lines Tours & Travel
Nazca Lines - Ballestas Islands
Geoglyph of a monkey, Nazca Lines.
Photo: Mylene d'Auriol Stoessel. Luxury Nazca Lines Tours & Travel.
Land Price (3 days/2 nights)
Royal US$ 1,575 Imperial US$ 1,455 De Luxe US$ 1,345
The land price includes escorted transfers, private excursions with professional guides and chauffeurs (except the Ballestas Islands cruise and Nazca Lines overflight, which are semi-private), entrance fees, indicated category of accommodations, all meals except beverages, all transportation including the Nazca Lines overflight, and travel insurance for guests through the age of 59 years. Over that age, there is a supplementary fee. All prices are per person based on two people sharing a guest room. For a detailed description of our services, see About Our Tours.
Intra-Tour Air Flights & Fares
Includes the Nazca Lines overflight.
Geoglyph of a hummingbird, Nazca Lines.
Photo: Mylene d'Auriol Stoessel. Luxury Nazca Lines Tours & Travel.
One of the most baffling enigmas in all archaeology...
On the southern coast of Peru, using as their canvas a plateau 37 miles long and 15 miles wide, Nazca artists etched works of monumental proportion: a montage of geometric designs and whimsical portrayals of plants and animals, such as the hummingbird, fish, dog, lizard, puma, spider, condor and monkey. On this private chauffeured excursion, a longer-than-usual overflight of the Nazca Lines is complemented by a visit to the regional museum's collection of vivid polychrome ceramics and world-reknowned Paracas textiles, while a boat trip to see the amazing profusion of sea life on nearby islands reveals some of the animals that inspired the artistic motifs.
Detail of a Paracas Necropolis "manto", c. 500 BC.
Museo Nacional de Arqueologia, Antropologia e Historia del Peru.
Photo: Mylene d'Auriol Stoessel. Luxury Nazca Lines Tours & Travel.
Highlights
Paracas
Day 1: Lima - Nazca Lines - Huacachina Lagoon - Paracas. Early morning departure to Ica, home to the Nazca culture. Upon arrival at the Ica airport, board a 12-passenger, Cessna Grand Caravan for a flight over the Nazca Lines. You will also observe the Palpa Lines. Continue overland to the Huacachina Lagoon, where you will have lunch at the Hotel Mossone. Afterward, view the collection of Nazca and Paracas artifacts at the Ica Regional Museum before proceeding to Paracas. Dinner and overnight in the Hotel Paracas.
Lima
Day 2: Ballestas Islands - Paracas Necropolis or Tambo Colorado - Lima. Morning cruise to the Ballestas Islands, guided by a marine biologist. After returning to shore, choose between going to the Paracas Necropolis and its on-site museum or inland to the Inca fortress of Tambo Colorado. On the way back to Lima, have lunch at the 1688 Casa-Hacienda San Jose and visit the century-old Bodega Naldo Navarro. Early evening arrival at your hotel. Dinner of classic Peruvian cuisine at Las Brujas de Cachiche. Overnight in the Country Club Lima Hotel.
Your next destination
Day 3: Lima - Your next destination. Transfer to the airport for the flight to your next destination.
Detail of a Paracas Necropolis "manto", c. 500 BC.
Museo Nacional de Arqueologia, Antropologia e Historia del Peru.
Photo: Mylene d'Auriol Stoessel. Luxury Nazca Lines Tours & Travel.
Located in the Ica Department of Peru on the southern coast, Nazca is one of the most famous pre-historic cultures of the world on account of the beauty of its polychrome ceramics. The Nazca also left behind original textiles, the techniques and coloring of which have astounded the modern world.
The Paracas Necropolis constitutes the early phase of the Nazca culture, and it is distinguished by the world-famous "mantos" (large, decorated cloth) embroidered with polychrome, mythical figures. Paracas Necropolis is a cemetery located on the slopes of Cerro Colorado, in Ica Department, from which 429 funerary bundles were extracted. Each bundle is a mummy wrapped in abundant fine and rough textile.
-- Justo Caceres Macedo, The Prehispanic Cultures of Peru
Subterranean aqueducts of Cantalloc, Nazca.
Photo: Mylene d'Auriol Stoessel. Luxury Nazca Lines Tours & Travel.
Day 1: Lima - Nazca Lines - Huacachina Lagoon - Paracas
Early morning departure in private car with guide and driver from Lima to the town of Ica, 300 km. south along the Pan-American Highway. In pre-Columbian times, this region was home to the Nazca culture, highly advanced in ceramics and textiles. It excelled not only in art but in technology, as evidenced by a complex system of subterranean aqueducts that still brings water and life to one of the driest deserts on earth.
