A TASTE OF THE AMAZON

POSADA AMAZONAS and REFUGIO AMAZONAS

Posada Amazonas is a comfortable, unobtrusive 30 room lodge owned jointly by Rainforest Expeditions and the local community of Infierno. Thanks to its accessibility, excellent wildlife observation opportunities and simple but comfortable accommodations, Posada Amazonas is the ideal short, economic introductory nature tour to the Amazonian rainforest. The lodge is adjacent to the Tambopata National Reserve, in southeast Peru, located one tour by boat from the nearest town of Pto. Maldonado. The lodge is built combining traditional native architecture and materials with modern, low impact eco-lodge technology. Following is a sample itinerary. Due to the nature of travel in the rainforest, activities may change due to weather or environmental issues.

Refugio Amazonas is a new 24 room lodge opened in 2005. It is situated two hours upriver from Posada Amazonas, giving it an excellent location for an in-depth rainforest experience. Refugio Amazonas is built on a 200 hectare private reserve in the búfer zone of the Tambopata Nature Reserve. It is becoming integrated into the community of Brazil Nut extractors that surround it attempting to extend the benefit of ecotourism to the families that commit to the sustainable use of the forest with-in this buffer zone. For those traveling with children, it offers the only rainforest experience for children by children in the Peruvian Amazon—the Children’s Rainforest Trail.

2007 Departures:

• Daily based on flight availability, and in conjunction with a complete Peru itinerary

2007 costs:

• $315 per person, based on double occupancy.
• + $10 National Park entrance (subject to change)
• Single supplement is $105

Itinerary-Posada Amazonas

Day 1: PUERTO MALDONADO - POSADA AMAZONAS

Arrival to Pto. Maldonado by scheduled flight from either Lima or Cusco.

Transfer Airport to Pto Maldonado Headquarters . Upon arrival, we will welcome you at the airport and drive about ten minutes to our Puerto Maldonado headquarters. While enjoying your first taste of the forest in our gardens we will ask you to pack only the necessary gear for your next few days, and leave the rest at our safe deposit. This helps us keep the boats and cargo light.

Puerto Maldonado to Tambopata River Port. Skirting Puerto Maldonado, we drive 20 kilometers to the Tambopata River Port, entering the Native Community of Infierno. The port is a communal business.

Tambopata River Port to Posada Amazonas. The forty five minute boat ride from the Tambopata Port to Posada Amazonas will take us into the Community´s Primary Forest Private Reserve. A boxed lunch is provided.

Boat Transportation. All our boats are 20 foot long, roofed canoes with 55 hp outboard motors. Daily arrivals and departures from every port are scheduled to meet every airline´s arrival and departure with a maximum two hour wait.

Orientation. Upon arrival, the lodge manager will welcome you and brief you with important navigation and security tips.

Canopy tower: A twenty minute walk from Posada Amazonas leads to the 30 meter scaffolding canopy tower. A bannistered staircase running through the middle provides safe access to the platforms above. From atop you obtain spectacular views of the vast expanses of standing forest cut by the Tambopata River winding through the middle. Now and then toucans, parrots or macaws are seen flying against the horizon, or mixed species canopy flocks land in the treetop next to you.

Ecotourism Lecture. A daily presentation on the Infierno ecotourism project is available every night from a staff member. ( L, D)

Day 2: POSADA AMAZONAS

Morning activity-- Tres Chimbadas Oxbow Lake: Tres Chimbadas is thirty minutes by boat and forty five minutes hiking from Posada Amazonas. Once there you will paddle around the lake in a catamaran, searching for the resident family of nine giant river otters (seen by 60% of our lake visitors) and other lakeside wildlife such as caiman, hoatzin and horned screamers.

Afternoon activity-- Ethnobotanical Tour: A twenty minute boat drive downriver leads you to a trail designed by the staff of the Centro Ñape. The Centro Ñape is a communal organization that produces medicines out of forest plants and administers them to patients who choose their little clinic. They have produced a trail which explains the different medicinal (and other) uses of selected plants.

Night walk. You will have the option of hiking out at night, when most of the mammals are active but rarely seen. Much easier to find are frogs with shapes and sounds as bizarre as their natural histories. ( B, L,D)

Day 3: POSADA AMAZONAS.

