Arrival & Reception by Guide
Our guides are biologists, 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.
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.
Transfer Puerto 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.
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
Orientation
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 at Refugio Amazonas
Day 2: Canopy Tower / Ethnobotanical Tour /
Refugio Amazonas (B-L-D)
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
Tambopata National Reserve Lectures
Nightly lectures prepared by the staff of Refugio Amazonas cover
conservation threats, opportunities and projects in the Tambopata National
Reserve.
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.
Transfer Boat - Refugio Amazonas to Tambopata River Port
Transfer Tambopata River Port to Puerto Maldonado Headquarters
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.
Transfer Puerto Maldonado Headquarters to Airport
NOTES:
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.
We reserve the right to change the order of activities.
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. Is not a requirement but we suggest to
vaccinate against yellow fever (minimum 10 days before arrive in the jungle.
Include:
Programs based on double occupancy.
All meal and services
All river transportation
And transfer from and to the airport of Puerto Maldonado.
Not Include:
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
Items of personal nature.
Important:
Expiration date:31/12/2012
All
rates are per person, in US $ dollars.
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