Suggested Itinerary and Highlights ( ~2 weeks):

Our tour starts in Bolivia where will explore the colonial towns of Santa Cruz and the capital city Sucre, aka the White City before travelling on to Uyuni Salt Lake, the world ́s largest salt flatsalt flats. We will stay in a hotel made of salt- including the beds and chairs -adjacent to the mirrored flats. We can visit the railroad cemetery (with a potential for night photos). We will spend a day driving across the lake and end it as we wait to toast the mirrored sunset with some local wine. We will get plenty of interesting and fun shots playing with perspective.

Transfer via a short plain ride to La Paz and during part of our city tour we will surf over the city on its many gondolas that traverse the snarled city traffic below. At the end of the day tour in La Paz we will visit the Moon Valley, a unique area with bizarre geological formations.

At Lake Titicaca, we will enjoy a full day excursion by catamaran to the biggest island of the lake, the Island of the Sun, inclusive visit of the cultural museum in Challa, participation on the shamans ceremony of “pago a la Tierra” and transfer in a typical reef boat.

Unique to this tour is a lake crossing of Lake Titicaca into Peru.

We spend a day in the Sacred Valley and travel by evening to Machu Picchu to ensure a sunrise visit at the site for best picture opportunities.

After our day at Machu Picchu, return to Cusco (optional would be another day at Machu Picchu, or a hike to Huayna Picchu to get pictures from a different angle)

Cusco city tour .

Suggested Itinerary and Highlights ( ~2 weeks):

Arrive Yangon, the capital city and tour the old colonial- style city, a visit to the Sule Pagoda and the world’s largest Reclining Buddha.  Visit theNational Museum and then to the ShwedagonPagoda. Nothing will prepare you for majesty of this complex, with its glittering gold stupa. 

Fly from Yangon to Bagan and explore some of the most important pagodas and temples in this UNESCO World Heritage Site, such as Ku Byauk Gyi, with its exquisite murals and Ananda Temple, a whitewashed masterpiece of Mon architecture, Sightseeing continues with visits to Manuha Temple, Nanbaya Temple, and Myingaba Gu Byaukgyi Temple.   Shopping here includes a visit to a lacquer craftsmen and workshops in nearby Myinkaba village 

We’ll have a chance to visit  the villages and temples of Bagan by horse cart and witness sunset atop one of Bagan’s ancient monuments one night and take a boat down the river with wine and cheese for another exceptional evening’s sunset.  

A short drive away is Mt Poppa a fairy- tale looking temple, sitting on an extinct volcano.  It is also home to the “37 official nats”animist spirits who cause mischief or protect the locals. 

Bagan also allows us a unique opportunity to see the ancient city from a different perspective. Froma hot air balloon, we get a magnificent aerial view of thousand-year old pagodas. 

From Bagan we will travel to Mandalay, the country’s cultural center.  We will tour Ava by horse-cart for a revealing glimpse of village life and pass through the ancient city walls to visit a brick and stucco monastery, Maha Aungmye Bonzan and see the impressive wooden monastery of Bagaya Kyaung..

Sightseeing in Mandalay includes the Mahumuni Pagoda with its spectacular Buddha image covered in layers of gold leaf, and interesting shop stalls at its entrance,  the Golden Palace Monastery famous for its intricate woodcarvings and the Kuthodaw Pagoda, known as the world largest book due to the Buddhist scripture carved on 729 marble slabs. 

A must is a walk over the 200-year-old teak U Bein Bridge, probably the most photographed site in Myanmar, for a magnificent sunset. Mandalay’s shopping treasures includes wooden puppets, woodcarvings, embroidered kalagas and exquisite silks

From Mandalay  we will travel to Inle Lake, in the Shan States.  It is known as the most beautiful lake in Myanmar.  Inle Lake's calm waters are surrounded by high hills and dotted with floating gardens and stilted villages. Time permitting, we will have the opportunity to visit a local family in their house–on-stilts, meet the local villagers and take a unique tour though the “floating farms” by private canoe… rowed by the famous one-legged-rowers!  

The rotating “5-Day Market” is a perfect opportunity to observe Shan ethnic tribes who come to buy and sell a variety of goods: a first hand glimpse into the lives of the Pa-O, Danu and Intha hill tribes. It is a fascinating hodgepodge of fruits and flowers, handicrafts and tribal people, each in their distinctive traditional dress. 

When exploring beautiful Inle Lake we maneuver by boat though long, scenic channels where we see local life. Visit the fascinating village of Indein, with it’s complex of ancient shrines and stupas and walk though exotic colonnades of stairways and shop stalls.  Visit the “long neck” tribal women, and weaving and craft villages perched on stilts. See the lake’s unique “leg rowers” – the Intha people row standing up with one leg wrapped around an oar

Upon finishing our time at Inle, we will begin our journey to the Chin Province after landing in Sittwe and travel upriver to Mruak U by boat.   This area is still “fresh” from a lot of tourists and where we can find beautiful temples and the women with tattooed faces.  The Burmese govt. has stopped this practice and only older women now have these tattoos.