Jane Dunford writes about the peruvian natural and cultural heritage.
It's a noise that would shake you from the deepest sleep. A cross between roaring wind, guttural grunt and small plane taking off, it echoes eerily in the dawn air. From the comfort of my mosquito-net tented bed I try to work out what it is - and marvel at the early-morning din of the Peruvian Amazon.
Around 60 per cent of Peru is tropical rainforest - only Brazil and the Democratic Republic of Congo have more - and my lodge, Inkaterra Reserva Amazonica in Tambopata National Park, is in one of the wildest areas in the country (and, as I found out that morning, home to the noisy howler monkey).
Back in the early 1970s, when eco-tourism was hardly a twinkle in the travel industry's eye, Peruvian entrepreneur Jose Koechlin had the idea for a small tourist lodge and environmental research centre in the heart of the jungle. He had been working as a producer on Werner Herzog's madcap film Aguirre, the Wrath of God, starring the volatile Klaus Kinski as a Spanish conquistador searching for El Dorado, filmed largely in Huallaga in the north-eastern Amazon. Despite the treacherous working conditions - and Kinski's legendary tantrums - Koechlin developed a passion for the rainforest and started looking for somewhere to set up an ecological reserve.
The Puerto Maldonado region - a short flight from Cuzco, with relatively easy access to virgin rainforest - proved just the place. Inkaterra Reserva Amazonica and its sister NGO, the Inka Terra Association, were born, with the aim of helping preserve what was there, and benefiting local people, too.
"When you like something you want to keep the picture as is, freeze it - that's conservation,' says Koechlin.
These days the lodge has electricity should you prefer bulbs to lanterns, the original six thatched huts have grown to 40 luxurious cabanas, and more camps have popped up along the river - but in essence the experience remains the same: total immersion in a pristine environment which boasts a diversity of wildlife almost without equal.
You arrive at Reserva Amazonica by boat, a 45-minute river trip from Puerto Maldonado in staggering heat and humidity along the Madre de Dios river. Nature's show starts as soon as we board: a cayman is basking on the muddy bank; turkey vultures fly overhead. We pass makeshift gold mines at the water's edge - this is one of the area's main industries beside brazil nut production. In the lodge's garden, before we even reach our rooms, we gawp at a pigmy marmoset (the world's smallest monkey), incredible coloured parrots and a bumbling brown agouti (a long-legged rodent the size of a small cat).
There are 15km of trails for guided rainforest walks in the reserve (a 7,800- hectare concession leased from the government), and a choice of 13 excursions included in the price, from a day trip to the native Ese Eja community to a visit to Gamitana model farm, where locals are taught sustainable farming techniques.
With the knowledgeable Cesar as our guide, we head to Lake Sandoval, a boat ride and short trek away. The trails wind through dense forest, where the slab-like roots of kapok trees are three metres wide, while those of the rainforest palm resemble stilts, and giant strangler fig trees suck the life out of their victims. Extraordinary creatures pop up: vivid blue Morpho butterflies the size of birds (one of 1,265 butterfly species found here) and vicious neumon wasps, whose habit it is to lay its eggs on unwary tarantulas, the larvae later feeding on and killing the spider. 'Mean, eh,' shrugs Cesar.
As we canoe out onto the lake, the stillness is broken only by occasional birdsong and the sound of paddles in the water. The strangest bird is the hoatzin, pear-shaped with a blue face, extra claws on its wings and an extra stomach. In the distance three giant otters bob about in the water - there are only 200 of them in Peru and 18 of them live in this lake.
But this is not the only way of experiencing the jungle: you get another view of it from the reserve's canopy walk, which takes you over 30m up into the tree tops - and a different view again from the river by night, on a magical boat trip with flashing fireflies, fishing bats, cayman eyes shining red in the torchlight, and the Milky Way overhead.
The morning I flew to Peru, I heard on the news about an uncontacted rainforest tribe being spotted from a plane by a film crew looking for evidence of illegal logging. It had taken place about two hours (by helicopter) north of Reserva Amazonica, but brought home just how vast and mysterious the rainforest is - you really don't know what's out there.
Helping scientists explore and record the rainforest's diversity has always been part of Koechlin's plan, and new plant and animal species have been discovered thanks to Inkaterra's work. Sponsored research has found more ant species (362) at Reserva Amazonica than anywhere else in the world, a book on reptiles and amphibians based on study here took 18 years to compile, and a new tome, researched with the Missouri Botanical Garden and completed over 25 years, describes 1,266 plant species. But Koechlin sees this as just a beginning: 'You need data to conserve. We've spent the past 30 years just trying to learn what is out there.'
With the rainforest being eaten into by logging, mining and farming, the conservation message is ever more crucial. Another challenge looms in the shape of the Inter-Ocean Highway, which will run from the Atlantic coast of Brazil to the Pacific coast of Peru when it opens in three years' time, slicing through the Madre de Dios region. The impact it will have can only be guessed.
Besides research, various projects to preserve the environment and its wildlife include a monkey rescue programme and a reforestation scheme, while locals benefit from initiatives to set up family orchards or honey-making businesses. Guests can donate money to specific projects and see the benefits first-hand.
Koechlin's desire to conserve continued in his second venture - the Inkaterra Machu Picchu Pueblo Hotel, in the mountains at Aguas Calientes, 70 miles north-west of Cuzco, which opened in 1991. Some 11 acres of the land purchased were used to build a school, a railway station and a market, while 12 acres are dedicated to preserving the Andean cloud forest in the hotel's grounds.
