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Archaeological & Ecological
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Manu National Park
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Enchanted Isles of the Galapagos
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© 2008
Inka's Empire Corporation.
All rights reserved.
Manu National Park
Amazon Rainforest, Peru
Andean Cock-of-the-Rock, Manu Cloud Forest, Manu National Park.
Photo: Peru Verde.
A Living Eden...
-- Manu: Peru's Hidden Rainforest, PBS
Land Price (6 days/5 nights)
Private US$ 2,800
Expeditions depart every day but Sunday. We also offer 4-day/3-night and 5-day/4-night tours which omit the road portion of this itinerary through the cloud forest and forested Andean foothills, as well as a 8-day/7-night tour which adds a day in the cloud forest and a day in the jungle lowlands of Manu.
The land price includes escorted transfers, private excursions with a naturalist guide (a birder guide is available at additional cost), entrance fees, indicated accommodations, all meals except beverages, all transportation including intra-tour air flight, and travel insurance for guests through the age of 59 years. Over that age, there is a supplementary fee. All prices are per person based on two people sharing a guest room. For a detailed description of our services, see About Our Tours. Season: April through November. Please note that a yellow fever vaccination is recommended but not currently required.
Map
Detail Map
Intra-Tour Air Flights & Fares
Includes Boca Manu - Cuzco charter flight in a Cessna Grand Caravan
Lobster Claw Heliconia (Heliconia rostrata), Manu National Park.
Photo: Mylene d'Auriol Stoessel.
Amazon Bio-Trip
This five-night program provides a complete overview of the habitats and wildlife of all elevations along the road-and-river route from Cuzco to the Manu lowlands. We travel down the orchid-festooned cloud forest road to the Cock-of-the-Rock Lodge, which offers the world's finest viewing of these blazing-scarlet birds. The following day, we drive and boat to the Amazonia Lodge, in the foothills of the Andes. On day three, we boat to the Manu Wildlife Center, where we spend three nights exploring the vast Manu lowlands. This trip includes one visit each to the macaw clay lick, the Tapir clay lick, a canopy platform and a mature oxbow lake. On the last day, you fly out to Cuzco.
Frog, Manu National Park.
Photo: Mylene d'Auriol Stoessel.
Highlights
Cock-of-the-Rock Lodge
Day 1: Cuzco - Cock-of-the-Rock Lodge. Set off for the Manu cloud forest, passing over two Andean chains of almost 13,100 feet in elevation and descending the eastern slope of the Andes. After passing pre-Inca ruins and one of Peru's most colorful pueblos, we plunge downward through swirling mist and clouds to emerge in a forest of dwarf, evergreen trees. Overnight in the Cock-of-the-Rock Lodge.
Amazonia Lodge
Day 2: Cock-of-the-Rock Lodge - Amazonia Lodge. Visit the display ground of the blazing-red Andean Cock-of-the-Rock before searching from the road for cloud-forest birds and Woolly Monkeys. After a three to four-hour ride, reach the Alto Madre de Dios River, switch over to a cargo canoe and continue downriver to the Amazonia Lodge, a famous birdwatching destination. Overnight in the Amazonia Lodge.
Manu Wildlife Center
Day 3: Amazonia Lodge - Manu Wildlife Center. Time for a short hike before leaving in our motor-canoe for the 8-hour river journey to the Manu Wildlife Center, with wildlife-viewing possibilities on the way. Afternoon exploring the diverse forest trails around the lodge, encountering some of the 11 species of monkeys. Short excursion to observe nocturnal life in the rainforest. Overnight in the Manu Wildlife Center.
Day 4: Manu Wildlife Center (Macaw Clay Lick & Tapir Clay Lick). Boat journey to the only large parrot and macaw clay lick in the Manu area. After lunch, continue to explore the forest trails and spend the late afternoon up a 34-meter canopy platform. Hike through the night forest to the Amazon's largest known Tapir clay lick. Overnight in the Manu Wildlife Center.
Day 5: Manu Wildlife Center (Excursion to Cocha Blanco). Visit the Blanco Oxbow Lake, with populations of a variety of aquatic life and water birds. After lunch, further explore the forest trails for more wildlife encounters. This evening, search by boat along the riverbank for caiman and other nocturnal life. Overnight in the Manu Wildlife Center.
Day 6: Manu Wildlife Center - Boca Manu - Cuzco. Leave by motor-canoe for the two-hour return trip to the Boca Manu landing strip. Flight to Cuzco. Arrival, reception and transfer to your hotel.
