Day 1:

Transfer Airport to Pto Maldonado Headquarters
Upon arrival from Lima or Cusco, we will welcome you at the airport and drive you 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.

Arrival & Reception by Birding Guide
Although all of our guides have basic bird identification skills, only a handful truly qualify as birding guides - able to identify hundreds of species by sound and sight. Our birdwatching expeditions include a trained birding guide.

Transfer Pto Maldonado Headquarters 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.

Transfer Boat - 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.
Boxed Lunch

Orientation
Upon arrival, the lodge manager will welcome you and brief you with important navigation and security tips.
Dinner, Overnight at Posada Amazonas

Day 2:

After an early breakfast you have a choice of activities:

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.

Bamboo Forest
Following a dawn breakfast at Posada Amazonas, we depart on a fifteen minute drive to the bamboo patches around Tres Chimbadas Lake. We will leave lake birding aside and focus on the bamboo specialists. During the morning we will look for the endemic White-cheeked Tody Tyrant, Peruvian Recurvebill, Red-billed Scythebill, Rufous-headed Woodpecker, Rufous-breasted Piculet, Brown-rumped Foliage Gleaner, Large- headed Flatbill, Dusky- tailed Flatbill, Dusky-cheeked Foliage-gleaner, Flammulated Bamboo-tyrant, Dot- winged and Ornate Antwren, White-lined Antbird, Rufous capped Nunlet, Pheasant Cuckoo and Striped Cuckoo.

Transfer Boat - Posada Amazonas to TRC
Six and a half hours by boat from Posada Amazonas, in the pristine heart of the reserve, lies the Tambopata Research Center. As we cross the confluence with the Malinowski River, we will leave the final traces of human habitation behind. Within the 700,000 hectare uninhabited nucleus of the reserve, sightings of capybara, caiman, geese, macaws and other large species will become more frequent.
Boxed Lunch

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

Macaw Project Lectures
After dinner scientists will provide 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.
Overnight at Tambopata Research Center

DAY 3:

Macaw Clay Lick
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.
Breakfast

Floodplain Trail
This five kilometer trail covers the prototypical rain forest with immense trees criss-crossed by creeks and ponds. Amongst the figs, ceibas and shihuahuacos we will look for Squirrel, Brown Capuchin, and Spider Monkeys as well as peccaries. TRC is located within this habitat.
Boxed Lunch

TRC Gardens
After long hikes we can continue to bird within the confines of TRC. Species possible on the TRC clearing include: eventual canopy flocks, Squirrel Cuckoo, Masked Crimson Tanager, Cinammon- throated Woodcreeper, Speckled Chachalaca and Yellow-tufted Woodpecker.
Dinner

DAY 4:

Breakfast

Riparian Habitat
We will explore older river created habitats at the pond five minutes upstream from TRC - forests of Cecropia and Balsa Wood with a bamboo understory. This is the habitat of the legendary Rufous-fronted Anthrush, and the Lemon-throated Barbet, Spot-breasted Woodpecker, Cabanis Spinetail, Amazonian Antpitta, Blackish Antbird, Fuscous Flycatcher, Guira Tanager and Troupial. As we exit the pond's forests, we will bird on grassy areas with Tessaria and young Cecropia trees. These are not very diverse for birds but are the main habitat for Plain-crowned and Dark-breasted Spinetails, Mottle-backed Elaenia, Spotted Tody-Flycatcher, Black-billed Thrush, Orange-headed Tanager, and Seedeater species among others.
Lunch

Overlook Trail
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 old bamboo forest, is good for Howler Monkey and Dusky Titi Monkey.
Dinner, Overnight at Tambopata Research Center

DAY 5:

Transfer Boat - TRC to Refugio Amazonas
After breakfast a three and a half hour boat ride brings us to Refugio Amazonas.
Boxed Lunch

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.
Dinner, Overnight at Refugio Amazonas

DAY 6:

Transfer Boat - Refugio Amazonas to Tambopata River Port/ Pto Maldonado Headquarters/ Airport After an early breakfast 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.

While all guides at the TRC are excellent nature guides, only a handful qualify as true bird specialists. This itinerary is specially designed for serious birdwatchers who want to get the most out of the varied habitats represented in the Tambopata region. The program is guided by one of the specialist birding guides and is arranged on an individual basis. Longer stays are possible.

It is recommended that birders rent their own boat for this itinerary, although it is also possible to share transport with the other guests at the lodge.

INCLUDES:

All hotel and lodge accommodations based on double occupancy. All scheduled land and river transportation. All transfers. All scheduled excursions with private English-speaking Birding guide services. Meals as specified in the itinerary, B=Breakfast; L=Lunch; D=Dinner.

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.

Prices on request - for further information and booking inquiries please contact Sacred Earth Travel