PUERTO MALDONADO JUNGLE 4 DAYS 3 NIGHTS
TAMBOPATA CANDAMO EXPEDITION - MACAW CLAY LICK & SANDOVAL LAKE
03 NIGHTS IN JUNGLE - WASAI TAMBOPATA LODGE
DAILY DEPARTURES

WASAI Tambopata Lodge is located in the heart of the amazon, approximately 50 Km. away from Puerto Maldonado in a straight line, and approximately 120 Km. on the river route, in the heart of the Tambopata Candamo National Reserve . On the banks of the Tambopata River it is surrounded by primary rainforest and is a place of natural beauty.
There are 20km of forest trails around the lodge and it is also possible to visit the local community of Baltimore, the El Gato Waterfalls, and collpas of parrots and mammals. Fishing is also possible. Up-river from the lodge there are no more dwellings. The lack of people and the closeness to the Andes produces an abundance of flora and fauna not seen in other areas of the amazon.

INCLUDES:
- Transfers In / Out Airport / Lodge / Airport.
- 02 Nights of Lodging in Wasai Tambopata Lodge.
- 01 Night of Lodging in Wasai Maldonado Ecolodge (City Lodge). - 03 Breakfasts, 03 Lunches, 03 Dinners.
- Visit to the Macaws clay lick "El Chuncho".
- Visit to the Sandoval Lake.
- Etno-botanical treekings in the Tambopata trails.
- Nocturnal excursion in the river looking for caimans.
- Bilingual naturalist resident guides.

TAMBOPATA CANDAMO EXPEDITION
PRICES PER PERSON (Expresed in american dollars)

ITINERARY

The trip is full of adventure, with possibilities to find wild animals and the most attractive landscapes: The amazing macaw clay lick "collpa" in the Bahuaja-Sonene National Park and the wonderful Sandoval Lake in the Tambopata - Candamo Reserved Zone. This program includes walks   through the heart of the reserved area of Tambopata Candamo and the Bahuaja Sonene National park.
DAY 01: Puerto Maldonado – Wasai Tambopata Lodge
Reception  at the airport and transportation to the WASAI Maldonado Ecolodge, where you will receive a welcoming tropical fruit beverage. Then, you will embark for a 4 hour motorboat trip up the Tambopata River to WASAI Tambopata Lodge & Research Center (box lunch on board). During the trip into the heart of the rain forest we will be able to observe clouds of butterflies, typical Amazon communities, while groups of birds pass over the boat and animals such as capybaras turtles and caiman.  Reception and accommodation at Wasai lodge.
Introductory nocturnal walk to understand rainforest ecosystems and see some of the amazing trees . Return to the lodge for dinner.
We will enjoy diverse sounds of the jungle which will accompany our first night in the Amazon.
Overnight in Wasai Tambopata Lodge.
DAY 2: Visit to the Macaw Clay Lick
Early wake up at 4:30 am to take a light breakfast (coffee or mate), to begin with our 40-minute journey upstream to the Macaw Clay Lick “El Chuncho” in the Bahuaja-Sonene National Park. We will have the opportunity to enjoy the beautiful natural sceneries and wildlife of the riverbanks. At our arrival, if weather permits, we will observe one of the greatest wildlife spectacles where hundreds of parrots and different species of macaws gather to eat clay, an unforgettable experience. Then, we will walk through the river beach searching for animal footprints while we have refreshment.
In the middle morning we return to the lodge to have breakfast and then take a rest to relax or do the additional adventure activities like: zip line, triline, floating ropes or enjoy the facilities and the surroundings of Wasai.
(At 11 am) We leave again to take a 10 minute river journey to enjoy “Cascadas del Gato” (Cat Cascades), where we will swim in a “natural Jacuzzi”. If you wish, you can join us to fish in the river where inhabit more than 250 species of fish or do kayaking on the river (additional).
After lunch, we will have an ethno botanical walk into the rainforest by the Tambopata cross path, to learn about plants and medicinal trees of the area; and to observe the amazing jungle ecosystem where we will see walking palm trees, giant lupuna trees, snake trees and so on. At nightfall, we embark again to make a nocturnal caiman search.
Overnight in Wasai Tambopata Lodge.
DAY 3: Visit to the Sandoval Lake
After breakfast we will make a trip in boat to the WASAI Maldonado Ecolodge, in Puerto Maldonado where we will relax in our bungalows and enjoy a tasty lunch. After lunch we will leave and travel for thirty minutes on the Madre de Dios River, to the access trail to Lake Sandoval,  a beautiful typical rainforest lake. 3 km hike to the banks of the lake. There we will board a canoe to paddle around the lake enjoying the beauty of the landscape and observing the wildlife, such as kingfishers, herons, hoatzins (unique pre historic looking birds) , monkeys, etc. If we are lucky we could see the family of giant otters which live at the lake. We will have the opportunity to swim in the lake.
It is time to begin our return hike to the Madre de Dios River to return to Puerto Maldonado. There we will stay in the modern and comfortable bungalows of WASAI Maldonado Ecolodge. After dinner we will be able to rest or go around the city on foot or on bicycle. We can enjoy the pool and its cascade surrounded by verdant vegetation. Rest of the night free to enjoy the night life of this welcoming city.
Overnight in Wasai Maldonado Ecolodge.
DAY 4: River Journey to Puerto Maldonado
Breakfast. After breakfast we will return by boat to Puerto Maldonado to take our flight to Lima or Cuzco.