Upon arrival at the Ica airport, board a 12-passenger, Cessna Grand Caravan for a 1-hour, 15-minute flight over the Nazca Lines -- one of the most baffling enigmas in all archaeology. You will also observe the recently-identified Palpa Lines. Using as their canvas Pampa Coloradan (Red Plains), a plateau 37 miles long and 15 miles wide, Nazca artists etched works of monumental proportion: a montage of geometric designs, or "geoglyphs", and whimsical portrayals of plants and animals such as the hummingbird, fish, dog, lizard, puma, spider, condor and monkey. Figures of birds -- there are 18 different kinds -- create a veritable aviary in this menagerie that prowls the pampa.
Hotel Mossone, Huacachina Lagoon.
Photo: Mylene d'Auriol Stoessel. Luxury Nazca Lines Tours & Travel.
So similar are the animal drawings to the stylized pottery figures found at nearby burial sites, it is clear the two were linked in time to the major period of Nazca civilization from 200 B.C. to 600 A.D., although some of the more primitive figures on mountain slopes are attributed to the earlier Paracas culture, dating as far back as 900 B.C.
The lines spread over hundreds of square miles and were created by removing the rust-colored stones that cover the desert, revealing the light-colored soil beneath. In this dry, rainless environment, erosion has been practically nil, allowing the markings to endure virtually intact for 1,500 to 2,000 years.
Continue overland to a true desert oasis: the Huacachina Lagoon, where you will have lunch at the Hotel Mossone. Set in a century-old mansion that was a plush resort hotel in the 1920s, the fully restored Mossone is a soothing trip back in time. The rooms are built around an interior garden patio and dining is on a veranda that overlooks the lagoon. The hotel is noted for its "comida criolla", or typical cuisine. After lunch, view the collection of Nazca and Paracas artifacts at the Ica Regional Museum before proceeding to Paracas, on the Pacific Ocean. Dinner and overnight in the Hotel Paracas.
Sand dunes, Huacachina Lagoon.
Photo: Mylene d'Auriol Stoessel. Luxury Nazca Lines Tours & Travel.
... an unspoiled, natural paradise where the desert sands reveal
treasures of ancient civilizations ...
The Paracas Peninsula is the most important coastal formation in Peru -- an unspoiled, natural paradise where the desert sands reveal treasures of ancient civilizations, and the abundance of marine fauna -- birds, fish and sea mammals -- attracts visitors and ecologists, who are amazed by the profusion of sea life along the ocean shore. The Paracas National Reserve encompasses the amazing beauty of the peninsula and the surrounding ocean, including the Ballestas Islands.
Added to its natural beauty, the Paracas National Reserve is the site of the Paracas Necropolis, an important archaeological site of one of the most advanced cultures that flourished in Peru, around 1,000 B.C. Here, archaeologists discovered hundreds of mummy bundles, a few of which are on display in the on-site Julio C. Tello Museum of Paracas civilization. The mummies are covered with the exquisite textiles in the stylized design and combinations of many colors for which this culture is reknowned.
Sea lions, Paracas Peninsula.
Photo: Mylene d'Auriol Stoessel. Luxury Nazca Lines Tours & Travel.
Day 2: Ballestas Islands - Paracas Necropolis or Tambo Colorado - Lima
Breakfast. Walk to the docks to board your boat for a morning cruise to the Ballestas Islands -- rocky formations that are home to colonies of sea lions and thousands of resident and migratory sea birds, including pelicans, boobies, cormorants, terns and gulls. In the summer, condors are also frequent visitors and flamingos occasionally pause at the bay. From the sea, you will observe the Candelabro, also known as Three Crosses, which may be related to the Nazca Lines. A marine biologist will be your private guide throughout the cruise.
After returning to shore, you may choose between going to the Paracas Necropolis and its on-site museum or inland to the Inca fortress of Tambo Colorado. This fortress was constructed during the war that the Incas waged against the nations of the coast, in the mid-15th century, probably during the reign of Pachacutec. One of the best-preserved archaeological sites in Peru, it even retains some of the original white, red and yellow color of its walls. Typically Incan in layout and architectural design, its singular construction in adobe shows how the Quechua architects and engineers adapted to the new, coastal environment that the Incas had begun to conquer.
Humboldt penguin, Ballestas Islands.
Photo: Mylene d'Auriol Stoessel. Luxury Nazca Lines Tours & Travel.
On the way back to Lima, have lunch at the 1688 Casa-Hacienda San Jose and visit the century-old Bodega Naldo Navarro, one of the best places for local wine and pisco. Early evening arrival at your hotel. Dinner of classic Peruvian cuisine at Las Brujas de Cachiche. Overnight in the Country Club Lima Hotel.
Inca ruins of Tambo Colorado.
Photo: Daniel Ritiere.
Day 4: Lima - Your next destination
Breakfast. Early transfer to the airport for the flight to your next destination.
Come to Peru, land of the Incas...
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