< updated for summer 2020 >
The schedule may change slightly, but will be close to the list below.
- Depart USA: June 2, 2020 (morning)
- Return USA: July 7, 2020 (morning)
June 2 Arrive in Lima, Peru
- Students will buy their own ticket to and from Lima. I will buy my tickets early in the spring and let everyone know the details of my travel plan. You’re all welcome to fly with me.
- However, I know that some of you will want to use travel miles or have special circumstances that will lead to a different travel plan. For anyone who arrives with me or before my flight, our tour guide will have a private shuttle waiting to take us to the hotel. Late arrivers will have to take a taxi to the hotel, which costs about $25 and takes about 45 minutes.
- Estimated arrival time: between 8:30 and 10:30 pm
June 3 Tour Lima
- Dos Manos, our tour company, will have transportation and tickets ready for us to enjoy a full day of seeing the sites of Lima.
- Some of the sites we normally visit are the Catacombs of San Francisco, Aliaga House, the Cathedral of Lima, and Larco Museum. We’ll end the day with a walk along the Pacific coast.
June 4 Tour Ballestas Islands & Huacachina
- We’ll leave Lima early and take a bus to Paracas, then a boat out to see the Ballestas Islands, which is famous for sea lions, large flocks of birds, and mysterious designs carved into the ground.
- After the Ballestas tour, we’ll continue in a bus to Huacachina, where we’ll tour the giant sand dunes and try out our sand-surfing skills.
- We’ll spend the night in Icas.
June 5 Tour Nazca Lines
- We’ll take a bus from Icas to Nazca, then take a short plane ride over the famous and inscrutable Nazca Lines.
- Then, we’ll take a long (8 hour) bus ride back to our hotel in Lima.
June 6 Fly to Cusco
- I’ll purchase these tickets using the program fee, and we’ll all fly together. Dos Manos will provide transportation to the Lima airport, and then Amauta staff will meet us at the airport in Cusco and take us to our residence at Amauta.
- Amauta has a dormitory in the same facility where they have classes. Students will stay in rooms there, and the Butlers will stay at a hotel a short walk away.
- On our first night in Cusco, we will have dinner together at the school, followed by a brief orientation by the Amauta staff about life in Cusco.
- There is usually time after dinner for a trip to the mall to get anything you didn’t want to carry.
June 7 Mass at Cathedral & Tour Sacsayuaman
- The cathedral on the main square is a beautiful, historic building. While not a required activity, I’ll be going to morning mass at 9:00 am and would enjoy having you with me.
- Around 2:00 pm, Dos Manos will provide a guided tour of Sacsayuaman citadel just outside Cusco.
- Beginning Sunday, you’ll be responsible for your own dinners most evenings. The program fee includes money for dinners. I’ll give you the “dinner money” in two installments: on our first night in Lima and at the midway point of the trip. This money is an estimate of average meals. You may easily run over your allowance; either budget your evening meals carefully or bring extra money.
- Breakfast and lunch are provided free at Amauta every day.
June 8 Class (Day 1)
- Option 1
- 10:30-12:30 ENG 3378 Travel Writing
- 01:30-02:30 lunch
- 02:30-03:30 LING 1305 Language in Society
- 03:30-06:00 Cultural Engagement activity (various days, TBD)
- Option 2
- 08:30-10:30 Spanish, first session
- 10:30-12:30 Spanish, second session
- 01:30-02:30 lunch
- 02:30-03:30 LING 1305 Language in Society
- 03:30-06:00 Cultural Engagement activity (various days, TBD)
- The Spanish classes are fairly long (4 hours), but the instructors do a great job of making the time highly interactive, with lots of activities and trips into the city to have class in one of the many beautiful parks or to put your Spanish to work in the market
- Option 3
- 08:30-10:30 SOC 3309 Religion & Society
- 01:30-02:30 lunch
- 02:30-03:30 SOC 4370 Peruvian Life and Culture
- 03:30-06:00 Cultural Engagement activity (various days, TBD)
June 9 Class (Day 2)
June 10 Class (Day 3)
June 11 Class (Day 4), Catholicism in Peru
- This is a Cultural Engagement activity and participation is part of your afternoon class.
- We will learn about the role of the Catholic church in Peruvian life and the history of conflict and adaptation the church has experienced as it has settled deeply into Peruvian culture. We will have a guided tour of the main cathedral, “Basilica De La Catedral Cusco”. If there is time, we may also visit two other churches near the square: La Merced and La Compania de Jesus.
June 12 Class (Day 5)
June 13 Hike Pisac
- Pisac is a beautiful village with ruins nearby. We will leave early Saturday morning, drive to a trailhead, and take a hike up the amazing terraces to get a good view of the rugged mountain scenery and the Incan ruins. Lunch is included in the hike.
- Note about altitude… By the time we take this hike, we will have been adjusting to the altitude for 6 full days, which is much longer than most people need to acclimate. The main reason for this hike is to enjoy the beauty of the area. A secondary reason is to see if anyone is having trouble with the altitude and needs to rethink their participation in the Salkantay hike.
June 14 Tour Maras
- From about 1:30-6:00 pm, we’ll take a trip outside Cusco to see the Maras salt ponds and the community of Chinchero. This outing will require some walking, but nothing very significant (i.e., it’s not a hike).
