Duration 6 days and 5 nights
Departures Daily departures
Activities Jungle excursion (see detailed program below)
Airfares Not included, available upon request
Meals Included as specified below
Customizable YES, feel free to ask for extra services
Not Included Entrance to the Protected Area of Tambopata (USD $60.00
per person) DAY 1 ARRIVAL & RECEPTION BY
KIDS GUIDE
One of our regular naturalists with a feel for kids will be assigned to your
groups. If solicited, a separate guide will be assigned to the rest of the
family for regular activities.
Upon arrival from Lima or Cusco, we will welcome you at the airport and
drive you ten minutes to our Puerto Maldonado headquarters. While enjoying
your first taste of the forest in our gardens we will ask you to pack only
the necessary gear for your next few days, and leave the rest at our safe
deposit. This helps us keep the boats and cargo light.
Skirting Puerto Maldonado, we drive 20 kilometers to the Tambopata River
Port, entering the Native Community of Infierno. The port is a communal
business.
The two and a half hour boat ride from the Tambopata Port to Refugio
Amazonas will take us past the Community of Infierno and the Tambopata
National Reserve´s checkpoint and into the buffer zone of this 1.3 million
hectare conservation unit. Boxed Lunch
Upon arrival, the lodge manager will welcome you and brief you with
important navigation and security tips. Dinner
Caiman Search: We will be out at the river’s edge at night, scanning the
shores with headlamps and flashlights to catch the red gleams of reflection
from caiman eyes.
Overnight at Refugio Amazonas (Box Lunch, D)
DAY 2 THE CHILDREN'S RAINFOREST TRAIL: ANIA & THE WORLD´S VOICE
Breakfast.
Adults will have Oxbow Lake Visit
We will paddle around the lake on a canoe or a catamaran, looking for
lakeside wildlife such as hoatzin, caiman and horned screamers, hoping to
see the otters which are infrequently seen here. You will also be rewarded
with overhead sightings of macaws.
Kids will take The Children's Rainforest Trail: Ania & the World´s Voice
A short trail designed for children with the help of ANIA, an environmental
education NGO. Kids aged 6-12 hike with a guide through a challenging (but
short) trail where they follow maps, solve riddles and find clues that will
lead them to Ania’s “gifts”. The trail teaches kids how people live in the
rainforest and leave a valuable message from Ania, “a girl born in the
depths of the rain forest to fill our hearts with hope”. The concept, the
story and the trail are trademarked by ANIA, a nonprofit with the mission of
creating 100,000 hectares of “Tierras de los Niños” (Children’s Lands) -
private protected areas in the management of children. Lunch
Adults will have a Farm Visit
Five minutes downriver from the lodge lays a farm owned and managed by
charismatic Don Manuel from the neighboring community of Condenado. He grows
a variety of popular and unknown Amazon crops - just about every plant and
tree you see serves a purpose.
Ethnobotanical Tour
Along this trail we will find a variety of plants and trees that are used by
the local population with at least the same variety of purposes. We will
learn about the medicinal (and other) uses of Ajo-Sacha, Yuca de Venado, Uña
de Gato, Charcot-Sacha, Para-Para, among several others.
Kids will take The Children's Rainforest Trail:Ania & The Forest's Treasure
Another trail designed by ANIA, somewhat longer, which requires a five
minute boat ride. Features include Ant City, the search for the lost Brazil
Nut, a shihuahuaco tree to climb and a visit to Anias home near lake
Condenado. Dinner
Video Presentations: Video presentations are available every night at the
interpretation center. Topics include the Tambopata National Reserve and the
macaw project.
Overnight at Refugio Amazonas (B, L, D)
DAY 3 CANOPY TOWER, BRAZIL NUT TRAIL AND CAMP
A thirty minute walk from Refugio Amazonas leads to the 25 meter scaffolding
canopy tower. A bannistered staircase running through the middle provides
safe access to the platforms above. The tower has been built upon high
ground, therefore increasing your horizon of the continuous primary forest
extending out towards the Tambopata National Reserve. From here views of
mixed species canopy flocks as well as toucans, macaws and raptors are
likely. Breakfast
A few minutes hike from the lodge is a beautiful old growth patch of Brazil
Nut forest that has been harvested for decades (if not centuries) where the
precarious remains of a camp used two months a year by Brazil Nut gatherers
can still be experienced. We will be demonstrating the whole process of the
rain forest's only sustainably harvested product from collection through
transportation to drying.
