Peru

Ultimate Wildlife Amazon & Machu Picchu 14-Day

Our most value-packed Peru itinerary emphasizing wildlife and bird watching "off the beaten path." It includes Tambopata Biosphere Reserve, the remote Manu Biosphere Reserve, Cusco, the Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu. Extend your trip to include Lake Titicaca, Puno, Colca Canyon, Paracas, the Nazca Lines, hike the Inka Trail and more.

*Please note that the Tambopata segment is not a private segment, and that you MAY BE added to a group with more passengers for the activity section even if you are on a private tour. WPA groups never exceed 12 pax.

Detailed Itinerary

DAY 1 Arrive in Lima

Upon arrival, transfer to your hotel and overnight.

Overnight: Wyndham Costa Del Sol

DAY 2 Lima / Puerto Maldonado / Tambopata Reserve – Cultural Zone / Meet Shaman

Transfer from your hotel to the airport for your early morning flight to Puerto Maldonado, a bustling frontier town at the confluence of the mighty Madre de Dios (Mother of God) and Tambopata Rivers. The principle activities here are gold mining, Brazil nut collecting, timber, agriculture and eco-tourism. We'll enjoy a brief tour of the area during the 30-minute drive from the airport to the Tambopata River port in the community of Infierno. Here we'll board a motorized canoe for a 45-minute motorboat trip up the Tambopata River to our first lodge here in the headwaters of the Amazon. We'll enjoy a tasty lunch wrapped in banana leaves on our journey, while birdwatching and wildlife viewing. During our voyage we may see capped heron, jabiru stork, and many species of wildlife typical of the riverside forest.

After a brief welcome at the Lodge, we'll take a twenty-minute boat drive downriver leading us to a trail designed by the staff of the Centro Ñape. The Centro Ñape is a communal organization that produces medicines out of forest plants and administers them to patients who choose their little clinic. They have created a trail which explains the different medicinal (and other) uses of selected plants. Meet with the local shaman, who, with the help of our translator, will answer questions about medicinal healing with the plants of the rainforest as well as his role as the spiritual leader of his community. Enjoy a presentation on the Infierno eco-tourism project after dinner. (B, L, D)

DAY 3 Tambopata Cultural Zone / Oxbow Lake / Refugio Amazonas

We will be up at dawn for a visit to the Tres Chimbadas oxbow lake. After an early breakfast we depart, thirty minutes from Posada Amazonas by boat and a 45-minute walk takes 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. Otters are most active from dawn to eight or nine AM. We then transfer by boat from Posada Amazonas to Refugio Amazonas. The 2-hour boat ride will take us past the Community of Infierno and the Tambopata National Reserve´s checkpoint into the buffer zone of this 1.3 million hectare conservation unit.

After lunch, we take a short hike to 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 seen. We will be demonstrating the whole process of the rain forest's only sustainably harvested product from collection through transportation to drying. 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. (Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner)

DAY 4 Tambopata-Cultural Zone/Reserved Zone / Canopy Tower / Chuncho Claylick Tambopata Research Center

A thirty-minute walk from Refugio Amazonas leads to the 25-metre 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.

After breakfast we transfer by boat to Tambopata Research Center. The center lies four and a half hours by boat from Refugio Amazonas, in the pristine heart of the reserve. One and half hours into our boat journey, as we cross the confluence with the Malinowski River, we will leave the final traces of human habitation behind. Within the 700,000 hectare uninhabited nucleus of the reserve, sightings of capybara, caiman, geese, macaws and other large species will become more frequent.

Two hours from Refugio Amazonas, deep in the Tambopata National Reserve we will stop at the Chuncho claylick. After a brief walk (~5 minutes) we will have the chance to see dozens of large macaws feeding on the special sodium rich clays of the riverbank. The Chuncho clay lick probably attracts more large macaws than any other clay lick in the world and the sight of dozens of macaws taking flight is truly unforgettable. The details of our stopover will depend on the weather and the amount of macaw activity, as the birds don’t visit the clay lick when it is raining.

After arrival and lunch at the Center, we make a three-to-five kilometer hike to an overlook commanding magnificent views of the Tambopata winding its way into the lowlands. The forest on this trail, regenerating on old bamboo forest, is good for Howler Monkey and Dusky Titi Monkey.

After dinner scientists will provide an in depth look at the biology of macaws, their feeding habits, the theories for clay lick use, their breeding and feeding ecology, population fluctuations and the threats to their conservation.

