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DAY 1 PUERTO MALDONADO TO HEATH RIVER WILDLIFE
CENTER
Our staff welcome you at Puerto Maldonado airport and we drive
through this bustling Upper Amazon Basin city to the Tambopata River
boat dock. Here we board a powerful motorized dugout canoe and set
off to the nearby confluence of the mighty Madre de Dios River,
where we head downstream for approximately three hours to the Peru-Bolivia
border at the mouth of the remote Heath River. Even beneath the vast
sky of this major Amazon tributary we glimpse the diversity of the
riverine environment, with its forest-capped red-earth cliffs,
alternating with low banks thick with Cecropia trees and giant
grasses.
Now, after brief frontier-crossing formalities, we motor for about
two more hours up narrower and wilder waters, suddenly enjoying the
intimacy of mysterious forest looming close on either side.
Occasional views of native villages and children splashing by the
banks, are interspersed with long, quiet stretches where we may spot
herons, hawks, cormorants, Orinoco Geese, and perhaps a family of
Capybaras -- the world’s largest rodent, weighing up to 55kg./120lb,
and looking like an enormous Guinea Pig. We reach our simple,
charming and comfortable quarters at the Heath River Wildlife Center
in time for dinner. (Box lunch,D)
(Please note that the lodge is located on the Bolivian shore of the
Heath River, so passports are required to clear Bolivian passport
control.)
DAY 2: HEATH RIVER WILDLIFE CENTER
Today we make an early start to visit the lodge’s most spectacular
feature: the Heath River parrot and macaw lick. Here these colorful
birds gather to eat a type of clay from the cliff-like river banks
that neutralizes certain toxins in their diet. They congregate early
each morning, sometimes by the hundreds, jostling and squabbling
over the best eating spots on the clay lick. This noisy and
unforgettable show can go on for two or three hours, and may begin
with up to five species of parrot and two varieties of parakeet,
followed by Chestnut-fronted Macaws and their larger, more
boisterous cousins, the Red-and-green Macaws. This extraordinary
wildlife display occurs at only a handful of sites in the Upper
Amazon Basin, and nowhere else on the planet.
Our floating hide platform provides comfort and complete concealment,
so that we can eat a full breakfast here during pauses in the
bankside spectacle. For ultra-close-up viewing, our guides carry a
tripod-mounted spotting scope, which can also be used to get
telephoto pictures with even the simplest camera.
On our return we can land partway downriver and walk back along a
section of the lodge’s extensive network of forest trails. We
encounter numerous gigantic Brazil-nut, kapok and fig trees, along
with the scary strangler fig, whose life strategy is as sinister as
its name suggests. Our guide will point out and explain the
medicinal and commercial uses of dozens of plants and trees, while
we keep our eyes and ears open for birds, or one of the eight
species of monkeys found in this region. We might come upon a small
herd of White-lipped or Collared peccary – two kinds of wild pig
that are quite common in this area. For purposes of territorial
marking they deploy a “stink gland” so potent that they are often
smelled long before they are seen.
After lunch we typically hike or bicycle along a major trail to a
point where the forest abruptly gives way to the spacious plains of
the Pampas del Heath, part of Bolivia’s Madidi National Park. This
unique environment -- the result of very poor soils, plus an extreme
seasonal cycle of dryness and flooding -- is the largest remaining
undisturbed tropical savannah in the Amazon, and is home to rare
endemic birds and mammals, such as the Swallow-tailed Hummingbird
and the highly endangered Maned Wolf. Shortly beyond the edge of the
forest we can climb a raised platform that allows us a grand view of
this vast expanse of grassland and shrub, studded with palm trees.
We can continue another hour or so to a swampy area thick with
Mauritia flexuosa palm trees, whose oil-rich palm nuts and hollowed-out
dead palms provide vitally important food and shelter for nesting
pairs of Red-bellied and increasingly rare Blue-and-yellow macaws.
We aim to arrive toward dusk, when the macaws are returning from
their day’s foraging to congregate in this very special breeding
site.
