Amazon Tours – Reserve Zone
Our longest tour to experience the entire Amazon rainforest in the Manu Conservation Area. You spend four days each in the cultural and reserved zones. Our passionate local tour guides know the jungle very well. They show you the amazing diversity of flora and fauna. You watch the parrots in the cultural zone as well as the large macaws in the reserved zone as they lick their morning clay. Together with adventures such as river tubing, typical jungle food and campfires, your stay in Manu will be unforgettable.
ROUTE
DAY 1: CUZCO – MANU WILDLIFE LODGE
We leave Cuzco at five in the morning. We have a day trip ahead of us in our private bus. The frequent stops make the long journey entertaining. We visit the Andean towns of Ninamarca with their burial sites of the pre-Inca culture Lupaca and the colonial town of Paucartombo. After reaching an altitude of 3,900 meters above sea level. Once we have reached it, we dive into the reserve of the Manu National Park. Here we begin exploring the incredible diversity of cloud forest flora and fauna. We discover orchids, primitive ferns and medicinal plants. With a bit of luck, we will see our national bird, the Cock of the Rock, the woolly monkey and the capuchin monkey. We also observe different types of parrots and macaws. In the afternoon we reach the boat harbour of Atalaya. Our journey by car ends here. Our adventure on the Madre de Dios River begins: We get into a typical motorboat, which takes us 2.5 hours following the course of the river to our wonderful eco-lodge “Manu Wildlife Lodge”. During the river trip, we have time to observe the rich flora and fauna. We spend the first night of our extraordinary jungle experience in the lodge.
DAY 2: MANU WILDLIFE LODGE – TREEHOUSE INN
After breakfast, we set off again by boat. We follow the Palotoa River for two hours until we reach our famous lodge, the TREEHOUSE INN. We will spend the next two days here. The TREEHOUSE INN is located in our family-owned ecological reserve. It covers a few hundred hectares of Amazon rainforest with full biodiversity. We are in a very special tropical forest: Here you will find the tropical forests of the Andes and the lowlands of the Manu. This gives you as our visitor the opportunity to observe, in addition to the endemic species, a variety of birds, animals and plants from both areas.
We explore the surroundings of the lodge on specially designed and very interesting trails that show us this incredible ecosystem in the form of a mysterious swamp, where we can see the prehistoric bird Hoatzin, some alligators, capybaras, spider monkeys, squirrel monkeys, peccaries and various species of birds.
There is then time to relax until dinner or to enjoy a refreshing swim in the crystalline river. We also offer you the opportunity to fish.
After dinner, the various sounds of the Amazonian night get us in the mood for our night hike: we hear the sounds of the night monkeys – the only nocturnal primates in the world – the Kalinowski rat, the great potoo and the pigmy owl. With a bit of luck, we can hear them and observe them during our night walk. We also look for spiders and tarantulas, frogs and snakes. After this experience, we spend the night at RoblesTree House.
DAY 3: TREEHOUSE INN – CASA MATCHIGUENKA LODGE
We leave the lodge very early and continue our journey downstream on the Alto Madre de Dios River to reach the Manu Reserved Zone on the Manu River.
Our first stop is a national park checkpoint (Puesto de Vigilancia Limonal). Halfway to Casa Matchiguenka Lodge, we take our first short walk in the reserve zone.
During the boat trip, we observe many different species of animals such as capybaras, peccaries, monkeys, many birds and caimans, and if we are lucky even a jaguar. In the late afternoon, we reach the Casa Matchiguenka Lodge, where we spend the night. (Optional night walk there.)
Casa Matchiguenka Lodge is owned and operated by two indigenous communities of the Matchiguenka tribe. This lodge has a rustic design with 12 double rooms and features mosquito nets.
There are private hiking trails around the lodge, where Matchiguenka acts as local guides.
DAY 4: MANU RESERVED ZONE – CASA MATCHIGUENKA LODGE
In the morning we visit Cocha Salvador. From a catamaran, we observe animals such as herons and spider monkeys and marvel at the almost-extinct giant otters hunting and eating fish.
After lunch, we begin our excursion through the pristine jungle to Cocha Otorongo Lake, where there is a 20m high observation tower. From
