The journey out of the city takes us south along the Pan-American Highway to the fishing port of Pisco, with its good seafood. Along the way we will have the opportunity to visit two important sites. Pachacamac was the most important pre-Inca temple in Peru and was so revered by the time of the Incas that it remained second only in importance to the Temple of the Sun itself in Cusco. It was eventually desecrated by the Spanish in the campaign to eradicate indigenous religious practices. Just before reaching Pisco we will make a detour along a desert road to the archaeological remains of Tambo Colorado. This seldom-visited site is one of the best-preserved Inca ruins on the Peruvian coast, with some of the walls even retaining their original colours.

By way of a short break from archaeology, our morning will be spent visiting the fauna-rich Ballestas Islands. Here the meeting of the warm El Niño and cold Humboldt ocean currents produces waters rich in micro-organisms which form the basis of a food chain that includes dolphins, Humboldt penguins, seals, seabirds and, of course, humankind, who has inhabited this desert coast for at least 9,000 years. The Paracas culture is most famous for the extraordinary textiles produced as funerary offerings and which employ practically all the techniques used today. In many cases these textiles have been perfectly preserved by the desert climate and are well represented in Lima’s museums. Although the small site museum in Paracas offers a good display of artefacts, the Ica Regional Museum has a better collection. We will have a chance to visit this museum as we drive south through Ica to Nasca. (We may even have time for a stroll around the lake at the peaceful desert oasis of Huacachina, before continuing our drive along the Pan-American Highway to Nasca.

Beyond the wine-growing region of Ica, the small town of Nasca is set in a desert oasis and is famous for its so-called “Lines”. These gigantic zoomorphic and geometric designs are attributed to the Paracas and Nasca cultures and were cut into the desert’s surface from around 300 BC to 900 AD. The Nasca Lines cover an area of about fifty by fifteen kilometres, and the zoomorphic figures particularly exhibit great aesthetic harmony and geometrical precision. Because they are so enormous, the Nasca Lines can only be fully appreciated from the air, and we will fly over them from the local airstrip in a light aircraft. Just 4 km from Nasca we will also have time to visit the Inca aqueducts of Cantayoc, which are still used to irrigate local crops.

Continuing south we head towards the city of Arequipa – an all-day ride of over 500 km. Some 160 km from Nasca , just north of the fishing community of Chala, are the extensive Inca archaeological remains of Puerto Inca, which were occupied from the 13th to the 15th centuries. The ruins are set around a picturesque bay and originally comprised single storey stone buildings and one two-floored structure. The site is particularly interesting to archaeologists for the different ways the Incas roofed these buildings. We will arrive in Arequipa in the early evening.

Located a thousand kilometres south of Lima, Arequipa is southern Peru’s most important city. This neo-colonial city of white volcanic stone lies at 2,380 metres above sea level in a fertile valley surrounded by desert between the Andes and Peru’s Pacific coast. Its tree-studded plaza is dominated by the elaborate facade of the cathedral, founded in 1612 but rebuilt several times after the series of earthquakes which have shaken the city. One of the principal attractions of Arequipa’s historic centre is the unique “city-within-a-city” which is the 16th century Santa Catalina convent, once home to a closed order of nuns who remained isolated from the outside world until 1970.  Another more recent attraction is the small museum near the main square which houses the remains of the so-called “Ice Maiden”: the intact body of a young girl sacrificed by the Incas to appease the god of Mount Ampato were discovered in 1995 by the American anthropologist Johan Reinhard and his Peruvian climbing partner Miguel Zarate at an altitude of 6,310 metres (20,700 feet).

Another of Arequipa’s attractions is its fine cuisine, with this city demonstrating through its food – and often on the same plate – its proximity to both the Pacific coast and the Andes.

