LAKE SALVADOR, LAKE OTORONGO

5 days/ 4 nights
plane in and out

DAY 1: Cuzco-Boca Manu-Lake Salvador

We head out from Cuzco in a light aircraft that takes us over the Andes, and down into the rainforest and the airstrip of Boca Manu. Here a motor canoe is waiting to take us up the Manu River. Manu River snakes its way through stunning primary jungle past beaches where giant river turtles pull themselves up to lay their eggs every July and August. From the boat we have great views of riverside birds like the black skimmer and the Orinoco goose, sunbathing caiman, and that enormous aquatic guinea pig, the capybara. We reach our campsite deep inside the rainforest, a short walk from one of Manu's most beautiful lakes, Lake Salvador, in the afternoon. This will be our base for the next three days.

DAY 2, 3 & 4: Exploring Lake Salvador and Lake Otorongo

Over the next couple of days we will have the opportunity to walk through one of the worlds most unspoilt rainforests getting to know at first hand the animals and plants that live there. We will marvel at the largest tree in the Amazon, the kapok, and be entertained by troops of acrobatic black spider monkeys as they swing between the trees looking for the fruits and flowers they feed on. This is one of thirteen species of monkey you have a chance of watching as you walk the trails through the forest here.

The length of the Manu River is dotted with oxbow lakes, sections of river that have been cut off as the Manu River has changed its course; one of these is Lake Salvador. Here you will be able to uniquely explore the lake by catamaran and see some of the amazing variety of birds that inhabit the lake side, the monkeys that come to feed there and one of the rarest animals in the world the giant otter. Restricted in other areas of the Amazon by both hunting and habitat destruction, the giant otter is an animal that still thrives in Manu. A sighting of this animal as it snorts and whinnies its recognition of you is something you will never forget.

Crossing the river, a five hour trail through woolly monkey territory leads to another lake, Lake Otorongo. Here a 20 metre-high observation tower provides a fabulous view over the lake and gives us another chance to see giant otters. As night falls, we head off into the forest again to look for the nocturnal inhabitants of the rainforest. A careful search by torchlight will reveal a bizarre collection of insects, tree frogs and with luck a snake, a kinkajou or a night monkey. Back on the catamaran on Lake Salvador we will have the chance to go moonlight caiman spotting. On the afternoon of the fourth day we make a return boat journey down the Manu river until we reach the guard post of Limonal where we spend the night.

DAY 5: Boca Manu-Cuzco

From Limonal a short boat ride takes us to the airstrip at Boca Manu, from where we take our return flight over the rainforest and the Andes to Cuzco by light aircraft.

For further information and booking questions contact Sacred Earth.