TAMBOPATA, SANDOVAL LAKE LODGE
4 Días - 3Noches

Day 1: Puerto Maldonado to Lake Sandoval.

Our staff welcomes you at Puerto Maldonado airport and we drive through this bustling Upper Amazon Basin city to the Tambopata River boat dock. Here we board a powerful motorized dugout canoe and set off to the nearby confluence of the mighty Madre de Dios River, a headwaters tributary of the Amazon. Here we turn downstream for a 25-minute river trip to the trailhead landing at Lake Sandoval.
After lunch and a brief rest to avoid the early afternoon heat, we once again set off by boat or catamaran to explore the entire west end of the lake. Here, along the fringes of flooded palm forest we drift to the sounds of hundreds of Red-Bellied and Blue-and-yellow Macaws as they return to the palm forest for the night.
We return to the lodge around nightfall for dinner. After dinner we take to the boats once more, in search of black caimans, which today are extremely rare in the Amazon, but still common in this protected lake.

Day 2: Lake Sandoval.

A pre-dawn wake-up call will allow us to be on the lake for what is often a spectacular sunrise, and hopefully an encounter with the Giant Otters, which patrol the entire lake in a close-knit family pack, and are most active at this hour of the day. Most of the lake’s birdlife is extremely active now, too, and this outing should provide views of numerous species of fish-eating birds as they stalk and catch their prey, along with close-up views of the large, clumsy and primitive, leaf-eating Hoatzins.
After returning for a late breakfast we set off on a trail walk through the cool understory of the mighty primary rainforest that surrounds the lake.
After dinner we will have another chance to spot caiman on the lake, or perhaps take a night trail walk in search of the numerous creatures, including frogs, toads, owls, nighthawks, spiders and night monkeys, that make the forest such a busy and different place during the night.

Day 3: Lake Sandoval.

This can be either a relaxing day or a very active one, according to personal needs and wishes. If you are one of the many visitors who has fallen in love with this lake and its extraordinary environment, or if our outings so far have failed to produce an encounter with the Giant Otter family, we can make another early start in search of them and the many other wildlife suprises that Lake Sandoval may have in store for us.
After lunch we can take a break, and then in the cooler late afternoon set off by boat to the starting point for a walk through the most undisturbed and most secluded forest of the area, on the lake’s north shore, to return, perhaps, amidst the pink glow of another glorious sunset.
In the evening we can take a final opportunity to search for Black Caiman along the lake shore, or go for a last short hike through the nighttime forest.

Day 4: Lake Sandoval to Puerto Maldonado.

bote-navegando-lago-sandoval-amanecer-manu After a dawn breakfast we take a final, short paddle along the palm swamps of the west end of the lake in search of the resident Giant Otter family. From here, on clear mornings, we will see a glorious sunrise and its reflection in the open waters of the lake. Returning once more down the trail to the Madre de Dios River, we return to Puerto Maldonado to catch the flight to Cusco or Lima.