My first night in the Peruvian Amazon, I lay under a mosquito net, which was very effective, by the way, with no real barrier between me and the jungle. Picture this: a locked entry door, two connecting side walls and the fourth wall, which in a hotel usually opens into a balcony or window, was completely open to the beautifully wild rainforest.  

Our rooms were elevated a few feet off the ground for the larger animals who may make their way across the land, so we did have a railing, but otherwise that “wall” was open. No net. No screen. Just the sound of an entire rainforest doing its nighttime business a few feet from my face & ears. Can you say sensory overload? I have lived on four continents. I have hauled my family across oceans more times than I can count on both hands. And I had never once slept that close to wild, undomesticated nature without a wall between us. It rearranged something in me, so that is where this story has to start.

I went to Peru this year through AdventureELEVATE Latin America 2026, an ATTA conference partly sponsored by PromPeru. This conference is meant to elevate thinking and expand connections between sustainably minded travel and tourism companies and media professionals. The 40 of us split into four pods before regrouping for the conference the following week. This trip came about because PromPeru, Peru’s Tourism Bureau, partnered with ATTA to fly down a group of professional travel buyers and media to show us a Peru that has nothing to do with the version everyone already knows. Machu Picchu gets all the attention, and fair enough, it earns it. But it is also, at this point, seriously overtouristed, and Peru has entire worlds of history (pre-Inca) and experiences beyond that one Instagram shot. This trip was built to prove it. My pod landed in the Peruvian Amazon, based around the lodges run by Rainforest Expeditions: Posada Amazonas, Refugio Amazonas, and the Tambopata Research Center. 

Don’t think that by watching the videos I’ve linked, you’ve seen it all or understood the depth of the place, the people and the nature. If you value sustainability, love nature and have Peru on your bucket list – contact us so we can help you choose the right lodge for your travel group.

When I saw the pods being offered by ATTA & PromPeru for this FAM (Familiarization Trip), I knew almost immediately that I wanted to join Rainforest Expeditions! These are not resorts built in the jungle meant for you never to leave the property. On the contrary! They’ve built adventure and citizen science activities straight into daily life at the lodges instead of offering them as an optional add-on for guests who ask nicely. Every guide we had was genuinely trained in biodiversity monitoring, and travelers get pulled directly into the work: logging wildlife sightings, recording bird species, feeding real research on the Tambopata region. Your tourism dollars support indigenous communities, the destination’s ecology, and the research that helps keep it wild and thriving! That’s truly tourism dollars at work! 

Once the conference wrapped, I gave myself a bonus round and headed to Ica on my own time. This was not part of the official itinerary; it was mine, and I am so glad I made the call. Ica put me in the Pisco region for wine tastings that had absolutely no business being that good. It also gave me the chance to dig into Peru’s Afro-Peruvian culture and history, communities historically rooted in this part of the country whose influence on Peru’s music, dance, and food never makes it onto the postcard version most travelers picture. Experiencing that firsthand as an African American woman added a layer to this trip that I refuse to leave out of the story. It was not why the tourism bureau brought me down. It was something I found on my own, and it became one of the most meaningful stretches of the entire journey. I can’t wait to use this information to help shape another traveler’s trip into Southern Peru.

One thing to know about me is – I love Spice! In the Amazon, I got to try a hot sauce made fresh from what locals call the fish eye pepper, ají ojo de pescado, also known regionally as ají charapita. It is tiny, it is fruity, and it will absolutely humble you if you are not paying attention. I also tried the jungle’s own twist on the classic pisco sour, a coca sour made with coca leaves instead of the usual bitters. Coca gets a bad rap outside the Andes because of what it can be turned into. Still, in Peru the leaf itself is sacred, used for thousands of years in ceremonies, offerings, and daily life, chewed by farmers and travelers alike to fight altitude sickness and sustain them through long hours of work in the mountains. Tasting it folded into a cocktail was a small, unexpected way to touch that history.

Then there was the ceviche, which was obviously top-tier. The real star of any good ceviche is the leche de tigre it swims in, the citrusy, spicy marinade that actually cooks the fish, and I could have had it served to me in a shot glass and called it a full meal.

But my favorite dish of the entire trip, one I had never even tasted before landing in Peru, was causa (pictured above), especially filled with minced shrimp or fresh crab. Here is a fact that will change how you look at every potato you have ever eaten: Peru has more than four thousand documented potato varieties- yes, 4,000+. Causa is built specifically on papa amarilla, the yellow potato, which is soft, buttery, and practically melts into the dish when mashed. The recipe itself is deceptively simple: boiled yellow potato mashed with lime juice and ají amarillo paste, layered around a cold filling, chilled, and served. That is genuinely most of it. The potato is doing almost all of the work, and it does it beautifully.

Here is where I have to be honest with you, because this is the part that will actually save you money and heartbreak. I went in assuming two and a half weeks in Peru would comfortably include Machu Picchu, on top of everything else – without advanced planning. Reader, it did not.

Peru is enormous, and getting to know any one corner of it well means slowing down rather than speed-running a checklist, which is how I prefer to see any destination. My actual trip looked like this: a day in Lima to catch my breath, five nights deep in the jungle, back to Lima for a four-day conference, a spontaneous swing through Ica, and suddenly zero days left standing. Getting to Machu Picchu would have meant locking in tickets, including the train, before I ever packed a bag. I know this. I am a travel adviser. I say this exact thing to clients every week. And I still took it for granted on my own trip, assuming I would find a way to squeeze it in. I did not, and Machu Picchu is going to have to wait for round two in 2027 – join the journey! If you take one thing from this section, let it be this: Peru rewards travelers who pick fewer places and actually commit to them, and it punishes anyone who waits too long to lock in the logistics that matter most.

This was not a vacation. It was days spent learning to notice things I had spent a lifetime walking past, wrapped around a culture and a history that live in me differently than they do for most people who visit Peru. It was a conference well curated to provide me with the contacts needed to bring any South American trip to life for my clients in a sustainable and meaningful way, centered on luxury, romance, soft or mild adventure, cruising, local culture and, of course, the coveted downtime or any combination of those based on your need and interests! 

Machu Picchu will still be there. But so will the jungle, the wine country, and the Afro-Peruvian history that most travelers never even know to look for. If you want your travel to mean something, if you want to leave a place better informed instead of just better photographed, this is your kind of trip.

Ready to build something like this for yourself? Complete a Strategic Leisure Travel™ planning form at expatstraveling.com/planning and let’s get started.