PERU: THE MANU EXPERIENCE AND MACHU PICCHU
Manu Road, Amazonia Lodge, Manu National Park and Manu Wildlife Center
2012
Saturday August 11 to Monday August 27
Machu Picchu Extension to August 30
Price: $5700
Machu Picchu Extension $1500
17 day tour that covers the best of Manu National Park. Includes the Manu Road with two night stays at Cock-of-the-Rock Lodge and Amazonia Lodge. Three night stay up the Rio Manu at a tent camp near Cocha Salvadore. Five night stay at Manu Wildlife Center. About 500 species of birds can be expected. Up to nine species of monkeys. Incredible mammals such as Tapir and Giant Otter. A trip up the Rio Manu is a once in a lifetime experience, with a chance for Jaguar. Wonderful oxbow lakes. Canopy birding from excellent canopy towers. Very comfortable accommodations, particularly at Manu Wildlife Center. Best wilderness experience we know of in Amazonia. Lots of specialties including Andean Cock-of-the-Rock. Includes a visit to a Macaw clay lick. Extension to Machu Picchu after Manu.
There is no place that we know of in South America that compares to Manu! Located southeast of Cusco, the immense park covers elevations from high Paramo in the Andes to an amazing expanse of lowland Amazonian rainforest. The actual bird list for the park exceeds 1000 species, and it is one of the few wild places left on Earth that have huge areas undeveloped and even unexplored, with indigenous people living within the park that have never had any contact with the outside world! Despite the seemingly remoteness of Manu, it is actually quite accessible by way of the Manu Road, that traverses a transect from Cusco to the Amazonian Lowlands, and then along the Madre de Dios River to the Manu River. Our 17 day tour is designed to sample the best Manu has to offer, staying first at a small rustic lodge near treeline in the eastern Andes, then at Cock-of-the-Rock Lodge at mid-elevations, famous for its Andean Cock-of-the-Rock lek, then two nights at Amazonia Lodge on the Madre de Dios River, then three nights at a tent-camp at Cocha Salvador, up the Manu River in the heart of Manu National Park, and finally at wonderful Manu Wildlife Center, with it’s famous Macaw clay lick nearby. This tour is unsurpassed in scenic beauty, spending virtually all the time in untouched, virgin rainforest, full of macaws, monkeys, large mammals, and more than 500 species of birds.
The tour begins and ends in Lima. We’ll fly to Cusco and continue directly up into the high Andes to Wyquecha Lodge, a small rustic lodge near treeline on the eastern side of the high pass between Cusco and Manu. We’ll have a full day to explore the high-elevation temperate forest, and we'll descend he following day to Cock-of-the-Rock Lodge for a two-night stay. The birding here is fantastic, and our main target will of course be Andean Cock-of-the-Rock, but the tanager flock here are also incredible. We’ll search specifically for the Manu Tanager, a yet-to-be described new tanager to science that we shared in the discovery of during a previous tour to this area! Next we’ll descend further into the lowlands an Amazonia Lodge. We’ll have two nights at this very comfortable lodge located on the Madre de Dios River, and which has a bird list pushing 600 species. Just sitting on the porch and birding the garden with its hummingbird bushes and feeders will be a highlight of the tour. Our next destination is Cocha Salvador located up the wild Manu River. Our accommodations there will be a comfortable tent camp – really tent bungalows with beds, so it won’t really be roughing it as much as the name makes it sound. The advantage is that the trip up the Manu River, and staying near (and visiting) Cocha Salvador is simply stunning. There is even a reasonable chance for seeing Jaguar! Finally, we’ll conclude with a five-night stay at Manu Wildlife Center, allowing us access to incredible forest trails, a wonderful Macaw lick, another beautiful oxbow lake with Giant Otters, and a couple of excellent towers to sample the wilds of the rainforest canopy. We’ll depart via Puerto Maldonado.
For those wishing to visit famous Machu Picchu, we offer a three night extension immediately following the Manu tour.