The only way to reach Aguas Calientes is by train - a breathtaking four-hour journey from Cuzco or hour and a half from Ollantaytambo - or on foot. The reason for coming here is, of course, the lost Inca city of Machu Picchu, a short drive from the town. It took the Incas nearly 20 years to clear the jungle before they could begin building, back in the early 16th century. And when Hiram Bingham rediscovered it nearly 400 years later, dense vegetation hid the enormity of the find. We might not have earned our first sight of the city by walking the Inca Trail, but are still treated to bright sunshine lighting the awe-inspiring ruins and surrounding mountains. Despite endless studies, knowledge of Machu Picchu's function is sketchy. With its temples to the sun, priests' houses and residential areas, it may have been, recent theories suggest, a sacred retreat for Inca royalty, abandoned when the Spanish arrived in Cuzco in the 1550s.
Even without Machu Picchu nearby, the Machu Picchu Pueblo Hotel is worth the journey. Its grounds hold a world record for native orchid species (375) in their natural habitat and six new species have been discovered here. It's also home to one of the world's biggest concentrations of hummingbirds - 18 species flit by in tiny blurs of gem colours.
I find myself glued to my binoculars on an early-morning birdwatching walk - except when I'm peering through a magnifying glass at the tiny mosquito orchid, less than a centimetre across. On a lantern-lit twilight stroll we learn about the ancient Andean religion, with sun and mountain worship at its heart, and round off the day in the Andean sauna, a small thatched hut made of eucalyptus branches, where you sit and sweat by candlelight before leaping into the rock pool fed by a cold spring.
It's an idyllic place to relax. Andean trout and alpaca steaks are top choices in the two restaurants, bedrooms and lounges have roaring open fires, there are yoga classes in a glass-walled room overlooking Vilcanota River, and the spa's treatment list includes 'Inka purification' which involves a body wrap made from the sacred coca leaf.
Peru's diverse landscape is one of the country's key attractions, and after a couple of days at Machu Picchu we head back up to the ochre mountains and gushing rivers of the Sacred Valley, the site of Inkaterra's Urubamba Villas, which opened in 2006.
It's at an altitude of 2,800m, so our guide Maria-Cristina hands round coca tea and has us chewing coca leaves, rolled into little balls, which she says will alleviate altitude sickness. We sit staring at her like disbelieving hamsters.
The valley is home to some spectacular Inca sites, such as Ollantaytambo, the best surviving example of Inca city planning, with its narrow cobblestone streets and vast hill-top temple and fortress, from where they battled the conquistadors. Feeling slightly breathless and lightheaded with the altitude we climb slowly to the top, marvelling at the size of the finely cut granite boulders - which fit together like a glove, no mortar required - and the huge, steep terraces, once used for farming.
We follow the Urubamba River south to the village of Pisac, where the Sunday market is in full swing. There are a few stalls selling alpaca hats and socks to tourists, but most of the old market square still serves its original purpose. Highland women in colourful dress, with bright knee-length socks and trilby hats, come to exchange produce in an ancient trade called trueque. If you're a potato lover you're in the right place - spuds are the backbone of Peruvian cuisine, in dozens of varieties including the black, dehydrated chuno. There's maize of all kinds, another staple, used to make the local corn beer, chicha. It's been the drink of the Andes for millennia - the Incas used chicha for ritual purposes - and today you can stop at roadside chicharia (marked with red ribbon tied to a stick), and join the locals for a frothy, homemade brew.
Here in the highlands, 80 per cent of people still speak Quechua, the language of the Incas, and life marries ancient tradition and beliefs with 21st-century ways. Mass at the church in Pisac is in Quechua, and religion blends Catholic and Inca traits - the Virgin Mary, for example, is associated with the earth mother, Pachamama. At the village bakery, along with cheese and tomato empanadas (like pasties), you can tuck in to roast guinea pig. It's a highly regarded national dish, often cooked with huacatay, an aromatic herb. In the Cathedral in Cusco a painting depicting the Last Supper has Christ and his companions feasting on the rodent. But I can't bring myself to try it; memories of beloved pets suddenly seem too vivid.
After a day out exploring, returning to the Urubamba Villas feels like coming home. Each of the five two- and three-bedroom villas has its own housekeeper from the local area, who prepares dinner and breakfast (the quinoa pancakes are a treat), lights the fires, and even puts a hot-water bottle in your bed at night.
But this is not the limit of Koechlin's plans. Inkaterra Titilaka, an 18-suite 'exploration lodge and refuge' on Lake Titicaca - the highest navigable lake in the world and birthplace of Incan civilisation, according to legend - opens in February. Floor-to-ceiling windows and wrap-around terraces make the most of the breathtaking views, while there's no scrimping on luxuries like heated floors. Days will be spent visiting local communities, colonial churches and the nearby man-made floating islands of the Uros people, exploring by boat or four-wheel-drive, or on horseback.
In Cuzco a 16th-century colonial house has been converted into the city's first boutique hotel, Inkaterra La Casona, also opening in February. The mansion, in the old quarter of Cuzco, was built on the site of the Palace of Manco Capac, founder of the Inca Empire, and then used by the first Spanish conquistadors. The 11 open-plan suites have all mod cons, including iPods and plasma TVs, while maintaining historic features such as original frescoes, and guests will have use of a private car, driver and guide.
And later in the year, his 15-suite Peru Explorers Club will open in Lima, in the coastal Barranco neighbourhood, playground of the capital's creative elite. Guests will be able to get under the city's skin with the help of expert guides, and luxuries will range from a modern spa to a butler service. Not forgetting its roots, though, Inkaterra is working with local communities in Lima, funding a project for hearing-impaired children and adults (guests are invited to make donations). Koechlin's mission to make tourism work for his country continues.
