Peru Amazon Rainforest Tour - POSADA AMAZONAS LODGE

Your driver will be waiting for you at Padre Aldamiz, Puerto Maldonado international airport and a 10-minute drive will take you to the lodge's headquarters in town. While enjoying your first taste of the rainforest in our gardens we will ask you to pack only the necessary for your stay at the lodge, and leave the rest at our safe deposit. This helps us keep the boats and cargo light.

Drive 12 miles (20 km) on the outskirt of Puerto Maldonado to the Tambopata River Port, in the Infierno inidigenous community. The port is a communal business. The forty-five-minute boat ride from the Tambopata Port to the Posada Amazonas will take you into the community's primary forest private reserve.

Upon arrival, the lodge manager will welcome you and give you an important safety brief about the area.

A twenty-minute walk from the Posada Amazonas leads to the 100-foot (30 m) canopy tower. A bannistered staircase running through the middle provides safe access to the platforms above. From atop you will get spectacular views of the vast expanses of the forest with the Tambopata River winding through the middle. Now and then toucans, parrots or macaws are seen flying against the horizon while the canopy is always teeming with birdlife and the occasional monkey.

A daily presentation about the Infierno ecotourism project is available every night from a staff member.

Overnight at Posada Amazonas Lodge.

In the morning, start with a 30-minute motorized boat ride and an easy 45-minute hike through the jungle on your way to Tres Chimbadas. Once there, you will sail around the lake with a catamaran searching for the resident family of nine giant river otters and other lakeside residents such as caimans, the prehistorical-looking hoatzin and horned screamers. Otters are most active from dawn till about 9 am.

Later you will visit a clay lick only 20 minutes away from the Posada Amazonas. Inside a blind located about twenty meters away from the clay wall you will watch in wonder as dozens of parrots and parakeets come to ingest the clay from the river bank. Species such as mealy, yellow-headed amazon and blue-headed parrots as well as dusky headed parakeets all fly down to visit this clay lick. The clay lick is active at dawn, late in the morning and mid-afternoon.

A twenty-minute boat ride downstream will lead you to a trail designed by the staff of the Centro Ñape. The Centro Ñape is a communal organization that produces medicines from forest plants and administers them to patients who choose to stay at their little clinic. They have produced a trail which explains the different medicinal uses of selected plants.

You will have the option to hike out at night, when mammals are most active but rarely seen. Frogs with exotic shapes and sounds also populate the forest after dark making it an exciting time to wander under the stars.

Overnight at Posada Amazonas Lodge.

Early breakfast, then boat transfer to the port of Puerto Maldonado.

Transfer by bus to the airport (15 min).