Pura Aventura news 5 May 2008

Dear Traveller

Have you ever been to Peru? If not, we hope to inspire you to visit this amazing country.

If you’d like to walk the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, then you’ll need to move fast because permits are selling out rapidly.

To whet your appetite we have some great Peru photos on Flickr. We’re also really excited by our new Peru Family Adventure.

If you haven’t yet organised your family summer holiday we have limited space available on the 19th July Picos Family Adventure and the 27th July Pyrenees Family Adventure holidays in Spain.

We also have news from the Picos, Pyrenees, Chicago (sort of) and Bognor Regis (really).

We’d love to help you with your next holiday. Just give us a call on 0845 22 55 058 (+44 1273 676712) between 9am and 7pm weekdays to discuss ideas.

All the best,

Thomas

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Peru in photos

In March I was fortunate enough to take a trip around southern Peru. The sweep took in the deep Amazon, Sacred Valley, Machu Picchu, Lake Titicaca and Arequipa.

It’s nearly impossible to pick out a single highlight but it’s possibly the impromptu game of football on a reed island floating on Lake Titicaca. Surrounded by water, I can advise against playing on the wing…

I suppose it goes to prove that, no matter the incredible places that you visit and stay, it is always the people who provide the most colour and context to make sense of a place.

I hope that these photos give some sense of this balance of place, activity, comfort and people in Peru that we try to strike on all of our Pura holidays.

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:’/holiday/inca-trail-to-machu-picchu-holiday

Plan ahead for the Inca Trail

On the subject of Peru, we are getting a lot of Inca Trail enquiries at the moment.

All permits are now sold out until late September, however, which means that you cannot get onto the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu until then at the earliest.

There are alternative treks, some of which are very beautiful, but none of them get you to Machu Picchu on foot.

So if your dream is to get your first view of Machu Picchu from the Sun Gate you now need to be planning at least 6 months ahead. Call us to discuss availability and timing. We can advise on the best time(s) of year to visit and availability.

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“Vote early and vote often”

…as Al Capone said. Allegedly.

It’s election season and the Responsible Tourism Awards are coming up soon.

If you’ve travelled with us recently and feel that your trip made a positive difference to the place you visited, then please take a moment to nominate us.

We have been nominated for the best tour operator and best in a mountain environment categories for the past two years.

With your help, we would be delighted to make that three years running.

To vote, go to www.responsibletourismawards.com/nominations"

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Quebrantahuesos Foundation

New for 2008 is Pura’s partnership with the Quebrantahuesos (Bearded Vulture) Foundation in Spain.

Everyone booking a holiday to Spain with Pura becomes a member of the foundation for a year.

What makes this rare bird so interesting is that its survival depends on the survival of traditional rural human ways of life. These are a distinctive but declining feature of both the Picos de Europa and Pyrenees mountains.

The foundation is on the verge of reintroducing the species into the Picos and this year will open its visitor centre. In charge of the project is none other than Pura’s own Diego Martín.

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Family Summer Holidays

If you have yet to book your summer 2008 holiday, we do have a couple of great options for you.

In the Picos, we have some space on the 19th July Picos Family Adventure which is ideal for 9-14 year olds. We also have our Picos Family Self Drive which offers a more independent Picos family experience.

In the Pyrenees we have a little space on the 27th July Pyrenees Family Adventure which is a very active week perfect for 13-16 year olds.

We also have a brand new Peru Family Adventure which has us all very excited here.

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Meet the team: Natasha

Here’s a chance to meet possibly the most shy and retiring member of our team, Natasha (known as Tash to everyone).

She’s in charge of keeping our books in order. Clients will know her as the person who gets in touch when holiday balances are due. So this is our attempt to show you that she’s not such a bad money-chasing sort after all.

Tash is a wonderful mixture of serious and fun. On the serious side she was a teacher; has a slightly unhealthy interest in stationery and gets worryingly excited when she uncovers numeric palindromes.

On the fun side, she is an accomplished portrait photographer in her spare time and has just kicked off her recording career by doing the vocals on a track written by her husband Brad. Sadly none of us have heard it yet, but we have our eyes on iTunes.

Tash does rather suffer as she dreams about going on our holidays – current top of her wish list is Peru – but Brad hates flying. Try as we might to encourage them further afield, they seem to end up at Butlins in Bognor most years. To be fair, Tash is a great defender of Butlins but she’s yet to convince the rest of us.

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