Tambopata Research Center Amazon Lodge & Machu Picchu Tour

Arrive at the Lima airport, where your tour guide will be waiting for you. Your driver and guide will take you to Miraflores, the hub of shopping and activity in Lima. Your guide will give you your travel documents and brief you on all the important things to know about your trip. Then, check into your hotel and spend the rest of the day at your leisure. You may want to walk along the Malecon boardwalk, watching the sunset over the Pacific Ocean, or go shopping at the Larcomar shopping center. There are also several restaurants and cafes in Miraflores where you can get your first authentic Peruvian meal.

This morning, have breakfast at the hotel, and then your driver will pick you up and take you to the Lima airport for the short flight to Cuzco. Once you arrive in Cuzco, a guide will greet you and take you to your hotel in Cuzco, close to the Plaza de Armas. Check into the hotel and give yourself time to acclimatize to the altitude. Cuzco is at an elevation of 3,400 m (11,200 ft). In the afternoon, your guide will take you on a Cuzco city tour. See the major landmarks of the Inca and the Spanish colonial era, visit the Cathedral, Korikancha, the nearby ruins of Sacsayhuaman, Tambomachay, and Qenqo.

Today's excursion brings you to the colorful markets and fertile farmlands in the Sacred Valley of the Incas. Have breakfast at the hotel in Cuzco, and then head out on a full-day Sacred Valley Tour, starting in Pisac. The ruins of Pisac include steep agricultural terraces built by the Incas, and there is a popular open-air market in Pisac as well. You can stroll through the main square, browsing the trinkets, handmade goods, textiles, produce, and other food. Have lunch (included in the tour) at a typical restaurant, and then continue on to Ollantaytambo, in the heart of the Sacred Valley. Ollantaytambo features formidable agricultural terraces, farmlands, and a tranquil town. There are some cafes, markets, and lovely hotels here. Check into a hotel in the Sacred Valley and rest.

Early in the morning, have a quick breakfast and then board the train for the 2-hour scenic ride to Aguas Calientes. This little town sits at the foot of Machu Picchu mountain, and this is where you'll board the shuttle bus for the 15-minute ride up to the entrance of Machu Picchu. Here, you'll meet your tour guide and will take an informative tour through the Incan city of stone, Machu Picchu. See the orchid garden, the temple of the 3 windows, the Watchman's Hut, and other landmarks of this incredible "city in the sky." Enjoy some free time exploring these ruins on your own. In the afternoon, or whenever you're ready, grab a bite to eat at the Sanctuary Lodge (the closest restaurant to Machu Picchu), or head back to Aguas Calientes and dine at a hotel in the town. Spend the night in Aguas Calientes.

This morning, have an early breakfast at the hotel, and then head back to the ruins of Machu Picchu to see this Inca city, which is surrounded by thick vegetation of the Peruvian cloud forest. The Spanish conquistadores razed many Inca tambos, fortresses, towns, and Cuzco itself, but Machu Picchu was spared. To see the mountain early in the morning is an incredible experience. If you wish, you can also hike up to Huaynu Picchu peak (an additional fee is required). In the afternoon, take the train back through the Sacred Valley to Cuzco, and spend the night. For your last night in Cuzco, you may want to dine out at a Peruvian restaurant where there are Andean flute musicians playing and dancing - what a treat!

After breakfast at your hotel in Cuzco, transfer to the airport for a flight to Puerto Maldonado, the ‘gateway to the Peruvian Amazon,’ and the convergence of the Madre de Dios and the Tambopata Rivers. Here, a guide will greet you and take you to the Tambopata River Port to board an outboard motorboat for 2.30 hours until reaching the Posada Amazonas Lodge. During the voyage, keep a lookout for tropical birds such as jabiru, herons, kingfishers, and flycatchers. A box lunch will be provided onboard.

Arrive at Refugio Amazonas, a Peruvian Amazon jungle lodge that features comfortable, private bungalows, several amenities, and many hiking trails and activities to make your stay in the jungle fun and enjoyable. The lodge is jointly owned by Rainforest Expeditions and the Indigenous community of Infierno. You'll be welcomed by a manager who will give you some useful tips on navigation and security. Afterwards, take your time to unpack and unwind while contemplating the vast nature that surrounds you.

Have dinner and relax. Each evening, there are educational presentations to teach you about the lodge's history, on-going environmental and social projects, and the endemic flora and fauna.

At night, your guide will take you on a night safari to discover the mysterious that the nocturnal Amazonian wildlife has to offer. Equipped with headlamps and flashlights, look for the red gleams of the reflections from the caiman alligator’s eyes on the river.

