Tambopata Research Centre Itinerary:
Please keep in mind the specific guided activities vary with the weather, season and what is happening in the field during your stay.
Day 1 On arrival from Cuzco, reception and transfer to the Tambopata river port in Puerto Maldonado. Its principal activities are gold mining, Brazil nut collecting, timber extraction, agriculture and ecotourism.
After a brief tour around the town we set off on the 2 hour boat trip by motorized canoe to Posada Amazonas. Depending on the arrival time of the plane we will have a boxed lunch aboard the boats or have lunch on arrival at Posada Amazonas.
During our voyage we may see bird species typical of the river or forest edge such as: black skimmer, pied lapwing, capped heron, jabiru stork, roadside hawk, and several species of kingfishers, swallows and flycatchers.
When we arrive at Posada Amazonas we unpack and unwind.
Afternoon activity: the canopy tower. Visit a 35 meter scaffolding tower that is 15 minutes walking from the lodge. From the top you get spectacular views of the river and the surrounding forest and also excellent opportunities to observe birds from the canopy including parrots, toucans and macaws. A video about the forest of Tambopata will be shown after dinner.
Day 2 We are up at dawn for a visit to the Tres Chimbadas oxbow lake. After an early breakfast we set off, fifteen minutes from Posada Amazonas by boat and a 30 minute walk take us to the lake shore. From here we take a long, easy canoe ride around it. We look for giant river otters, turtles, hoatzin, and wading birds. The giant river otters that are seen in Tres Chimbadas belong to a resident family of nine.
As we approach noon, animal activity decreases, and we continue on up the Tambopata River for 3 to 4 hours into the pristine heart of the reserve. After the first hour we leave the final traces of human habitation behind as we cross the northern boundary of the 700,000 hectare and completely uninhabited nucleus of the Tambopata National Reserve. Differences in wildlife abundance will be noted immediately: we begin to sight macaws, herons, kingfishers and cormorants and may be lucky to have chance encounters with capybaras, caiman, storks, ducks and other wildlife. Boxed lunch on the boat.
Tambopata Research Centre
We arrive at the Tambopata Research Centre in the early afternoon, greeted by the Chicos, our flock of semi-wild, rescued macaws. On arrival, we hold an orientation session. After this we hike the 1.5 mile bamboo trail, famous for the abundance of rare birds that live exclusively in this habitat and are endemic to southern Peru. It is also the home of the frequently found howler and dusky titi monkeys. As we birdwatch our way through the trail we end our hike at a lookout, a good place to observe canopy birds like tanagers, jacamars, elaenias, guans, and oropendolas.
We return to TRC for dinner. After dinner, to cap off a fulfilling day we can have a frog walk through the forest. You can take pictures of incredibly beautiful American bullfrogs, horned frogs, tree frogs and an incredible variety of colorful insects.
Day 3 At dawn we 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.
Of the lick, the January 1994 issue of National Geographic stated: "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. More than a dozen parrot species will visit the clay lick throughout the day, but this midmorning crush belongs to the giants of the parrot world, the macaws."
You can expect to see ten to twelve of the following members of the parrot family: Red-and-green, blue-and-gold, scarlet, red-bellied, chestnut-fronted and blue-headed macaws; mealy and 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 return to TRC for breakfast.
Ocelots and monkeys
After breakfast we hike the 1.5 mile Ocelot Trail. Although at this time of day mammals and birds are not as active as in the early morning, we concentrate on the forest itself and discuss general rain forest ecology. This forest, which is estimated to be 200 to 300 years old and includes truly huge Ceiba trees and Strangler figs is home to several mammals that are occsaionally encountered: saddleback tamarins, squirrel and brown capuchin monkeys and collared peccary.
This trail is the one which most often sports ocelot, puma and jaguar tracks, although any one of these three large cats is extremely difficult to spot.
We will return to TRC for lunch and then embark on a 2 mile hike to the palm swamp, a nesting colony and preferred roost for blue and gold and red-bellied macaws. After a lazy afternoon with the macaws we hike back to the lodge for dinner.
Day 4 We wake up at dawn once again to visit the macaw clay lick and then return for breakfast. After breakfast we will take a short five minute boat ride to a small, drying oxbow lake where we spend the morning on a platform in the middle of the pond observing some of its birdlife. This may include hoatzin, duck, ibis, woodpeckers, chachalaca, parakeets, oropendolas and numerous flycatcher species. We return to TRC and embark to Posada Amazonas, arriving mid-afternoon and spend our last night in the rain forest.
Day 5 After an early breakfast we return to Puerto Maldonado for our flight back to Lima.
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