A trek through Peru with Pat and her family

Pat and family travelled to Peru where they were on Tropical Sky's Amazon the Andes and here's what they had to say:

My wife, my daughter and I have just returned from Peru where we were on Tropical Sky's tour in conjunction with local tour company G Adventures. We travelled from Dublin via Miami and it started initially in Lima, then we headed to Cusco which is a nice city with the highest Irish owned pub in the world with the really imaginary name of "Paddy's Pub" .... how original. Unfortunately it does not have Guinness on draught but the food served there is of a very high standard and is very reasonably priced.





Then the next day, we started with a guided tour of the Sacred Valley where we visited a number of Inca sites as we made our way to Km82, the starting point of the Inka Trail, where we trekked 45 km (28 miles) over three and a half days, in a group of 12 tourists, 2 guides, 2 cooks and 16 porters who carried 50lbs of gear including tents, food, sleeping bags and our clothes.

The first day was 7.5 miles and the second over Dead Woman’s Pass was 7 but mostly uphill to the highest point at 4215m.  Day 3 on the trail was the longest at 10 miles but at lunch we were treated to a cake baked and served on the top of a mountain. Then early start (3.30am) on last day so that the last 3.5 miles would be done before dawn and we would arrive early at Machu Picchu. What an amazing sight that will remain with me for a long time!

The next day was a much needed rest day in Cusco before we headed to Puerto Maldonado for our jungle adventure. After the flight, we went down a narrow dirt road to a small boat that brought us down river to the Tambopata Eco Lodge where we stayed in a wooden thatched bungalow with the most comfortable of beds. Here we did night walks, river trips and jungle treks where we saw lots of bugs, animals and birds and weird trees including one that we could all stand inside (and I mean 9 of us)

Overall the holiday to Peru which was truly amazing, the Inca Trail was hard going at times but absolutely worth it when we arrived at Machu Picchu. You don’t need to be super fit to do it, however you do need to be reasonably healthy. The visit to the rain forest was brilliant, we felt like we were in a National Geographic nature programme, all that was missing was David Attenborough or David Bellamy leaping from behind a tree/bush, but the guide was just as informative and entertaining. 

The G Adventures guides in general were brilliant, they were knowledgeable and professional and good fun.  I would definitely recommend this trip, do it when you are still able to, don’t leave it on a “to do later” list.

We would like to thank Pat and his family for sharing their story with us and hope to welcome you on another holiday soon..

If you would like to provide us with your own holiday story please contact [email protected]