Manu Cloud Forest, on the eastern side of the Andes, Manu National Park.
Photo: Mylene d'Auriol Stoessel.
Cock-of-the-Rock Lodge
Location: Peru Verde Cloud Forest Reserve, Manu Cloud Forest, Peru. Reserve size: 11,000 acres. Wildlife it protects: Andean Cocks-of-the-Rock, Common Woolly and Brown Capuchin Monkeys, Spectacled Bears, cloud-forest birds and orchids.
The Cock-of-the-Rock Lodge is located in the pristine Manu Cloud Forest on the verdant eastern slopes of the Andes. Opened in 1997, it is named after the Andean Cock-of-the-Rock, Peru's large, bright-red national bird that puts on a colorful, noisy mating display adjacent to the lodge every morning. Spectacled Bears, Woolly Monkeys, Brown Capuchin Monkeys, quetzals and a host of other colorful birds inhabit the surrounding forest, and a bubbling mountain stream tumbles past the lodge.
Situated at an elevation of 5,000 feet (1,600 meters) in the cool, mosquito-free Kosñipata Valley, close to the wild Cusco-Shintuya road, the lodge protects and supports a 11,000-acre private cloud forest reserve. It consists of 10 bungalows and a separate complex with a large dining room. A local highland family staffs the lodge, and they also work as rangers, patrolling the private reserve.
Accommodation is in the double-occupancy bungalows, each of which has a spacious interior, private bathroom, screened windows with mosquito nets and its own balcony. Meals are served on the fully screened dining platform. The lodge cook prepares hearty dishes using fresh fruits, vegetables, grains and meat. Vegetarian and other special diets can be provided upon request.
The incredible 110-mile drive from Cuzco to the lodge passes through the finest transect of Andean habitats in South America. The drive typically lasts 8 hours, including stops in Andean towns and opportunities to walk and experience on foot the upper cloud forest habitat. Often we will take even more time to savor the unforgettable scenery, excellent birding and abundant cloud forest flora.
Harpy Eagle, Amazonia Lodge, Manu National Park.
Photo: Amazonia Lodge.
Amazonia Lodge
The Amazonia Lodge is located in the tropical lowland rainforest of the Manu National Park and is considered one of the best birding places in Peru. Its bird list contains 606 species and keeps going up, fast becoming one of the largest in the world. There are 8 species of monkeys, including the rare Night Monkey. Also found are many butterflies, amphibians, reptiles, orchids and bromelians. There is a new, 65-foot viewing platform on a mountain top, from which 141 bird species have been observed since December of 2002.
Tocón Monkey, Manu National Park.
Photo: Mylene d'Auriol Stoessel.
Hands down, the most intense wildlife experience in Amazonia...
-- Condé Nast Traveler, December 2002
Manu Wildlife Center
Location: Adjacent to the eastern border of Peru's 4.5-million-acre Manu National Park and the northern border of the 1-million-acre Amarakaeri Communal Reserve, a national protected area. Reserve size: 29,000 acres. Wildlife it protects: Jaguars, Lowland Tapirs, Harpy Eagles, five species of macaws, Black Caimans, Giant Otters and 11 species of monkeys.
By far the richest, most extraordinary biological transect in the Amazon, or the world, starts in Cuzco and runs northeast by road and river to the great Manu Wilderness. Manu offers by far the greatest quantity and diversity of animals and plants in the world. No other destination in Peru or beyond can compare. Nowhere else can you enjoy superbly intact tropical habitats from Andean grasslands and cloud forests down to foothill and lowland forests.
Manu boasts the highest bird, mammal and plant diversity of any park on Earth, including 1,000 of the world's 9,700 bird species, 200 species of mammals and 15,000 species of flowering plants. The most photogenic spectacles are frolicking Giant Otters, 1,000 parrots and macaws at a riverbank clay lick, dancing Cocks-of-the-Rock, 11 species of monkeys and huge Lowland Tapirs at a forest clay lick. Manu Wildlife Center currently offers the world's finest viewing of this elusive animal, which elsewhere is harder to see even than the Jaguar, which also is a frequent sight in Manu.
In terms of wildlife for your money, our Manu itineraries offer the greatest payoff of wildlife per dollar of any rain forest site in Latin America. Other New World rain forests may be somewhat less expensive than Manu, but none of them offer Manu's tremendous wildlife diversity. For travelers who want the finest rainforest experiences in the world, Manu offers the ultimate "bio-trip". All trips start and end in Cuzco and include all air and ground transport, food, lodging and guided rainforest outings.
