A journey through the very best of southern Peru, from one of the world’s driest deserts and the country’s only marine national park, across the Andes and down into the Amazon basin. We begin in the Ballestas Islands, where the meeting of the warm El Niño Ocean current with the cold current of Humboldt has created the world’s most fertile seas – rich in marine fauna. From there to the Nazca Lines, mammoth geometric and zoomorphic designs etched onto the desert floor by pre-Inca cultures. From the coast to the land of the condor and one of the world’s deepest canyons at Colca and on to the highest navigable lake in the world – Lake Titicaca, still home to the descendants of the ancient peoples who first inhabited its fertile shores thousands of years ago. From the sacred lake we travel north to the hub of the greatest empire the Americas have ever seen – Cusco, the Inca capital. The city we see today is the result of the imposition of one culture on another, with the remains of Inca palaces and temples forming the foundations of Spanish churches and mansions. Beyond the Sacred Valley of the Incas we hike the famous Inca Trail on our pilgrimage to the Lost City of Machu Picchu. Our journey ends with four days in one of the most biodiverse areas on Earth, as we explore the rain forest in search of macaws, giant otters and other exotic fauna.