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Preparation
Deep Amazon Experience - 4 days/3 nights
On this page: Overview | Itinerary | Pricing
Overview
We now offer a more intensive, deep Amazon experience, with two nights at a lodge on the Peru/Bolivia border and one at Lake Sandoval Lodge. Our Ese Eja Indian hosts add wisdom and knowledge to this incredible jungle adventure!
Please note that all rainforest itineraries may vary slightly so as to maximize wildlife sightings, depending on the reports of our researchers and experienced naturalist guides.
Itinerary
Day 1: We are met by our guide at Puerto Maldonado airport and transferred to the port on the Tambopata River. Here we board a motorized canoe for a four-and-a-half hour journey to the Heath River Wildlife Center. After descending the Tambopata River for 5 minutes to the confluence with the larger Madre de Dios River, our boat heads east, downstream on the mighty Madre de Dios River, passing small gold prospecting barges before reaching the Peru-Bolivia border. This stretch of the Madre de Dios River is particularly attractive, as more than 75% of the riverbank is still covered by towering, virgin rainforest, and periods of 15-20 minutes go by without a single sign of forest cutting. Here we transfer to a smaller motorized canoe and head up the narrow, intimate Heath River, which forms the wilderness border between Peru and Bolivia, to arrive at our 100% Indian-owned lodge, the only all-Indian-owned lodge in the Tambopata region. PLEASE NOTE THAT VALID PASSPORTS MUST BE BROUGHT FOR THIS JOURNEY. In the late afternoon, our Ese Eja Indian hosts will take us to explore the forest surrounding the lodge in search for the various species of monkeys and hundreds of species of birds that make the rainforest home. After dinner we explore the forest by flashlight, including a visit to a small mammal clay lick if it is active, overnight at Heath River Lodge (LD).
Day 2: Rising before dawn we once again board the canoe for the journey up the Heath River to the Macaw and Parrot Clay Lick. Depending on the level of the river this journey can take up to one hour. During the river trip upstream, we nearly always see one or two families of Capybaras on the banks of the river At 120 pounds (55 kilograms), this simply gigantic relative of the guinea pig is the largest and most photogenic rodent in the world. Once at our specially-designed floating blind, our breakfast is served as we marvel at the medium-sized, emerald-green and electric-blue parrots and the large blazing Red-and-Green Macaws that arrive in two shifts to eat the clay. Note that in some years ALL macaw and parrot licks in southern Peru are less active in May, June, and early July than in the rest of the months of the year. Thus, bear this in mind if you are especially interested in photography of the parrots and macaws. Returning to the lodge after the a beautiful parrot display our native guides take us on an ethno-botanical walk through the forest, explaining how they use many of the forest trees and plants in their daily lives, either as medicines or for bows and arrows and in home construction.
After lunch and a short rest we go first by canoe then a short walk to a natural forest of towering, 170-foot-tall (55-meter-tall) Brazil nut trees to learn how the slight, yet surprisingly powerful, men of the village harvest these nuts, which fall from the treetops encased in rock-hard brown spheres the size of small grapefruits. Our Ese Eja Indian hosts have harvested these delicious, valuable nuts for thousands of years, and now they will show you the mystery and splendor of this wonder of the Amazon. Our hosts also feature a canopy in the top of a huge canopy emergent tree. Overnight at Heath River Lodge (BLD).
Day 3: Once again we rise before dawn and set off to have breakfast in the floating blind at the Macaw and Parrot Clay Lick. After the spectacle of the lick we return to the lodge to pack and then boat back upstream on the Madre de Dios River to Sandoval Lake Lodge, which is located on the banks of the lake that most experts consider to be the most beautiful in all the southern Amazon of Peru. A box lunch will be eaten during the journey. Arriving at the trail head to Sandoval Lake Lodge we take a 45-minute walk through the forest to a small canal where we board a canoe and then transfer to one or more hand-paddled catamarans, each of which has a capacity for 20 people. Arriving on the lake in the cool golden light of the late afternoon, we enter into a flooded palm forest and drift beneath dozens (and often hundreds) of babbling Red-bellied Macaws as they return to the palm forest for the night. This macaw species is found locally in parts of the Amazon, always living in flooded palm forests such as the beautiful palm stand at Sandoval Lake. At 500-800 birds, this flock of macaws at Sandoval Lake is currently the largest reported in the world for this highly-specialized macaw. We return to the lodge around nightfall for dinner. Overnight at Lake Sandoval Lodge (BLD).
Day 4: After a dawn breakfast we return to Puerto Maldonado for the flight back to Cusco or Lima (B).
Tour departs: Every day
Pricing
2010 Prices:
| # Group | 2 | 3-4 | 5-6 | 7-9 | Single supplement |
| Price per person | $945 | $815 | $700 | $700 | $190 |
Includes: Three nights rainforest lodge, all meals listed (B=breakfast, L=lunch, D=dinner), bilingual guides, rainforest activities listed, transportation by boat/canoe.
Not included: Transfers in Lima and Cusco, domestic flights to/from Puerto Maldonado (approximately US$190/person one way), tips for your guides, boat drivers and lodge staff, personal expenses.