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Peru, Machu Picchu , Corpus Christi celebrations and the Incas

6,950 US$

A photographic tour to Cuzco, Peru coinciding with the celebration of Corpus Christi with Sacred Valley and Machu Pichu with an extension to Puno and lake Titicaca Including Festival of the Campesinos

This photographic discovery tour will explore the lives of people of Cuzco, Peru and surrounding areas, particularly the indigenous Quechua descendants of the Incas as did great photographers like Martin Chambi and Irving Penn.

In fact, in Cuzco, we will set up an open air studio for an afternoon in a picturesque courtyard or other typical place where we can photograph families, older people, kids, etc.- real people, bringing them in off the street during the celebrations.

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Peru Photo TOur

HIGHLIGHTS

  • - The Corpus Cristi Festivity, in the beautiful city of Cusco.
  • - We will reserve an open courtyard area to use as a studio for portraits of the local people we bring in from the street, Irving Pen style.
  • - Cusco architecture: beautiful post-colonial and Inca architecture. The main city was declared in 1983 World Heritage site by UNESCO.
  • - Machu Picchu: you will feel the power of the most famous religious sanctuary in the world, declared World Heritage Sanctuary in 1983. We will look for mystical photographic opportunities and talk about how to best convey the spiritual feeling of Machu Picchu through photography.
  • - Travel with Harry Fisch, an award winning travel photographer .
  • - We will have reviews sessions, and analyze the photos we have taken together. We will give you important tips to improve your photography skills.
  • - We will visit the most magnificent Inca ruins in Qenqo, Pucca Pucara, Tambo Machay, and to Koricancha.
  • - We will be in the Sacred Valley and capture the beautiful and sharp landscapes.
  • - We will photograph the locals in the most impressive market of the Sacred Valley, Pisac Market. An opportunity to create amazing photographs of Peruvian daily life, that includes time getting to know silver traders, cocoa leaf sellers, street food vendors, etc.

 

This photographic discovery tour will explore the lives of people of Cuzco, Peru and surrounding areas, particularly the indigenous Quechua descendants of the Incas as did great photographers like Martin Chambi and Irving Penn.


In fact, in Cuzco, we will set up an open air studio for an afternoon in a picturesque courtyard or other typical place where we can photograph families, older people, kids, etc.- real people, bringing them in off the street during the celebrations. The centerpiece of the trip will be the elaborate Corpus Christi celebration in Cuzco with processions and events will provide an incredible depth of photographic opportunity with locals and people from villages around Cuzco participating or watching this colorful, authentic, exotic event.


In the countryside, we will photograph people in small towns, in their homes, on their farms working, etc. real situations, not contrived shots of weavers at the typical tourist sites. We will discover unique and special photographic opportunities to individually interpret and capture quintessential photographs, each according to his interest and inspiration. While we will concentrate on people, the pictorial vistas and landscapes of the Andes and the altiplano with glaciers and snow capped peaks make a perfect backdrop for our people photographs as well as dramatic landscape studies.


Fabled Machu Picchu, the Lost City of the Incas will surely be a highlight of the trip. Unknown to the Spanish during and after the Conquest, Machu Picchu was not discovered until in 1911.
We will visit the site and discover the best vantage points and vistas for photography. We will remain in the site after most of the tourists have left to take the train back to Cuzco. We overnight in the hamlet along the riverside far below and in the morning we will be among the first to enter the site when it opens- long before the trains arrive with tourists arrive. This gives us a unique opportunity for late afternoon and early morning photographs with the fewest tourists and the best light.

I really liked the level of organization with our trip. Our leader, Harry, was very knowledgeable about the places in India that we went. I think having so much context for our destination improved the quality of our photos by a lot, and Harry understood that very well. He was helpful and very personable, but dedicated to getting a good artistic result, not just fulfilling the itinerary. He went above and beyond and put it a lot of extra time and effort with anyone who asked. Plus, the accommodation was great. It wasn’t any 5 star luxury hotel, but it was always cozy, and best, close to the places we went to photograph, so we didn’t waste time in commute when we could have been working.

A.L. Thompson



ITINERARY

Day 1.-  ARRIVE LIMA.- 

Introduction to the peculiarities of the photo tour, briefing.


Day 2.-  LIMA/CUZCO/SACRED VALLEY 

Transfer to Sacred Valley stopping at the Maras salt mines in afternoon light with walk down to the Urubamba River. Pick up at the river and drive to Ollantaytambo and overnight.