We return to the lodge by night, using our flashlights, and perhaps
pausing here and there in total darkness, to listen to the ever-changing
orchestra of animals, frogs and insects, and to experience the magic
of the night-time rainforest. We may come upon such bizarre
nocturnal creatures as camouflaged frogs disguised as dead leaves,
toads the size of rabbits, hairy tarantulas peering out of their
dirt holes, night monkeys lurking among the tree branches, and a
seemingly unpredictable array of other nightlife.
After dinner some guests may choose to visit one of our mammal lick
hides, in hopes of seeing a Lowland Tapir, the rainforest’s largest
mammal. Hardy adventurers can choose to camp here with their guide,
in order to experience a full night in the heart of the rainforest
and increase their chances of a major wildlife sighting. (B, L, D)
DAY 3 : HEATH RIVER WILDLIFE CENTER TO SANDOVAL LAKE LODGE
We set off early for the Madre de Dios River and Lake Sandoval. This
is peak hour for wildlife so we keep a sharp eye on the riverbanks,
often spotting families of Capybara, and perhaps being rewarded with
a rare jaguar sighting, or a tapir swimming across the current.
Around mid-morning we reach the boat landing at the trailhead to
Lake Sandoval, a protected lake in the Tambopata Reserve. We walk
the 3km/2 mile trail and travel by canoe down the narrow channel
that leads us onto the open waters of this beautiful lake. As our
crew paddle us across to the lodge (motors are prohibited here) we
may see the lake’s surface roil as a massive Paiche – an Amazon fish
that can reach 100kg/220lbs – breaks the surface. Or perhaps we will
hear the strange and haunting calls, and see the heads bobbing above
the lake’s surface, that will signal our first acquaintance with
Pteronura brasiliensis, the Amazonian Giant Otter.
After lunch we can take a leisurely canoe tour along the forested
fringes of the eastern lake, spotting for herons and other water-birds,
flycatchers, raptors and some of the six monkey species found in the
area, with a good chance of seeing one of the glorious sunsets for
which the lake is renowned. When permitted, we may climb the park
authority lookout tower that marks the border of Sandoval’s
restricted zone, for a superb view of the entire lake. On still,
clear nights the mirror surface of the lake is nature’s planetarium,
glittering with the millions of stars of the brilliant southern sky.
Before dinner we can round off this full day with a short night walk,
spotting for nocturnal creatures along one of the trails near the
lodge. (Box lunch, L ,D)
DAY 5: SANDOVAL LAKE LODGE
We rise early to tour the lake shore by canoe once more, in quest of
new wildlife sightings. Our viewpoint from the canoe often allows
closer and more extended encounters with birds and mammals than on a
typical forest trail hike, and we may witness intimate feeding and
mating behavior. On Lake Sandoval monkeys, in particular, have
almost lost their fear of humans.
We return to the lodge for breakfast and rest for a while, perhaps
enjoying the panoramic view from our high point on the lake shore,
before setting out to walk a special circuit where we investigate
and learn the uses of dozens of Amazonian medicinal plants. We will
see palmicho, the plant that supplies the roof-thatch material for
our lodges, Candlestick Ginger for anti-inflammatory medicine, the
historically important Chinchona, or Quinine tree, whose bark has
saved countless thousands from the throes of malaria, and numerous
other vital plants. This route includes both wild forest and a small
botanical garden dedicated to cultivation of some of these species.
After the mid-day heat subsides we canoe our way around the shore to
the western end of the lake, and encounter the flooded palm swamps
where macaws make their home and monkeys abound. As we make our way
back to the lodge later, it is getting dark and we can use our
flashlights to spot the brilliant red eyes of caimans and get close
to them as they lurk along the bushy shoreline with their snouts
just above water. (B, L, D)
TRANSFER OUT
After early breakfast we leave near dawn and we take a final,
shorter paddle around the west end of the lake to try and glimpse
the Giant Otters before returning by motor canoe for the 35 minutes
return trip to the Puerto Maldonado Airport, taking advantage of
valuable early morning wildlife activity along the river. From here
you fly to Cusco or Lima, where your jungle adventure ends. (B)
Please note that the program may vary slightly so as to maximize
your wildlife sightings, depending on the reports of our researchers
and experienced naturalist guides based at the lodge.
END OF OUR SEVICES |
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