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Posada Amazonas, owned jointly by Rainforest Expeditions and the Ese'eja native community of Infierno

3D/2N: $450 (SS +$90) (includes 1 flight)
4D/3N: $570 (SS +$140) (includes 1 flight)
5D/4N: $715 (SS +$185) (includes 1 flight)

Posada Amazonas is a comfortable yet unobtrusive thirty-bedroom lodge owned jointly by the Peru ecotour company, Rainforest Expeditions, and the Ese'eja native community of Infierno. Located on its own private reserve near the Tambopata-Candamo National Reserve, the list of attractions on this Peru tour include an oxbow lake, giant river otters, small monkeys and hundreds of bird species. Its observation tower provides easy access to one of the world's final biological frontiers, the rainforest canopy. Guided tours include ethno-botanical walks, visits to small-scale farms and other expeditions developed in association with the lodge's native partners.

This highly-regarded project has received support from an impressive array of international donors. Thanks to its accessibility, excellent wildlife observation opportunities and comfortable accommodations, Posada Amazonas is the ideal short, economical, introductory Amazon ecotour of the basin's richest rainforests Return to Previous Page

Sandoval Lake Lodge (2D/4D) Posada Amazonas (3D/4D) Reserva Amazonica (3-5D) Manu Wildlife Center (4D/5D) Amazon River Expedition (4-8D)

Posada Amazonas Rainforest Lodge Itinerary

Day 1 LIMA OR CUSCO - PTO. MALDONADO - POSADAS AMAZONAS Arriving from Lima or Cusco, your Peru tour kicks off with a welcome reception and transferred to the Tambopata River port in Puerto Maldonado. Puerto Maldonado, a busy tropical frontier town, is situated at the confluence of the mighty Madre de Dios and Tambopata rivers. Its principal economic resources are gold mining, Brazil-nut collecting, timber extraction, agriculture and ecotourism. After a brief tour of the town, depart on a two-hour motorized canoe trip to Posada Amazonas. Depending on the flight's arrival time, enjoy a boxed lunch aboard the boat, or have lunch upon arrival at Posada Amazonas. During your voyage, you'll see such fascinating bird species as the black skimmer, pied lapwing, capped heron, jabiru stork, roadside hawk and several species of kingfishers, swallows and flycatchers. Unpack and get acquainted with your relaxing surroundings. After a briefing on the lodge and the Ecotourism Project, you'll take a fifteen-minute walk to visit the 115-foot canopy tower. The tower's scaffolding is built for safe climbing, with an internal staircase, verandahs on each side and resting platforms every six feet. The top not only offers spectacular views of the river and surrounding forest, but also excellent opportunities to observe birds, including parrots, toucans and macaws. An introductory video about the Tambopata forest will be shown after dinner. (B,L,D)
Day 2 POSADAS AMAZONAS After an early breakfast, depart from the port at Posada Amazonas on a fifteen minute boat ride followed by a thirty minute walk to the shores of Tres Chimbadas Lake. From here, our Peru tour takes us on a long, easy canoe ride around the lake. Look for giant river otters, turtles, hoatzin and wading birds. The river otters observed in Tres Chimbadas belong to a resident family of nine. Return to the trails to visit a small parakeet clay lick. Dozens of blue-headed parrots, orange-cheeked parrots, cobalt-winged parakeets, and sometimes even the rare rock parakeet, gather here on clear days to ingest clay. This congregation creates a riotous, colorful spectacle of your Peru tour, sometimes lasting hours. Later, return to the lodge for lunch and a brief rest. In the afternoon, visit the community's ethno-botanical center where for over ten years, the community has been cultivating and registering the uses of medicinal plants with the help of the elders. As you hike the trails around the Center, you'll learn about the everyday uses of forest resources in medicine, home building, food supplies and handicrafts. After dinner at the lodge, take a guided night walk, in search of amphibians and insects. (B,L,D)
Day 3 POSADAS AMAZONAS - CUSCO OR LIMA After an early breakfast return to Puerto Maldonado to return to Cusco or Lima, marking the end of our services and your Peru tour. (B)
4 Day Posados Amazonas (Day 4) *Please note that the itinerary may vary slightly to maximize wildlife sightings, based on reports of researchers and the lodge's naturalist guides.
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Services

Daily departures assure utmost flexibility at great value on this Peru tour.
Built combining traditional native architecture and materials (wood, palm fronds, wild cane and clay) with modern, low-impact, eco-lodge technology.
Room size (7X4 meters) keeps them airy and well ventilated.
Clay walls regulate heat while providing a charming final appereance.
Visitors are in permanent contact with the forest: the wall looking into the forest is a waist-high verandah.
Private bathrooms with showers and flush toilets.
Dining and lounge areas are designed for 80 people, offering ample space to rest and socialize.
Our three meals combine international, Peruvian and local cuisine. Vegetarians are welcome.
Guides are Ese'eja and English-speaking Peruvian naturalists: the unsurpassable field lore of the former complements the technical knowledge and communication skills of the latter.
The lodge staff not only sets the regional standard for quality service but is also made up of a majority of Ese'eja community members, providing valuable income from tourism to their families.
Canopy Tour provides easy access to one of the world's final biological frontiers: the rain forest canopy.
Natural history attractions include oxbow lake with giant river otters, parrot clay lick and monkeys.

