PERU, WEAVING WORDS & WOMEN ADVENTURE
August 2 – 14, 2022
Registrations for 2022 are COMING IN!
Travel for 13 adventure-filled days and 12 relaxing nights with creative retreat leader Page Lambert and Brenda Porter, guide-extraordinaire.
$500 deposit secures your train ride and ticket into Machu Picchu, One of the Seven Modern Wonders of the World! Tickets require passport numbers and must be purchased now. We hope to have all registrations in by March 1st. For more details, please contact Page.
A note from Page about traveling under the Cloud of Covid:*
“I’m thrilled that Brenda is my co-guide. She is adept at leading adventures during these pandemic times when we’re all a little uneasy about traveling. Just in the last year, Brenda has led trips to Greece, Mexico, and Panama, as well as to Hawaii, Alaska, Arizona, New Mexico, and Wyoming. She plans to be in Peru this June, in advance of our August trip, and she is also in close touch with our local Peruvian guides, which gives her “on-the-ground” updates, plus years of experience. We’re lucky to have her! Here’s a photo of Brenda with Don Basilio during our Despacho Ceremony in 2016 (scheduled for Day 3 this year).”
A note from Brenda about guiding in these uneasy times:
“I find that once we’re at our destination, travel feels much like it always has, with local partners and venues eager to help make the tourist experience not only safe, but fun and rewarding.”
This 13-day trip includes lodging, meals, guides, fees, private ground transport, train tickets, entrance into Machu Picchu, and all other historic sites, museums, etc. on the agenda. Lodging at a Lima Airport hotel after your long flight is included, 6 nights in Peru’s beautiful Sacred Valley, 2 nights in Machu Picchu Pueblo—Gateway to the Ruins—and 3 nights in the Inca capital of Cusco.
WEAVING WORDS & WOMEN offers a rare opportunity to travel with other creative women, explore Peru’s Sacred Valley, and spend time with the Quechua women of the high Andes who have been crafting exquisite, hand-woven textiles for thousands of years. You may download a detailed itinerary here describing how we will spend each day, or scroll through the photos below for highlights of the adventure. Throughout the trip, Page will guide us with creative facilitation, enabling us to deepen our experiences by using written language and cultural narratives to expand our understanding and love of the Peruvian culture, while Brenda and our local Peruvian guides will help us gracefully navigate our way through Peru. We have carefully selected charming accommodations, including two nights in Aguas Calientes, the gateway to Machu Picchu. Unlike the ancient historic sites we’ll be visiting, our itinerary is not carved in stone and might need to be modified if unforeseen circumstances arise. *See Covid-19 Trip Health and Safety Policy under Trip Details.
During our stay in Pisac, a Quechua shaman will lead us in a traditional Incan despacho ceremony of intentions and letting go. Despacho describes the Andean practice of making offerings to the mountains (apus), Mother Earth (Pachamama), and other spirits of nature in reciprocity, reverence, and thanksgiving, a reminder of the connections we share with all beings, elements, spirits, and sacred places.
Each day will also be threaded with time to gather as a group so that Page can help us focus our creative energy, teaching us ways to weave together memories of the land, the women, and our adventures in this ancient Incan culture.
Watch the nimble fingers of the women weavers with their vibrant strands of wool.
Open the pages of your journal and weave your own tapestry with words.
Did We Mention the Markets and the Meals?
Where We Stay
Lima Airport Hotel
Wyndham Costa del Sol
1 night
When we arrive in Lima (usually after 9pm), our overnight stay is just across the street at the convenient Costa del Sol Wyndham Lima Airport Hotel. Early the next morning, we’ll fly from Lima to Cusco to begin our adventure. If you want to explore the coastal capital of Lima on your own after our 13-day adventure, remember to book your return flight to the States accordingly.
Andean Village of Pisac
Pisac Inn
Entry to the Sacred Valley
2 nights
Pisac Inn is a small, charming hotel ideally located on the historic plaza of Pisac in the beautiful Sacred Valley of the Incas, just 45 minutes outside of Cusco. Breathtaking mountains surround Pisac with the beautiful Urubamba (Wilkamayu) River running through the valley’s fertile heart.
Ollantaytambo
Apu Lodge Bed & Breakfast
Cobblestone Portal to Machu Picchu
4 nights
Aguas Calientes
Tierra Viva
Machu Picchu Hotel
2 nights
We’ll arrive in Aguas Calientes mid-morning on Day 8, with time to check into the lovely Tierra Viva Hotel, explore the town, enjoy a leisurely dinner, and rest up for our bucket-list adventure to Machu Picchu on Day 9. Located in the History Sanctuary, Tierra Viva is conveniently located on Avenida Hermanos Ayar along the Urubamba River. The Sanctuary serves as a transition zone between the Andes and the lowland rainforest, creating a unique biodiversity. With mild climate and high rainfalls, sharing samples of the fauna and flora of the high mountainous areas and the ones found in the Amazon. After Machu Picchu, we will return to Aguas Caliente for a relaxing evening.
Cusco – High in the Andes
Casa San Blas Boutique Hotel
Heart of the Incan Empire
3 nights
Trip Details
The trip dates are August 2 – 14, 2022. The total trip cost is $5,380 (based on double occupancy).* This includes all ground transportation, but does not include airfare to and from Lima, nor roundtrip airfare from Lima to Cusco. If you wish to have a single room, there is an additional supplement of $950. This also includes two additional nights of lodging at Machu Picchu (not included in prior years).
