Our car will pick you up from your hotel in the ancient Inca capital of Cusco (altitude 3.338 m / 10,952 ft) at 9:00 am. From here, it is a one-hour drive to our ranch in the Sacred Valley of the Incas. Our riding centre is perfectly located in the heart of the Sacred Valley, between Cusco and Machu Picchu, the famous lost city of the Incas. Today you will have the opportunity to become familiar with our beautiful Peruvian Paso horses and traditional Peruvian riding gear. Upon arrival at the ranch you will be given a fantastic display of Peruvian Equitation by your half-Peruvian/half Dutch host, Eduard (you will soon get to know him as Eddy), and also by his Peruvian chalan (horse trainer). After the demonstration you will then have the opportunity to have a go yourself and we will forgive you for feeling a little nervous prior to mounting these magnificent animals! After evaluation of your riding ability and in accordance with your horse-preference, we will match riders to their mounts and inform you about our safety instructions on the trails.

Around 12:30 pm, we will enjoy a typical Peruvian barbecue at the ranch. A Pisco Sour (our national cocktail) is part of the Peruvian tradition and, of course, included. As the day cools we will climb with the horses almost 800 m (2,600 ft.) to the reach the Andean altiplano. The climb takes about two hours, and will be at an easy pace. Once at 3600 m / 11,800 ft., the stunning scenery and the snow-capped mountains of Chicon, Veronica and Pumahuanca are awesome. On our way up we pass Salinas, the saltpans from Inca times, still being used by the locals to extract salt from the mountain spring water. The saltpans consist of a series of platforms where the salty water is channeled through an impressive irrigation system and left to evaporate in the sun. Take plenty of film to capture this unique sight. We will ride to Maras, a typical Andean village known for its intricately carved doorframes, where we meet our back-up car and staff, leave the horses with our grooms for the night at a safe place nearby, and drive back to the valley. The night is spent at the Hotel Sonesta Posada del Inca. After a welcome warm shower and a rest we’ll have dinner at one of Urubamba’s famous local restaurants.

Riding time: 4-5 hours.

After breakfast, we will transport you to the point of departure to meet our horses. From Maras we follow primitive trails across the altiplano to visit the ruins of Cheqoq. At Cheqoq, the Incas constructed fascinating cold-storage depots (pre-Hispanic refrigerators) to conserve the agricultural products of the region. Cooling of the products was achieved by using a genius system of underground air-circulation.

From Cheqoq we ride toward Mahuapampa to reach the agricultural terraces of Moray.

Hundreds of years ago, people in this region took four huge natural depressions in the landscape and sculpted them into levels of agricultural terraces that served as an experimental agricultural station for the development of different crop strains. This was possible due to a fascinating phenomenon: the climates of several different ecological zones were present at a single site. In the thirty or so meters of altitude between the bottom and top levels of Moray's main depression, scientist John Earls recorded a full 15 degrees Celsius (59 deg. F) difference in temperature. That is equal to the difference between the mean annual temperatures of London and Bombay. It is likely that Moray played a key role in the original transformation of maize into a high-altitude crop. There are no great ruined structures in Moray to impress; it is more for the contemplative traveler with an affinity for such phenomena as the Nazca Lines, the stone rings of Avebury and the menhirs of Brittany.

From Moray we continue our ride back to Maras and are surrounded by chacra mosaics, perfect rectangles of potato, corn, and wheat crops planted right into the sides of the mountains. We will meet smiling Quechua children with their herds of sheep or cattle and see campesinos ploughing their fields in the traditional way, with oxen hitched to a wooden plough.

From Maras we make our way down to the base of the valley and back to our ranch. After a Pisco Sour or a cold beer at the ranch, a private car will take you back to Cusco late in the afternoon.

Riding time: 5 - 6 hours.

Altitude: from 2.800 to 3.600 m / 9,200 – 11,800 ft.

The itinerary is flexible. Changes may occur due to weather and other unforeseeable circumstances.