What Luxury Link has to say about the Amazon Bio-Trip.
As featured on PBS: Manu: Peru's Hidden Rainforest.
As featured on PBS: The Real Macaw.
One of hundreds of bird species, Manu Cloud Forest, Manu National Park.
Photo: Peru Verde.
Day 1: Cuzco - Cock-of-the-Rock Lodge
After your breakfast in the hotel, we will pick you up in a private minivan and set off for the Manu cloud forest. We pass over two Andean chains of almost 13,100 feet in elevation, through a steppe-like landscape, or puna. Along the way, we note stone chullpas, or burial chambers, of the pre-Inca Lupaca people and hope to catch sight of some of the bird species of the high Andes, including the Giant Hummingbird and Mountain Caracara.
We have a delicious boxed lunch at Ajanaco, which if clear affords views over the cloud forest and the vast, sprawling expanse of the lowland rain forest. From here, the road suddenly descends the eastern slope of the Andes. We plunge downward, past remnant patches of elfin forest, through swirling mist and clouds, to emerge in a forest of dwarf, evergreen trees, festooned with mosses, lichens, bromeliads and other epiphytes. Nestled in this forest within a two-minute walk of the road and within earshot of a rushing mountain stream, lies the Cock-of-the-Rock Lodge, If there is time available, we will have a chance to briefly begin our exploration of the surrounding forest before dinner. Overnight in the Cock-of-the-Rock Lodge.
Brown Capuchin Monkeys, Manu Cloud Forest, Manu National Park.
Photo: Peru Verde.
Day 2: Cock-of-the-Rock Lodge - Amazonia Lodge
Rising before dawn, we visit the display ground of the Andean Cock-of-the-Rock, which has become famous among scientists, tourists and the international press, as there is no other spot in the world where so many of these spectacular, blazing-red birds can be seen so easily. From our observation blind, we will watch as between 6 to 20 or more male birds display at a traditional mating ground, 15 feet in front of the blind. We will watch as these outrageous birds strut, curve their wings and dip their crested heads in the hope of attracting a mate. The very best months for viewing Cocks-of-the-Rock are in September, October and November, although the males display every month of the year.
After returning for breakfast, some hours can be spent exploring the forest overhanging the single-lane road near the lodge or some of the miles of trails that wind through the valley, observing high-elevation cloud-forest birds, such as the Golden-headed Trogon as well as numerous, brightly-colored tanagers and hummingbirds. If you are very lucky, you might see a troop of muscular-limbed Woolly Monkeys or Brown Capuchin Monkeys, which regularly forage through the reserve, or perhaps even a Spectacled Bear. Bears are present, but they are shy and hard to see.
Spectacled Bear, Manu Cloud Forest, Manu National Park.
Photo: Peru Verde.
This mysterious cloud forest harbors species of flora and fauna new to science. Indeed, in 1995, two Peruvian biology students, sponsored by Peru Verde, carried out basic survey work on orchids, reptiles and amphibians. They recorded two species of orchids previously unknown to science as well as one species of reptiles and three species of amphibians previously not known to exist in Peru.
After a three to four-hour ride, we reach the Alto Madre de Dios River, where we have a box lunch in Atalaya. From here, we switch over to a cargo canoe with an outboard motor and continue downriver for 10 minutes to the Amazonia Lodge.
Madre de Dios River near Boca Manu, Manu National Park.
Photo: Mylene d'Auriol Stoessel.
This famous birdwatching destination is situated in the premontane zone, at 500 meters or 1,640 feet above sea level. Here, it is possible to do birding as well as general tropical wildlife observation in a diversity of habitats, like bamboo forest, successional flood plain, hill forest and swamp, within short walking distances. Amazonia also maintains a veranda with a view of the garden and wildlife feeders, where it is possible to see several species of hummingbirds. This afternoon, we plan a walk around the lodge in successional flood plain, the possibilities include spotting the endemic Fine-barred Piculet, Johanni's Tody-tyrant and Black-capped Tinamou. Finishing the day in the mini-tower in the swamp area, it is possible to see Blackish Rail, Rufous-sided Crake, the prehistoric Hoatzin and Black-capped Donacobious. As night falls, the various bat populations emerge and the owling possibilities include Black-banded Owl, Tawny-bellied Screech Owl, Mottled Owl and Long-tailed, Great and Common Potoos. Overnight in the Amazonia Lodge.
