Note: We require minimum two passengers traveling together If single traveler ask for the supplement.
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 presents an ideal balance for naturalist exploration and observations of sustainable forest use by local populations. In collaboration with ANIA an environmental education NGO, Refugio Amazonas caters for families with children of all ages.
Refugio Amazonas is our latest 32 bedroom lodge, opened in 2005. Its location two hours upriver from Posada Amazonas is ideal for standalone three night experiences and for breaking the expeditions to and from Tambopata Research Center.
For those traveling with children it offers the only attraction especially made for children, by children, in the Peruvian Amazon – The Children’s Rainforest Trail.
| Duration | 4 days and 3 nights |
| Departures | Daily departures |
| Activities | Jungle excursion (see detailed program below) |
| Airfares | Not included, available upon request |
| Meals | included as specified below |
| Customizable | YES, feel free to ask for extra services |
DAY 1 ARRIVAL & RECEPTION BY GUIDE
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.
Skirting Puerto Maldonado, we drive 20 kilometers to the Tambopata River Port, entering the Native Community of Infierno. The port is a communal business. 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
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 (L, D)
DAY 2 OXBOW LAKE AND FARM VISIT
Breakfast. 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. Lunch. Five minutes downriver from the lodge lays a farm owned and managed by charismatic Don Manuel from the neighboring community of Condenado. He grows a variety of popular and unknown Amazon crops – just about every plant and tree you see serves a purpose.
Ethno-botanical 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 ( B, L, D)
DAY 3 PARROTS & MAMMAL 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-cheeked (Barraband`s) Parrot. We visit the lick at dawn, when parrots are most active or in midmorning or early afternoon, when they are active. Breakfast
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
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 transportation to drying.
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
Night 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 (B, L, D)
DAY 4 TRANSFER OUT
Breakfast. Transfer Boat from Refugio Amazonas to Tambopata River Port to go to Puerto Maldonado Headquarters
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. (B)
END OF SERVICESWOULD YOU LIKE TO BOOK THIS TOUR ? ASK FOR AVAILABILITY
Please note that the program may vary slightly so as to maximize your wildlife sightings, depending on the reports of our researchers and experienced naturalist guides based at the lodge.
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.
INCLUDED
Programmes based on single and double occupancy. Includes all meal, accommodations, and services, all river transportation, and transfer from and to the airport of Puerto Maldonado.
NOT INCLUDED
Entrance to the Protected Area of Tambopata (USD $15.00 per person).
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.