PUERTO MALDONADO JUNGLE 4 DAYS 3 NIGHTS
CANOPY, LAKE AND PARROT'S CLAY LICK
03 NIGHTS IN THE JUNGLE - POSADA AMAZONAS
DAILY DEPARTURES

Posada Amazonas is a 30 bedroom lodge owned by the Community of Infierno and managed with Rainforest Expeditions. To get there from Puerto Maldonado, you have to be transported by truck to the Infierno River Port where you board our boats for a forty five minute trip to Posada Amazonas. Posada Amazonas is located ten minutes walking from the river.

INCLUDES:
- Transfers In / Out Airport / Lodge / Airport.
- 03 Nights of Lodging.
- 03 Breakfasts, 03 Lunches, 03 Dinners.
- Canopy tower.
- Visit to the Tres Chimbadas lake.
- Visit to the Parrots clay lick.
- Treekings to the Ceiba.
- Bilingual naturalist resident guides.

POSADA AMAZONAS - RAINFOREST EXPEDITIONS
PRICES PER PERSON (Expresed in american dollars)

ITINERARY

DAY 01: Puerto Maldonado - Canopy
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.
Skirting Puerto Maldonado, we drive 20 kilometers to the Tambopata River Port, entering the Native Community of Infierno. The port is a communal business. Boxed Lunch.
Transfer Boat - Tambopata River Port to Posada Amazonas. The forty five minute boat ride from the Tambopata Port to Posada Amazonas will take us into the Community´s Primary Forest Private Reserve. Upon arrival, the lodge manager will welcome you and brief you with important navigation and security tips.
Canopy Tower. A twenty minute walk from Posada Amazonas leads to the 30 meter scaffolding canopy tower. A bannistered staircase running through the middle provides safe access to the platforms above. From atop you obtain spectacular views of the vast expanses of standing forest cut by the Tambopata River winding through the middle. Now and then toucans, parrots or macaws are seen flying against the horizon, or mixed species canopy flocks land in the treetop next to you.
Dinner. A daily presentation on the Infierno ecotourism project is available every night from a staff member.
Overnight in Posada Amazonas Lodge.
DAY 2: Tres Chimbadas Lake
Breakfast.
Tres Chimbadas Oxbow Lake. Tres Chimbadas is thirty minutes by boat and forty five minutes hiking from Posada Amazonas. Once there you will paddle around the lake in a catamaran, searching for the resident family of nine giant river otters (seen by 60% of our lake visitors) and other lakeside wildlife such as caiman, hoatzin and horned screamers. Otters are most active from dawn to eight or nine AM.
Lunch.
Ethnobotanical Tour. A twenty minute boat drive downriver leads you to a trail designed by the staff of the Centro Ñape. The Centro Ñape is a communal organization that produces medicines out of forest plants and administers them to patients who choose their little clinic. They have produced a trail which explains the different medicinal (and other) uses of selected plants.
Dinner. After dinner, 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 Posada Amazonas Lodge.
DAY 3: Parrot Clay Lick - Ceiba Trail Hike
Breakfast.
Parrot Clay Lick. This clay lick is only a twenty minute walk from Posada Amazonas. From a blind located about twenty meters away you will see dozens of parrots and parakeets descend on most clear mornings to ingest the clay on a river bank. Species such as Mealy and Yellow- headed Amazon, Blue-headed Parrot and Dusky headed Parakeet descend at this clay lick. The clay lick is active at dawn, during the late mornings and mid-afternoons.
Ceiba Trail Hike. We leave from the lobby at Posada Amazonas and embark on a two hour hike crowned by the largest tree in the vicinity: a giant ceiba tree. During the hike we will focus on the natural history of the rain forest and its principal taxonomic groups.
Lunch.
Farm Visit. A thirty minute boat drive downriver takes us to the most complete farm in the community of Infierno. The owner grows a diverse variety of popular and unknown Amazon crops. In his garden, just about every plant and tree serves a purpose. Dinner.
Overnight in Posada Amazonas Lodge.
DAY 4: Transfer to the Airport
Breakfast. Transfer Boat - Posada Amazonas to Tambopata River Port. Transfer Tambopata River Port to Pto Maldonado Headquarters. 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.