A non-refundable deposit of $500 is due with registration. A second deposit of $2440 is due March 1, 2022, and the third and final deposit of $2440 is due May 1, 2022. Please download and read the registration form carefully so that you understand the cancellation policy. Because we want this to be a “small group” experience rather than a large group tour experience, we have limited the trip to a maximum of 12 women guests. Trip insurance is highly recommended. We find Insure My Trip to be a good resource. If we cancel the trip for any reason, you will receive a full refund. *Please note, there is a 3.5% fee for PayPal transactions.
Covid-19 Trip Health and Safety Policy: We will make every effort toward Covid-19 safety through careful consideration of our accommodations and activities, as well as healthy practices with frequent hand-washing and wearing masks in public areas as required when social distancing is not possible. Consistent with health regulations as updated March 7, 2022, by the U.S. Embassy in Peru, all travelers must be fully vaccinated 14 days prior to boarding an incoming flight to Peru, OR must present a molecular test with a negative result (within 48 hours) prior to boarding. Because of the fluid nature of the situation, we will continue to re-evaluate our trip guidelines.
What’s Included
Everything that you’ll need during your stay in Peru is included in the trip price, except for bottled drinking water. This includes three meals a day, lodging, all fees for the activities, ground transportation within the country, tour guides, and all creative facilitation. You will want to bring some extra money to purchase bottled drinking water, and in case you want special snacks, alcoholic drinks, gifts and souvenirs, or if you think you may get a wild idea to do something extra that’s not in the plans. Optional spa treatments and the optional horseback ride to Pumamarca are not included (van transportation to Pumamarca is included). Please plan a little extra in your budget for optional activities.
Please download and read the Logistical Details form, which includes more helpful information about flights, trip insurance, medical matters, weather, high altitude, etc.
Please read the Release of Liability form, which includes an assumption of risk and indemnification agreement, and which will require your signature before the trip begins.
About Page Lambert
Page Lambert’s writing is found inside monumental sculptures at the Denver Art Museum, online at Huffington Post, and in dozens of anthologies about the West. Nominated for two Pushcart Prizes, she designs and teaches graduate writing courses for the University of Denver’s professional creative writing program. Recently published works include poems “Reclamation” (Summer/Winter 2020, Langscape Magazine/Terralingua), “Alone at Pranzo’s” (Summer 2020, Ocotillo Review/Kallisto Gaia Press), essays “Not for Sale” (Langscape Magazine, 2018), “The Rural West” (The Light Shines from the West, Fulcrum Books, 2018), and “Deerstalking” (Memoir Magazine, Guns and People Issue, 2018).
Author of the memoir In Search of Kinship (Fulcrum Publishing), hailed by the Rocky Mountain News when it was released as one of the summer’s hottest reads, and the novel Shifting Stars (a Mountains and Plains Book Award finalist) by Tor/Forge Publishing, her essays and poems are found in dozens of anthologies, including the Willa award-winning Writing Down the River, and West of 98: Living and Writing the American West. Other awards include two Fellowships for Literary Excellence from the Wyoming Arts Council, “Best Essay of the Year Award” from the Colorado Authors’ League; and the Orlando Nonfiction Award from A Room of Her Own Foundation, and the 2015 Writer’s Studio Best Fiction Award.
Lambert has been leading outdoor adventures and writing workshops for twenty-five years, sometimes working in partnership with organizations such as True Nature Journeys, The Women’s Wilderness Institute, the Grand Canyon Field Institute, and the Aspen Writers’ Foundation. In 2006, Oprah’s O magazine featured her River Writing Journeys for Women as “One of the top six great all-girl getaways of the year.”
Co-founder of Women Writing the West, Lambert is a member of the International League of Conservation Writers, an advisor for the Rocky Mountain Land Library, and a senior associate with the Children & Nature Network. She writes the blog All Things Literary/All Things Natural from her Colorado home in the mountains west of Denver.
Brenda and two of Page’s 2016 Peru, Weaving Words guests.
About Brenda Porter
Brenda Porter is passionate about creating opportunities for people to connect with nature and cultures throughout the world, especially in Peru. She is adept at traveling and leading adventure travel trips during the pandemic. In the past year, she has led trips to the international destinations of Greece, Mexico, and Panama, as well as domestic trips in Hawaii, Alaska, Arizona, New Mexico, and Wyoming. She is planning to lead another trip to Peru in June, 2022, and so will have recent experience to inform our August adventure.
Brenda’s biggest takeaway for travel now is that once at the destination, travel feels much like it always has, with local partners and venues wanting and needing tourists.
She has led participants, typically women in their 50’s-70’s, who are fully vaccinated and healthy, and wanting to continue to live their lives, while taking health precautions such as wearing masks when indicated. She knows it is not unusual to have concerns about Covid, changing requirements or restrictions. By addressing fears and being flexible to changing logistics, participants have had rewarding experiences getting back into the world.
She has led treks in the Andes and groups in Machu Picchu multiple times—this will be her fourth trip with Page. Brenda learned Spanish as a Peace Corps volunteer in Honduras, when she lived in a rural village, working in women’s community development. For many years, she has supported the inspiring work of the nonprofit, Peruvian Hearts, based in Cusco, Peru.
She has guided adventure travel trips and taught outdoor skills courses for several companies and nonprofits, including REI, Adventures in Good Company and True Nature Journeys. Brenda has guided groups to Everest Base Camp and Kilimanjaro, as well as led countless hiking trips in North America, Europe, and South America. Currently, she teaches outdoor watercolor classes for REI and volunteers to lead “Hike and Sketch” outings for open space parks.
Brenda’s love of world travel and cultures began with a Girl Scout cultural exchange in India when she was in high school. Her formal education includes a B.S in Biology Education and a Masters in Nonprofit Management.
Brenda is an avid reader, journaler, naturalist, watercolor artist, and gardener. She lives in a co-housing community in Golden, CO with her wife and Kali, the golden retriever. Her website is www.brendaclairecreative.com
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