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four night
recommended 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 6:1 ratio in Tambopata Research
Center. This means groups smaller than 6 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.
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.
Day 2
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.
Breakfast.
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.
Refugio Amazonas to Tambopata Research Center. 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.
Orientation. 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 in Tambopata Research Center.
Day 3
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.
Floodplain Trail: 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, 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 in Tambopata Research Center.
Day 4
Breakfast.
Tambopata Research Center to Refugio Amazonas. A three and a half hour
boat ride brings us to Refugio Amazonas.
Boxed Lunch.
Condenado Oxbow Lake - CONDEL: A forty minute hike takes you Condenado
Lake. You paddle canoes around the lake looking for lakeside wildlife
such as hoatzin and caiman, hoping to see the otters which are
infrequently seen here. You will also be rewarded with overhead
sightings of macaws.
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 5
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. |