Trekking Tours in south-america

Amazon Rainforest Extension

Our Amazon rainforest Extension takes us to the Ese'eja Native Community territory, directly adjacent to the 1.5 million hectare Tambopata Candamo Reserved Zone in south-eastern Amazonian Peru. The Reserve Zone was created in 1990 by the Peruvian government working in partnership with local grassroots and international conservation organizations. It protects the biological diversity of the entire watersheds of the Tavara and the Candamo Rivers and most of the watershed of the Tambopata River. Diverse habitats are protected, ranging from the Andean highlands around the rivers' headwaters through some of the last remaining intact cloud forests to the lowland rainforests of the Amazon basin. Over 1,300 bird species (including 32 parrot species - 10% of the world's total), 200 mammal species, 90 frog species, 1,200 butterfly species and 10,000 species of higher plants are protected within this reserve.

Adjacent the north-western corner of the reserve is the Ese'eja Native Community, adding its 10,000 hectares of communally-owned and managed tropical rain forests to the Reserved Zone's. Within this territory is Posada Amazonas, a community-owned lodge which we use as the base from which to explore the Amazon rainforest. Posada Amazonas is a comfortable lodge owned jointly by a Peruvian eco-tourism company and the Ese'eja Native Community of Tambopata. The lodge was constructed combining traditional native architecture and materials (wood, palm fronds, wild cane and clay) with modern, low-impact, eco-lodge technology.

Accompanied by Ese'eja and English-speaking Peruvian naturalist guides we will have the opportunity to explore the surrounding rain forest and nearby oxbow lake where we hope to see giant river otters. We will visit the parrot and small macaw clay licks near the lodge, and a 35-metre canopy tower provides easy access to one of the world's final biological frontiers: the rain forest canopy. The guides will also take us on an ethnobotanical walk to learn how forest resources are traditionally used by the Ese'eja, and to visit one of their small scale farms. Over the past two years of work in the Ese´eja Native Community, the combined efforts of scientist Renzo Piana and the Ese´eja Community Members have discovered seven active large eagle nesting sites, four of them belonging to harpy eagles. If one of these has a chick, we will offer the option of visiting this largest of Amazonian avian predators.

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