Manu Extreme Biodiversity

At breakfast you will be greeted with a varied dawn chorus and Red and White Antpittas should be welcoming you as well. You will spend all day birding at the biological station at 2800 meters until our next stop at 1300 meters. This is a pristine forest on a little traveled road. Some of the special birds on this stretch which you will look for include: Mustached Flowerpiercers, Tit-like Dacnis, Golden-collared Tanagers and the Puna Thistletails White-rumped Hawks, Trilling Tapaculos, Black Grass-green Tanagers, Hooded Mountain-Tanagers, Black-throated Tody-Flycatchers, Barred Fruiteaters, White-banded and White-throated Tyrannulets and many more. If we are lucky we may see Peruvian Treehunters, Golden-plumed Parakeets or Greater Scythebilland Chestnut Eagles, Andean Guans, Scaly-naped Parrots, a wide variety of Hummingbirds including Collared Inca, Chestnut-breasted Coronets, Violet-throated Startfrontlets and Amethyst-throated Sunangels, Purple-backed Thornbills, Scaled Metaltails, White-bellied Woodstars, Crimson-mantled Woodpeckers, Bar-bellied Woodpeckers, the endemic Marcapata Spinetails, White-throated Antpittas, Barred and Band-tailed Fruiteaters, White-throated Tyrannulets, Ochraceous-breasted Flycatchers, Barred Becards, Pale-footed Swallows, Mountain Wrens, Citrine Warblers and many Tanagers. We will reach Cock-of-the-Rock Lodge near Union at 1300 meters in the late afternoon.

Lodging: Cloud Forest Lodge

Meals: Breakfast, Picnic Lunch & Dinner

This lodge is situated in the pristine Cloud Forest of the Mountains of Manu just a few minutes from a spectacular Cock of the Rock bird (the active one) into the blind (hidden) which enable us to observe these colorful birds during their dawn mating rituals. Facilities at the Lodge include 12 large spacious en-suite bungalows with hot and cold fresh water, toilets and two single beds in each room plus several rooms with shared facilities – which room you get depends on how early you book!. Private bungalows have their own private balcony. Lighting is provided by candle and lantern but there is a small generator available to charge batteries. There is a large dining and lounge area overlooking a feeding station for Brown Capuchin Monkeys and Tayra's (a large mustelid related to the Martens). Hummingbird feeders attract several species right into the dining room sometimes including Rufous-webbed Brilliants. There is a trail system behind the lodge that enables you to see the understory of the Cloud Forest first hand and facilitates seeing some species you do not likely see from the road such as Chestnut-breasted Wrens, Scaled Antpittas, Rufous-breasted and Short-tailed Antthrush's, SlatyGnateaters and the endemic Cerulean-capped Mankins. Many spectacular waterfalls in the area are far away enough so as to enable hearing birdsongs. Orchids abound with c. 80 species are recorded around the lodge. One day you'll devote yourself to the 2500 meter altitude zone, and one day to the 1500 meter zone. You leave San Pedro at 1600 meters and spend the day birding slowly down to the River Port at 500 meters. You will pay particular attention to the stretch between 1500 meters and 800 meters. This upper tropical zone forest has disappeared on much of the Andean slopes in South America because of its suitability for cash crops such as tea, coffee and coca, but in this part of Peru the forest remains untouched. Birds we have seen well on this stretch of road include: Rufous-breasted Wood-Quails, Speckle-faced Parrots, Chestnut-collared Swifts, Peruvian Piedtails, Three-striped and Three-banded Warblers, Long-tailed Sylphs, LanceolatedMonklets, Versicolored Barbets, Russet Antshrikes, Rufous-loredTyrranulets, Marble-faced Bristle-tyrants, Fulvous-breasted Flatbills, Russet Antshrikes, Olive-tufted Flycatchers, Golden-crowned Flycatchers, Dusky-green Oropendolas, Golden-collared Honeycreeepers White-winged Tanagers, Yellow-throated Bush-Tanagers and many more. In between at Patria you’ll visit a plantation of coca grown legitimately for the Peruvian coca leaf market. You’ll have little time to view the Upper Madre de Dios river with the typical jungle boats parket in this river port around midday you will be at Atalaya, a tiny port where the Piñipiñi River meets the Alto Madre de Dios. Now the lowland rainforest part of our journey begins. Rivers are the highways of the rainforest, and henceforth you will travel at large, comfortable dugout canoes shaded by canopy roofs and driven by powerful outboard motors. During normal river conditions you’ll arrive at our lodge in time to explore wildlife views – which may include toucans, kingfishers, a rare endemic hummingbird and a multitude of butterflies -- along one of its many forest trails.