DAY 5 Tambopata Reserve / Macaw Clay Lick / Tambopata Research Center

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 that describes 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." You can expect to see ten to twelve members of the parrot family: 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 3-mile Floodplain Trail, which covers the prototypical rain forest with immense trees criss-crossed by creeks and ponds. Amongst the figs, ceibas and shihuahuacos we will look for Squirrel, Brown Capuchin, and Spider Monkeys as well as peccaries. Enjoy lunch, then ten minutes upriver from the lodge is a tiny pond with a platform in the middle. It is a great place to spot waterfowl such as Muscovy duck, sunbittern and hoatzin along with the woodpeckers, oropendolas, flycatchers and parakeets that call this pond their home. After dinner, you will have the option of hiking out at night, when most of the mammals are active but rarely seen. Search for frogs with shapes and sounds as bizarre as their natural histories.

NOTE: Although the peak activity at the clay licks is from mid-August to October, there are different degrees of macaw activity at the swamp year round. In fact, the most exciting time to visit it is from October to March, during the nesting season, when macaws will land on the nests and stand there for several minutes, interacting with other individuals at less than 20 feet from our observation tower. The scenes at the swamp, especially with late afternoon sun in our backs, make prized photo opportunities. Return to the lodge for dinner. (Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner)

DAY 6 Jaguar River Float Trip / Puerto Maldonado / Cusco / Sacred Valley

Wild Planet Adventures Exclusive!

Jaguar River Option Float down river silently at the first sign of dawn, looking for jaguars and tapirs by the riverbanks. We have seen an exceptionally high number of jaguars and tapirs as they visit the river to drink in the stillness of the morning.

We then retrace our journey back to Puerto Maldonado and overnight. Cabaña Quinta or Puerto Amazónico.

DAY 7 Puerto Maldonado / Manu Biosphere Reserve / Manu Wildlife Center

Manu has the highest biodiversity of any park on earth. Most visitors are restricted to the Cultural Zone where wildlife is much less abundant, but we will venture deep into the more remote, wildlife-rich Reserved Zone. No other Peru itinerary will expose you to so much wildlife! 200 species of mammals live here; tapirs and jaguars are commonly sighted. Manu's 13 species of primates include wooly monkeys and emperor tamarins with white mustaches. The lowland rainforest in Manu harbors 1,000 species of birds, the highest concentration of bird life on earth; 40% more than the Brazilian Amazon! Pick up at your hotel, our service begin with your reception followed with a transfer service by van to Santa Rosa Village, we will get there in about two-and-half journey, you will cross the Inambari river for a 15 minutes boat trip to Puerto Carlos, here you will start your overland journey to Boca Colorado for 45 minutes by car, followed by four hours and half motorized boat journey ride upstream the Madre de Dios river. We will arrive at Manu Wildlife Center in time for lunch.

Later we make our first acquaintance with the rainforest, exploring some of the 30 miles of forest trails that surround the lodge. We have an excellent chance of encountering some of the 12 species of monkeys, including the Spider Monkey and Emperor Tamarin, which inhabit the surrounding forest. After dinner there will be an enchanting night walk along the trails, in search of the nocturnal birds and animals of the rainforest. (L, D)

DAY 8 Manu Biosphere Reserve – Manu Wildlife Center /Manu Park Wildlife Center

Another early start (inevitable on wildlife expeditions), after a delicious breakfast is followed by boat journey in the motorized canoe trip up the Madre de Dios River. We make a short visit to the village of Boca Manu, riverside capital of the remote and sparsely populated Peruvian province of Fitzcarrald. The main activity here is building dugout boats for travelers on the river, and we see how these sturdy craft are made. Logging is prohibited here, so the resourceful villagers work entirely with lumber brought downriver by floodwaters. Now we turn northward up the chocolate-brown waters of the Manu River into the lake-rich lower Manu National Park. The pristine quality of the forest is instantly apparent, with abundant birdlife and no signs of outside development. We check into the park at Limonal ranger station and then proceed upstream, as our boat driver steers skillfully through shallows and driftwood snags. Orinoco Geese and Horned Screamers strut on the beaches, Capped and White-necked Herons patrol the shoreline, and countless sunbathing turtles dive off their log perches as we approach.

