Pristine rainforest
The community owned eco-lodge: Heath River Wildlife Centre (HRWC) is set in the heart of Peru’s pristine Amazon rainforest. It offers unique opportunities for exciting wildlife encounters.
The lodge lies at the hub of one of the largest multi-national tropical reserve areas in the world. Peru's Bahuaja-Sonene National Park and the Tambopata National Reserve occupy the lands west of the Heath River Wildlife Centre. To the south lies the Madidi National Park of Bolivia.
Miles of well-defined forest trails provide exciting viewing of a variety of animals, birds, and flora. The elusive Jaguar roams the forest while Red Howler Monkeys chase through the trees.
The Heath River Macaw clay lick is nearby. A strategically placed floating blind allows us a safe and comfortable view of the early morning gathering of parrots and macaws. They gather at the lick to eat mineral-rich clay from an exposed area of the riverbank.
Eco lodge
The Ese Eja Sonene Indian Community runs and owns 100 % of the Heath River Wildlife Centre – the only one of its kind. It is an eco-conservation lodge that is used as a scientific research station as well as a tourist facility.
The lodge benefits the whole community. It has created a sustainable and viable alternative economic activity while preserving the resources of the area. This prevents destructive logging and hunting.
The lodge is built with almost exclusive use of materials that could be sustainably harvested in the surrounding forest. All profits go straight back into the community.
Sample itinerary
Day 1
Fly to Puerto Maldonado airport and transfer to the port on the Tambopata River. Here we board a motorized canoe for a four-and-a-half hour journey to the Heath River Wildlife Centre.
After descending the Tambopata River to the confluence with the larger Madre de Dios River, our boat heads east, downstream on the mighty Madre de Dios River, passing small gold prospecting barges before reaching the Peru-Bolivia border. This stretch of the Madre de Dios River is particularly attractive, as more than 75% of the riverbank is still covered by towering, virgin rainforest. We transfer to a smaller motorized canoe and head up the narrow Heath River, which forms the wilderness border between Peru and Bolivia, to arrive at the lodge.
Afternoon and evening walks to explore the forest surrounding the lodge in search for the various species of monkeys and hundreds of species of birds that make the rainforest home.
After dinner we visit to a small mammal clay lick if it is active.
Day 2
Early this morning we journey up the Heath River to the Macaw and Parrot Clay Lick. During the river trip upstream, we nearly always see one or two families of Capybaras on the banks of the river. At 120 pounds (55 kilograms), this simply gigantic relative of the guinea pig is the largest rodent in the world.
Once at our floating blind, our breakfast is served as we see several species of emerald-green and electric-blue parrots and the large blazing Red-and-Green Macaws that arrive in shifts to eat the clay. Note some macaw licks are less active in May, June, and early July than in the rest of the months of the year.
Late morning our native guides take us on an ethno-botanical walk through the forest, explaining how they use many of the forest trees and plants in their daily lives, either as medicines or for bows and arrows and in home construction.
After lunch and a short rest we go first by canoe then a short walk to a natural forest of towering, 170-foot-tall (55-metres-tall) Brazil nut trees to learn how the slight, yet surprisingly powerful, men of the village harvest these nuts, which fall from the treetops encased in rock-hard brown spheres the size of small grapefruits. Our Ese Eja Indian hosts have harvested these delicious, valuable nuts for thousands of years.
Day 3
Once again we rise before dawn and set off to the floating blind at the Macaw and Parrot Clay Lick.
Later in the morning we head back upstream on the Madre de Dios River to Sandoval Lake Lodge - located on the banks of the lake considered one of the most beautiful in the southern Amazon of Peru.
Arriving at the lake in the cool golden light of the late afternoon, we enter a flooded palm forest and drift beneath dozens (and often hundreds) of Red-bellied Macaws as they return to the palm forest for the night. At 500-800 birds, this flock of macaws at Sandoval Lake is currently the largest reported in the world for this highly-specialized macaw. We return to the lodge around nightfall for dinner.
Day 4
After a dawn breakfast, we explore the western end of the lake in the hope of encountering the family of nine Giant Otters that live in the lake.
Then our guide will take us hiking through the forest, and will bring the forest to life with stories of the rain forest and the medicinal uses of the plants.
Following lunch and a rest, in the late afternoon we once again board the catamaran and set off to explore the eastern end of the lake. Here we might see Brown Capuchin and Bolivian Squirrel Monkeys as they forage along the lakes' edge.
After dinner we can return to the catamaran to look for large Black Caiman.
Day 5
After a pre-dawn breakfast we return to Puerto Maldonado for the flight back to Cusco or Lima.
Included
Meals and water from lunch day 1 to breakfast departure day, guide, accommodation – 2 nights at Heath Centre, two nights at Sandoval, transfers, domestic flights
Not included
International flights (we can look for prices for you), insurance, tips, alcoholic and soft drinks, personal expenses, meals other than stated.
You could extend your trip by trekking the Inca Trail or visiting the Amazon.
Check out our Peru group trips, or our many tailor made Peru options. You can always contact the office for more information on tailor made and group options.
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