The Maras salt pans are terraces on a hillside which make dramatic composition, especially in the late afternoon sun. We will walk to them from above and engage the workers. From there, we walk downhill to the Urubamba River through wheat fields looking for field workers amid the picturesque scenery. Our van picks us up at the river and we drive to Ollantaytambo for overnight.

Late afternoon/ early evening photo walk in this authentic original Inca town where there are always people in the streets and Plaza. This is a pedestrian town, easy and convenient to walk around and out hotel is just a couple of blocks from downtown and the Plaza. The plaza and cobblestone back streets are full of people in native dress going about their daily activities.

We will create people photo ops, posed and unposed over the 2 days and nights we will be in Ollantaytambo with plenty of time for photo discovery walks with our guide visiting families in their homes, working with people in the streets.

This town is the site of the Inca ruins of Ollantaytambo that rise steeply up the hill on the edge of town, pictorial in and of themselves but also making a dramatic backdrop for character portraits of Inca descendants. Additionally, there are small farms on the edge of town we can easily walk to for shots people working the land and working with llamas and other animals.

Overnight Ollantaytambo

 

Day 3.-  SACRED VALLEY, SMALL VILLAGES, OLLANTAY. 

Full day Camicancha & Ollantaytambo. This day is all about people in a remote village. We know some people from this village who work as porters for the Inca trail trek and we have a very good rapport and relationship with the people there. Will have unprescedented access to the people in this village. We will see and photograph them in their homes and fields at their daily activities. This is unique and different.

Return yo Ollantaytambo in the afternoon and photowalk through the town. Guide will get us into a multigenerational private residence with permission to photograph the family.

Overnight Ollantaytambo

 

Day 4.-  SACRED VALLEY. PISAC MARKET. AMARU, PARU VILLAGES. 

This is the Sunday local market in Pisac in the Sacred valley. It features locals bartering for grain and vegetables, and colorful weavings etc. There are lots of indigenous people there dressed in typical clothing. Lots of colorful handicrafts for sale make a great backdrop for people shots.

We’ll get there early for the good light and to beat the other visitors. Later, driving to a more remote village (Amaru or Paru Paru) in the surrounding hills we will find dramatic, sweeping vistas bejeweled by white capped mountains and glaciers. We will look for campesinos to photograph in the fields or along the road. Often we see them herding llamas across the altiplano. At the village, a local villager will introduce us to the families and show us how they live in this remote village still using ancient farming tools and methods. We can pose them for photographs.

Overnight Ollantaytambo


Day 5.-  MACHU PICCHU. 

Today is the visit to the extraordinary Machu Picchu. Machu Picchu is a historical and archaeological site, a must see for sure, with lots of quintessential photo opps. We will enjoy a great experience with guided introduction to the site the first day and then independent shooting morning the second day before returning to Cuzco.

Breakfast, then we walk the few hundred meters to the train station from our hotel (porters will transport the bags and gear). The open air train station along the Urubamba River is always a great place for photos of the locals (mosty indigenous ladies and their children

Train to Aguas Calientes
Shuttle bus & entrance to Machu Picchu

Guided tour of this magnificient architectural site, Dramatically beautiful, the terraced site is perched on a saddle between two hills at a location where the Urubamba River makes a horseshoe bend, literally wrapping 3 sides of the strategic site with the steep valley walls and river far below. Both the guide and I will escort the pax to numerous vantage points that will allow the pax to make dramatic photos of the site, its location/ orientation, and also capture the quintessential magazine spread style shots of Machu Picchu.

In the late afternoon return to Aguas Calientes

Overnight Aguas Calientes


Day 6.-  MACHU PICCHU - CUZCO.

Free morning to explore Machu Picchu independently
In the afternoon train to Ollanta.

Dinner at El Albergue restaurant (located in Ollanta) This restaurant is in the hacienda right at the train station. We will request access to the kitchen for photos of the chef and meals being prepared. After dinner, our bus will take us to Cuzco. Arrive early evening. Hotel located just a couple of blocks from the Plaza de Armas and the procession route.

Tonight lots of festivities in the streets.

Overnight Cuzco


Day 7.-  FULL DAY OF CORPUS CHRISTI. 

Full day Corpus Christi we will explore the best vantage points for viewing and photographing the procession and participants. 

