Travel to Manu National Park by flights from Cusco - Tours 2020

The beginning of the Manu Road passes through numerous dry inner-mountain valleys and picturesque villages. This gives you a quick overview of locals’ lifestyles and colourful clothes. A brief call at Ninamarca will give you the possibility to explore the pre-Incas tombs within this well archaeological site. The road includes various stops, so you can enjoy seeing the surrounding landscapes varying from high-mountains to humid forests. Next stop will occur in the village of Paucartambo which features beautiful arched colonial bridge. From Paucartambo the altitude will keep on increasing and the setting gradually gets enveloped by a cloudy mist. The road leads you to Acjanaco pass consisting in the main gateway to Manu National Park.
Once across Acjanaco Pass (3550 m / 11.647 ft) the environment dramatically changes from dry to wet valleys. Do not miss the splendid view when looking down toward the lowlands! The lush and misty cloud forest surrounded by massive rocks and waterfalls is perhaps the most fragile and threatened type of rainforest. In such environment filled with lichens and moss-carpeted soil, spotting birds will be the main target. You will get the chance to stare at a large variety of birds ranging from the Peruvian national bird, the brightly red Andean Cock-of-the-Rock displays to tanagers, toucans or quetzals. The path will head down to the Guadalupe lodge (560 m./1837 ft). Overnight in the lodge

Enjoy waking up and taking breakfast early in the morning then You will be transferred to the Atalaya port where you can appreciate the view of myriads of colourful birds and a rich wildlife. At Atalaya river’s deck, embark in a motor boat and navigate down this crystalline river of Madre de Dios.
After 4 hours, you will reach the confluence with the Manu river we enter the wild Manu National Park a brief stop at Limonal Park Ranger Station for check in, the exciting trip begins with full of sightings experiences, every river bend will bring us a view of unspoiled beauty.

We travel up river we’ll search diligently for any signs of Jaguar, still only a slim chance but this river is perhaps the best location to find this magnificent mammal, just a few curves up the river the environment will change,  there will be orders of magnitude more to look at, from hundred if not thousands of swallows and butterflies, every single sandbar being occupied by something interesting, we will keep a close watch for wildcats.

before dusk, we arrive at our rustic lodge which it´s set aside a short distance from the Rio Manu in the heart of Manu National Park and for our following nights at this peaceful place. Overnight, Casa Matsiguenka Lodge. 

We will have the better part of two days to enjoy the Manu´s Wilderness, On this mornign you will explore the Salvador oxbow lake famous for its population of Giant Otters who usually breeds there , they can be seen at different times of the day, these gregarious and playful carnivorous spend good deal of their time fishing or playing by any side of the lake or just taking a sunbath on their favorite dead logs.

We’ll have access to a floating catamaran (two large canoes connected by wooden planks) with chairs set up for bird and wildlife viewing (which makes paddling around the lake easy and comfortable. Apart from looking for the giant river otters, we’ll have the chance for many of the lake edge species, including the fabulous Hoatzin, Agami and herons, interesting raptors, colorful macaws oropendolas and caciques, just floating around the lake will be one of the joys of the trip, while exploring the forest you wil ll also search for more species of monkeys such as white fronted capuchin, pygmy marmoset. Apart from the lake, the forest around Salvador Lake and the lodge is some of the best Amazonian rainforest we have seen, and a nice network of trails allows us to leisurely stroll on flat trails the rest of the day.  (Please notice that the time to visit the Salvador lagoon on this day its subject of availability)

During the morning time you will explore the trails that crosses the Terra Firme forest, where the world famous brazil Nuts grows, the guide will briefly explain about it biology, following the narrow trail, we walk towards the small clay lick that attracts parakeets and medium sized macaws, the clay lick is also a highlight of the trip, early in the morning these birds congregates to eat the clay, which they need on their diet, this activity might take at least a couple of hours.  

We’ll spend full afternoon walking along what is the "system of trails" in the opposite forest of the lodge then we will take the motor boat to get navigate a bit downstream to access the Cocha Otorongo trails and platform, the view from the canopy tower is amazing as you would see the vegetation that encloses the lake which supports an entire family of giant river otters, large black caimans and harpy eagles  that sporadically have seen over that locations, (the lake is not open for embarkation)

Moving deep into the heart of the forest is also an excellent environment to see the enormous kapok trees, these species are the emergent trees in the entire Amazon the can reach up 190 feet tall, following the trails we could encounter troops of monkeys with no fewer than six species possible such as red howler, brown capuchin, squirrel monkey, tamarins, woolly, as well as the chance for numerous other birds such as curassow, guans, return to the lodge in the afternoon for dinner time.

On this morning we take our return  trip by motor boat along the Manu river downstream, wildlife sights has great possibilities on this morning as we will be leaving as early possible , we maybe able to see  large black caimans, capibaras even the large wildcats then we  to reach the  Limonal Park Ranger Station for check OUT. We will arrive to the Boca Manu airstrip and will be taking our flight back to Cusco that usually last 45  minutes.

*Please bear in mind flights schedule depends or weather conditions!