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Amazon Jungle Tours
Macaw clay lick Tours
[ Index ] [ Macaw clay lick Express ] [ Macaw clay lick Classic ] [ Pongo de Mainique ] [ Macaw clay lick Extensive ] [ Heath river Classic ] [ Heath river Expedition ]
Heath River Classic ( 5 days
and 4 nights )
Price per person
High Season US$740.00
Low Season US$695.00
Only four hours by
river from Puerto Maldonado airport, Heath River Wildlife
Center is the gateway to the largest uninhabited and unhunted rainforest in
the Amazon. An immensely photogenic macaw clay lick, capybaras, oxbow lakes
with Giant Otters, hundreds of birds and mammal species and a lodge
100%-owned by the Ese'eja Indians of Sonene make the Heath the best
combination of nature and culture in the entire Amazon. No other lodge in
Tambopata is 100% owned and operated by a community of lowland Indians.
Every person in Sonene speaks the original indigenous language, with Spanish
being a distant second used mostly in school and to trade with outsiders
and, now, to chat with pampered guests. Women from Sonene hold daily crafts
workshops at the lodge, teaching visitors tribal traditions handed down
through the millennia.
Area Map, click to enlarge
Day 1: EXPLORE THE JUNGLE
We are met by our guide at Puerto Maldonado airport and
transferred to the port on the Tambopata River. Here we
board a motorized canoe for a four-and-a-half hour journey
to the Heath River Wildlife Center. After descending the
Tambopata River for 5 minutes to the confluence with the
larger Madre de Dios River, our boat heads east, downstream
on the mighty Madre de Dios River, passing small gold
prospecting barges before reaching the Peru-Bolivia border.
This stretch of the Madre de Dios River is particularly
attractive, as more than 75% of the riverbank is still
covered by towering, virgin rainforest, and periods of 15-20
minutes go by without a single sign of forest cutting. (For
comparison, a similar length of river travel up the
Tambopata River features only 10-15% of primary forest along
the riverbank---the rest is in agriculture and freshly
burned forest clearings). Here we transfer to a smaller
motorized canoe and head up the narrow, intimate Heath River,
which forms the wilderness border between Peru and Bolivia,
to arrive at our 100% Indian-owned lodge, the only
all-Indian-owned lodge in the Tambopata region. We will
provide a complete box lunch during the river trip.
PLEASE NOTE THAT VALID PASSPORTS MUST BE BROUGHT FOR THIS
JOURNEY.
In the late afternoon, our Ese Eja Indian hosts will take us
to explore the forest surrounding the lodge in search for
the various species of monkeys and hundreds of species of
birds that make the rainforest home. After dinner we explore
the forest by flashlight, including a visit to a small
mammal clay lick if it is active. (L, D)
Day 2: HEATH RIVER
Rising before dawn we once again board the canoe for the
journey up the Heath River to the Macaw and Parrot Clay Lick.
Depending on the level of the river this journey can take up
to one hour. During the river trip upstream, we nearly
always see one or two families of Capybaras on the banks of
the river At 120 pounds (55 kilograms), this simply gigantic
relative of the guinea pig is the largest and most
photogenic rodent in the world. Once at our
specially-designed floating blind, our breakfast is served
as we marvel at the medium-sized, emerald-green and
electric-blue parrots and the large blazing Red-and-Green
Macaws that arrive in two shifts to eat the clay. Note that
in some years ALL macaw and parrot licks in southern Peru
are less active in May, June, and early July than in the
rest of the months of the year. Thus, bear this in mind if
you are especially interested in photography of the parrots
and macaws. Returning to the lodge after the a beautiful
parrot display our native guides take us on an
ethno-botanical walk through the forest, explaining how they
use many of the forest trees and plants in their daily lives,
either as medicines or for bows and arrows and in home
construction. After lunch and a short rest we go first by
canoe then a short walk to a natural forest of towering,
170-foot-tall (55-meter-tall) Brazil nut trees to learn how
the slight, yet surprisingly powerful, men of the village
harvest these nuts, which fall from the treetops encased in
rock-hard brown spheres the size of small grapefruits. Our
Ese Eja Indian hosts have harvested these delicious,
valuable nuts for thousands of years, and now they will show
you the mystery and splendor of this wonder of the Amazon.
