This will be a travel day from home and most flights from North America and Europe arrive in the early to late evening. We greet you off your flight and take you to a small safe hotel just 12 minutes from the airport or you can ask for the available upgrade to the 4* Ramada Airport Hotel right next to arrivals.

Flight to Cusco. We will meet your arrival at the Cusco airport and escort you to our centrally located hotel. Time off and then lunch with your guide. The afternoon is scheduled for a walking introduction to the archaeological and colonial highlights of the old capital of the Inca’s and the nearby important ruins... This 3-4 hour tour takes you to all the important Inca sites in Cusco town and environs . We start with a visit to the most sacred of Inca sites - the Koricancha . Winding out of town we will take in the megalithic fortress of Sacsayhuaman where our ride leader describes the rituals and ceremonies that would have taken place at the massive walled limestone constructions and sculptured terraces surrounding the immense central plaza the strange temple of Kenko and the water fountains of Tambomachay. We gather for dinner and discussion at our favorite restaurant near our centrally located comfortable lodging in Cusco. B: L:D.

RIDE ONLY STARTS HERE:The following morning, we drive a short distance up out of the Cusco basin to meet the waiting horses. Our journey begins in nearby rolling hills, noticeably etched by ancient fields and agricultural terraces. Passing several blue lakes hosting a noisy assortment of Andean water birds, we arrive at the famous Indian market town of Chinchero at around 12,000 feet in altitude. An early colonial period church and large plaza frame well-made Inca walls that once were part of the Emperor Huayna Capac's Royal Estate. Our plan is to visit here during one of the market days when the plaza is full of tents with Quechua vendors selling every conceivable native handicraft, pottery, weavings, paintings and artifacts. Each day we plan an option for those who prefer just a half day ride in the morning with more time at the site and a ride in the van to the next inn. After a lakeside lunch, we journey on through stone walled Inca terraces and to our hotel the simple but pretty Casa de Barro. We corral our tired horses with waiting alfalfa and grain, at our selected Chinchero lodging, then off to a hot bath before meeting again for dinner. (Saddle time 4-6 hours.) B:L:D

A leisurely breakfast and cups of tasty local coffee fuel us for the day's adventure. We move smartly out at a trot along rolling foothills and fields with the glittering snow peaks and snowfields of Chicon and Wakaywilca. We are on a high plateau of rolling hills and immense grasslands. A spectacular panorama of the great Ice peaks of the Vilcanota range crowns the near horizon. Sometime around mid-day we arrive at the isolated cathedral of Tiobamba seeming lost and forgotten by time and modern civilization. We are pleasantly surprised to discover our support vehicle and crew awaiting us with the table set for lunch. The destination for the afternoon ride is the Salineras. This is a huge area of terraces, which form hundreds of baths all fed by a single saline stream. The salt water is allowed to evaporate leaving the salt to be mined and carried out by burros. The Salineras are worked now much as they were in pre-Hispanic times. For those who prefer, the van will take you to the site for an extended visit before driving you to the inn. Or those in for the full day ride will have the opportunity for some faster riding across the high plateau before descending into the valley of the old Inca salt evaporation pools, still worked to-day - The Salineras, on a spectacular trail above the glittering white pools. We ride on into the welcoming courtyard of a very comfortable and friendly old Hacienda Inn. Our wranglers seeing to the needs and comfort of our hoofed friends, we amble toward the evening watering hole. (Saddle time 6-7 hours.) B:L:D

Saddled up, ponies energized, rearing to go, we ride out in early morning light, horseshoes clattering along the ancient stone paved trail. The powerful equatorial sun reflects brilliantly off of high ancient ice fields. Steadily, we climb up some 3000 plus feet along an old Inca trial to explore the enigmatic Inca ruins of Pumahuanca. Not much is known about this interesting complex of Inca buildings located in a magical setting below immense, 2000 feet high, and glacier shaped granite walls. Like most Inca sites it had multiple uses. It was likely a tambo or way station on the Inca road leading over the high pass beyond. Several of the buildings are storehouse’s qolcas, others are unusually large residences. Several viewing platforms, usnus and carved replica rocks suggest a ceremonial function as well. Time permitting; we ride on up the valley to lunch above a spectacular waterfall. We’ll return to our lodging in the late afternoon (Saddle time 5-6 hours). If you choose not to ride today our bus can relax at the inn for a leisurely day hanging out or light hiking from the Inn.). Night at the same hotel. B:L:D