This day will be spent travelling by road to Cusco. We will cross the altiplano – that great plain between the eastern and western cordilleras of the Andes – passing communities of livestock herders and farmers. We will also have the opportunity to visit a number of interesting sights along the way, including Raqchi. This important archaeological site some 120 kilometres southeast of Cusco was the Inca temple to Viracocha, the creator god of Andean mythology. Raqchi’s main building was a two-storey stone and mud brick construction at least 90 metres long, making it the largest roofed structure built by the Incas. The stones which form the base of the building were polished and, although unique in terms of its size, Raqchi’s main buildings are typical of the Inca period after 1450 AD. This central building was surrounded by ceremonial baths, a “house of the chosen women”, storehouses, water channels and reservoirs, the remains of which can still be seen.

Although most of the buildings at Raqchi date from the imperial Inca phase, the site was occupied long before. Excavations by the Peruvian National Institute of Culture have revealed remains from the Marcavalle culture (200 BC), and pottery from the Pucara culture (200 BC to 700 AD).

We will arrive in Cusco in the early evening and be transferred to our hotel before dinner.

After a morning free to acclimatise, you will be picked-up for a tour of the city. We begin with a visit to the cathedral, which was built between 1560 and 1654 on the site of the palace of the Inca Wiracocha. Its main altar is completely covered in silver, and the church contains many fine paintings from the Cusco School of religious art. From the cathedral we move on to Qoricancha, the Inca Temple of the Sun, where we see some of the finest remaining examples of Inca stonemasonry. From the city we will go on to explore the Inca remains in the hills around Cusco. The Sacsaywaman Archaeological Park is home to the great fortress temple of Sacsaywaman itself, as well as the ritual baths of Tambomachay, the temple site of Qenqo and the fortified construction known as Puka Pukara.  In the evening you will have the opportunity to enjoy Cusco’s fine Novo Andino cuisine – based on traditional local ingredients and international gourmet techniques – and a show featuring Andean music or dance.

Today will be spent in the Urubamba Valley - also known as the Sacred Valley of the Incas. Apart from the valley’s breathtaking scenery – with fertile slopes surrounded by towering peaks – the main attractions include ancient ruins, colonial villages and traditional markets. The quiet village of Pisac is home to a colourful market and high above the village stand the ruins of the Inca ceremonial and fortress site of the same name, with some of the finest stonework left to us by the Incas. At the far end of the valley, Ollantaytambo is the only remaining example of Inca urban architecture, where descendants of the Incas live beneath the imposing ruins of the temple built by their ancestors and dedicated to the principal deities of the Inca pantheon. We will spend the night in a valley hotel, with typical colonial architecture and the quiet village atmosphere providing the perfect backdrop for all the comforts of the modern world.

After a short drive we will take the train to Machu Picchu from the village of Ollantaytambo for what is widely considered one of the world’s most spectacular train rides, following the Urubamba River through the gorge it cuts down into the tropical forest. Once the capital of a “lost Inca province”, Machu Picchu stands amid fauna-rich forested hills on the saddle between two peaks where it remained undisturbed for four centuries. We will have the rest of the day to explore Machu Picchu’s streets, temples, palaces and residential areas in the company of an expert guide, before returning to our hotel near the ruins.

After a leisurely breakfast in the grounds of our valley hotel, we will drive up into the fertile hills above Ollantaytambo and into the Patacancha Valley. This area is famed as the home of the people of Willoq and the other small villages high above the Sacred Valley of the Incas, where life has changed little since Inca times. We will visit communities dedicated to growing their crops and herding livestock, including llamas and alpacas, which – aside from their wool - are used as pack animals and food respectively. Unlike many other inhabitants of the region, these villagers conserve their traditional weaving techniques, making their traditional clothing from sheep, alpaca and llama wool. It is here that our unforgettable journey – which began with the oldest city in the Americas – comes full circle in the company of the descendants of the Incas.

That evening we will return to the city of Cusco for our final meal together – as some members of the trip may be returning to their home countries the next day, while others may opt to continue their journey with a trip to the Amazon rainforest.