Tour Overview

Tour Itinerary

Day 1: Arrive in Lima
Board your flight to Lima, Peru. On arrival at Lima airport, you will be welcomed by an English-speaking guide and transferred to your selected hotel located in Miraflores, a residential area.

Day 2: Fly to Cusco
After breakfast, transfer from the hotel to the Lima airport for your departure fly to Cusco. Arrival and transfer to the hotel in Cusco. Afternoon free.

Day 3: Fly to Tambopata Jungle
After breakfast, transfer from your hotel to the Cusco airport for your departure flight to Puerto Maldonado. Arrival and transfer from Puerto Maldonado airport to the river port on the Madre de Dios River. A 25-minute journey down the Madre de Dios River by motor canoe brings you to the end of the trail in to Sandoval Lake Lodge.

From here the trail takes you on a two-mile walk or rickshaw ride through secondary forest, until you reach a small canal where you board canoes and are paddled 220 yards through a flooded forest of 100-foot-tall Mauritia palms. As the canal opens onto the shimmering surface of the lake, transfer to a catamaran and you are leisurely paddled across half the lake to the lodge.

After lunch and a brief rest to avoid the early afternoon heat, you once again board the catamaran and set off to explore the entire west end of the lake. Here, in the flooded palm forest, drift to the sounds of hundreds of Red-Bellied Macaws as they return to the palm forest for the night. Return to the lodge around nightfall for dinner.

After dinner, return to the canoes to look for the large and extremely rare Black Caimans. If it is a clear starlit night, you will also be able to float in the middle of the lake and marvel at the brillance of the sky.

Day 4: Tambopata Jungle
A pre-dawn wake-up call will enable you to be on the lake for sunrise and a hopeful encounter with the family of Giant Otters that frequent the lake and are most active at this time of day. Most of the fish-eating water birds around the lake actively fish in the early morning as well, and this outing should provide excellent views, and photographs, of the prehistoric-looking Hoatzins.

After returning for a late breakfast, set off into the cool understory of the tall virgin forest near the lake to see some towering wild Brazil Nut trees and a demonstration of how your hosts collect, open, and commercialize this important natural product.

After lunch and an hour or so to relax, you once again board the catamaran to explore the eastern part of the lake, where you might see one or more of the five species of monkeys that live in the forest near the lake, such as the Brown Capuchin Monkey.

There is a final chance after dinner to try and spot some Black Caimans on the lake, or to go on a short night walk through the primary forest.

Day 5: Tambopata Jungle
Rising once again at dawn, have a quick snack before boarding the catamarans to explore the western end of the lake in the hope of an encounter with Giant Otters.

After a late breakfast, explore some of the rainforest trails with a knowledgeable resident naturalist guide. As you walk, the forest will be brought to life as your guide explains the ecology of the rainforest and its diverse flora and fauna.

Return for lunch, and then there is an optional rest for those who would like to escape the early afternoon heat. For those still full of energy, there is an option to independently explore some of the forest trails.

In the cooler late afternoon, you will once again board the catamaran to explore the eastern end of the lake, and hopefully experience a spectacular sunset over the lake before returning to the lodge for dinner.

After dinner, there is a final chance to look for Black Caiman on the lake, or to go on a short night hike through the forest.

Day 6: Tambopata Jungle/Cusco
After a dawn breakfast, take a final, shorter paddle around the west end of the lake to try and glimpse the Giant Otters before returning to Puerto Maldonado to catch the flight to Cusco. Arrival and transfer to the hotel.

Day 7: Cusco/Fly to Lima and Back Home
Early in the morning transfer from hotel to the Cusco airport for your departure flight back to Lima and connection flight home.

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