PERU'S Amazon Basin
Itinerary

Day 1 - Saturday Upon arrival in Iquitos, you will be met and transferred to the Hotel Dorado Plaza, a 5 star hotel in the very center of Iquitos. For early arrivals there will be time to walk to the banks of the Amazon to see your first Amazonian birds. In addition to the ubiquitous Greater Kiskadee and Black Vultures you are likely to see several of the more common seed finches. In the evening both the Plaza de Armas and the "Boulevard" are great places to watch people strolling along and imagine yourself as a great rubber baron.
Lunch, Dinner (if arrival flight permits) Overnight Hotel Dorado Plaza

Day 2 - Sunday After breakfast a short bus ride takes you to the Explorama boat docks. A voyage down the Amazon (80 KM/50 mi/1½ hrs) takes you to Explorama Lodge where you will have your first exposure to Amazonian forest birds as you search the camp grounds for the Black-fronted Nunbird and the Thrush-like Wren. This is the original of the Explorama lodges, and is located on a tributary of the Amazon, the Yanamono. It is made completely from natural building materials - fine woods, vines, and palm leaves. There are private sleeping rooms in palm-thatched houses with attached shower and latrine facilities, and kerosene lighting. It has a large dining room and bar, and in the evening we will be entertained by local Amazonian-flavored music.

Near the stream where the "La Tahuampa" Bar is located you will likely see habituated Sun Bittern. Scarlet and Blue and Gold Macaws, some of which have been coming to the feeding station near the dining room for the Lodge's 40 year existence, will provide some spectacular shots as they fly screaming along the Yanamono and Yanacaño Streams which pass through the Lodge grounds. After lunch you will hike along the "Lake Trail" looking for varzea (flood plain) specialists like the Silvered Antbird and Pale-legged Hornero. In the evening we will search for owls such as Crested and Spectacled, along with other creatures of the night.
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner Overnight Explorama Lodge

Day 3 - Monday Before sunrise, take an early morning walk on the Bushmaster Trail in terra firma forest where the highest diversity of tree species of any location in the world has been discovered. With luck, a mixed flock of birds feeding over an army ant column will be found. At times these flocks have over 40 species of birds. After breakfast, you will return to the Bushmaster to hopefully observe Golden-headed and Bearded Manakins on their display leks.

Explorama Lodge is surrounded by virgin rainforest which has been found to contain over 2,000 plant species, and the highest tree species count in the world. This diversity produces an exciting fauna - monkeys, sloths, and numerous birds such as parrots, motmots, puffbirds, woodpeckers, and flycatchers, including such rarities as Lanceolated Monklet and Black Bushbird.

During the afternoon, there will be an open boat trip on the Amazon looking for river edge species like the Black-collared Hawk, Capped Heron and three species of Kingfishers. We will also search for both pink and gray freshwater river dolphins commonly found where tributaries of the river meet.
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner Overnight Explorama Lodge

Day 4 - Tuesday Today we will go by boat, down the Amazon River, and up the Napo River, to the remote ExplorNapo Camp, located on a small black water tributary of the Napo River. This camp is similar to Explorama Lodge with private rooms in palm-thatched houses with attached modern cold-water showers and latrine facilities. The trails in the 250,000-acre reserve surrounding ExplorNapo are innumerable and offer an opportunity for birdwatching in almost every rainforest habitat. The Camp itself is located in the private 4200-acre Sucusari Reservation, at the edge of upland and seasonally flooded rain forest. There are many trails to explore, plus the camp clearing is itself productive for mixed species feeding flocks. You may be sure to see two specialties of the area; a colony of the primitive Hoatzin and a lek of the Black-necked Red-Cotinga. Here you can also search for ant swarms, and the possibility of showy ant followers such as White-plumed and Banded Antbird, and Black-spotted Bare-eye. In addition, you'll likely see more of the nearly sixty species of antbirds that can be seen in this region, with such beauties as Yellow-browed and Black-and-White Antbird, and Striated Antthrush. This is the best location in the world to see rarities like Nocturnal Currasow and the Black-necked Red Cotinga. This evening you will enjoy an open boat ride in search of caiman and frogs while listening to the night sounds and, if it is a clear night, viewing the overwhelming number of stars of the Southern sky.
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner Overnight ExplorNapo Lodge