After some six hours of wildlife viewing on the river, we reach Manu Park Wildlife Center, a simple but comfortable low-impact lodge nestled almost invisibly in the forest. Time permitting, we will take a short walk before dinner to stretch our legs and enjoy our first encounter with virgin rainforest. Overnight: Manu Park Wildlife Center (B, Box Lunch, D).
Note: While the names appear similar, the Manu Park Wildlife Center is located within the innermost remote part of the National Park itself, a much less visited and highly coveted area teeming with wildlife, whereas Manu Wildlife Center is located within the broader biosphere reserve.

DAY 9 Manu Biosphere Reserve - Manu Park Wildlife Center – Cocha Salvador, Cocha Otorongo – WPA Exclusive Pygmy Marmoset Excursion, Search for Jaguars & Wooly Monkeys

Today we visit two lakes near our camp. Our trail to Cocha Otorongo begins 30 minutes downstream from our lodge. This brief river journey to the trailhead offers the chance of thrilling wildlife sightings. Perhaps we will spot a family of capybaras, the world’s largest rodent, looking like giant Guinea Pigs as they browse on the riverbank, or if we are very lucky, a solitary jaguar might stalk slowly off an open beach into the forest, flicking its tail in annoyance at our intrusion. On the short trail to the lake, we may spy one or more of the park’s 13 monkey species leaping through the canopy high above, especially woolly monkey, who lives on that side of the Manu River. Kapok, ironwood and fig trees will astound you with the vast size of their trunks and buttressed root systems.

These oxbow lakes were formed when the river changed course, leaving a landlocked channel behind. The lakes are abundant in fish and wildlife, and provide optimum habitat for caimans and the Giant Otter (Pteronura brasiliensis); one of the Amazon’s most endangered mammal species.

This lake enjoys maximum protection, and boats are not allowed. However, it features a dock platform and a 50ft tower from which to scan the trees and marshy shoreline for monkeys, kingfishers, Anhinga (a large, long-necked water bird), and countless other species. We have a good chance of sighting the resident Giant Otter family as they dive for the 4Kg. of fish that each otter consumes daily.

Cocha Salvador is the largest of the area’s lakes, at 2 miles long. It is also home to another family of endangered Giant Otters. On this lake we are able to cruise around on a floating catamaran platform, which offers superb new perspectives of lake and forest. The lakeside trees are often alive with monkeys like red howler monkey, black spider monkey and the famous and rare pygmy marmoset monkey, which we will target with a special WPA excursion:

Wild Planet Adventures Exclusive!

Pygmy Marmosets – the World’s Smallest Primate.
During our visit Cocha Salvador we will make a special effort to spot famous and rare pygmy marmosets, the world’s smallest primate, which can sometimes be seen on Quiosissa trees in the area!

Later we'll hike trails through different forest types, with excellent chances to observe some of the 13 species of primates that live here, including endangered emperor tamarins who feed on insects, frogs and lizards. Scarlet, Chestnut-fronted and Blue-and-gold macaws fly overhead; and a variety of herons and egrets scout the water’s edge, while the reptilian eyes and snouts of caimans, motionless as logs, may be speeding beneath the branches. Somewhere on the open water or in among toppled bankside trees, we may spot the sleek heads of the shy Giant Otters. These social animals play and fish together, and we may see them sprawled on a fallen tree trunk, dozing or gnawing on a fish.

Later in the afternoon we'll take a short motor-canoe ride on the Manu River to look for beautiful jaguars that are very active at this time of the afternoon, approaching the bank of the river to drink water and begin their hunt. Return to Manu Park Wildlife Center for the night. (B, L, D)

DAY 10 Manu Park Wildlife Center – Jaguar Float / Manu Wildlife Center – Macaw Clay Lick Project and Tapir Clay Lick

We set off downriver at dawn. At this hour will be another great chance to looking for jaguar on river banks, they will take their time relaxing on sand banks after a long night of hunting. We return to the Limonal park station, to file our wildlife report before leaving the park. We pass the turbulent union of the Alto Madre de Dios and Manu Rivers near the village of Boca Manu and continue ninety more minutes downstream to return to our first lodge, Manu Wildlife Center, in time for lunch.

After a delicious lunch is followed by a short boat ride downstream. We walk through the forest for some minutes, where we find the Macaw Lick Project. The hide provided with individual chairs and a convenient place for cameras and binoculars is our ringside seat for what is usually a spectacular show. In groups of twos and threes the scarlet Macaws come flapping in, landing in the treetops as they eye the main stage below -- the eroded clay banks of the river and the occasional villain, a menacing and unwelcome Great Black Hawk. The drama plays out in first in tentative and then bolder approaches to the lick, until finally nearly all the macaws form a colorful and noisy spectacle on the bare banks, squabbling as they scrape clay from the hard surface.