June 15 Class (Day 6)
June 16 Class (Day 7)
June 17 Class (Day 8)
June 18 Class (Day 9), History of Chocolate
- This is a Cultural Engagement activity and participation is part of your afternoon class.
- We’ll explore the Choco Museo where they tell the cultural and economic history of chocolate. A favorite part of this outing is the opportunity to build your own personalized candy bar.
June 19 Class (Day 10)
June 20 Rainbow Mountain
- Rainbow Mountain is a difficult hike to an amazing view. It takes about 3 hours to drive to the trailhead, then a 2-hour walk to the top. The elevation at the top is over 16,500 ft.
- By the time we get to this hike, some students my have had enough walking at altitude. If you’d rather not spend the day on a bus and then hike into the stratosphere, you can choose to take a horseback ride and picnic in the hills above Cusco. Dos Manos will organize the horseback outing, but you’ll need to let me know by the preceding Monday morning.
June 21 Sunday
June 22 Class (Day 11)
June 23 Class (Day 12)
June 24 Class (Day 13)
June 25 Class (Day 14), Andean Music
- This is a Cultural Engagement activity and participation is part of your afternoon class.
- We will learn about the cultural significance of music in Andean culture and participate in a hands-on class where we learn to play the pan flute.
June 26 Lake Titicaca
- We’ll take a bus to Lake Titicaca and explore several interesting sites along the way, arriving in Puno in time for dinner and to check into our hotel.
- Our usual hotel is the Sonesta Posadas del Inca, which sits right on the lake shore.
June 27 Lake Titicaca
- We’ll spend Saturday exploring the lake, with the highlight being a boat ride to walk around on one of the famous floating islands. After dinner, we’ll catch an overnight bus back to Cusco.
- There are two Cultural Engagement activities planned for this outing and participation is part of your afternoon class.
- Uros Islands – presentation on Uru culture, which is famous for building islands out of reeds
- Taquile Island – presentation on Taquile culture, which is based on community collectivism and on the Inca moral code “do not steal, do not lie, do not be lazy.”
June 28 Sunday
June 29 Class (Day 15), Orientation
- We’ll gather in the evening to meet our guide for the Salkantay Trek and ask any questions we have.
June 30 Class (Day 16), Last class
July 01 Salkantay Trek (Day 1)
- Dos Manos will pick us up early (about 5:00 am), take us on a bus through Mollapata, arriving at our trailhead about 9:00 am. We’ll meet our chef and porters, eat a quick breakfast, then head up the trail.
- We’ll hike 5 miles in about 3 hours. Much of the walk is along a canal originally built by the Incas. We’ll eat lunch at our campsite, then take a hike to nearby Lake Humantay, return for dinner, then to bed. This will be our first night in tents.
- Trailhead: Challacancha, Lat/Long -13.432825, -72.558303, Elevation 12,011 ft
- Campsite: Soraypampa, Lat/Long -13.387100, -72.573753, Elevation 12,900 ft
July 02 Salkantay Trek (Day 2)
- We’ll start early again this morning because it’s our longest day hiking. We’ll get up about 5:00 am and start hiking by 6:30. We’ll climb up about 2,000 ft to Salkantay Pass, then down about 2,000 ft to our campsite. In all, we’ll walk 9 miles in about 8 hours.
- You might want to bring a few snacks for the hike as we’ll eat lunch between 2:00 and 3:00 pm when we get to our campsite. This will be our second and last night in tents.
- Campsite: Wayramachay, Lat/Long -13.327891, -72.603584, Elevation 12,900 ft
July 03 Salkantay Trek (Day 3)
- The hike on Day 3 is downhill all the way. We’ll start above the tree line and end in jungle-like vegetation. We’ll walk 5 miles in about 2 ½ hours. At the trailhead, Dos Manos will have a van waiting to take us to Hidroelectrica, then we’ll catch a train the rest of the way to Aguas Calientes, where we’ll check into a hotel. After showers, we’ll enjoy dinner together.
- There is a Cultural Engagement activity planned for this outing and participation is part of your afternoon class.
- History of Coffee – on the ride to Hidroelectrica, we will stop at a coffee plantation to learn about the history of coffee in Peru. We’ll pick our own beans, walk through the stages of processing, then enjoy a delicious cup of coffee.
- Trailhead: Collpapampa, Lat/Long -13.324714, -72.665078, Elevation 9,470 ft
- Train Station: Hidroelectrica, Lat/Long -13.174958, -72.557626
July 04 Machu Picchu
- The night in a real bed won’t be long enough, but we’ll still want to start our Machu Picchu tour early. We’ll find a scenic place first for pictures and just enjoying the view, then our guide will take us around the site. About 11:00 am we’ll return to town. We’ll meet for lunch at noon, then catch a mid-afternoon train back to Cusco.
July 05 Sunday
July 06 Depart Cusco, then Lima
- We’ll take a van to the airport about 1:00 pm, then fly to LIma in the late afternoon. We’ll just stay at the Lima airport until our overnight flight leaves between 10:00 and 11:30 pm.
- Do NOT buy a ticket to depart Lima before: 9:30 pm
- If your flight requires you to spend the night in Lima, please let me know and I’ll provide some suggestions on hotels.
July 07 Arrive in USA
