Peru from Lima to the Amazon: The Circular Terraces of Moray, Machu Picchu Through the Clouds and Lake Sandoval in the Jungle

Spanish actress Maribel Verdú, the face of "Pan's Labyrinth" and "Y tu mamá también", put off Peru for years. "It was unfinished business. I always felt that calling, but I never found the right moment," she says. The moment came when a new private travel platform offered to let her choose a destination. Let's be clear: this is a sponsored trip, so the enthusiasm should be read with that caveat. But the route is worthwhile even without the marketing - Lima, the Sacred Valley, Machu Picchu, Cusco and the Amazon in a single journey.

Lima: the plate first. The Peruvian capital is considered one of the world's food capitals, and Verdú describes it as a "chaotic and elegant" mix of colonial history and top-tier cuisine. If she has to recommend one dish, it's ají de gallina - creamy chicken in a sauce made with ají amarillo, the yellow Peruvian chilli, a flavour she says she has brought home with her. Among restaurants she singles out El Mercado and 7 Restaurant.

The Sacred Valley: Pisac, Moray and the salt pans of Maras. The strongest impression was left by Moray, with its concentric rings of terraces that, she says, "look like they're from another world". In the valley, she says, you feel a connection to the land that's hard to put into words.

Machu Picchu through the clouds. "However many photos you've seen, nothing prepares you for the moment you see it for the first time among the clouds," Verdú says. The first thing that comes to mind when she remembers the trip is the rainbow that appeared over the mountains right at that moment. "You feel small and at the same time part of something enormous."

Cusco: get lost on purpose. Her advice for Cusco is simple: wander aimlessly through the San Blas neighbourhood, drop into the artisans' workshops, and end up sitting in the Plaza de Armas watching life go by. She describes the city as a place where Inca stone walls and colonial art stand side by side, "the heart that beats in the Andes".

The Amazon: from mountain to jungle. The last leg took her into the rainforest near Puerto Maldonado and on a trip across Lake Sandoval. She calls the switch from the altitude of the Andes to the dense jungle "an absolute assault on the senses" - a mix of vulnerability and awe in the face of something untamed.

Verdú travelled with her husband Pedro Larrañaga and friends, and says she came back from Peru with one lesson: "Everything there has a different rhythm, more connected to nature and to what's essential. I'm coming back with the feeling that sometimes we rush too much and miss what really matters." It sounds like a line from a travel brochure, and partly that's exactly what it is. But anyone who has ever stood above the clouds on a mountaintop knows there's some truth in it too.

Peru isn't a long-weekend trip: it's a long flight, high altitude and then humid jungle, all in a few days. How many of us would pay that price for one morning among the clouds above Machu Picchu?