Lodging: Amazonia Lodge

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner

There is time for another short morning hike on the lodge trails before boarding a canoe leaving early to The Manu Learning Centre. As we follow the broad, rushing course of the Alto Madre de Dios river past the last foothills of the Andes, your ever-changing route will offer sightings of new birds -- terns, cormorants, White-winged Swallows, and flocks of nighthawks flushed from their daytime lairs by the sound of our engine. Splashes of brilliant yellow, pink and red foliage dot the forest-clad slopes around us, and the breeze is laden with the heady perfumes of the tropical forest. A half-hour ride to the Manu Learning Centre gives you your second impression of the meandering Amazonian river, the Alto Madre de Dios, one of the most southern tributes of the legendary Amazonas River. On arrival you will be shown round the lodge before lunch. In the afternoon, explore the local trail system with its naturalist guides, before relaxing at the lodge with the sounds of the forest. During your stay at this beautiful lodge guests can learn about the human history of Manu and the challenges conserving this beautiful and fragile environment talking to the guides and researchers on site. Or perhaps you just want to relax and let the world go by sipping a cool drink and watching the sun set on the Amazon. After dinner that evening enjoy a presentation which helps put in context the work we do on sustainability and conservation and learn more about the ongoing work the foundation does to help preserve the region.

Lodging: Manu Learning Centre

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner

One of the most interesting activities at the Manu Learning Centre is monitoring the clay lick or Collpa where, among others, the Blue Headed Macaw is observed and studied as it is an endangered species. At 5:00 a.m. in the morning, you can join the scientists and researchers on the boat and head for the hide, five minutes up river, to observe the activity of macaws, parrots, and parakeets. As the day breaks and the rays of the sun paint the walls of the clay lick with magic colors, the birds display their dances, coming and going in pairs and in flocks, until they leave to continue their day, deeper in the jungle. Return to the centre for breakfast. After breakfast, continue your journey down the Madre de Dios River to its confluence with the Manu River, passing settlements and native communities during the trip. Just before getting to the village of Boca Manu pass the native community of Diamante. Their culture is Piro and this is the largest settlement of Amerindians in the area. Leave the relatively clean waters of Madre de Dios behind and enter the sediment laden waters of the Manu River. Stop at the park ranger’s station at Limonal to show permits and visit an overgrown oxbow lake where many parrots and macaws come in to roost before we head to our destination. 

Lodging: Manu Campsite

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner

In this day you’ll visit two lakes near our camp. Park authorities determine the time of our visit to Cocha (Lake) Salvador; depending on this schedule, your trail to Cocha Otorongo begins 30 minutes aprox. downstream from the camp. This brief river journey to the trailhead can always offer the chance of a thrilling wildlife sighting. Perhaps you will spot a family of Capybaras, the world’s largest rodent, browsing on the riverbank, or if you are very lucky, a solitary Jaguar might stalk slowly off an open beach into the forest, flicking its tail in annoyance because of our intrusion. On the short trail to the lake you may spy one or more of the park’s 13  monkey species leaping through the canopy high above. And some of the trees which form that canopy -- such as kapok, ironwood and figs, will astound us with the vast size of their trunks and buttressed root systems. These are oxbow lakes, formed when the river changed course, leaving a landlocked channel behind.  The lakes are abundant in fish and wildlife, and provide optimum habitat for caimans and the Giant Otter (Pteronura brasiliensis), one of the Amazon’s most endangered mammal species. This lake has maximum protection, and boats are not allowed.  However, it features two dock platforms and a 50ft tower from which you can scan the trees and marshy shoreline for monkeys, kingfishers, Anhinga (a large, long-necked waterbird), and countless other species. You’ll have a good chance of sighting the resident Giant Otter family as they dive for the 4Kg. fish that each one consumes daily.

