Duration 7 days and 6 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 TRANSFER BOAT -
TAMBOPATA RIVER PORT TO REFUGIO AMAZONAS
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 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, lays 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 3 TERRA FIRME TRAIL & PALM SWAMP TOWER
Macaw Clay Lick: 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. An entirely different habitat characterized by smaller, thinner
trees atop hills and slopes is covered by this five kilometer trail.
Saddleback tamarins are frequently found here. As we walk near the limits of
the swamp we will also keep our eyes open for rare tapir tracks. Lunch
A thirty minute hike from TRC brings us to the palm swamp. Dead aguaje palms
serve as nests to Red-bellied and Blue-and-gold macaws. An elevated
boardwalk and scaffolding tower allow for eye level observation of the
macaws as they fly in and out of their nests.
Dinner
Overnight at Tambopata Research Center (B, L, D)
DAY 4 FLOODPLAIN TRAIL & POND PLATFORM
Time off to relax and enjoy the lodge surroundings, try out a new trail, or
repeat your favorite activity. 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
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,
sunbittern 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 PALM SWAMP TRAIL & CREEKS TRAIL
Time off to relax and enjoy the lodge surroundings, try out a new trail, or
repeat your favorite activity. Breakfast
Growing on the remains of an oxbow lake and providing both arboreal as well
as terrestrial mammals with fruits throughout the year, the aguaje palms are
one of the most important food sources in the rainforest. Demand for these
fruits and great conditions for planting rice, makes the palm swamp also one
of the most threatened habitats. Lunch
This is a different kind of Terra Firme forest, crossed by a number of
creeks that will eventually reach the Tambopata River. Walking in the
opposite direction of the river, we will focus on forest and creek ecology.
Dinner
Overnight at Tambopata Research Center (B, L, D)
DAY 6 OXBOW LAKE VISIT
Time off to relax and enjoy the lodge surroundings, try out a new trail, or
repeat your favorite activity. Breakfast
Three and a half hour boat ride brings us to Refugio Amazonas. Boxed Lunch
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. 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 7 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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