PUERTO MALDONADO JUNGLE 4 DAYS 3 NIGHTS
CANOPY AND TAMBOPATA NATIONAL RESERVE
03 NIGHTS IN THE JUNGLE - REFUGIO AMAZONAS
DAILY DEPARTURES

Refugio Amazonas is a charming 32 bedroom lodge, well placed immediately adjacent to the Tambopata National Reserve. It is located 4 hours upriver from Puerto Maldonado in the buffer zone of the Tambopata National Reserve. To get here you are transported by truck to the Infierno River Port where you board our boats for the two and half hour trip to Refugio Amazonas. Refugio Amazonas is located ten minutes walking from the river.

INCLUDES:
- Transfers In / Out Airport / Lodge / Airport.
- 03 Nights of Lodging.
- 03 Breakfasts, 03 Lunches, 03 Dinners.
- Canopy tower.
- Farm Visit and Ethnobotanical Tour.
- Visit to the Parrot Clay Lick.
- Visit to the Mammal Clay Lick.
- Treekings in the jungle.
- Bilingual naturalist resident guides.
- A nocturnal excursion in the river looking for aligators.

REFUGIO AMAZONAS - RAINFOREST EXPEDITIONS
PRICES PER PERSON (Expresed in american dollars)

ITINERARY

DAY 01: Puerto Maldonado - Refugio Amazonas
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.
Skirting Puerto Maldonado, we drive 20 kilometers to the Tambopata River Port, entering the Native Community of Infierno. The port is a communal business.
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. Boxed Lunch. Upon arrival, the lodge manager will welcome you and brief you with important navigation and security tips. Dinner.
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.
Overnight in Refugio Amazonas Lodge.
DAY 2: Canopy - Ethnobotanical Visit
Breakfast.
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.
Lunch.
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.
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.
Dinner. Nightly lectures prepared by the staff of Refugio Amazonas cover conservation threats, opportunities and projects in the Tambopata National Reserve.
Overnight in Refugio Amazonas Lodge.
DAY 3: Parrot Clay Lick
Breakfast.
Parrot Clay Lick. A fifteen minute boat ride and sixty minute walk from Refugio Amazonas is a clay lick used both by parrots and parakeets. From a blind you will see parrots and 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. With luck we will also see some or all of the following species in the early morning rush: Mealy and Yellow-crowned Amazons, Blue-headed Pionus, Severe macaw and Orange-cheeled (Barraband`s) Parrot. We visit the lick at dawn, when parrots are most active or in midmorning or early afternoon, when they are active.
Lunch.
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. Dinner.
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.
Overnight in Refugio Amazonas Lodge.
DAY 4: Transfer to the Airport
Breakfast. Transfer Boat - Refugio Amazonas to Tambopata River Port. Transfer Tambopata River Port to Pto Maldonado Headquarters. 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.

