Ultimate Amazon Experience

Our team welcomes you at the airport or bus terminal in Puerto Maldonado. From there we head to the port to board a motorized boat for a roughly 15-minute ride down the Madre de Dios River, our first contact with the Amazon rainforest.

On arrival at the lodge you’re welcomed with a typical Amazonian drink and settle into your private room. Before lunch we take an interpretive walk along the lodge’s primary and secondary forest trails, where our naturalist guide points out giant Amazonian trees, medicinal plants, and tropical insects. With some luck you may spot monkeys, toucans, woodpeckers, giant butterflies, and tropical squirrels.

Monkey Island. After lunch we navigate roughly 20 minutes to the well-known Monkey Island, home to several free-living primate species — capuchin, squirrel, tamarin, saki, and howler monkeys. Our guide explains their social behavior and the importance of their conservation. Ideal for nature photography.

Night caiman watch. After dark we take a boat excursion using powerful flashlights — the darkness lets us spot the reddish glow of caimans’ eyes reflecting the light. We may also find night herons, fishing bats, owls, and Amazonian frogs. Return to the lodge for dinner and rest.

05:00 a.m. Early departure toward the La Cachuela parrot clay lick, roughly a 50-minute ride upriver. At dawn, hundreds of parrots and parakeets — blue-headed parrots, mealy parrots, and parakeets among them — gather daily to eat mineral-rich clay that neutralizes toxins in the fruit they eat, one of the most impressive natural spectacles in Madre de Dios.

Breakfast and return to the lodge, followed by the transfer into the Tambopata National Reserve. After checking in, we hike roughly 3 kilometers (about an hour) through primary forest, where it’s common to spot monkeys, toucans, macaws, butterflies, fungi, and giant insects, before reaching Lake Sandoval and boarding a traditional paddle canoe.

Lake Sandoval. This beautiful blackwater lake is considered one of the most biodiverse ecosystems in South America. During the ride we may spot giant otters, hoatzins, kingfishers, cormorants, herons, caimans, turtles, and monkeys. On arrival at the lodge you can enjoy a swim in the lake’s authorized areas after lunch.

Night walk. After dusk we take a specialized walk to discover the forest’s nocturnal wildlife — tarantulas, colorful frogs, fluorescent scorpions, tropical insects, and nocturnal mammals. Dinner and overnight stay deep inside the Tambopata National Reserve.

Before dawn we take a silent canoe ride to the well-known Collpa de Palmeras, where different species of macaws — blue-and-yellow, scarlet, and red-and-green — gather to eat the fruits and fibers of palm trees rich in essential minerals. An excellent opportunity for birdwatching and photography.

Breakfast, followed by a hike along little-used trails inside the Tambopata National Reserve, where our guide explains centuries-old trees, medicinal plants, lianas, palms, seasonally flooded ecosystems, and the adaptations of Amazonian wildlife.

Lunch and rest, followed in the afternoon by another ride across Lake Sandoval to enjoy one of the most beautiful landscapes in the Amazon at sunset — giant otters, black caimans, monkeys, herons, anhingas, and hoatzins are frequently seen, and the forest’s reflection on the water makes for excellent photography. Dinner and overnight stay.

After breakfast we return to the Madre de Dios River. Equipped with life jackets, we begin a kayak ride — a peaceful activity that lets you experience the rainforest from a completely different perspective.

Canopy circuit. On arrival at the adventure center we climb a roughly 20-meter tower and cross a series of hanging bridges between the treetops, an excellent vantage point for bromeliads, orchids, canopy birds, monkeys, and butterflies.

Lunch and rest, followed in the afternoon by a roughly 30-minute walk to a small Amazonian stream for a traditional fishing session, where using local techniques we try our luck catching piranhas and other Amazonian fish species — our guide shares the traditional techniques used by local communities. Return to the lodge for dinner and overnight stay.

05:30 a.m. Before breakfast we take a roughly one-hour walk — the first hours of the day are the best time to spot wildlife along the trails, including toucans, macaws, tanagers, oropendolas, woodpeckers, monkeys, and Amazonian squirrels, along with a spectacular view over the Madre de Dios River as the forest wakes up.

Breakfast and time to pack, followed by the boat transfer back to Puerto Maldonado, where we pick up any luggage left at our office and transfer you to the airport or bus terminal, bringing this extraordinary Amazon experience to a close.