Warmikuna: A Journey for Women
In the museums of Lima there is a tour called Women of the Ancient Peru. It tells a story most visitors never hear: women as the shamans, the healers, the master weavers whose textiles recorded history itself.
Warmikuna, our 11-day women’s journey through Peru, follows that thread from Lima to the Sacred Valley to Machu Picchu. It is part expedition, part retreat, and entirely built around the women who keep the Andes’ knowledge alive.
The valley, slowly
After Lima’s catacombs and collections, you fly to the Andes and drop immediately into countryside: the salt terraces of Maras, the crop laboratories of Moray, kayaking the glass-still water of Lake Huaypo, and a Payment to the Earth ceremony led in Quechua as the mountains hold the silence.
The women you meet
At AMA, a social enterprise in the valley, women rebuilding their futures teach you chocolate-making from the bean. At 3,800 meters, the 17 weavers of the Warmi collective show you wool spun by hand and dyed with native plants, then walk you to lunch at MIL, one of South America’s most celebrated tables, where the tasting menu continues everything the morning taught.
A ceramic workshop with master ceramist Marilu Behar closes the valley days. You leave with a piece you made and, more usefully, with the reminder that you can still make things.
The citadel and the sound
Two days at Machu Picchu, including the quiet corners most day-trippers never reach. Then Cusco: the San Pedro market, a cooking class on a terrace above the rooftops, the stone shoulders of Sacsayhuamán, and a sound healing ceremony of drums, flutes, and ancestral chant in the mountains, followed by a private closing tea behind the cathedral.
Textiles were a sacred language in the Andes. The women wrote in thread. On this journey, they still do.
Carl Hill Jr
Good questions
What is included in the Warmikuna retreat?
11 days and 10 nights: private guiding throughout, all touring, the artisan and ceremony experiences, most meals including the MIL tasting menu, and internal flights. Hotels are matched to the group.
How fit do I need to be?
Comfortable walking days at altitude, taken deliberately slowly. The itinerary builds in acclimatization, and every activity has a gentler option.
How is the altitude handled?
You sleep low in the Sacred Valley before Cusco, the pacing is unhurried by design, and your guides watch you closer than you will realize.