A walk on the forest trails, Manu National Park.
Photo: Mylene d'Auriol Stoessel.
Day 3: Amazonia Lodge - Manu Wildlife Center
There is time for a short hike on the lodge trails before leaving in our motor-canoe for the 8-hour river journey to the Manu Wildlife Center. We have wildlife-viewing possibilities throughout the morning on the way to an indigenous Piro Indian village. Later, after entering the Manu National Park, we take a break at Boca Manu. Now on the Madre de Dios River, we continue to the Manu Wildlife Center, one of the top 10 wildlife lodges in the world.
The afternoon will be spent exploring some of the 30 miles of diverse forest trails around the lodge. On these trails, you have an excellent chance of encountering some of the 11 species of monkeys, including the Monk Saki and Emperor Tamarin, which inhabit the surrounding forest. After dinner, you will have a short excursion to observe nocturnal life in the rainforest. Overnight in the Manu Wildlife Center.
Red-and-Green Macaws at the clay lick, Manu National Park.
Photo: Mylene d'Auriol Stoessel.
One of the world's most dazzling wildlife spectacles...
When the morning sun clears the Amazon tree line in southeastern Peru and strikes a gray-pink clay bank on the upper Tambopata River, one of the world's most dazzling wildlife spectacles is nearing its riotous peak. The steep bank has become a pulsing, 130 foot high palette of red, blue, yellow and green as more than a thousand parrots squabble over choice perches to grab a beakful of clay, a vital but mysterious part of their diet. More than a dozen parrot species will visit the clay lick throughout the day, but this midmorning crush belongs to the giants of the parrot world, the macaws.
-- Franz Lanting, Macaws: Winged Rainbows, National Geographic, January, 1994
Giant Otter, Manu National Park.
Photo: Mylene d'Auriol Stoessel.
Day 4: Manu Wildlife Center (Macaw Clay Lick & Tapir Clay Lick)
Rising before dawn, we take a 25-minute boat journey downstream to the only large parrot and macaw clay lick in the Manu area. From a floating catamaran blind, we are afforded excellent views and photo opportunities of hundreds of medium-sized and large parrots arriving first at the lick, followed by the large Red-and-Green Macaws arriving to eat the clay. The clay lick is not as active in May, June and July.
After lunch at the Center, we continue to explore the forest trails around the lodge, and spend the late afternoon up a 34-meter canopy platform. Here, we watch the last, frantic activity in the rainforest canopy, or rush hour, before night settles.
We can return for dinner back at the Center, or pack our meal for the leisurely hike about 60-75 minutes through the night forest to the Amazon's largest known Tapir clay lick. We climb up a 17 by 17 foot observation platform, perched 17 feet above the lick itself, where we wait for the lumbering Tapirs to arrive. Then, using powerful flashlights, we hope to observe and photograph them in action. Overnight in the Manu Wildlife Center.
Choro Monkey, Manu National Park.
Photo: Mylene d'Auriol Stoessel.
Day 5: Manu Wildlife Center (Excursion to Cocha Blanco)
After another early morning departure by boat and a short hike from the river, you have what promises to be an exciting visit to the Blanco Oxbow Lake. This lake has populations of a variety of aquatic life and water birds, including the prehistoric-looking Hoatzins and a resident family of Giant Otters.
After lunch, your guide is available to further explore the forest trails for more wildlife encounters. Alternatively, independently practice your abilities and experience this expanse of rainforest habitats on your own.
This evening, from the late afternoon until after dinner, search by boat along the riverbank for caiman and other nocturnal life. Overnight in the Manu Wildlife Center.
A decomposing leaf returns its elements to nature, Manu National Park.
Photo: Mylene d'Auriol Stoessel.
Day 6: Manu Wildlife Center - Boca Manu - Cuzco
We leave near dawn by motor-canoe for the two-hour return trip to the Boca Manu landing strip, taking advantage of valuable early morning wildlife activity along the river. From here, you fly in a Cessna Grand Caravan to Cuzco, where your jungle adventure ends. Arrival, reception and transfer to your hotel.
Please note that the program may vary slightly so as to maximize your wildlife sightings, depending on the reports of our researchers and naturalist guides.
Thank you for choosing Inka's Empire Tours.
© 2008 Inka's Empire Corporation, Luxury Peru Tours & Travel. All rights reserved.