Later, we continue to explore and discover the rainforest, its lore and plant life, on thenetwork of trails surrounding the lodge, arriving in the late afternoon at our 34m/112ft Canopy Tower. On its platform we witness the frantic rush- hour activity of twilight in the rainforest canopy, before night closes in.

Tapir Clay Lick. Then we set off along the “collpa trail”, which will take us to the lodge’s famous Tapir Clay lick. Here at the most active tapir lick known in all the Amazon, our research has identified from 8-12 individual 600-pound Tapirs who come to this lick to eat clay from under the tree roots around the edge. This unlikely snack absorbs and neutralizes toxins in the vegetarian diet of the Tapir, the largest land animal of Latin America. The lick features a roomy, elevated observation platform 5m/17ft above the forest floor. The platform is equipped with freshly made-up mattresses with pillows. Each mattress is covered by a roomy mosquito net. The 10-m-long, elevated walkway to the platform is covered with sound-absorbing padding to prevent our footsteps from making noise. This Tapir Experience is unique and exciting because these normally very shy creatures are visible up close, and flash photography is not just permitted, but encouraged. The hard part for modern city dwellers is to remain still and silent anywhere from 30 minutes to two or more hours. Many prefer to nap until the first Tapir arrives, at which point your guide gently awakens you to watch the Tapir 10-20m/33-66ft away below the platform. Most people feel that the wait is well worth it in order to have such a high probability of observing the rare and elusive Tapir in its rainforest home.

DAY 11 Manu Wildlife Center / Puerto Maldonado / Cusco / Sacred Valley

We leave our lodge very early on the two and half hour return boat trip downstream to the Colorado Village, with breakfast served on the boat while enjoying the early morning wildlife activity as we go. This journey also allows us the opportunity to see several lowland native settlements and gold miners found along the banks of the Madre de Dios River. We will stop in the far-west type gold-mining town of Colorado to journey overland to Puerto Carlos where you will cross the Inambari River for a short boat trip to Santa Rosa and finally from there, an overland transfer to the airport in Puerto Maldonado City in time for your flight to Cusco. Arrive to Cusco and immediately transfer to the Sacred Valley. On the way enjoy a visit to the colorful Pisac Indian Market. At an elevation of 8,500 feet, the Urubamba Valley, or Sacred Valley of the Incas, is the historic heart of the Inca Empire. We'll stay the evening at Posada Yucay or similar. (Breakfast)

Day 12 Sacred Valley – Ollantaytambo Ruins / Glass Roof Train to Machu Picchu

We’ll explore the famous Ollantaytambo ruins then transfer to the Ollanta train station for a spectacular sight-seeing train to Machu Picchu, "The Lost City of the Incas". The train has ceilings made mostly of glass which allow you to gaze out at the 18,000 foot snow-capped peaks of the Andes and marvel at the Inka ruins around nearly every bend. Upon arrival at Machu Picchu, you'll enjoy a 2-3 hour fully guided tour of the marvelous citadel, with options for one of 4 circuits, to visit the main square, the royal quarters, the temple of the three windows, the circular towers and the sacred sun dial and burial grounds. #2 is the longest circuit and includes the upper terraces for the classic view of Machu Picchu.
Hotel: Aguas Calientes (a la carte dinner included at the hotel restaurant)
Note: Vistadome train service is provided if available (all trains we reserve have panoramic windows and full size seats)

Day 13 Machu Picchu / Cusco

Today choose to explore the town of Agua Calientes on your own or get up early to admire Machu Picchu at sunrise, a truly mystical experience. For hiking enthusiasts, walking up the Huayna Picchu peak overlooking the site is suggested.
Note: There is an additional entry fee to enter Machu Picchu a second time if you would like to do so on this morning, and permits must be purchased in advance.

This afternoon we'll take the train back to Cusco and enjoy the colorful sunset peeking through the snow-capped Andes.

Option: Return to Ollantaytambo on the morning train and enjoy a tour of Sacred Valley, Moray, Maras and Chinchero enroute to Cusco.
Overnight at Novotel Cusco or similar. (Breakfast)

Day 14 Cusco – City Tour / Lima / USA

Time permitting early morning walking tour of Historic Cusco city, including the Qoricancha Temple.

This afternoon, transfer from your hotel to the airport for your afternoon flight to Lima and continuing flight home.