Description

After the hugely successful tour featuring nearly 600 species last year, we’re heading back to Peru in 2026 and you can join us!

Peru is one of the best butterfly destinations in the world, with well in excess of 4000 recognised species, and dozens more still being discovered each year. It’s perfectly possible that on this trip we may see species that are entirely new to science. On our previous trips to Peru we’ve typically photographed between 400-500 species in a fortnight, so bring plenty of memory cards and batteries!

As well as the hordes of stunning butterflies, we’ll see a great variety of colourful and fascinating shield bugs, damselflies, grasshoppers, beetles and more. In the evenings we’ll often be able to run a moth sheet – and the moths of Peru are staggering in their variety of shapes, patterns and postures.

Our tour begins in Peru’s ancient and fascinating city Cusco, where we will have a night to relax after our long flights. The next day, after breakfast, we have a 5 hour drive by minibus to Quince Mil, stopping at various sites along the route to see and photograph butterflies.

We have 6 nights based at an ecolodge at Quince Mil. Each day we’ll have excursions to different butterfly habitats, with travel times of between 10-45 minutes from the lodge. We’ll be exploring quiet roadsides, forest trails, and along the edges of small streams (you’ll need rubber boots) where we expect to see a huge variety of butterflies mud-puddling, basking on foliage and nectaring at flowers. These will include several Morpho species, Owl butterflies, Daggerwings, Banners, Numberwings, Sisters, Swallowtails, Sulphurs, Glasswings, Hairstreaks, Metalmarks and Skippers.

Next we return to Cusco in our minibus, following the same route we arrived on, stopping along the way to search for butterflies, admire the Andean scenery and see some local culture. We have one night at Cusco, followed by an early morning flight back to Lima, which is the hub for our connecting flight to Iquitos, deep in Amazonia. We have 6 nights at Iquitos in a comfortable city hotel. Each day we’ll have excursions to various parts of the Allpahuayo Mishana reserve, where we exect to see many exciting Metalmarks, Hairstreaks, Glasswings, huge Firetip skippers, Leafwings, Satyrs, Cattlehearts and a great variety of Nymphalids, Pierids and Swallowtails.

On our last day we’ll visit an arboretum at Iquitos University, where there are plenty of trails to explore and where doubtless we’ll add even more species to our list. Finally we fly back to Lima, for our flights home that evening or the following day.