Starting at some point in mid-2002, our hosts also will
feature a new canopy attraction in the top of a huge canopy
emergent tree. The details will be available as this
attraction is completed. (B, L, D)
Day 3: MACAW CLAY LICK
Once again we rise before dawn and set off to have breakfast
in the floating blind at the Macaw and Parrot Clay Lick.
After the spectacle of the lick we return to the lodge to
pack and then boat back upstream on the Madre de Dios River
to Sandoval Lake Lodge, which is located on the banks of the
lake that most experts consider to be the most beautiful in
all the southern Amazon of Peru. A box lunch will be eaten
during the journey. Arriving at the trail head to Sandoval
Lake Lodge we take a 45-minute walk through the forest to a
small canal where we board a canoe and then transfer to one
or more hand-paddled catamarans, each of which has a
capacity for 20 people. Arriving on the lake in the cool
golden light of the late afternoon, we enter into a flooded
palm forest and drift beneath dozens (and often hundreds) of
babbling Red-bellied Macaws as they return to the palm
forest for the night. This macaw species is found locally in
parts of the Amazon, always living in flooded palm forests
such as the beautiful palm stand at Sandoval Lake. At
500-800 birds, this flock of macaws at Sandoval Lake is
currently the largest reported in the world for this
highly-specialized macaw. We return to the lodge around
nightfall for dinner. (B, L, D)
Day 4: SANDOVAL LAKE
After a dawn breakfast, we explore the western end of the
lake in the hope of encountering the family of nine Giant
Otters that live in the lake. For those with lots of energy,
our guide will take us hiking through the forest, and will
bring the forest to life with stories of the rain forest and
the medicinal uses of the plants. Following lunch and an
optional rest, in the late afternoon we once again board the
catamaran and set off to explore the eastern end of the lake.
Here we might see Brown Capuchin and Bolivian Squirrel
Monkeys as they forage along the lakes' edge. After dinner
we can return to the catamaran to look for large Black
Caiman, the rarest of the crocodilians of the Amazon. If it
is a clear starlight night, we will also be able to float in
the middle of the lake and marvel at the brilliance of the
night sky. There is a final after-dinner opportunity to look
for Caiman on the lake, or to explore the lodge trails by
flashlight. (B, L, D)
Day 5: TRANSFER OUT
After a dawn breakfast we return to Puerto Maldonado for the
flight back to Cusco or Lima. (B)
*Prices are per person and based on a minimum of two people
traveling
together. Trips depart daily.
END OF OUR SERVICES
Please note that the program may vary slightly so as to
maximize your
wildlife sightings, depending on the reports of our
researchers and
experienced naturalist guides based at the lodge. |
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Click to
enlarge
Accommodation
Sandoval Lodge
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Sandoval lake's black Cayman |
Macaw lick |
Giant Otters |
INCLUDES: All hotel and lodge
accommodations based on double occupancy. All scheduled land, lake
and river
transportation. All transfers. All scheduled excursions with English-speaking guide
services. All entrance fees. Meals as specified in the itinerary. B=Breakfast;L=Lunch;D=Dinner.
NOT INCLUDED IN THE FEE
International or domestic airfares, airport departure taxes or visa fees, excess baggage
charges, additional nights during the trip due to flight cancellations, alcoholic
and non-alcoholic
beverages or bottled water, snacks, insurance of any kind, laundry, phone calls, radio
calls or messages, reconfirmation of flights and items of personal nature.
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Reservations
- Ask
for the availability by sending an e-mail to orquidea@orquidea.net
,we will answer within 48 hours.
- Once we have confirmed
the availability , we need the payment in advance. We accept Visa
and MasterCard on-line, please fill out our SECURE SERVER RESERVATION FORM
. Please note that all the transactions are managed by the
Internetsecure banking service ( Canadian company ) , for your total
security. All the information is encrypted, we will not know your card
number. More information about our reliability are available here
- We'll send you a receipt of the deposit
and the confirmation of your reservation
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