Day 1 Refugio Amazonas (L,D)
Upon arrival from Lima or Cusco, a local representative from Adventures to Peru will welcome you at the airport and transfer ten minutes to our Puerto Maldonado headquarters office. 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.
Departing the office we’ll drive 20 kilometers to the Tambopata River Port, entering the Native Community of Infierno, where we’ll board our motorized canoe
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. Enjoy a high quality boxed lunch on board before disembarking on the shores of the Tambopata River. Upon arrival, the lodge manager will welcome you will a local jungle fruit beverage 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 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 horned 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.
Overnight at Refugio Amazonas
Day 4 Refugio Amazonas Departure Day (B)
Today is departure day. After breakfast we’ll make the short portage on foot back to the Tambopata river port for our two-hour motorized canoe trip to our Puerto Maldonado Headquarters. We’ll make a quick stop by the office to pick up your personal belongings and large luggage before continuing on to the Puerto Maldonado airport. Depending on airline schedules, this may require dawn departures.
Adventures to Peru services end upon arrival at the Puerto Maldonado airport.