Arrival in Puerto Maldonado and transfer to Amazon jungle lodge; guided jungle night walk

Upon arrival of your flight into Puerto Maldonado, the gateway city to Peru’s Amazon basin, you are welcomed and transferred to the headquarters of your Amazon lodge, where you assess your gear and leave any luggage that you won’t need on the 3-night jungle adventure in a safe and locked facility, also helping to keep the lodge’s dedicated boats and cargo light (a packing list is provided). You depart Puerto Maldonado for the 12-mile transfer (approximately 1 hour) to the Tambopata River pier, where you start your boat journey into the Amazon aboard a 20-foot long roofed canoe with 55hp outboard motor. The 2½-hour private boat ride from the Tambopata pier to Refugio Amazonas passes the community of Infierno and the Tambopata National Reserve’s checkpoint and entry into this 3.2-million-acre national reserve. A box lunch is provided en route. Upon arrival, a ten-minute walk takes you from the riverside to the lodge.

The lodge manager welcomes you and provides a briefing on important information about the lodge, activities, and safety during your stay. You may want to begin your stay here with one of several spa treatments (at your expense), enhanced by local forest natural oils and essences: massage, aromatherapy, and soothing for your feet “digitopuncture” to relax your feet from its miles of walking!

After time to rest in your private room and a buffet dinner of local and international cuisine in the lodge’s convivial dining room, you may choose an initial guided night adventure exploring at the river’s edge, where you scan the shores with headlamps and flashlights to catch the red gleams of reflection from the eyes of caiman, the smallish crocodylians of Central and South America.

Amazon rainforest; full day of activities: canoe excursion, mountain biking, nature hikes, bird-watching

After a buffet breakfast in the lodge, your first full day in the diverse habitats of the Amazon begins with a visit to Oxbow Lake; paddling a canoe or a catamaran, you look for lakeside wildlife such as hoatzin, caiman and horned screamers, and perhaps even the rare otter sometimes spotted here. You may also be rewarded with overhead sightings of colorful macaws.

Next, mountain biking provides a different perspective on the forest (helmets are provided). A 10-kilometer loop takes you through mature forest and numerous creek beds—both exhilarating and at times muddy!

After lunch, a few minutes hike from the lodge is a beautiful patch of old growth Brazil nut forest that has been harvested for decades (if not centuries). Here you learn about the entire cycle of Brazil nut cultivation—the rainforest’s only sustainably harvested product—from collection through transportation to drying.

Next, a 30-minute walk from Refugio Amazonas leads to the 80-foot scaffolding canopy tower, with a staircase with banister running through the middle, which provides safe access to the platforms above. The tower has been built upon high ground, therefore increasing your horizon and views over the Tambopata National Reserve, perfect for viewing mixed species canopy flocks as well as possibly toucans, macaws, and raptors.

After dinner, you again have the option of a guided walk, the most active time for most jungle mammals, but also when it is difficult to see them. Easier to find at night are the jungle’s many frogs, with shapes and sounds as bizarre as their natural histories.

Amazon Rainforest

This morning, your first visit is to the Parrot Clay Lick, beginning with a 15-minute boat ride and hour walk from the lodge. Here, bright green parrots and parakeets descend to ingest the clay, and with luck species may include Dusky-headed and Cobalt-winged Parakeets, Mealy and Yellow-crowned Amazons, Blue-headed Pionus, Severe macaw, and Orange-cheeled (or Barraband’s) parrot. Next, you continue on to the mammal lick, a 20-minute walk from Refugio Amazonas. Here, wild pigs will (hopefully!) show up in herds of 5 to 20 individuals to eat clay in the late morning, and other wildlife may include deer, guan (a largish bird somewhere between a chicken and a turkey in size, native to the Amazon), and parakeets.

After lunch, you embark on an easy kayaking trip down the Tambopata River (no prior experience is required, only the ability to swim). A boat brings you upriver and then your guides lead you paddling down a portion of the river, with its very light rapids. Along the river shore, you observe different forest habitats and meet with locals who work at the few farms in the region. The final stop is a sandy beach, the perfect place for a well-deserved swim before returning to the lodge. Today is also another opportunity to enjoy one of the lodge’s spa treatments of massage, aromatherapy, or acupuncture on your feet (at your expense).

Lastly, if you fell in love with being in the tree tops, another optional canopy experience is available (at an additional cost). Replicating the daily work of macaw researchers, you climb a 90- foot tree with a rope, harness, and jumar (a mechanical ascending device). From this vantage point you have a macaw’s eye view of the forest. (This supervised activity is conducted with a close eye to safety and requires no previous experience.)

After dinner, you have a final opportunity to experience the night-time sounds of the rainforest on a guided walk, or tonight you may choose to stay in to hear a nightly lecture prepared by a staff member on the conservation threats, opportunities, and projects in the Tambopata National Reserve.

Departure from the Amazon Rainforest and transfer to Puerto Maldonado

After breakfast, you retrace your river and road journey back to Puerto Maldonado, by boat from the lodge to the river port, and then from the river port to the Puerto Maldonado Headquarters where you can pick up your remaining luggage, and then a final transfer to the airport for your onward flights to Lima or Cusco. A completely optional final adventure is available (at a supplemental cost) for those who wish to ride a mountain bike the 12 miles rather than drive from the river port into the city of Puerto Maldonado. You depart the Refugio on an earlier boat, and from there along with a guide, an easy ride with little technical difficulty, but invariably hot and sweaty, gets you back to the lodge’s headquarters, where you can shower before your transfer to the airport (subject to airline departure times).