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.


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
RRising 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.

*Prices are per person and based on a minimum of two people traveling together. Trips depart daily.

END OF OUR SERVICES   

Journey by the river

Madre de Dios River