Lodging: Manu Campsite

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner

Today you’ll visit the most important  Cocha or oxbow Lake Salvador; depending on the schedule. Cocha Salvador is the largest of the lake area, at 3.5 Km, or two miles long.  It is also home to a family of Giant Otters. You’ll cruise the lake on a floating catamaran platform, which offers superb new perspectives of the lake and forest. The lakeside trees are often seen with monkeys; Scarlet, Chesnut-fronted and Blue-and-gold macaws beat a path overhead; a variety of herons and egrets scout the water’s edge; and the reptilian eyes and snouts of caimans, motionless as logs, may be spied beneath the branches. Somewhere on the open water or in among toppled bankside trees, we may spot the sleek heads of the shy Giant Otters. These social animals play and fish together, and we may see them sprawling on a fallen tree trunk, dozing or gnawing on a fish. 

Lodging: Manu Campsite

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner

You’ll set off downriver at dawn. At this hour chances of wildlife encounters are excellent. We return to the Limonal park station, to file our wildlife report before leaving the park. After reaching the turbulent union of Alto Madre de Dios and Manu rivers and then the village of Boca Manu, we may drop off some passengers returning to Cusco.  After ninety more minutes downstream you will arrive to Tambo Blanquillo Lodge - the exciting final stop of our journey -- in time for lunch.

After an early afternoon rest we set off along the “collpa trail”, which will take you to the lodge’s famous TapirClay Lick. Here at the most active tapir lick known in all the Amazon, Tapirs who come to this lick to eat clay from under the tree roots around the edge. This unlikely snack absorbs and neutralizes toxins in the vegetarian diet of the Tapir, the largest land animal of Latin America. The lick features a roomy, elevated observation platform 5m/17ft above the forest floor. 

You will shortly arrive to our private, on-site mammal clay lick – a major draw for various species of monkeys, the giant tapir, huangana, ronsocos and even the mighty jaguars, all of which visit the clay lick on a regular basis. You will wait in our purpose-designed nature spotting tents and see which of our mammalian neighbours pass by in front of us. After a couple of hours at the clay lick you’ll return to the lodge and enjoy a deep, comfortable sleep to recharge batteries and prepare for the next day’s adventure.

Lodging: Tambo Blanquillo Lodge

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner

After breakfast, you will prepare for your next destination and take a boat again, continue the boat journey down to the Madre de Dios River to its confluence with the Manu River, this boat ride means to spot scarlet, blue, yellow,red and green macaws flying or sometimes perching, faciated herons, egrets, pied lapwings, collared  plovers, night hawks including Orinoco geese will be seen along the river banks, passing settlements and native communities during the trip. Just before getting to the village of Boca Manu you will pass the native community of Diamante. Their culture is Piro and this is the largest settlement of Amerindians in the area, many parrots and macaws come in to roost before we head another hour and half in the famous Madre de Dios (Mother of God) River, for which this region was named. During the river journey you will enjoy a packed lunch and start to spot some of the area’s renowned wildlife, including sand-colored nighthawks, orinoco geese and capybaras, the world’s largest rodent. Upon arrival you will receive a hearty welcome at Tambo Blanquillo Lodge. After a welcoming drink they will show you to your room, help you get settled comfortably and introduce you to the facilities and surrounding installations. We will enjoy an evening freshly meal prepared by our resident chefs before getting ready for your first foray out into the jungle, following the trails winding away from the lodge.

Lodging: Tambo Blanquillo Lodge

Meals:  Breakfast, Box Lunch, Dinner

Another early start, is followed by a short boat ride downstream. You’ll take a 20-minute trail through palm plantations to a cut-off channel of the river, where we find the Macaw Lick. A spacious hide provided with individual chairs and a convenient place for cameras and binoculars is our ringside seat for what is usually a very spectacular show. You will enjoy a full breakfast here while waiting for the main actors to arrive. The clay lick installation has been custom built for optimal bird watching pleasure, a large blind located just 50 meters away from the clay lick for the best possible show – so close you won’t even need to use your camera zoom. As the sun rises over century-old trees, an explosion of life and color will burst before your eyes, with hundreds of parrots and macaws arriving to enjoy their daily sodium intake. In groups of two and threes the scarlet macaws arrive, landing in the treetops as they eye the main stage below — the eroded clay banks of the river and the occasional villain, a menacing and unwelcomed great black hawk.

