The difference in a rain forest and a jungle: The rain forest has open spaces, even if they are small, that allow you to walk through. The jungle is so thick that you would have to have a machete or some other tool to clear the way before you could walk through. Three nights at the Inkaterra Lodge seemed like a long time when we first made the reservations, but it has been just right. We have been on two excursions the day we arrived, three the second day, and ...

Edwin and a new driver picked us up to take us to the airport. We flew to the town of Puerto Maldonado in the Amazon river basin. We found the Inkaterra representatives at the tiny airport in just a few minutes. They retrieved our luggage, and we took a short bus ride with about 10 others to go to the river port. Then we all boarded a boat for a 45-minute ride on the Madre de Dios River to the Inkaterra Reserva Amazonica Lodge. As we traveled, the Inkaterra guide...

The hotel we stayed at last night was a former monastery. The grounds are beautiful and the buildings look authentic, but have been updated for the hotel . While we were eating breakfast, we watched one of the local women setting up her outdoor shop selling blankets, hats, and other handicrafts. Before she opened for business, she took branches, dipped them in water and tapped them on all the things she was selling. It looked like a way of blessing her sales. E...

After staying overnight at the Machu Picchu Sanctuary Lodge , we went back into the Lost Citadel for another look on our own. We wanted to stay at the Sanctuary Lodge so we would have ready access to the park all day. We were able to come and go on our tickets as we liked. We climbed up to the top so we could see the classic postcard view of Machu Picchu. We spent another several hours in the park on this second day here just to be sure we could soak up as much o...

From Poroy's station about 20 minutes away from the hotel, we boarded the Orient Express train, the Hiram Bingham, for the 3 1/2 hour trip to Aguas Calientes. The train was elegant with wonderful service and a fine brunch including good Peruvian wines. However, the train bumped along on the old track making the ride less than perfect. During the trip, we had a guide on board with us who explained about what we were seeing along the way and what we would see when ...