Peru Amazon: three nights at a Tambopata rainforest lodge

1. Day 1: From the Andes down to the Tambopata river

   Cusco to Puerto Maldonado by air, then by boat up the Tambopata river to the lodge

   • Drive about 45 min
   • Lunch and dinner at the lodge or on the boat
   • Stay in Tambopata
   Day 1 details

   Your See Sight Tours guide meets you at your hotel in central Cusco in the morning for the short drive to the airport and a flight of about an hour down to Puerto Maldonado, at about 180 metres. The doors open on warm, heavy air after the thin cold of the Andes. In town we leave large bags in storage, take a small bag for the forest, and stop for a few minutes at the market, where Brazil nuts, river fish and jungle fruit are sold by the sack. From the river port a covered motorised canoe carries us up the Tambopata river, one to three hours depending on the lodge we confirm, with lunch on board or on arrival. Watch the banks for capybaras, turtles, herons and kingfishers. After settling in, a resident naturalist leads a first walk near the lodge, and after dinner we go out with torches on a night walk for frogs, insects and, with luck, a tarantula at its burrow.

   Included

   • Pick-up at your hotel in central Cusco
   • Flight from Cusco to Puerto Maldonado
   • Luggage storage and a short market stop in Puerto Maldonado
   • Motorised canoe up the Tambopata river to the lodge
   • Afternoon forest walk with a naturalist guide
   • Guided night walk

   Easier option: Skip the night walk and stay at the lodge after dinner.

   Activity: An early morning start for the flight. From about 3,400 metres in Cusco to about 180 metres: expect heat and humidity, and wear long sleeves and repellent on the trails.

   

2. Day 2: A dawn clay lick and the canopy tower

   Tambopata: the clay lick at first light, then the canopy tower in the late afternoon

   • By boat
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Tambopata
   Day 2 details

   We leave the lodge in the dark, around 4:30 to 5 am, so we are in place at a clay lick on the riverbank as the light comes up. This is when parrots, parakeets and, on good mornings, macaws arrive to eat the mineral-rich clay, first gathering noisily in the trees and then dropping onto the bank. Activity depends on the season and the weather, so your guide reads the morning and we wait quietly from a hide or the boat. Breakfast is on the boat or back at the lodge. The hot middle of the day is free: a hammock, a shower, a book. In the late afternoon, when the forest wakes up again, we climb the lodge's canopy tower or walkway to stand level with the treetops, where toucans, tanagers and parrots feed and monkeys may cross the branches, and stay for the last light. After dinner there is a second night walk for anyone who wants one.

   Included

   • Dawn visit to a clay lick with your naturalist guide
   • Canopy tower or walkway in the late afternoon
   • Optional second night walk
   • All meals at the lodge

   Easier option: Sleep in instead of the clay lick, and join the group for the canopy tower in the afternoon.

   More active option: A longer forest walk of about 3 hours with a naturalist on the way to the tower, looking for monkeys and birds as the heat drops.

   Free time: Midday free at the lodge

   Activity: A 4:30 to 5 am start. Canopy towers mean many steps or a steep stair; tell your guide if heights are a problem and you can stay below.

   

3. Day 3: Giant otters on the oxbow lake

   Tambopata: an oxbow lake by canoe, a Brazil nut forest and the river after dark

   • By boat
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Tambopata
   Day 3 details

   Another early start, because giant otters are most often seen fishing in the first hours of the morning. We go by boat and on foot to an oxbow lake, a loop of old river cut off from the main channel, and paddle slowly across it in a canoe. Besides the otter family that lives on many of these lakes, look for hoatzins hissing in the reeds, herons, turtles on logs and, near the banks, black caiman. Back on land, your naturalist walks you through a stand of Brazil nut trees, the giants of this forest and an income for many families in Madre de Dios, and along a trail of medicinal plants, explaining how bark, leaves and resins are used. Lunch is back at the lodge and the afternoon is free to swim where the lodge allows it, rest or walk the trails again. After dinner we go out on the river by boat with a spotlight to find the red glow of caiman eyes along the banks.

   Included

   • Oxbow lake by canoe, looking for giant otters
   • Brazil nut forest and medicinal plant trail with your naturalist guide
   • Caiman-spotting boat trip after dark
   • All meals at the lodge

   Easier option: Join the lake by canoe and return to the lodge by boat instead of walking the Brazil nut trail.

   More active option: A late-afternoon walk on a longer trail with the naturalist, about 3 hours, before the caiman boat.

   Free time: Afternoon free at the lodge

   Activity: Trails to the lake are flat but often muddy; the lodge usually lends rubber boots. Otters are often seen but never certain.

   

4. Day 4: Down the river and into Lima

   Tambopata river to Puerto Maldonado, by air to Lima, then Lima's historic centre and the airport

   • Drive about 1.5 h
   • Breakfast
   Day 4 details

   Anyone who wants one last look at the forest can join the naturalist for birds around the lodge at dawn. After breakfast the boat takes us back down the Tambopata river to Puerto Maldonado, often with howler monkeys calling from the banks. We collect the large bags and fly to Lima, about an hour and forty minutes on a direct flight, a little longer via Cusco on days without one. The change is sudden: from rainforest to the cool, grey air of the Pacific coast. Most flights home leave Lima in the evening or overnight, so when the timing works your guide takes the group into the historic centre for a walk around the Plaza Mayor, the Cathedral and the Government Palace, with a coffee or a pisco sour before the drive back to the airport. If your flight leaves early, we go straight to the airport or to your Lima hotel instead. Check your onward flight time with us before you book it; we confirm the Lima landing time and whether the walk fits.

   Included

   • Optional dawn birding at the lodge
   • Motorised canoe back to Puerto Maldonado
   • Flight from Puerto Maldonado to Lima
   • Walk around Lima's Plaza Mayor and historic centre when flight times allow
   • Drop-off at Jorge Chávez International Airport (LIM) or your Lima hotel

   Easier option: Go straight from the Lima flight to the airport hotel or your own Lima hotel.

   Activity: Continuing to Cusco instead? Ask us and we book the flight back to Cusco in place of Lima.

   

Wildlife and weather: May to October is the dry season: low rivers, firmer trails and wildlife on the exposed riverbanks. Between May and August a cold front from the south, the friaje, can bring a cool, grey day or two. Clay lick activity changes with the season and the weather, so macaws are likely but never certain on a given morning.

• Tambopata3 nights