We’ll leave Cusco early this morning and head past Inca ruins and historic colonial highland towns to Tres Cruces, where the Andes suddenly give way and the Amazon Basin is laid out before us. Here we’ll start our descent of the Pacific slope of the Andes, spending the night in a high-rainforest lodge at the very beginning of Manu. Tonight, and every night of the trip, we'll have the chance to make the most of our time in the Amazon jungle with an optional night hike to spot frogs, tarantulas, and exotic insects.

Meals: All meals included

Accommodation: Rustic lodge in the Amazon jungle

Today we’re likely to spot various famous birds – including Peru’s national bird, the bizarre, hammerheaded gallito de las rocas (cock of the rock) – on our way to the frontier town of Atalaya, where we’ll board our own outboard canoe and take to the waters of the Rio Madre de Dios (the Mother of God river – its name gives you a sense of its scale!) spotting herons, vultures and more. This evening there’s the chance to see caimans (crocodiles) and capybaras during our night hike from our riverside lodge.

Meals: All meals included

Accommodation: Rustic lodge in the Amazon jungle

We are now deep into the Manu Buffer Zone, and today’s long boat journey offers the trip’s best opportunities for diverse wildlife spotting, with high likelihood of spotting caimans, herons, capybaras, macaws and jaguars, to name just a few, going about their everyday business along the river.

Meals: All meals included

Accommodation: Rustic lodge in the Amazon jungle

We’ll get up early to boat and hike through the jungle to a clay lick whose nearby camouflaged lookout gives us incredible opportunities to observe parrots, macaws, sloths and other creatures that come to lick the clay, whose mineral content aids their digestion.

After resting in the heat of the day, later in the afternoon we’ll hike to a tapir lookout and settle down for the night with sleeping bags and mosquito nets, giving ourselves the entire night to spot these notoriously shy, nocturnal creatures from up close.

Meals: All meals included

Accommodation: Tapir observation platform in the Amazon jungle

A long journey, by boat to the jungle outpost of Colorado, then by vehicle, brings us back to Cusco. Of course, there are plenty of opportunities along the way for last glimpses of herons, flycatchers, hummingbirds, and dozens of Amazon animals and plants.

Meals: Breakfast and lunch included