"Tambopata and Madre de Dios" a Tambopata Travel Page by ryuhome

At first we wanted to pick a jungle lodge about an hour by boat from Puerto Maldonado. We booked too late and all the nearby lodges were full. We ended up joining the Wasai expedition.

We travelled three and a hlf hour upstream Rio Tambopata to stay in their lodge there. The next day, we started at four o'clock in the morning for another two hours boat ride to the Macaw Clay Lick. It was the boat ride of my life. It started out under moonlight, then we saw the sunrise. There were parts that we had to steer through rapids and there were a stretch of shallow water where the guide and the boat operator had to get off the boat and push the boat across the river while wading in water.

On the next to the last day, we headed back to Puerto Maldonado and went downstream on the Madre the Dios to explore Sandoval Lake. It is the most tranquil and beautiful lake I've ever seen. We saw the prehistoric-looking birds, the hoatzins, we saw herons, kingfishers, caimens, etc. And we watched river otters chasing fish for lunch. It was wonderful.

There's alot of boat ride on this trip. The prices is higher than other lodges closer to Puerto Maldonado, but the experience is well worth it.