After this truly unique experience you’ll return to the lodge and enjoy a tasty lunch and some time to relax around the lodge, read or enjoy a well-deserved nap. That afternoon you’ll set out again for one of the most bio-diverse oxbow lakes in the area; the Camungo Oxbow Lake which is home to giant river otters (extinct in almost all its other habitats in Peru), kingfishers, flycatchers and some rare neotropical birds, such as the colorful agami heron. You will enjoy the ride on another of our custom-built installations, a paddle catamaran that will carry you silently around the lake to capture photographs of the undisturbed wildlife. After the lake you’ll visit the Camungo Observation Tower which, at 50 meters height, is the highest observation tower in the Peruvian Amazon. The tower was constructed over (but not touching or interfering with) a ceiba tree over 400 years old. From the top you will watch hunting jacamars, swinging monkeys and mixed flocks of up to 100 bird species passing right beside us. You will even see macaws again as they return home from the clay lick. Returning again to the lodge you’ll enjoy another hearty meal and spend the evening relaxing with our fellow guests, enjoying a beer and playing games in the lodge shared spaces.

Enjoying a slightly later start, you’ll set out after breakfast to visit the most important oxbow lake in the area, the Blanco Oxbow Lake, a 10 minute boat ride from the lodge which offers a chance to spot peccaries and other mammals on the river banks. It’s not uncommon for visitors to spot jaguars sunbathing in the morning sun, after a long night of hunting. At the lake you’ll board our paddle catamaran and navigate the waters teeming with giant otters, caimans and other apex predators. Groups of monkeys are easily seen feeding on the fruiting trees beside the lake, while snail kites feast on the abundance of snails. This is lake is famous among birdwatchers as a home to over 600 species of birds. After the lake you will return to the lodge for lunch and a chance to recharge batteries. That afternoon you’ll head out to the Blanquillo Oxbow Lake, just 10 minutes walking distance through the shebonal trees. From here you’ll have the option of walking the surrounding trails or taking our canoes to explore the waterways. Upon returning to the lodge we’ll enjoy our final evening among new friends, with some wine or beer under the amazing scenery, a splendid moon and the jungle’s night time cacophony.

Lodging: Tambo Blanquillo Lodge

Meals:  Breakfast, Box Lunch, Dinner

Leave the lodge very early for a 2.5 hour boat trip downstream to the Colorado Village, breakfast will be served on the boat which is a perfect time to take advantage of some early morning wildlife activity along the river. During the journey you will also get to see several lowland native settlements and also the gold miners digging and panning gold along the banks of the Madre de Dios River. We disembark in the gold-mining town of Colorado to start our overland journey to Puerto Carlos which takes about 45 minutes and then you’ll cross the Inambari River to Santa Rosa, another 15 minutes before finally a van or bus will drive you to Cusco. (Approx 6hours), our crew team and your birdwatcher guide will assist you until your hotel where our birding adventures ends.

Lodging: Not Included

Meals: Breakfast, Picnic Lunch.

• Transfer assistance from your selected hotel in Cusco to our transportation on the first day.
• Overland transportation.
• Accommodations at the lodges (11 nights) according to the itinerary.
• All meals are included from breakfast on the first day to the Box Lunch on the last day.
• English and Spanish speaking birding guide Juan Aguilar.
• Guided birding tours in accordance with the itinerary.
• The Overland transportation permit baggage allowance up to 25 kg per person.
• Transfer assistance to your hotel in Cusco on the last day.

• Extra services and extra nights at lodge or alternative Hotels.
• T-Shirts, Posters, Postcards and Souvenirs.
• Bar expenses
• Tips.

• Grading.- This is primarily a birdwatching tour, with some mammals and general natural history thrown in. It is suitable for most people with average fitness levels and mobility, although humid/hot and sometimes muddy conditions need to be contended with, together with occasional scrambles up river banks. Less fit members will likely find the tour tiring due to early starts throughout the holiday.
• Weather.- The weather will be hot and humid with the possibility of a heavy shower at any time. The rainy season generally does not hit the rainforest until early November. In the highlands we should enjoy bright and dry weather with chilly nights, and September/October is the best period in the year to watch Cocks of the Rock lekking.
• Clothing.- Please inspect the separate clothing list, sent to you on booking, thoroughly.

• Explore and discover the Peruvian jungle
• Guided tour of the Manu National Park
• Type of Tour: PRIVATE TOUR OR SHARING
• Private Guide
• Prices and conditions: US$
• Single Supplement Charge : US$
• Note: Private tours can be operational on any day of the week with a minimum of 6 passengers.
• ALL prices shown are NET rates
• ALL prices shown are in $ USD
• ALL prices shown are per person rates
• ALL tours depart/arrive from/until Cusco
• ALL tours include local taxes, accommodation, full board, excursions, transport and expert Manu guide.
• Prices do not include alcoholic drinks