Flowing westerly, the Vilcanota, or Urubamba River as it is called here, gently winds through small riverside hamlets, planted fields of corn and forgotten Inca ruins, slowly gaining speed for its insane roaring rush into the deep granite gorge at Machu Picchu. Amidst waving children and curious parents peering from doorways at the unusual site of gleaming horses and gringos, we trot along the old Inca route well away from the modern paved highway that speeds daily bus loads of tee shirt buying tourists to and from Cusco. We could be back in the 16th century. Modern Peru is centuries away. Tying up near an old Inca bridge, we hop a short ride in our support vehicle to visit the major Inca temple/fortress of Ollantaytambo. Probably built by the great Inca ruler, Pachacuti in the 1460s, it was the site of Hernando Pizzaro’s defeat by Manco Inca in 1536. Constructed of finely cut polygonal stones and rhyolite blocks, the fortress and nearby town represent the best of Inca architecture and construction. Large worked blocks, some weighting as much as 100 tons were quarried from a site more than a thousand vertical feet above the valley floor using a technique of pecking with hammer stones, then skidded down and across the Urubamba river several kilometers to the temple site. Inclined ramps were built to raise the blocks several hundred feet up hill to the construction area. We take ample time to examine the complex and ponder its many mysteries. Following a riverside lunch, we mount up again We have two options: We may ride up to the big quarries above the valley for a first hand examination of how and where the blocks were shaped or perhaps we will ride up a side valley to explored the interesting ruins of Pumamarca. (Some may opt to drop out for more time in town or at the lodge.) Late in the afternoon, we arrive at another carefully selected Inn. The food is near gourmet and rooms tastefully furnished in the best of neo-colonial style. Here we sadly say goodbye to our horse and wranglers. We travel on by iron horse the next morning. (Saddle time: 6-7 hours) B:L:D RIDE ONLY FINISHES HERE:

Our magical journey concludes with the narrow gauge train ride to the New World's most spectacular archaeological monument, Machu Picchu. We breakfast then hop aboard the morning narrow gauge train heading down valley. An interesting hour of click, clack and sway with all of the accompanying sounds and smells of rural Peru takes us to the bustling backpacker town of Aguas Calientes, the portal for Machu Picchu. Soon we are gathered at the gateway to famous "Lost Cities of the Incas"

MACHU PICCHU, one of the most magical and mysterious places on Earth! Situated on the spine of a jungle cloaked granite peak towering some 2,000 ft. above an entrenched meander of the roaring river below, the site is frequently shrouded in misty clouds pierced by the powerful equatorial sun. Constructed from precisely sculptured granite blocks carefully joined with the projecting exposed stone of the surrounding mountain, the site may well be the finest architectural achievement of the new world.

MACHU PICCHU, one of the most magical and mysterious places on Earth! Situated on the spine of a jungle cloaked granite peak towering some 2,000 ft. above an entrenched meander of the roaring river below, the site is frequently shrouded in misty clouds pierced by the powerful equatorial sun. Constructed from precisely sculptured granite blocks carefully joined with the projecting exposed stone of the surrounding mountain, the site may well be the finest architectural achievement of the new world.

Machu Picchu, otherwise romantically known to the tourist world as "The lost city of the Incas". Our guide concludes the story of the raise and fall of the ancient civilizations of the Andes with the tragic end of the Inca and the enigma that this remarkable site remains. We bus back down to Aguas Calientes. Boarding the Cusco bound afternoon train, we arrive back in the Capital of the Inca and comfortable rooms at our selected hotel near the central plaza.. B:L:D

Morning to enjoy Cusco and we take you to the airport for connecting flights home. B