|
Manu Lodge, owned and operated by Manu Nature Tours
is the only lodge offering all inclusive services within the Manu Park
itself. All other trips offered in the Manu National Park are camping
trips. A few other new lodges and camping sites are located well beyond
the limits of the Manu National Park. Two park stations strictly control
the access to this pristine area. Since there are no roads near or
inside the protected Manu lowlands, the river is the only access. Only
authorized tour and research boats are allowed to the interior of the
Reserve.
The Manu Lodge is constructed entirely of fine mahogany cut from logs
left on the beaches of the Manu by the annual January-March floods. The
lodge is elevated on reinforced stilts and is divided into two
communicating blocks. A and B. Block A is in three levels, a spacious
lower level containing a bar, meeting area and a dining room/lounge for
up to 44 people, a smaller second level containing two double rooms with
a magnificent vista of the lake nearby, and a still smaller third level
that features an observation room. Block B contains ten double rooms
spaced along a wide, screened corridor/porch. The entire lodge,
including both blocks and porches, is screened and accessible from
outside through screened double doors. The kitchen, showers and latrines
are located away from the main building in clean, comfortable buildings.
We have outfitted the Manu Lodge with as many amenities as the Peruvian
Government has allowed in the past 12 years.
MANU LODGE OXBOW LAKE
The Manu Lodge overlooks a 1.2-mile-long and 590 ft. wide oxbow lake,
which is surrounded by huge, vine-festooned tropical trees. Herons,
kingfishers, hoatzins, monkeys, turtles and black caiman may be seen
from a couple of lake piers or from a comfortable catamaran, and on the
edge of the lake there is a mineral lick where rare birds such as
razor-billed curassows and piping guans are often seen.
Manu Lodge is considered the best place in the tropics to see and
photograph or film Giant River Otters. These two and a half, 70 pound-mustelid
is a gregarious mammal that lives in small groups. A family of six to
eight Giant Otters visits the lake every other week and our clients may
see them from within 50 ft. right in front of the Manu Lodge building
without disturbing them. Using the lake riverbanks, or our lake piers
and being quiet guarantees wonderful sightings of these large carnivores
as they fish, feed their cubs, preen and play. We strictly forbid the
use of canoes or catamarans to try to see the otters. Giant otters have
successfully bred on several occasions near Manu Lodge.
MANU LODGE ATTRACTIONS
From the boat landing on the river bank, you walk 600 yards on a clear
flat forest trail to reach the canoe landing from where we can paddle
you to the secluded Manu Lodge. The Manu Lodge overlooks a 1.2-mile-long
and 590 ft. wide oxbow lake, which is surrounded by huge, vine-festooned
tropical trees.
Herons, kingfishers, hoatzins, monkeys and black caiman may be seen from
a couple of lake piers or from a comfortable catamaran, and on the edge
of the lake there is a mineral lick where rare birds such as
Razor-billed Curassows and Piping Guans are often seen.
Manu Lodge is considered the best place in the tropics to see and
photograph or film Giant River Otters. These two and a half, 70 pound-mustelid
is a gregarious mammal that lives in small groups. A family of six to
eight Giant Otters visits the lake every other week and our clients may
see them from within 50 ft. right in front of the Manu Lodge building
without disturbing them. Using the lake riverbanks, or our lake piers
and being quiet guarantees wonderful sightings of these large carnivores
as they fish, feed their cubs, preen and play. We strictly forbid the
use of canoes or catamarans to try to see the otters. Giant otters have
successfully bred on several occasions near Manu Lodge.
After cruising on the lake you can explore many kilometers of marked
trails near the lodge. These trails, which were designed in consultation
with internationally known ecologists, wind trough the full mosaic of
different forest types of the western Amazon, including tall floodplain
forest, terra firma (never flooded) forest, stands of lush Heliconia
species, sun dappled cane "Caña brava" and 7-meter-tall thickets of
bamboo. Jaguars and ocelots frequent the trails too, though normally you
see only their fresh tracks.
A 75 meter-high ridge only a less than a hundred meters from the lake
offers views of macaws, parakeets, hawks, toucans and scores of other
species of tropical birds flying short and long distances over the
forest. On a clear day, the lookout yields a view of the lake below and
the distant snow-capped peaks of the Andes, a vista stretching more than
two-hundred kilometers. No other lodge in South America simultaneously
provides a pristine tropical lake in a protected wilderness and a view
of the majestic Andes!. Using Manu Lodge as a base, you can travel by
boat up or down river for comfortable day-trips or overnight camping
trips to other lakes and concentrations of wildlife in the lower Manu
region. Whether you stay at the lodge the entire time or explore other
parts of Manu, our itineraries provide one of the finest jungle
experiences available in Central and South America, if not the world.
An old oxbow lake within 15 minutes from Manu Lodge, presents large
stands of dead Mauritia Palms, which make wonderful roosting and nesting
sites for dozens of Gold and Yellow Macaws and Red-bellied Macaws. An
elevated platform provides visitors with "next to stage" seats, as these
colorful birds, play, preen and display while their bright plumage
reflect the golden light of the setting tropical sun.
MANU LODGE CANOPY CLIMBING
When at Manu Lodge, spending a few hours in a huge Ceiba pentandra tree
offers a unique opportunity to see the rainforest from a different
perspective. Visitors to a canopy platform in Manu Lodge seat down and
relax and wait for birds and other animals to pass by air or into the
huge tree. They admire the tree's massive trunk and limbs, many branches
being two to three meters in circumference. Numerous plants and mosses
decorate the tree, delicate white orchids bloom near our platform all
season. Also surrounding the canopy, visitors enjoy colorful birds
flitting around in the canopy around and above them.
For many persons the challenge of the climb up to the platform was
something they have never thought themselves capable of doing (you can
also be pulled-up, if you want to save your energy). Most commented that
the climb itself, using specialized equipment to move up through the
canopy, watching the massive trunk of the Ceiba pass slowly by and
testing some of their own physical capacity, was an important part of
their experience in the rainforest canopy. Good animal viewing was
"icing on the cake" so to speak. The descent, abseiling onto the rope
secured to a second safety line, was also a new experience for nearly
everyone. The refrain "this is fun", was almost always heard after a
person left the platform and realized they were truly controlling
without difficulty their own descent.
As they left the platform, they had worn a look of trepidation, but this
was replaced by a smile as they descent and then touched the ground,
having successfully transferred themselves back to earth. Most all
expressed new self confidence after overcoming their fear of getting
down from nearly 100 feet up in the tree.
|