DAY 1: PUERTO MALDONADO - POSADA AMAZONAS
Upon arrival from Lima or Cuzco, reception and transfer to the Tambopata river port in Puerto Maldonado. Puerto Maldonado is situated at the confluence of the mighty Madre de Dios and Tambopata Rivers and is a bustling, booming tropical frontier town. Its principal activities are gold mining, Brazil nut collecting, timber extraction, agriculture and ecotourism. After a brief survey of the town we will depart on the 2 hour boat trip by motorized canoe to Posada Amazonas. Depending on the arrival time of the plane we will have a boxed lunch aboard the boats or have lunch upon arrival at Posada Amazonas. During our voyage we may see bird species typical of the river or forest edge such as: Black Skimmer, Pied Lapwing, Capped Heron, Jabiru Stork, Roadside Hawk, and several species of kingfishers, swallows and flycatchers. When we arrive at Posada Amazonas we will unpack and unwind. Posada Amazonas is a luxurious yet unobtrusive 24 room lodge owned jointly by Rainforest Expeditions and the Ese’eja Native Community of Tambopata. We will receive a short orientation and a complete briefing of the lodge and the Ese’eja Ecotourism Project before our afternoon activity: Ethnobotany. In this activity, we will hike the trails around Posada Amazonas with an Ese´eja native, who will explain to us the everyday uses of forest medicine, construction, food and fiber. we will return to Posada Amazonas for dinner and overnight. A video about the forest of Tambopata will be displayed after dinner.
DAY 2: POSADA AMAZONAS
After an early breakfast we will visit a parrot clay lick. This clay lick is only a ten minute walk from the lodge, but next to the river. Amazingly, the variety of parrots that visit this clay lick is considerably different than others inside the forest. Some of the large macaws, like the red and green macaw, and larger parrots, like mealy and yellow crowned Amazons visit this lick, as well as the smaller parrots and parakeets. From the blind we have constructed next to this lick, even the amateur photographer can take good pictures of these wonderful birds. We will also have a great opportunity to spot other spectacular wildlife, active at this time of the day, like scarlet or blue and glod macaws and a great deal of other birds. After lunch, we´ll visit a native slash and burn farm. Slash and burn agriculture systems are often thought of as wasteful because the fields are burnt, cultivated for a few years, and then abandoned. Many resident studies, however, have shown that this is far from the truth. The secret of their success is mixed planting in small patches, so that the crops are not decimated by disease and pests spreading through monocultures, the use of a mixture of herbaceous and woody crops, and the genetic diversity of their crops. After our visit, we will be able to understand why the Ese´eja cultivation system is sustainable over the long term. We will return to Posada Amazonas for dinner and overnight. Another video will be displayed this evening.
DAY 3: POSADA AMAZONAS -TAMBOPATA RESEARCH CENTER
We will be up at dawn for a visit to the Tres Chimbadas oxbow lake. After an early breakfast we depart, fifteen minutes from Posada Amazonas by boat and a 30 minute walk take us to the lake shore. From here we take a long, easy canoe ride around it. We will look for giant river otters, turtles, hoatzin, and wading birds. The giant river otters that are seen in Tres Chimbadas belong to a resident family of nine. As we approach noon, animal activity decreases, and tropical sunlight makes it irresistible to take a swim on the lake, so pack your swimsuit. Right after that we will travel up the Tambopata River for 3 to 4 hours into the pristine heart of the reserve. After the first hour we will leave the final traces of human habitation behind as we cross the northern boundary of the 700,000 hectare, completely uninhabited, proposed Tambopata National Park. Differences in wildlife abundance will be noted immediately: we will begin to sight macaws, herons, kingfishers and cormorants frequently and improve our chances of encounters with capybaras, caiman, storks, ducks and other wildlife. Boxed lunch on the boat. We will arrive at Tambopata Research Center in the early afternoon, being greeted by the Chicos, our flock of semi-wild, rescued macaws. On arrival, we will hold an orientation session. After this we will hike the 1.5 mile Bamboo Trail, a trail that is famous for the abundance of rare birds that live exclusively in this habitat and are endemic to southern Peru. It is also the home of the frequently found Howler and Dusky titi monkeys. As we birdwatch our way through the trail we will end our hike at the overlooks which are good places to observe canopy birds like tanagers, jacamars, elaenias, guans, and oropendolas. We will return to TRC for dinner. After dinner, to cap off a fulfilling day we can have a frog walk through the forest, allowing the photo lovers to take incredibly beautiful macro shoots of american bullfrogs, horned frogs, tree frogs and an incredible variety of colorful insects.
DAY 4: TAMBOPATA RESEARCH CENTER - POSADA AMAZONAS
At dawn we will cross the river and enjoy the world's largest macaw clay lick where hundreds of parrots and macaws of up to 15 species congregate daily. The January 1994 issue of National Geographic features an article on Tambopata Research Center and the Tambopata Macaw Project. It begins with a description of the daily spectacle at the clay lick:
"When the morning sun clears the Amazon tree line in southeastern Peru and strikes a gray-pink clay bank on the upper Tambopata River, one of the world's most dazzling wildlife gatherings is nearing its riotous peak. The steep bank has become a pulsing, 130-foot-high palette of red, blue, yellow and green as more than a thousand parrots squabble over choice perches to grab a beakful of clay, a vital but mysterious part of their diet. More than a dozen parrot species will visit the clay lick throughout the day, but this midmorning crush belongs to the giants of the parrot world, the macaws."
You can expect to see ten to twelve of the following members of the parrot family: Red-and-green, Blue-and-gold, Scarlet, Red-bellied, Chestnut-fronted and Blue-headed Macaws; Mealy and Yellow-crowned Amazons; Blue-headed, Orange-cheeked and White-bellied Parrots; Dusky-headed, White-eyed, Cobalt-winged and Tui Parakeets and Dusky-billed Parrotlets. This show will continue until the macaws sense danger, usually in the form of an eagle, and depart simultaneously in an explosion of sound and color. Around mid-morning, when the most intense clay lick activity is over for the day, we will return to TRC for breakfast..
After breakfast we will hike the 1.5 mile Ocelot Trail, a trail which exemplifies the quintessential rainforest . Although at this time of day mammals and birds are not as active as in the early morning, we will concentrate on the forest itself and discuss general rain forest ecology. This forest, which is estimated to be 200 to 300 years old and includes truly huge Ceiba trees and Strangler figs is home to several mammals that are occsaionally encountered: Saddleback tamarins, Squirrel and Brown Capuchin Monkeys and Collared peccary. This trail is the one which most often sports ocelot, puma and jaguar tracks, although any one of these three large cats is extremely difficult to spot. After lunch we will depart back to Posada Amazonas, where we should arrive in the late afternoon after a three hour boat trip. We will spend our last night in the rain forest in this wonderfully designed lodge, pondering over the exciting happenings of the past few days.
DAY 5: POSADA AMAZONAS-PUERTO MALDONADO
After an early breakfast we will return to Puerto Maldonado for our flight back to Lima.