Additionally, today we will reserve an open courtyard area to use as a studio for portraits of the local people we bring in from the street. An Irving Penn style environment, where we will be doing character portrait studies of some of the indigenous people dressed for the celebration. These portraits can be formal or informal and stylized as your taste and interest leads you.

Martin Chambi was the great Cuzco photographer who memorialized the people of Cuzco in the 20’s, Irvng Penn, the New York photographer in the 50’s captured some timeless photographs in a courtyard setting. .

It will be an amazing opportunity for the pax. Of course, today we will spend lots of time in the streets shooting the people in the processions carrying the saints to the cathedral,etc. We will enjoy photo walk and independent shooting opportunities.

Overnight Cuzco


Days 8 & 9.- CORPUS CHRISTI & SAN PEDRO MARKET. 


Full day Corpus Christi with guides. The festivities heat up today and tomorrow and celebrations go all day and in to the night. One entire plaza is dedicated to food vendors serving snacks and meals. Roasted Quy are arranged in poses with each other and fresh vegetables. Trout, quinoa, potatoes, and exotic vegetables are served. The chicha flows freely.

We will schedule a structured photo shoot in pre-scouted locations around town with typical backgrounds like perfectly fit Inca stone walls including the famous12 sided stone. We will also, time permitting walk the few blocks to the local market where vendors sell everything from vegetables and alpaca meat to handicrafts.


Overnight Cuzco


Day 10.-  CUZCO-LIMA- INTRN FLIGHTS or EXTENSION TO PUNO.



EXTENSIONS

Puno, Lake Titicaca (10 Jun 2023)


 

Day 1.- CUZCO / LAMPA / PUNO   

Early transfer by bus to Puno, stopping to see and photograph the indigenous celebrations in Lampa. On to Puno late in the afternoon.

Overnight Puno Hotel. 

 

Day 2.-  PUNO / UROS / TAQUILE ISLAND

Very early in the morning we will go by boat to the Uros island in the Titicaca lake, the highest navigable lake in the world. The Titicaca lake is just so impressive. Its name means: The stone Cougar. A sacred animal in Peru culture. If you turn over the map of Titicaca lake you might see the outline of a cougar jumping.  We will be photographing the Uros in one of their 42 islands in the middle of the Titicaca lake where they settled down for defensive purposes. 

Overnight Taquile in homestay.

 

Day 3.- TAQUILE / AMANTANI / PUNO 

Taquile is an aymara island where 2500 people live on it perpetuating aymara customs such as knitting etc. We will go out of the beaten track visiting a weaver family in the most peaceful part of the island.

Overnight Puno Hotel. 

 

Day 4.- PUNO / LIMA / HOME   

Transfer out for flight to Lima and intl flight home

 



Prices per person
6 Participants 6,950 US$


Supplements
Single Room Supplement Main Trip 700 US$
Single Room Supplement Optional Extension 480 US$


Extensions
Puno, Lake Titicaca 3,250 US$


WHAT'S INCLUDED

 

INCLUDED

 

Prices are per person. A limited quantity of single-occupancy rooms are available for an additional charge.

 

The maximum number of participants are listed under "Maximum Group" in the Price section of each individual workshop. However, we reserve the right to add by up to two the maximum number of participants per workshop at any time.

 

INCLUDED

 

- Harry Fisch or/and Roberto Pazzi leading the tour

-All meals while in Peru, breakfasts, lunches and dinners except two meals on you own.

-Private, set Photo Sessions

-First-class accommodations in hotel in Cuzco

-Local, good 4 stars or boutique  hotels elsewhere,  

-All local ground transportation

-Admission to all visits and public buildings listed in itinerary

-Coordination of all listed activities

 

NOT  INCLUDED

 

-International Flights

-Soft drinks and/or alcoholic beverages with the meals

-Internal Flights (aprox 120 $ main Itinerary, 150 $ Optional Extension). We will book the flights on your behalf.

-Tips for local guides and drivers

-Items or services other than listed on itinerary

-Individual house/hotel expenses (minibar, room service, laundry fees, etc.)

-Medical Insurance

 

 

DEPOSIT

 

A deposit of $ 1,000 per person is required to guarantee your reservation, which will be applied towards the cost of your tour.

 

Deposits are generally non-refundable, except in rare cases when we cannot confirm all components of a booking at the purchase price.

 

FINAL PAYMENT:  

 

Any pending balance must be paid in full at least 90 days prior to departure.