DAY 1

Arrival & Reception by Guide

Our guides are tourism professionals, or community members. Unless noted otherwise, our guides speak English. We assign guides at 10:1 ratio in Refugio Amazonas. 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.

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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.   

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Transfer Pto Maldonado Headquarters 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.

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Transfer Boat - 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. 

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Boxed Lunch

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Orientation

Upon arrival, the lodge manager will welcome you and brief you with important navigation and security tips.

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Dinner

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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.

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Classic Room at Refugio Amazonas - Overnight

DAY 2

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Breakfast

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Oxbow Lake Visit

We will paddle around the lake on a canoe or a catamaran, looking for lakeside wildlife such as hoatzin, caiman and hornerd screamers, hoping to see the otters which are infrequently seen here. You will also be rewarded with overhead sightings of macaws.

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.

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Lunch

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Farm Visit

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.

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Ethnobotanical Tour

Along this trail we will find a variety of plants and trees that are used by the local population with at least the same variety of purposes. We will learn about the medicinal (and other) uses of Ajo-Sacha, Yuca de Venado, Uña de Gato, Charcot-Sacha, Para-Para, among several others.

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Dinner

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Tambopata National Reserve Lectures

Nightly lectures prepared by the staff of Refugio Amazonas cover conservation threats, opportunities and projects in the Tambopata National Reserve.

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Classic Room at Refugio Amazonas - Overnight

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DAY 3

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Breakfast

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Transfer Boat - Refugio Amazonas - Chuncho Clay Lick

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Snack Chuncho Clay Lick

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Chuncho Clay Lick

Two hours from Refugio Amazonas, deep in the Tambopata National Reserve we will stop at the Chuncho claylick. After a brief walk (~5 minutes) we will have the chance to see dozens of large macaws feeding on the special sodium rich clays of the riverbank. The Chuncho claylick probably attracts more large macaws than any other claylick in the world and the sight of dozens of macaws taking flight is truly unforgettable. The details of our stopover will depend on the weather and the amount of macaw activity, as the birds don’t visit the clay lick when it is raining.

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Transfer Boat - Chuncho Clay Lick - Refugio Amazonas

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Lunch

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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.

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.

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Dinner

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Night walk

You will have the option of hiking out at night, when most of the mammals are active but difficult to see. Easier to find are frogs with shapes and sounds as bizarre as their natural histories.

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Classic Room at Refugio Amazonas - Overnight

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DAY 4

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Breakfast

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Transfer Boat - Refugio Amazonas to Tambopata River Port

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Transfer Tambopata River Port to Pto Maldonado Headquarters

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Transfer Puerto Maldonado Headquarters to 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.

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NOTES

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Included

Programmes based on double occupancy. Includes all meal, accommodations, and services, all river transportation, and transfer from and to the airport of Puerto Maldonado.

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Not Included

International or domestic airfares, airport departure taxes or visa fees, excess baggage charges, additional nights during the trip due to flight cancellations, alcoholic beverages or bottled water, snacks, insurance of any kind, laundry, phone calls or messages, reconfirmation of flights and items of personal nature.

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Boat Transportation

Rainforest Expeditions boats are 20-foot long, roofed canoes. Outboard boat engine are 60hp 4 cycle, eco-friendly, low emission motors.

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Transfer-in (From Puerto Maldonado to Lodge): we have two departures daily at 13:00 and 14:30

Transfer-out (Lodge to Puerto Maldonado): Two daily departures at 07:00 and 08:00

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For other schedule possibilities please consult us

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We reserve the right to change the order of activities.

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Although not valid for the rainforest part of Peru, we recommend that all foreign travelers bring their original passports in order to avoid the payment of national taxes (IGV 18%) at Hotels.

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