After a delectable breakfast, visit a 30-m (98 ft) canopy tower located at a walking distance from the lodge, which offers spectacular views of the canopy treetops, Tambopata River, and the surrounding region. You can look for parrots, toucans, macaws, monkeys, and other wildlife. A staircase running through the middle provides safe access to the platforms above. Contemplate spectacular views of the canopy treetops, the Tambopata River, and the surrounding region. You can look for and feel the presence of parrots, toucans, macaws, monkeys, and other wildlife.

Continue by boat along the Tambopata River, going deep into the prestige heart of the reserve to reach the northern boundary of the 700,000 hectares, the completely uninhabited nucleus of the Tambopata National Reserve. You'll see beautiful macaws, herons, kingfishers and cormorants, and may even see capybaras, caiman, storks, ducks and other wildlife. Boxed lunch will be provided on the boat.

Visit the Chucho Clay Lick, where dozens of macaws gather to feed on the clay of the riverbanks. Watching the colorful birds fly above the sky is unforgettable.

Arrive at Tambopata Research Center in the early afternoon, where you'll be greeted by the friendly rescued macaws who live on the reserve. Explore the surrounding area, where you might find howler monkeys and dusky titi monkeys.

Enjoy a delicious dinner at the lodge and listen to a lecture on the macaws to learn about their feeding habit, the reasons why clay is important in their diets, their breeding habits and the threats to their conservation.

At dawn, cross the river and enjoy the world's largest macaw clay lick where hundreds of parrots and macaws of up to 15 species congregate daily. The January 1994 issue of National Geographic features an article on Tambopata Research Center and the Tambopata Macaw Project. It begins with a description of the daily spectacle at the clay lick: "When the morning sun clears the Amazon tree line in southeastern Peru and strikes a gray-pink clay bank on the upper Tambopata River, one of the world's most dazzling wildlife gatherings is nearing its riotous peak. The steep bank has become a pulsing, 130-foot-high palette of red, blue, yellow and green as more than a thousand parrots squabble over choice perches to grab a beakful of clay, a vital but mysterious part of their diet. More than a dozen parrot species will visit the clay lick throughout the day, but this midmorning crush belongs to the giants of the parrot world, the macaws."

You can expect to see ten to twelve of the following members of the parrot family: Red-and-green, Blue-and-gold, Scarlet, Red-bellied, Chestnut-fronted and Blue-headed Macaws; Mealy and Yellow-crowned Amazons; Blue-headed, Orange-cheeked and White-bellied Parrots; Dusky-headed, White-eyed, Cobalt-winged and Tui Parakeets and Dusky-billed Parrotlets. Around mid-morning, when the most intense clay lick activity is over for the day, we will return to TRC for breakfast.

After breakfast we will hike the 1.5 mile Ocelot Trail, a trail which exemplifies the quintessential rainforest. Although at this time of day mammals and birds are not as active as in the early morning, we will concentrate on the forest itself and discuss general rain forest ecology. This forest, which is estimated to be 200 to 300 years old and includes truly huge Ceiba trees and Strangler figs is home to several mammals that are occsaionally encountered: Saddleback tamarins, Squirrel and Brown Capuchin Monkeys and Collared peccary. This trail is the one which most often sports ocelot, puma and jaguar tracks, although any one of these three large cats is extremely difficult to spot.

Return to TRC for lunch and then embark on a 10-minute ride upriver until reaching a tiny pond with a platform in the middle. From here, you will be able to spot waterfowls such as muscovy ducks, sunbittern and the famous hoatzins, endemic Amazonian birds whose pre-Historic features still remain. The pond is also home to woodkpeckers, oropendolas, flycatchers and parakeets.

Return to TRC to relax and fill your lungs with the pure Amazonian air. After dinner, go on a night safari to spot frogs, bugs, and mammals that cannot be seen during the daytime.

Wake up at dawn once again to visit the macaw clay. 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. 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.

Return to TRC and eat a delicious breakfast. Then, your guide will take you to discover a terra firme forest, with a different ecosystem from those you've been to before in the Amazon. It is characterized by thin, small trees where saddleback tamarins generally stand on. Also, as you approach the area of the swamp, there are chances of spotting tapir tracks.

After lunch, follow a palm swamp trail. This area, which is one of the most important food suppliers for the Tambopata wildlife due to the fruits of its trees, specially the aguaje palm, is unfortunatelly one of the most threatened ones. Learn about its flora and fauna and what you can do to preserve it.

Back at the lodge, enjoy dinner and spend your last night in the rainforest, listening to the mesmerizing and chilling nocturnal sounds.

After an early breakfast return to Puerto Maldonado to take your flight back to Lima. From there, return home or continue on another tour through South America.