Tambopata Adventure 5 Days

Reception in Puerto Maldonado and a combined journey: ~2 hours on the Interoceanic Highway and a jungle track to the upper Tambopata port, then by boat upriver, crossing the mouth of the Malinowski River — the boundary of the uninhabited core of the Tambopata National Reserve, 283,000 hectares with no permanent population. Along the way: capybaras, caimans, Orinoco geese and the first macaws. Lunch on board. Settle into the lodge and take an introductory walk from secondary into primary forest. At sunset, climb the canopy tower (25–35 m) to watch the sun sink over a green ocean. At night, a caiman safari by boat with a chance of ocelot on the beaches. Dinner and the guide's briefing on the expedition plan.

Distance: 2 h by land + boat · Meals: L, D

Wake at 4:30 am with a hot drink and navigate upriver in the dark — on this remote stretch operators report a ~20% chance of spotting a jaguar. Dawn finds us facing the Chuncho clay lick, the largest gathering of macaws on the planet: picnic breakfast in the blind while hundreds of scarlet, red-and-green and blue-and-yellow macaws, with clouds of parrots and parakeets, descend on the clay cliff between 6:30 and 11:00 am. We continue upriver toward the boundary of Bahuaja-Sonene National Park and set camp on a sandbar inside the reserve: track reading (tapir, jaguar, capybara), a river swim and a campfire under the Milky Way. Night walk around camp: horned frogs, tree boas. Night in tents on the beach.

Distance: 1.5 h by boat · Meals: B, L, D

Sunrise on the beach and an early visit to a second clay lick: the El Gato creek and its parrot lick, or the 2-hour hike to a mammal clay lick where tapirs, peccaries and deer come for the minerals in the clay. Catch-and-release piranha fishing and a river swim. We begin the descent: ~2 hours navigating with the current with lunch on board, and for the more active, a kayak stretch on calm waters of the Tambopata — the jungle seen from water level. Back at the lodge, the ethnobotanical trail: cat's claw, dragon's blood, walking palms and emergent 45-meter lupunas. Sunset on the river with stargazing and a final night caiman search. Dinner and night at the lodge.

Distance: 2 h navigation · Meals: B, L, D

Breakfast to the roar of howler monkeys and a change of watershed: boat and road back through Puerto Maldonado and a ~45-minute run down the Madre de Dios to the Sandoval Lake entrance. A 3 km trail among Brazil nut trees and palm swamp leads to the wooden canoe that takes us onto the lake: we paddle among 30-meter palms looking for the resident giant otter family, black caimans over 4 meters, hoatzins, monkeys and the cocoi heron. Picnic-style lunch. The afternoon belongs to the lake: a full paddled circuit with the sunset setting the palm swamp ablaze — one of the most photographed landscapes of the Peruvian Amazon — and a night caiman search from the canoe. Dinner and night at a lakeside lodge.

Distance: 3 km trail + canoe · Meals: B, L, D

One last paddle at dawn, the best window to watch the giant otters fishing: mist lifts off the water while macaws fly over the lake and howlers mark their territory. Breakfast and a final walk through primary forest, with the option of a swim in the lake's designated area. Return along the 3 km trail and up the Madre de Dios to Puerto Maldonado. Airport transfer timed 2 hours before your flight. The program includes a naturalist guide, boots, water, Tambopata National Reserve entrance fees and all listed meals — 5 days across both watersheds and Tambopata's two greatest spectacles: the Chuncho clay lick and Sandoval Lake.

Meals: B