Down to earth holidays

Description

This 2-day extension is designed to work with our Inca Highlights and Active Inca Highlights itineraries. Flights down to the jungle gofrom Lima or from Cusco so you can do this extension at the beginning of your trip or when you've finished in Cusco.

The lodge is deep in Peru's Tambopata National Reserve, overlooking sparkling, palm-rimmed Sandoval Lake, the most beautiful and wildlife-rich of all lakes in Tambopata-Madidi. This privileged location gives you exclusive access to the lake in the early morning and late afternoon, the choice hours for wildlife viewing and photography.

Sandoval Lake is one of the most biologically diverse areas on the planet. This area is home to over 20,000 plant species, over 900 species of birds, 91 mammals, 1230 butterflies, 127 amphibians and reptiles, and much more! It is also a haven for the Amazon's largest, most spectacular and endangered predators - the jaguar, the giant otter, the harpy eagle, and the black caiman. There is very little chance of seeing a jaguar! But you will see some of the 6 species of monkeys (red howler, saddleback tamarin, dusky titi, squirrel, brown capuchin and night), and probably the lake's resident family of giant otters, and hundreds of red-bellied macaws that inhabit a large flooded palm grove. There are also agouti, sloths and at nightfall black caimans, the rarest of the crocodilians, head out into the lake to fish.

Detailed Itinerary

1. DAY 1: You'll be collected at the hotel and transferred to the airport for your flight to Puerto Maldonado. This will usually be from Lima (2 hr flight) at the start of your trip but could also be from Cusco (30 minute flight) after you've done the main section of your holiday. On arrival in Puerto Maldonado you'll be met and transferred to Sandoval Lake Lodge. This involves a short bus transfer to the river, then a 30 minute boat ride on a motorised canoe to the start of a forest trail. From here the trail takes you on a 2-mile walk through secondary forest which takes under an hour, until we reach a small canal where we board canoes and are paddled a couple of hundred yards through a flooded forest of 100-foot tall Mauritia palms. As the canal opens onto the shimmering surface of the lake, we transfer to a catamaran and are leisurely paddled across half the lake to the lodge. It's remote - that's why the wildlife viewing is so good!
   After lunch and a brief rest to avoid the early afternoon heat, you'll learn about the history of the lodge. Then we once again board the catamaran and set off to explore the entire west end of the lake. Here, in the flooded palm forest we drift to the sounds of hundreds of 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.
   As night falls we will look for the large and extremely rare black caimans. If it is a clear starlit night, we will also be able to float in the middle of the lake to marvel at the brilliance of the sky and listen to the sounds of the forest.
   We return to the lodge for a short video or slide presentation and dinner. At any point, you could step out from the bar to admire the wide variety of nocturnal moths, beetles and praying mantis attracted to our black light in the lodge clearing.
   For those with lots of energy, our guide will take us on a short night-walk into the forest behind the lodge. B,L,D
2. DAY 2: A full day of activities at the lodge today which will vary according to what the guides feel is best at the time you are visiting. Typically you'd start with a pre-dawn wake-up call which will enable us to be on the lake for sunrise and a hopeful encounter with the family of giant otters who frequent the lake and are most active at this time of day. Sandoval Lake offers abundant wildlife including over 40 species of birds resident to its lake margins, most of the fish-eating water birds around the lake actively fish in the early morning as well, and this outing should provide excellent views, of the prehistoric-looking hoatzins, These are easy to observe and also photograph from the paddled canoes or catamarans.
   After returning for a late breakfast we set off into the cool under story of the tall virgin forest near the lake to see some towering wild brazil nut trees and a demonstration of how our hosts collect, open and commercialize this important natural product.
   After lunch and an hour or so to relax we once again board the catamaran to explore the eastern part of the lake, where we might see one or more of the five species of monkeys who live in the forest near the lake, such as the brown capuchin monkey and Squirrel monkey.
   Before dinner we will again watch an informative natural history video or slide presentation.
   We will leave after dinner to try and spot some black caimans on the lake, or to go on a short night walk through the primary forest. B,L,D
3. DAY 3: After early breakfast we leave near dawn and we take a final, shorter paddle around the west end of the lake to try and glimpse the giant otters before returning by motor canoe for the 35 minutes return trip to the Puerto Maldonado Airport, taking advantage of valuable early morning wildlife activity along the river. From here you fly to Cusco or Lima for your onward arrangements. B.