Four and half hours by boat from Refugio Amazonas, in the pristine heart of
the reserve, lies the Tambopata Research Center. One and half hours into our
boat journey, as we cross the confluence with the Malinowski River, we will
leave the final traces of human habitation behind. Within the 700,000
hectare uninhabited nucleus of the reserve, sightings of capybara, caiman,
geese, macaws and other large species will become more frequent. Boxed Lunch
Upon arrival, the lodge manager will welcome you and brief you with
important navigation and security tips.
Overlook Trail : A three to five kilometer hike will lead us to overlooks
commanding magnificent views of the Tambopata winding its way into the
lowlands. The forest on this trail, regenerating on old bamboo forest, is
good for Howler Monkey and Dusky Titi Monkey. Dinner
Macaw Project Lectures: After dinner scientists will provide an in depth
look at the biology of macaws, their feeding habits, the theories for clay
lick use, their breeding and feeding ecology, population fluctuations and
the threats to their conservation.
Overnight at Tambopata Research Center (B, L, D)
DAY 4 MACAW CLAY LICK & FLOODPLAIN TRAIL
On most clear mornings of the year dozens of large macaws and hundreds of
parrots congregate on this large river bank in a raucous and colorful
spectacle which inspired a National Geographic cover story. Discretely
located fifty meters from the cliff, we will observe Green-winged, scarlet
and Blue-and-gold Macaws and several species of smaller parrots descend to
ingest clay. Outings are at dawn when the lick is most active. Breakfast
This five kilometer trail covers the prototypical rain forest with immense
trees criss-crossed by creeks and ponds. Amongst the figs, ceibas and
shihuahuacos we will look for Squirrel, Brown Capuchin, and Spider Monkeys
as well as peccaries. TRC is located within this habitat. Lunch
Pond Platform: Ten minutes upriver from the lodge is a tiny pond with a
platform in the middle. It is a great place to spot waterfowl such as
Muscovy duck, sun bittern and hoatzin along with the woodpeckers,
oropendolas, flycatchers and parakeets that call this pond their home.
Dinner
Night walk: You will have the option of hiking out at night, when most of
the mammals are active but rarely seen. Much easier to find are frogs with
shapes and sounds as bizarre as their natural histories.
Overnight at Tambopata Research Center (B, L, D)
DAY 5 RAINFOREST TATOO
Breakfast. A three and a half hour boat ride brings us to Refugio Amazonas.
Boxed Lunch
Rainforest Tattoo: Five minutes from the lodge lives Don Manuel, who grows a
variety of popular and unknown Amazon crops - just about every plant and
tree you see serves a purpose. At Don Manuel’s farm, we will prepare a paste
from the fruit of huito and achiote to draw dark blue and red tattoos on
ourselves. They last several days. Dinner
Tambopata National Reserve Lectures: Nightly lectures prepared by the staff
of Refugio Amazonas cover conservation threats, opportunities and projects
in the Tambopata National Reserve.
Overnight at Refugio Amazonas (B, Box Lunch, D)
DAY 6 TRANSFER OUT
Breakfast. Transfer Boat from Refugio Amazonas to Tambopata River Port to go
to Puerto Maldonado Headquarters
We retrace our river and road journey back to Puerto Maldonado, our office
and the airport. Depending on airline schedules, this may require dawn
departures. (B)
END OF SERVICES
Please note that the program may vary slightly so as to maximize your
wildlife sightings, depending on the reports of our researchers and
experienced naturalist guides based at the lodge.
BOAT TRANSPORTATION
All our boats are 20 foot long, roofed canoes with 55 hp outboard motors.
Daily arrivals and departures from every port are scheduled to meet every
airline´s arrival and departure with a maximum two hour wait.
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Rupicola
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Cusco &
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