A day's holiday in the Amazon rainforest of Peru

Typical day in Amazon rainforest of Peru

by Kat Dougal on 23rd May, 2014

Typical day in Amazon rainforest of Peru

Andean Trails’ Kat describes a day’s holiday in the Amazon rainforest at Peru’s Refugio Amazonas and Tambopata Research Centre (TRC).

The sights, smells and beauty of it all takes her back to an earlier time..

Tambopata river, Peru.

Kat writes:

“The heat hits me as soon as I step off the plane – and the humidity.

My guide Fernando awaits me with a cheerful smile, we drive to the Puerto Maldonado office for a quick refreshment and we are off to our boat.

The river is wide and brown, fringed by green trees. Other boats pass, carrying people and fruit, it’s a busy stretch of the river with people coming to trade in the city.

The closer we get to Refugio Amazonas, the fewer boats we see around us. Instead there is the odd tortoise lounging in the sun and two families of Capibaras. I snap away but know that photos will never do it justice.

Familiar arrival

We arrive at the lodge and the smell of the jungle overwhelms me and brings back so many memories of Liana Lodge in Ecuador, where I worked and lived for 6 months. The sounds do, too. I hadn’t thought it would hit me quite like this, but I am getting a warm feeling of familiarity.

It’s a ten-minute walk along a well-kept path to the common areas, which are lovely and spacious. From here, boardwalks lead to four buildings, each with about nine rooms. The rooms are big, but best of all, they open up to the forest as one wall has been left completely open – cleverly designed in a way that you are not overlooked as you plunge into the hammock and settle in.

At night, I always forget how magical it is to read by candlelight – then I do what I love most – falling asleep to the sounds of the jungle at night.

Howling hot breakfast

Howler monkeys wake me with their unmistakable hoarse call. It helps me jump out of bed at this early hour – breakfast is served at 6 and by 6.30 we have already donned our wellies and are off into the jungle. Oh yes, there is no time for sleep with so much to see.

We are heading to the canopy tower, 25m high and from the platform at the top, the view is fantastic. Macaws fly past and we even see a toucan nearby.

We continue our walk through dense rainforest. We are in the buffer zone of the Tambopata Nature Reserve and thanks to no hunting for the past years the wildlife is increasing in number. Orupendulas come close to the lodge, skilfully building their nests that hang from the trees. We see tamarin monkeys doing what they do best – monkeying around, jumping from branch to branch.

We reach Lago Condenado, a peaceful Oxbow Lake. Fernando paddles us along its fringes, pointing at Hoatzins, Macaws and Parakeets. Thanks to him we are able to see a group of bats camouflaged on a tree branch.

Tambopata Research Centre

After lunch we board our canoe again, setting off four hours upstream to the Tambopata Research Centre (TRC), the only lodge located in the Nature Reserve.

It is more basic than Refugio, yet it is still very comfortable and inviting – cozy – and with a lot less rooms, it has a lovely feel about it.

Once again, I am testing the hammock, but not for long, the noise of nearby macaws soon has me on my feet again. I find a pair of Scarlet Macaws perched on a nearby tree, only a few metres from the lodge. They are guarding their nest. I watch them for a while but get distracted by movement from another tree. Monkeys! All this, and I haven’t even left the lodge yet.

With so much excitement since our arrival at the TRC it is needless to say that I don’t mind when Fernando schedules another pre-dawn start for the next day, when we will be visiting one of the largest Macaw clay lick in South America as well as exploring the paths around the lodge.”