Before breakfast-- Parrot clay lick: This clay lick is only a twenty-minute walk from Posada Amazonas. From a blind located about twenty meters away you will see dozens of parrots and parakeets descend on most clear mornings to ingest the clay on a river bank. Species such as Mealy and Yellow- headed Amazon, Blue-headed Parrot and Dusky headed Parakeet descend at this clay lick. The clay lick is active at dawn, during the late mornings and mid-afternoons.
Return to the lodge for breakfast.

Morning activity-- Ceiba Trail Hike: We leave from the lobby at Posada Amazonas and embark on a two hour hike crowned by the largest tree in the vicinity: a giant ceiba tree. During the hike we will focus on the natural history of the rain forest and its principal taxonomic groups.

Afternoon activity-- Farm Visit. A thirty minute boat drive downriver takes us to the most complete farm in the community of Infierno. The owner grows a diverse variety of popular and unknown Amazon crops. In his garden, just about every plant and tree serves a purpose. ( B, L, D)

Day 4: POSADA AMAZONAS-PUERTO MALDONADO

Transfer Pto Maldonado Headquarters - Airport . We retrace our river and road journey back to Puerto Maldonado, our office and the airport. Depending on airline schedules, this may require dawn departures. ( B)

Itinerary—Refugio Amazonas

DAY 1: PUERTO MALDONADO - REFUGIO AMAZONAS

Arrival to Pto. Maldonado by scheduled flight from either Lima or Cusco.

Transfer Airport to Pto Maldonado Headquarters . Upon arrival, we will welcome you at the airport and drive about ten minutes to our Puerto Maldonado headquarters. While enjoying your first taste of the forest in our gardens we will ask you to pack only the necessary gear for your next few days, and leave the rest at our safe deposit. This helps us keep the boats and cargo light.

Puerto Maldonado to Tambopata River Port. Skirting Puerto Maldonado, we drive 20 kilometers to the Tambopata River Port, entering the Native Community of Infierno. The port is a communal business.

Tambopata River Port to Refugio Amazonas. The two and a half hour boat ride from the Tambopata Port to Refugio Amazonas will take us past the Community of Infierno and the Tambopata National Reserve´s checkpoint and into the buffer zone of this 1.3 million hectare conservation unit. A boxed lunch is provided.

Orientation. Upon arrival, the lodge manager will welcome you and brief you with important navigation and security tips.

Caiman searches. We will be out at the river's edge at night, scanning the shores with headlamps and flashlights to catch the red gleams of reflection from caiman eyes. (L, D)

DAY 2: REFUGIO AMAZONAS

Morning Activity--Sachavacayoc Oxbow Lake: A two hour hike takes you to Sachavacayoc Lake. You will then paddle around the lake in a catamaran, searching for the resident family of five giant river otters (seen by about 30% of lake visitors) and other lakeside wildlife such as caiman, hoatzin and horned screamers. We hike out at dawn - when otters are active. Don't forget the two hour return hike! For those who do not want to take the long hike Condenado Lake, thirty minutes from the lodge, is an option.

Afternoon activity-- Farm Visit and Ethnobotanical Garden: Five minutes downriver from the lodge lies a farm owned and managed by charismatic Don Manuel from the neighbouring community of Condenado. He grows a variety of popular and unknown Amazon crops - just about every plant and tree you see serves a purpose. He has also identified and cultivated many of the medicinal plants used in the region in a little backyard garden.

Afternoon activity-- Brazil nut trail and camp: A few minutes hike from the lodge is a beautiful old growth patch of Brazil Nut forest that has been harvested for decades (if not centuries) where the precarious remains of a camp used two months a year by Brazil Nut gatherers can still be experienced. We will be demonstrating the whole process of the rain forest's only sustainably harvested product from collection through transportation to drying.

Night walk. You will have the option of hiking out at night, when most of the mammals are active but rarely seen. Much easier to find are frogs with shapes and sounds as bizarre as their natural histories. (B, L, D)

DAY 3: REFUGIO AMAZONAS.

Morning activity--Parakeet clay lick: A fifteen minute boat ride and sixty minute walk from Refugio Amazonas is a parakeet clay lick. From a blind you will see parakeets descend on most clear days to ingest the clay on a bank. Species such as Dusky headed and Cobalt winged Parakeet descend at this clay lick. We visit the lick at dawn, when parrots are most active or in midmorning or early afternoon, when they are active.