Day 5 - Wednesday Early morning birding. Morning excursion in open boat and hiking to a black water oxbow lake formed when water from the Napo River became separated from the main flow of the river. We'll hike its forest trails for forest birds such as trogons, jacamars and manakins, and perhaps along the way come upon a Pygmy Marmoset (the smallest primate in the world). These lakes are often covered with giant Victoria Regia water lilies, often seven feet in diameter, and sometimes offer a glimpse of the elusive Hoatzin bird. Afternoon boating excursion along one of the Napo tributaries spotting for sloth, birding and having a try at fishing for piranha.
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner Overnight ExplorNapo Lodge

Days 6 and 7 - Thursday - Friday Early morning birding walk. Morning hike to the ACTS (Amazon Conservatory of Tropical Studies) Field Station, located in the 250,000 acre Amazon Biosphere Reserve, directly behind Explornapo Camp. It is necessary to take a 40 minute walk over level terrain to reach the ACTS Field Station. Your bags will be transported for you. The main building sits on a slope overlooking a small jungle stream, and the dining room has a lovely view to the forest edge. The famous canopy walkway is just a ten minute walk from the lab. It is over 1,300 feet long, and allows visitors to get as high as 115 feet above the rain forest floor, into the forest canopy. The canopy walkway is easily accessible, and allows us to explore a world seldom seen on a normal rain forest tour. The site is known for puffbirds (Collared and White-chested Puffbirds and Rusty-breasted Nunlet), cotingas such as White-browed Purpletuft, Plum-throated and Spangled Cotinga, barbets such as Scarlet-crowned and Black-spotted, along with spectacular looks at tanagers, dacnis, and honeycreepers. In addition, there is always the chance for an over-flight of Scarlet of Blue-and-Yellow Macaws, or soaring Ornate and Black-and White Hawk Eagle.

We will also take an afternoon excursion along the Medicinal and Useful Plants Trail where your guide will explain the uses of many of the rainforest plants. In the late afternoon you will be up at canopy level when the birds return to roost and to watch the sunset from the treetops. After dark there is the opportunity to rediscover the canopy dwellers at night.
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner Overnights at ACTS Field Station

Day 8 - Saturday Departure to the Canopy Walkway in time to welcome the day from high in the treetops, an unforgettable natural history experience, as mixed species flocks form and their morning chorus begins. Motmots, woodcreepers, antbirds, flycatchers, barbets, toucans and even Red-Throated Caracara add to the cacophony. After breakfast you hike out to the Sucusari Stream and board the boat to Ceiba Tops (120 KM/75 miles/2¼ hrs) where private air conditioned rooms and hot water showers gently ease your way back to civilization. At Ceiba Tops you may see a Great Potoo on the short walk between the boat dock and the main Ceiba Tops building. After lunch, you will visit islands that were formed at different times by the meandering Amazon River forming unique habitats where some species of birds spend their entire lives. Returning to Ceiba Tops you will travel close to the shore where both gray and pink dolphins are often seen, and, with luck, there will be a colorful sunset on the Amazon River.
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner Overnight Ceiba Tops

Day 9 - Sunday Early morning birdwatching on a short walk to the huge Ceiba Tree for which the lodge is named. Many organisms spend their entire lives in this single rainforest giant. Depending on your departure flight from Iquitos, there may be time for an open boat ride on the channels of the Amazon in front of Ceiba Tops before lunch. Whatever your departure flight, a boat ride will return you to Iquitos (40 KM/25 mi/¾ hrs) and then by bus you'll be at the airport in time for your departure flight to Lima.
Breakfast, Lunch (if departure flight permits)

Due to the everchanging nature of the rainforest, day-by-day activities may vary due to local conditions.