PUERTO MALDONADO JUNGLE 4 DAYS 3 NIGHTS
TWO ECOSYSTEMS * RAINFOREST & SAVANNAH
03 NIGHTS IN JUNGLE - HEATH RIVER WILDLIFE CENTER
DEPARTURES: MONDAYS AND THURSDAYS

On this journey to the Heath River we encounter the best and most astonishingly varied pristine rainforest that the Upper Amazon Basin has to offer, while staying at the small and intimate Heath River Wildlife Center. This is the only eco-lodge on the the remote Heath River, the wild rainforest frontier where Peru and Bolivia meet. Few other Amazon lodges can offer this unbeatable combination of remoteness, and yet reachable distance by river from an airport with daily scheduled passenger-jet flights.
Our lodge lies within the Tambopata-Madidi reserve areas of Peru and Bolivia. Bolivia’s Madidi National Park totals 18,900 sq. km./7,297 sq. miles, while the adjacent reserves of Tambopata-Candamo and Bahuaja-Sonene across the border in Peru add up to more than 13,700 sq. km./5,290 sq. miles. Taken together, they form the second largest, and by far the most biologically diverse nature conservation area in all of South America.
This is an active rainforest visit, with some trail walking and/or bicycling required to get the most from the experience. At the Heath River Wildlife Center we witness one of nature’s most spectacular displays -- a tumultuous gathering of brightly-colored macaws and parrots at the nearby Heath River macaw claylick.
The lodge offers an array of options almost too numerous and varied to be taken on one visit. We may spot wildlife along the lightly-used trails of this remote forest, and perhaps stake out one of the lodge’s mammal clay licks, in hopes of sighting an elusive Lowland Tapir, the Amazon’s largest mammal. We can visit the abundant birds and monkeys of a secluded oxbow lake, travel upriver and float stealthily downstream with the engine off, and walk or bicycle through the astonishing change of environments to be experienced on the short journey from the river to the Pampas del Heath – an excursion that also takes in a rare nesting site of the Red-bellied and Blue-and-yellow Macaws. We may also pay a visit to the village of Sonene, one of the surviving communities of the Ese’Eja indigenous people.

INCLUDES:
- Transfers In / Out Airport / Lodge / Airport.
- 03 Nights of Lodging.
- 03 Breakfasts, 03 Lunches, 03 Dinners.
- Rooms with private room.
- All meals and snacks.
- Visit to the Macaws clay lick.
- Treekings in the Rainforest.
- Bilingual naturalist resident guides.

HEATH RIVER WILDLIFE CENTER
PRICES PER PERSON (Expresed in american dollars)

