Peru

Starting Price:	$1,695.00
Trip Length:	4 days

Refugio Amazonas

Refugio Amazonas Spa

Dinning at Refugio Amazonas

Classic Refugio Amazonas

Description Pricing Itinerary

Along the Tambopata River, only 30 minutes from Cuzco, lies one of the most pristine and unspoiled areas in the Amazon Jungle, housing more species of animals than any other place on earth: the Tambopata Reserve. Encounter six-foot river otters capable of beating jaguars in a fight. Boat down uncharted rivers. The Reserve has been featured in numerous documentaries by Discovery Channel, CNN and the BBC, and was the subject of an article in the January 1994 issue of National Geographic. We will be staying at a lodge owned by the native Indians, and visit a macaw clay lick.

Refugio Amazonas is a new 24 bedroom lodge built on a 200 hectare private reserve on the buffer zone of the Tambopata National Reserve. Its location, two hours upriver from Posada Amazonas, is ideal for stand-alone experiences and also to get some rest before continuing to the Tambopata Research Center (TRC).

About Refugio Amazonas
Refugio Amazonas is built using a combination of traditional native materials (wood, palm fronds, wild cane and clay) and architecture and modern day eco-lodge technology.
Room size keeps them airy and well – ventilated.
Clay walls regulate heat while providing a charming final appearance.
Visitors are in permanent contact with the rainforest.
Private bathrooms with showers and flush toilets.
Dining and lounge areas designed for eighty people, offering ample space to rest and socialize.
Buffet meals combine universal, Peruvian and local cuisine. Vegetarians welcome.
Guides are Ese’eja and English-speaking Peruvian naturalists.
Our lodge staff not only sets the regional standard for quality service but is also made up of a majority of Ese’eje community members, providing valuable income from tourism to their families.
Canopy tower provides easy access to one of the world’s final biological frontiers: the rain forest canopy.
Natural history attractions include oxbow lake with giant river otters, parrots and small macaw clay licks and monkeys.
Opportunities for cultural interaction with the Ese’eja: guided activities include ethno-botanical walks and visits to small scale farms.

Go Back To Tambopata Reserve and Macaw Clay Lick

Day 1

Puerto Maldonado – Refugio Amazonas
Upon arrival from Lima or Cuzco, reception and transfer to our office in Puerto Maldonado. 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.

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 drive 30 minutes to the Tambopata river port in the community of Infierno. We will board our boats for a two hour trip by motorized canoe to Refugio Amazonas (lunch box included).

Upon arrival to Refugio Amazonas, our home for the following days, we will unpack and unwind. We will receive a short orientation and a complete briefing on the lodge and the ecotourism project before we have 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.

Day 2

Sachavacayoc Oxbow Lake
After breakfast, we will start our day with a two hours hike that will take us to the Sachavacayoc Oxbow Lake. We will then paddle around the lake in a catamaran, searching for the resident family: five giant river otters (seen by about 30% of lake visitors) and other lakeside wildlife animals such as caimans, hoatzins and horned screamers. Later, we will hike back to the lodge and have lunch.
Note: For those not willing to walk that long there is the option of Condenado Lake located thirty minutes away from the lodge.

Farm Visit and Ethno botanical Garden
In the afternoon, five minutes downriver from the lodge, we will visit 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. He has also identified and cultivated many of the medicinal plants used in the region in a little backyard garden.

Brazil nut trail and camp
A few minutes hike from the lodge there is a beautiful old growth patch of Brazil Nut forest that has been harvested for decades (if not centuries). There we can also see a precarious remain of a camp used two months a year by Brazil Nut gatherers. We will be able to see the whole process of this rainforest product. The only one that has been harvested, transported and dried in a sustainable way. We will then go back to the lodge to have dinner.

Night walk
We will have the option of hiking in the forest when most of the mammals are active but rarely seen. Easier to find are frogs of many different shapes and making all kind of different sounds.

Day 3

Parakeet clay lick and Mammal clay lick
Early in the morning, after a fifteen minute boat ride and sixty minute walk there’s is a parakeet clay lick. From a blind you will see parakeets descend on most clear days to ingest the clay on a bank. Species such as Dusky headed and Cobalt winged Parakeet can be seen at this clay lick. We visit the lick at dawn, when parrots are most active or in midmorning or early afternoon, when they are active. Later in the morning and after a twenty minutes hike from the lodge, we will visit a peccary clay lick. This wild pigs from the rainforest 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 animals also show up including deer, guans and parakeets. We will then return to the lodge to have breakfast.

Canopy tower
A thirty minute walk from Refugio Amazonas leads to the 25 meter scaffolding canopy tower. A staircase with banisters running through the middle provides safe access to the platforms above. The tower has been built on higher ground increasing your horizon of the Tambopata National Reserve. From here, we will be able to watch a wide variety of species such as macaws and raptors are likely. We will return to the lodge for dinner.

Tambopata National Reserve Lecture
The Refugio Amazonas staff will hold a night lecture about the Reserve covering subjects such as conservation threats, opportunities and projects in the Tambopata National Reserve.

Day 4

After an early breakfast, we will return to Puerto Maldonado for our flight back to Lima or Cuzco.

Occupancy Type	Standard
Double	$1695
Single	$2074

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