| Amazon
Jungle Tours
A
lot of people don’t realize that over half of Peru is
covered by the mighty Amazon Rainforest. Tropical rainforests
are among the most outstanding natural ecosystems on the planet,
an awe inspiring tangle of life to some, an unfathomable puzzle
with more questions than answers to others. They represent
the pinnacle of life on Earth. Vegetative production (2 kg/m2/yr)
is more than double that found in the most productive temperate
forests, species diversity hits the roof and the whole system
is considered the most important natural regulator of the
Earth's climate, for which we are forever indebted.
Tambopata
Reserve - Manu
Biosphere Reserve
Tropical
rainforests, among which the Amazon is the largest single
tract on Earth, span the globe between the tropics where rainfall
exceeds an average of 1500 mm per year (6 feet) and where
temperatures do not drop below an average of 17ºC throughout
the year. The ecosystem is entirely self-sufficient, requiring
only the steady input of sunlight to maintain the plants,
which in turn maintain the rest through the many interconnecting
webs of interactions, checks and balances that are a constant
feature of this twilight world.
The
city of Cusco is one of the most convenient places in the
world for fast access to tropical jungle. You have two jungle
regions that you can visit from Cusco; The Tambopata
Tambopata
Reserve
Just
30 minutes by plane to the town of Puerto Maldonado and you
are on the banks of mighty rivers, ready to take your boats
to beautiful jungle lodges for a taste of jungle fauna and
flora.
The
Tambopata Candamo Reserved Zone (TCRZ) is a 3.7 million acre
reserve in southeastern Amazonian Peru created in 1990 by
the national government working in partnership with local
grassroots and international conservation organizations. This
reserve protects the biological diversity of the entire watersheds
of the Tavara and the Candamo Rivers and most of the watershed
of the Tambopata River.The declaration and the design of the
reserve includes an underlying philosophy of sustainable development
and conservation of forest resources. The TCRZ protects habitats
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.
The
world's largest known mineral clay lick, where hundreds of
parrots and macaws of up to 15 species congregate daily to
ingest the detoxifying clay, is also within the reserve, less
than 500 meters from Tambopata Research Center.
Manu
Biosphere Reserve
The
Manu Biosphere Reserve has the highest diversity of life on
Earth and is one of the most important conservation units
in the world. If you were to choose THE best birding trip
in the world, this must surely be a candidate for the winner.
The beauty of this trip is the variety of habitats visited
ranging from orchid laden cloud forest where Spectacled Bears
and Cock-of-the-Rocks still live unmolested, to untouched
Amazon rainforest where 13 species of Monkey abound and Giant
Otters still exist in the ox-bow lakes. A trip to Manu is
a trip to one of the world’s great wilderness areas
where wildlife is still plentyfull and over 1000 species of
birds have been recorded. No birding in cutover forest on
these trips!
See
our programs for these two jungle reserves by clicking below:
TAMBOPATA
- MANU
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