Activities

Visit to Oxbow Lake (or similar)
Visitors can paddle a catamaran around the oxbow lakes near Posada Amazonas in search of families of 1-7 playful two-meter long giant river otters.
Parrot Clay Licks (or similar)
Less than one kilometer from Posada Amazonas are two parrot clay licks. The noise level and superb photography at this distance complements the increased diversity and abundance of parrots experienced at the famous clay lick at the Tambopata Research Center.
Canopy Tower (or similar)
A thirty five meter metal tower provides safe and effortless access to the canopy: Visitors walk up a bannistered staircase, stopping to rest and inspect the canopy on any of the tower's twenty platforms. This experience is a must in any Peru tour.
Night Walks (or similar)
Ask your guide about opportunities for night walks. After dinner, groups will take short hikes on trails searching for frogs and nocturnal mammals. These outings provide the best opportunities for macrophotography of insects and frogs.
Cutural Interaction (or similar)
Opportunities for cultural interaction with the Ese'eja include ethnobotanical walks, visits to small scale farms, and other experiences we are developing in association with our native partners. Most of our staff and guides are Ese'eja Community Members with whom you'll be able to share stories and anecdotes. On guided walks you will learn from Eseéja the way in which they utilize forest resources in everyday life.

Tambopata National Reserve

The Tambopata National Reserve (TNR) is part of a 3.7 million acre conservation unit in southeastern Amazonian Peru created in 1990 by the national government working in partnership with local grassroots and international conservation organizations, including Rainforest Expeditions. This reserve protects the biological diversity of the entire watersheds of the Tavara and the Candamo Rivers and most of the watershed of the Tambopata River. The declaration and the design of the reserve includes an underlying philosophy of sustainable development and conservation of forest resources. The TRN protects habitats ranging from the Andean highlands around the rivers' headwaters through some of the last remaining intact cloud forests to the lowland rainforests of the Amazon basin. Over 1,300 bird species (including 32 parrot species - 10% of the world's total), 200 mammal species, 90 frog species, 1,200 butterfly species and 10,000 species of higher plants are protected within this reserve. The world's largest known mineral clay lick, where hundreds of parrots and macaws of up to 15 species congregate daily to ingest the detoxifying clay, is also within the reserve, less than 500 meters from Tambopata Research Center. Adjacent the northwestern corner of the reserve is the Ese'eja Native Community, adding its 10,000 hectares of communally-owned and managed tropical rain forests to the Reserved Zone's. Within this territory is Posada Amazonas, a community-owned lodge and tourism operation which is an excellent base from which to explore the endangered wildlife species within (including giant river otters). To help place the TRN in perspective, forests similar to those contained within this Connecticut-sized reserve have world record diversities in bird, butterfly, dragonfly, beetle and fly taxa. A world record 331 species of birds were seen and heard in one day in southeastern Amazonian Peru by just walking on trails and paddling a canoe. Again, in only six square miles of these forests scientists have recorded a world record 560 species of birds, or 200 more species than in similar-sized patches of unhunted forests in the famous but animal-poor Manaus region of Brazil. You will find that in the uniquely species- rich belt of forests at the foot of the Andes the lodges of the Tambopata and Manu offer the only unhunted, well-protected, rich soil sites. Consequently, our tours at these sites offer some of the best probabilities in the world of viewing jaguars, giant otters, monkeys, peccaries, and flocks of a hundred or more macaws.
Highlights of the tour (or similar)
Visit a 35 meter canopy tower. Canoe ride around an oxbow lake searching for giant river otters Visit a communal ethnobotanical center. Visit parrot and macaw clay licks. Birdwatching and wildlife observation on extensive trail systems in pristine forest.

Possible Programs

Please note that Southern Explorations trips include the Posada Amazonas 3d-2n programs. Contact us if interested at in more time at Posada Amazonas or Tambopata Research Center. (or similar)

Posada Amazonas (3d-2n):
A short introduction to the rain forest based in Posada Amazonas. You will have time to visit a canopy tower, a parrot clay lick, an oxbow lake and an ethnobotanical center. Due to time constraints, the visit to the clay lick is at a poor hour for wildlife observation.
Posada Amazonas (4d-3n):
Our recommended introduction to the rain forest - but still an introduction. In addition to the activities of the previous program you will hike a rain forest trail with a member of the Infierno community and also visit the clay lick at prime time (dawn).
Tambopata Research Center (5d-4n):
If you can spare the extra day, this program is a must if you want to delve into pristine rain forest and see the world's largest clay lick. Your chances of seeing large mammals are much increased in the trails around TRC. A little bit hurried for such a long boat ride.
Tambopata Research Center (6d-5n):
The ideal rain forest tour for nature enthusiasts. You will see the world's largest clay lick, visit the canopy tower and oxbow lake at Posada Amazonas, hike to a macaw nesting colony at TRC, and explore its trail system at leisure with expert naturalist guides.
Tambopata Research Center (7d-6n):
If you are really into the rain forest, birdwatching or photography, you will appreciate the extra day.

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PERU EXTENSIONS

Have more time to spend? Why not customize your trip with some of these trip extensions? Add extensions to the beginning or the end of your trip, or add to both ends.
PERU DAY EXTENSIONS Lima City Tour Lima Pre-Departure Tour Lima Culinary Tour Weaving tour from Cusco Cachicata Day Hike Moray - Maras Paragliding from Cusco Cusco Countryside Rafting from Cusco	PERU MULTI-DAY EXTENSIONS Moras - Moray - Cachicata (2D) Ica & Nazca (2D) Ica/Nazca & Ballestas Is. (3D) Lake Titicaca (3D) Rafting the Apurimac (3D) Arequipa & Colca Canyon (4D) Mancora Beach (4D) PERU / AMAZON ECOLODGES Sandoval Lake Lodge (2D/4D) Posada Amazonas (3D/4D) Reserva Amazonica (3-5D) Manu Wildlife Center (4D/5D) Amazon River Expedition (4-8D)