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5 days/4 nights
Cost per person based in double occupancy:
US$ 755.00
Single Accommodation: US$ 955.00
Our Soft Adventure programs fit those who want to combine culture and nature with some more physically challenging activities in the rain forest. Enjoy the rain forest from a different perspective and get on a mountain bike at Refugio Amazonas. Later kayak the Tambopata in the lodge surroundings.
Refugio Amazonas is built on a 200 hectare private reserve on the buffer zone of the Tambopata National Reserve. It is becoming integrated to the communities of Brazil nut extractors that surround it, attempting to extend the benefits of ecotourism to the families that commit to the sustainable use of the forest within this buffer zone.
Refugio Amazonas Lodge is a 32 room lodge located in the 1.5 million hectare Tambopata-National Reserve in southeastern Amazonian Peru. With your English speaking guide you will explore the many trails and observation areas in this pristine Amazonian rainforest. Natural attractions include an oxbow lake with giant river otters, mammal clay licks, small monkeys, and hundreds of bird species. The canopy tower provides easy access to one of the world's final biological frontiers: the rain forest canopy. Opportunities for cultural interaction with an Ese'eja: guided activities include ethno botanical walks, visits to small scale farms, Brazil nut camp and other experiences we are developing in association with our local partners. For those interested in delving more deeply into the Amazonian rainforest you can extend your stay and visit the Tambopata Research Center located in the Tambopata National Reserve.
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Access is simple: To get there you must fly to Puerto Maldonado from Lima or Cusco on daily commercial flights lasting 30 or 90 minutes respectively. From the airport you are transported by truck to the Infierno River Port where you board our boats for the two and half hour trip to Refugio Amazonas. Refugio Amazonas is located ten minutes walking from the river.
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ITINERARY
DAY 1
Arrival & Reception by Guide
Our guides are biologists, tourism professionals, or community members. Unless noted otherwise, our guides speak English. We assign guides at 10:1 ratio in Refugio Amazonas. This means groups smaller than 10 people will be merged with other groups under one guide. If you would like a private guide or a guide in a language other than English please let us know.
Transfer Airport to Puerto Maldonado Headquarters
Upon arrival from Lima or Cusco, we will welcome you at the airport and drive you ten minutes to our Puerto Maldonado headquarters. 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.
Transfer Pto Maldonado Headquarters to Tambopata River Port
Skirting Puerto Maldonado, we drive 20 kilometers to the Tambopata River Port, entering the Native Community of Infierno. The port is a communal business.
Transfer Boat - Tambopata River Port to Refugio Amazonas
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.
Boxed Lunch
Orientation
Upon arrival, the lodge manager will welcome you 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
Breakfast
Oxbow Lake Visit
We will paddle around the lake on a canoe or a catamaran, looking for lakeside wildlife such a hoatzin, caiman and hornerd screamers, hoping to see the otters which are infrequently seen here. You will also be rewarded with overhead sightings of macaws and parrots.
Jungle Mountain Biking
Enjoy the forest from a different perspective, and get on a mountain bike. Our ride begins 10 minutes from the lodge, and then loops 10 kilometers thru mature forest and numerous creekbeds. The muddier it is, the more fun we will have!
Lunch
Brazil Nut Trail and Camp
A few minutes hike from the lodge is a beautiful old growth patch of Brazil Nut forest that has been harvested for decades (if not centuries) where the precarious remains of a camp used two months a year by Brazil Nut gatherers can still be experienced. We will be demonstrating the whole process of the rain forest's only sustainably harvested product from collection through.
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.
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 3
Breakfast
Parrot Clay Lick
A fifteen minute boat ride and sixty minute walk from Refugio Amazonas is a clay lick used both by parrots and parakeets. From a blind you will see parrots and parakeets descend on most clear days to ingest the clay on a bank. Species such as Dusky headed and Cobalt winged Parakeet descend at this clay lick. With luck we will also see some or all of the following species in the early morning rush: Mealy and Yellow-crowned Amazons, Blue-headed Pionus, Severe macaw and Orange-cheeled (Barraband`s) Parrot. We visit the lick at dawn, when parrots are most active or in midmorning or early afternoon, when they are active.
Mammal Clay Lick
Twenty minutes walking from Refugio Amazonas is a peccary clay lick. These wild rain forest pigs show up in herds of five to twenty individuals to eat clay in the late morning. Chances of spotting them are around 15%, but well worth the short hike. Other wildlife also shows up including deer, guan and parakeets.
Lunch
Sea Kayaking the river in lodge surroundings
We will paddle up a portion of the Tambopata River that presents no difficulty. At the shores we will observe fragmented parts of the forest accompanied by nature sounds and some wildlife we may observe, like birds, caimans and turtles. To finish our experience, we´ll stop on a sandy beach and take a well deserved bath. No experience required, only swimming knowledge.
Dinner
Video Presentations
Video presentations are available every night at the interpretation center. Topics include the Tambopata National Reserve and the macaw project.
Overnight at Refugio Amazonas
DAY 4
Breakfast
Canopy Climbing
Replicating the daily work of macaw researchers, we will climb a 30 meter tree with a rope, harness and jumar. From this vantage point we will have a macaws eye view of the forest. This demanding exercise is perfectly safe and reReplicating the daily work of macaw researchers, we will climb a 30 meter tree with a rope, harness and jumar. From this vantage point we will have a macaws eye view of the forest. This demanding exercise is perfectly safe and requires no previous experience.
Lunch
Overlook Walk
This 2 km trail will bring us along the Tambopata River. We will be able to clearly separate a Terra Firme Forest from a Secondary Forest after this walk, as the trail crosses both habitats. Resting on the benches we can witness the Tambopata on its unharried journey across the lowland rainforest.
Dinner
Nigth Walk
You will have the option of hiking out at night, when most of the mammals are active but difficult to see. Easier to find are frogs with shapes and sounds as bizarre as their natural histories.
Overnight at Refugio Amazonas
DAY 5
Breakfast
Transfer Boat - Refugio Amazonas to Tambopata River Port
Transfer Tambopata River Port to Pto Maldonado Headquarters
Transfer Puerto Maldonado Headquarters to Airport
We retrace our river and road journey back to Puerto Maldonado, our office and the airport. Depending on airline schedules, this may require dawn departures.
NOTES
Included: Program based on double occupancy. Includes all meal, accommodations, and services, all river transportation, and transfer from and to the airport of Puerto Maldonado.
Not Included: International or domestic airfares, airport departure taxes or visa fees, excess baggage charges, additional nights during the trip due to flight cancellations, alcoholic beverages or bottled water, snacks, insurance of any kind, laundry, phone calls or messages, reconfirmation of flights and items of personal nature.
Boat Transportation: All our boats are 20 foot long, roofed canoes with 55 hp outboard motors. Daily arrivals and departures from every port are scheduled to meet every airline´s arrival and departure with a maximum two hour wait.
WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO CHANGE THE ORDER OF ACTIVITIES.
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