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recommended three night program
Day 1
Arrival & Reception by Guide. Our guides are biologists, tourism
professionals, or community members. Unless noted otherwise, our guides
speak English. We assign guides at 10:1 ratio. This means groups smaller
than 10 people will be merged with other groups under one guide. If you
would like a private guide or a guide in a language other than English
please let us know.
Transfer Airport to Puerto Maldonado Headquarters. 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.
Puerto Maldonado to Tambopata River Port. Skirting Puerto Maldonado, we
drive 20 kilometers to the Tambopata River Port, entering the Native
Community of Infierno. The port is a communal business.
Tambopata River Port to Refugio Amazonas. 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.
Orientation. Upon arrival, the lodge manager will welcome you and brief
you with important navigation and security tips.
Dinner.
Caiman searches. 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 in Refugio Amazonas.
recommended three night program
Day 2
Breakfast.
Sachavacayoc Oxbow Lake: A two hour hike takes you to Sachavacayoc Lake.
You will then paddle around the lake in a catamaran, searching for the
resident family of five giant river otters (seen by about 30% of lake
visitors) and other lakeside wildlife such as caiman, hoatzin and horned
screamers. We hike out at dawn - when otters are active. Don't forget
the two hour return hike! For those who do not want to take the long
hike Condenado Lake, thirty minutes from the lodge, is an option.
Lunch.
Farm Visit and Ethnobotanical Garden: Five minutes downriver from the
lodge lies a farm owned and managed by charismatic Don Manuel from the
neighbouring community of Condenado. He grows a variety of popular and
unknown Amazon crops - just about every plant and tree you see serves a
purpose. He has also identified and cultivated many of the medicinal
plants used in the region in a little backyard garden.
Brazil nut trail and camp: 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.
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 in Refugio Amazonas
Day 3
Breakfast.
Parakeet clay lick: A fifteen minute boat ride and sixty minute walk
from Refugio Amazonas is a parakeet clay lick. From a blind you will see
parakeets descend on most clear days to ingest the clay on a bank.
Species such as Dusky headed and Cobalt winged Parakeet descend at this
clay lick. We visit the lick at dawn, when parrots are most active or in
midmorning or early afternoon, when they are active.
Mammal clay lick: Twenty minutes walking from Refugio Amazonas is a
peccary clay lick. These wild rain forest pigs show up in herds of five
to twenty individuals to eat clay in the late morning. Chances of
spotting them are around 15%, but well worth the short hike. Other
wildlife also shows up including deer, guan and parakeets.
Lunch.
Canopy tower: 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.
Dinner.
Tambopata National Reserve Lecture. Nightly lectures prepared by the
staff of Refugio Amazonas cover conservation threats, opportunities and
projects in the Tambopata National Reserve.
Overnight in Refugio Amazonas
Day 4
Breakfast.
Transfer Boat - Refugio Amazonas to Tambopata River Port.
Transfer Tambopata River Port to Pto Maldonado Headquarters.
Transfer Pto Maldonado Headquarters - Airport. 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.
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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