Morning Activity-- Mammal clay lick: Twenty minutes walking from Refugio Amazonas is a peccary clay lick. These wild rain forest pigs show up in herds of five to twenty individuals to eat clay in the late morning. Chances of spotting them are around 15%, but well worth the short hike. Other wildlife also shows up including deer, guan and parakeets.

Afternoon Activity--Canopy tower: A thirty minute walk from Refugio Amazonas leads to the 25 meter scaffolding canopy tower. A bannistered staircase running through the middle provides safe access to the platforms above. The tower has been built upon high ground, therefore increasing your horizon of the continuous primary forest extending out towards the Tambopata National Reserve. From here views of mixed species canopy flocks as well as toucans, macaws and raptors are likely.

Tambopata National Reserve Lecture. Nightly lectures prepared by the staff of Refugio Amazonas cover conservation threats, opportunities and projects in the Tambopata National Reserve. (B, L, D)

DAY 4: REFUGIO AMAZONAS-PUERTO MALDONADO. Transfer Pto Maldonado Headquarters - Airport . We retrace our river and road journey back to Puerto Maldonado, our office and the airport. Depending on airline schedules, this may require dawn departures. ( B)

B=Breakfast; L= Lunch; D=Dinner.

INCLUDES: All hotel and lodge accommodations based on double occupancy. All scheduled land and river transportation. All transfers. All scheduled excursions with English-speaking guide services. Meals as specified in the itinerary,

NOT INCLUDED: International or domestic airfares, airport departure taxes or visa fees, excess baggage charges, additional nights during the trip due to flight cancellations, alcoholic beverages or bottled water, snacks, insurance of any kind, laundry, phone calls, radio calls or messages, reconfirmation of flights and items of personal nature.

Details about the lodge facilities and tour options

• Daily departures assure utmost flexibility at great value
• Accommodations at Posada Amazonas Lodge are in twin bedded rooms with private baths. Light is provided by candles and kerosene lanterns. Electricity is provided by a generator, and is available in the kitchen area only. .
• 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.
• Each room has a large window facing the forest, and a second small window on the opposite side, set up very high, to keep the rooms well ventilated. Beds are sized for Americans or Europeans (1.05m X 2.05m) with mosquito nets. Each room has a private bathroom with warm (not heated) water only.
• Dining and lounge areas are designed for 80 people, offering ample space to rest and socialize.
• Our three daily meals combine international, Peruvian and local cuisine. Vegetarians are welcome.
• Our guides are biologists, tourism professionals, or community members. Unless noted otherwise, our guides speak English. We assign guides at 10:1 ratio . This means groups smaller than 10 people will be merged with other groups under one guide. If you would like a private guide or a guide in a language other than English please let us know.
• Our lodge staff not only sets the regional standard for quality service but is also made up of a majority of community members, providing valuable income from tourism to their families.
• Canopy tower provides easy access to one of the world’s final biological frontiers: the rain forest canopy. (PAL)
• Natural history attractions include oxbow lake with giant river otters, parrot clay licks and small monkeys.
• Opportunities for cultural interaction with the local community: guided activities include ethnobotanical walks, visits to small scale farms, and other experiences we are developing in association with our local partners.

Trip notes:

• This itinerary is offered as a component for any complete Peru itinerary (usually requires a minimum of 7 nights of arrangements) General booking conditions & deposits apply as per your entire itinerary.
• Flights are required to Puerto Maldonado, which can be reached by daily service from either Lima (in 90 minutes) or Cusco (in 30 minutes). Airline ticket prices are not included in the trip costs, and can be arranged through our office in conjunction with your final trip itinerary.
• Arrivals are possible any day of the week, based on airline availability.
• Due to the proximity to the Bolivian border, a yellow-fever certificate (proof of vaccination) is required on arrival at the Puerto Maldonado airport.
• For a more extensive Amazon experience, we suggest an additional visit to the Tambopata Research Center, located a few tours further up river from this lodge. 5 night /6 day package Start at $825 per person.
• Special Interest itineraries, such as bird-watching, cultural, soft-adventure, special kids programs, etc; and longer or shorter stays can be arranged on request

Risk and Responsibility