ITINERARY

DAY 01: Puerto Maldonado to Heath River Wildlife Center
Staff welcome you at Puerto Maldonado airport and we drive through this bustling Upper Amazon Basin city to the Tambopata River boat dock. Here we board a powerful motorized dugout canoe and set off to the nearby confluence of the mighty Madre de Dios River, where we head downstream for approximately three hours to the Peru-Bolivia border at the mouth of the remote Heath River. Even beneath the vast sky of this major Amazon tributary we glimpse the diversity of the riverine environment, with its forest-capped red-earth cliffs, alternating with low banks thick with Cecropia trees and giant grasses. Now, after brief frontier-crossing formalities, we motor for about two more hours up narrower and wilder waters, suddenly enjoying the intimacy of mysterious forest looming close on either side. Occasional views of native villages and children splashing by the banks, are interspersed with long, quiet stretches where we may spot herons, hawks, cormorants, Orinoco Geese, and perhaps a family of Capybaras -- the world’s largest rodent, weighing up to 55kg./120lb, and looking like an enormous Guinea Pig. We reach our simple, charming and comfortable quarters at the Heath River Wildlife Center in time for dinner. (Please note that the lodge is located on the Bolivian shore of the Heath River, so passports are required to clear Bolivian passport control.)
Overnight in Heath River Wildlife Center.
DAY 2: Heath River Wildlife Center
Today we make an early start to visit the the lodge’s most spectacular feature: the Heath River parrot and macaw lick. Here these colorful birds gather to eat a type of clay from the cliff-like river banks that neutralizes certain toxins in their diet. They congregate early each morning, sometimes by the hundreds, jostling and squabbling over the best eating spots on the clay lick. This noisy and unforgettable show can go on for two or three hours, and may begin with up to five species of parrot and two varieties of parakeet, followed by Chestnut-fronted Macaws and their larger, more boisterous cousins, the Red-and-green Macaws. This extraordinary wildlife display occurs at only a handful of sites in the Upper Amazon Basin, and nowhere else on the planet.
Our floating hide platform provides comfort and complete concealment, so that we can eat a full breakfast here during pauses in the bankside spectacle. For ultra-close-up viewing, our guides carry a tripod-mounted spotting scope, which can also be used to get telephoto pictures with even the simplest camera.
On our return we can land partway downriver and walk back along a section of the lodge’s extensive network of forest trails. We encounter numerous gigantic Brazil-nut, kapok and fig trees, along with the scary strangler fig, whose life strategy is as sinister as its name suggests. Our guide will point out and explain the medicinal and commercial uses of dozens of plants and trees, while we keep our eyes and ears open for birds, or one of the eight species of monkeys found in this region. We might come upon a small herd of White-lipped or Collared peccary – two kinds of wild pig that are quite common in this area. For purposes of territorial marking they deploy a “stink gland” so potent that they are often smelled long before they are seen.
After lunch we typically hike or bicycle along a major trail to a point where the forest abruptly gives way to the spacious plains of the Pampas del Heath, part of Bolivia’s Madidi National Park. This unique environment -- the result of very poor soils, plus an extreme seasonal cycle of dryness and flooding -- is the largest remaining undisturbed tropical savannah in the Amazon, and is home to rare endemic birds and mammals, such as the Swallow-tailed Hummingbird and the highly endangered Maned Wolf. Shortly beyond the edge of the forest we can climb a raised platform that allows us a grand view of this vast expanse of grassland and shrub, studded with palm trees.
We can continue another hour or so to a swampy area thick with Mauritia flexuosa palm trees, whose oil-rich palm nuts and hollowed-out dead palms provide vitally important food and shelter for nesting pairs of Red-bellied and increasingly rare Blue-and-yellow macaws. We aim to arrive toward dusk, when the macaws are returning from their day’s foraging to congregate in this very special breeding site.
We return to the lodge by night, using our flashlights, and perhaps pausing here and there in total darkness, to listen to the ever-changing orchestra of animals, frogs and insects, and to experience the magic of the night-time rainforest. We may come upon such bizarre nocturnal creatures as camouflaged frogs disguised as dead leaves, toads the size of rabbits, hairy tarantulas peering out of their dirt holes, night monkeys lurking among the tree branches, and a teemingly unpredictable array of other nightlife.
After dinner some guests may choose to visit one of our mammal lick hides, in hopes of seeing a Lowland Tapir, the rainforest’s largest mammal. Hardy adventurers can choose to camp here with their guide, in order to experience a full night in the heart of the rainforest and increase their chances of a major wildlife sighting.
Overnight in Heath River Wildlife Center.
DAY 3: Heath River Wildlife Center
Our second full day at the lodge allows us to choose from a wide range of activities available in this exceptionally diverse tropical environment. Many people choose to make a second visit to the macaw clay lick. Later we can take a canoe tour around Cocha Moa, an oxbow lake that lies a short way downstream from the lodge.
The reeds, fallen trees and forested shoreline of this lake teem with birds and other wildlife. Red Howler Monkeys may peer at us through the branches of the giant trees above us, while herons lie in wait among the fallen trees, cormorant-like Anhingas watch from the forest branches, and an Osprey may circle overhead. Flocks of brilliant Red-capped Cardinals gather on dead branches, and a colorful, primitive bird, the Hoatzin, hops its ungainly way along the swampy water’s edge.
In the afternoon we may travel an hour or so downriver to visit the Ese’Eja native community of Sonene, where we can meet these descendants of nomadic forest tribes, and catch a glimpse of those traditional lifeways that they manage to maintain in the modern world. We can also purchase their handcrafts, made from a wide range of seeds collected from the forest.
After dinner we can board our canoe once more, for an evening of spotting for caiman, the Amazonian cousin of the alligator. This region is home to the endangered black caiman, and we nearly always pick out a few with our powerful spotlight as we patrol the river.
Overnight in Heath River Wildlife Center.
DAY 4: Heath River Wildlife Center to Puerto Maldonado and Cusco or Lima
We leave at dawn for the return trip downstream. This is peak hour for wildlife so we keep a sharp eye on the riverbanks, often spotting families of Capybara, and perhaps being rewarded with a rare jaguar sighting, or a tapir swimming across the current. We reach the Madre de Dios River, re-enter Peru, and set off upstream for Puerto Maldonado, where we are transferred to the airport for our flight to Cusco or Lima.