Peru Rainforest Tours & Manu National Park 7 Days

Early departure from Cusco in the morning. The beginning of the Manu Road passes through numerous dry inner-mountain valleys and picturesque villages. This gives you a quick overview of the locals’ lifestyles and colorful 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. The next stop will be at the village of Paucartambo which features a 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 of 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 an 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 with the singing of Amazonian birds. You will be transferred to the Atalaya port where you can appreciate the view of myriads of colorful birds and a rich wildlife. At Atalaya river’s deck, embark on a motorboat and navigate down this crystalline river of Madre de Dios.

After 3 hours, you will reach the El Dorado Lodge, this boat journey will be exciting to look for some aquatic wildlife; capibaras, birds, and caimans basking along the river bank. In the mid-afternoon, you will ramble through the primary forest searching for some families of monkeys, peccaries, in the meantime, you will be provided with some explanations about medicinal plants, reptiles as well as mammals. Eventually, the motorboat will return you back at the Lodge.

This morning we will have chances to visit the  Macaw Clay Lick, which located in the vicinity of the Lodge.  Later we continue our trip by a motorboat towards 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 upriver 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.

In the mid-afternoon, 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 morning you will explore the Salvador oxbow lake famous for its population of Giant Otters who usually breed there , they can be seen at different times of the day, these gregarious and playful carnivorous spend a 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 will 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 are some of the best Amazonian rainforests 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)

This morning we’ll board our boat and begin the journey down the Rio Manu back to the Rio Madre de Dios, returning to boat trip will be again very exciting with lots of bird activity on the many sandbars as well as side-necked turtles sunning on the logs. This will be again another opportunity for catching a glimpse of the magnificent of great wildlife.

After about four hours we will reach Boca Manu for a brief stop and to refuel our boat and exploring the lower portion of the Madre de Dios, we get settled for lunchtime and likely with enough time to walk around the trails, Overnight at El Dorado Lodge.

On this morning we head for a  10 min walk we will reach the Macaw Clay Lick, where we can observe several parrots such as; Mealy Parrots, Blue Headed Parrots, Yellow-Crowned Parrots and the Orange Cheeked Parrots as well as the Cobalt Winged Parakeets and many chestnuts fronted macaws will congregate to gather and lick some minerals from the old river banks, Initially they will perch on the trees around and later flying down to the exposed cliff.

We will boat up the fast-flowing braided and clear water upper Madre de Dios in the morning as we start our five hours back journey to Atalaya. This is the last chance to spot capybaras, the world’s largest rodent. Keep a close watch for raptors such as kites, vultures or eagles. We will eventually depart Manu´s area for our trip further up the upper Madre de Dios River and our re-introduction into civilization; after one hour of overland transportation, we reach the Guadalupe Ecological Reserve and have time for some night-walks around. We will have dinner and spend the overnight at Guadalupe Lodge.

Guided morning walks along the palm forest to look for the blue and yellow Macaws and enjoy a tasty breakfast and get ready to pack as you will soon start hitting the road again to Cusco.

The return trip will give us more opportunities to take glimpses of animals, birds along the Cloud forest with impressing views of the exuberant vegetations and majestic mountains that we approach while ascending to the Andean mountain range, The arrival in Cusco should be around 5 pm.