Tambopata Research Center | Trip Itinerary

Tambopata Research Center offers an extensive set of activities designed to connect you with the dense rainforest, maximize wildlife encounters and share the local culture.   Although you can design your own Amazon experience and let your inner explorer out, here are some ideas for you based on a 5 day/4-night stay with our most popularly requested activities. For complete descriptions of activities currently offered please follow this link.

What to expect on a 5 days 4 nights expedition in the Amazon?
Immerse yourself in an in-depth luxury Amazon experience, in the heart of the Tambopata National Reserve in the most remote ecolodge in South America. Stay 4 nights at the Tambopata Research Center home of the Macaw Project and explore a variety of habitats which means different kinds of flora and fauna. Not to forget the huge macaw clay lick less than a kilometer from the lodge.
 

Day 1: Welcome to the Amazon!

• Arrive in Puerto Maldonado, capital of Madre de Dios, and join a 1-hour bus and a 2.5 boat journey till the lodge. Your first taste of the Amazon culinary will be in the river while you leave the city to enjoy the amazing jungle landscapes.
• As we cross the confluence with the Malinowski River, we will leave the final traces of human habitation behind. Within the 700,000 hectares uninhabited nucleus of the reserve, sightings of capybara, caiman, geese, macaws and other large species will become more frequent.
• Tambopata Research Center awaits – a spacious boutique eco-lodge, with bar, a massage center, and buffet service in the heart of National Reserve of Tambopata, being the only lodge inside the reserve surrounded by dozens of macaw nests belonging to the Macaw Project.
• Accommodation includes rooms from 21 mts to 83 mts suites with a private bathroom and an open window facing the forest. Check our Accommodations tab for details, photos and floorplans of the different room options.
• Your stay includes three meals daily, teas, coffee, guided excursions and activities, refreshments upon arriving, and transfers to and from the airport. We assign guides on private small groups of 6:1
• This afternoon join the Overlook A three to five-kilometer hike will lead us to overlooks commanding magnificent views of the Tambopata winding its way into the lowlands. The forest on this trail, regenerating on the old bamboo forest, is good for Howler Monkey and Dusky Titi Monkey.
• You will have the option of hiking out at night when most of the mammals are active but difficult to see. Easier to find are frogs with shapes and sounds as bizarre as their natural histories.

 Day 2

• On most clear mornings of the year, dozens of large macaws and hundreds of parrots congregate on this large river bank in a raucous and colorful spectacle which inspired a National Geographic cover story. Discretely located fifty meters from the cliff, we will observe Green-winged, Scarlet and Blue-and-gold Macaws and several species of smaller parrots descend to ingest clay. Outings are at dawn when the lick is most active.
• This five-kilometer trail covers the prototypical rain forest with immense trees crisscrossed by creeks and ponds. Amongst the figs, ceibas, and shihuahuacos we will go for a monkey search Squirrel, Brown Capuchin, and Spider Monkeys as well as peccaries. TRC is located within this habitat.
• Ten minutes upriver from the lodge explore the island where is a tiny pond with a platform in the middle. It is a great place to spot waterfowl such as Muscovy duck, sunbittern and hoatzin along with the woodpeckers, oropendolas, flycatchers, and parakeets that call this pond their home.
• After dinner scientists will provide a night lecture, an in-depth look at the biology of macaws, their feeding habits, the theories for clay lick use, their breeding and feeding ecology, population fluctuations and the threats to their conservation.

Day 3

• Every morning is different at the clay lick, because of that you have another chance to join the morning excursion
• An entirely different habitat characterized by smaller, thinner trees atop hills and slopes is covered by this five-kilometer trail of terra firme forest. Saddleback tamarins are frequently found here. As we walk near the limits of the swamp we will also keep our eyes open for rare tapir tracks.
• Growing on the remains of an oxbow lake and providing both arboreals as well as terrestrial mammals with fruits throughout the year, the aguaje palms are one of the most important food sources in the rainforest. Demand for these fruits and great conditions for planting rice makes the palm swamp also one of the most threatened habitats. 

Day 4

• A different kind of Terra Firme forest on a half-day activity is available daily. Crossed by several creeks that will eventually reach the Tambopata River, walk in the opposite direction of the river, where you will focus on forest and ecology on this creek trail.
• Twilight descends early in the jungle. Under the thick tree cover of the rainforest, darkness falls quickly, when the light cannot slip through the foliage any longer. Now, as afternoon slips into evening, you’re about to see one of the world’s most spectacular sunsets. The Sunset Cruise floats down the wide river, countless oranges and pinks reflecting off the water in lovely patterns.

Day 5

• It is time to say goodbye, as the expedition comes to an end.
• Your visit will make a direct contribution to Wired Amazon and the National Reserve of Tambopata.
• You will take the journey back to the city to the airport for your national flight onwards

Options to add extra nights at TRC or add a 1 or 2 night stay at  the sister lodge Refugio Amazonas--great if you'd like some cultural interaction with a local community-- are popular combinations with Tambopata Research Center. Contact our office to discuss options that will best suit you and your travel companions.