HORSE PACK TRIPS & TRAIL RIDES

MANU EXPEDITIONS Cusco, Peru www.manuexpeditions.com
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Overview

Manu Expeditions counts on a reliable team of wranglers for the mountains, and trained camp cooks for remote areas. Trip leaders are fluent in at least English, Quechua and Spanish. They are experts in their fields. Leaders on mountain trips and rides are knowledgeable about Inca history, archeology and local culture. Manu Expeditions prides themselves on the quality of their leaders and support staff, not to mention the office staff in Cusco that makes things work.

Manu Expeditions can take care of your travel arrangements in Peru and Bolivia before or after you join one of their expeditions or tours and can arrange transport and hotels needed throughout. If you want to do something that's not in an information package, for example visit Chachapoyas, Tambopata, Paracas or elsewhere, let Manu Expeditions know and they can make your travel arrangements for you.

About Horse Rides
On all horse rides, no previous riding experience is necessary. Manu Expeditions raises and trains horses at their ranch in the Sacred Valley of the Incas at the village of Lamay. Manu Expeditions owns special mountain-bred horses descended from noble Spanish Barbs brought from Spain in the 1500s. Crossed with the comfortable but less sure-footed Paso breed, Manu Expeditions' mountain horses give a strong, comfortable ride with greater endurance, stability and reliability needed for steep Inca trails and Andean mountain trails. Full bred Peruvian Pasos are a wonderful breed and a pleasure to ride on flat terrain but struggle woefully on mountain trails. Pasos were bred for working large sugar and cotton plantations on the Peruvian coast and have never really been comfortable at high altitude and are mostly kept as pets and showcase horses at large tourist hotels. Having some Paso blood in you bloodline, however, is desirable.

Well trained, sure-footed, no nonsense horses are smaller than American and European saddle horses but carry us over the high passes with amazing energy. They also have smaller horses suitable for younger riders and the horses are used to children. Manu limits rider weight to 220 lbs/100kg. The tack consists of comfortable padded, American-style saddles based on US cavalry design, with locally made and traditional Peruvian stirrups and reins. Manu provides large water-proof saddle bags for all riders.

Extensive riding experience is not a prerequisite but due to the steep rugged terrain, prior familiarity around horses is recommended. However, Manu does teach the basics required. They require that all participants be in good health and physical condition. Some hiking is necessary over steep short sections of poor trail.

Skilled Quechua-speaking wranglers give careful attention to each rider as needed and they find the right horse for you and care for the mounts while you lunch or hike through ruins.

Manu Expeditions emphasizes stunning scenery, small traditional communities, little-known archaeological sites and tend to stay away from more popular and overcrowded routes. This is exploration of Inca trails on horseback and educational journeys through Inca ruins on ancient trails on quality horses. Guests follow ancient Inca and colonial pathways through Peru's Sacred Valley including a narrated visit to Machu Picchu. You stay each night in a different comfortable inn or hotel or camp. The focus is learning as much as possible about Andean culture, traditions, history of the Incas and their ancestors while enjoying an unusual, memorable mountain excursion on quality, dependable horses and tack.

Additionally, if you want to combine something totally different with your ride, Manu Expeditions is owner of the Manu Wildlife Center Lodge next to the macaw lick, deep within the Manu Biosphere Reserve in the Peruvian Amazon, in conjunction with a local conservation group Rainforest research is constantly underway at this facility. As one of the pioneer eco-tour operators in Peru, Manu Expeditions has outfitted expeditions for scientists and archeologists, discovered unknown Inca and pre-Inca ruins, and provided logistics for wildlife and documentary film crews and biological expeditions. Their main interest however, is making sure that visitors to Peru who join expeditions and tours have an experience of a lifetime and leave having had a great time and having learned something along the way about the country, the history, the people, the wilderness and wildlife. Manu Expeditions is embarking on a new luxury sustainable lodge project in 2009 in Manu.

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