Tambopata Research Center Lodge

an unusually wildlife-focused property

Set alongside a tributary of the Rio Tambopata around 100 km southwest of Puerto Maldonaldo in southeast Peru, Tambopata Research Center Lodge is a relatively simple by rather cool place, which offers some of the most reliable wildlife viewing in the region and is best suited to more active and adventurous guests.

The only lodge to be located deep inside the Tambopata National Reserve (and with the Bahajua-Sonene National Park nearby), this has to be one of the most remote properties in the whole of the Amazon Basin.

Because this area is completely uninhabited by humans, the animals are a good deal less wary and herds of up to a hundred rare white-lipped peccaries often simply wander through the lodge like they hadn’t a care in the world.

The Research Centre was established in 1989 primarily to study and protect macaws and the nearby clay-lick has historically been the best place to view these wonderful birds.

The lodge itself is a relatively simple affair, centred on a single storey main building in a clearing in the forest, which contains the main public areas.

In 2020, a 300m elevated walkway was created in order to provide guests with an easy and fun way to access the surrounding forest canopies.

Remarkably one in three guests here manage to catch sight of a jaguar, which is almost unheard of at lodges closer to Puerto Maldonado (although still not to be compared with the best lodges in the Pantanal area of Brazil where you can reliably see several in a single day).

Rooms

Guest accommodation is in 26 rooms, which are open in design, with high thatched roofs. Most of the rooms are not detached, but are contained within a handful of long low buildings.

The rooms come in four specifications …

• Comfort Room : x8 : 42 sqm / 453 sq ft
• Superior Room : x10 : 21 sqm / 226 sq ft
• Suite Room : x4 : 52 sqm / 605 sq ft : indoor seating area and ceiling fan
• Deluxe Room : x4 : 84 sqm / 913 sq ft : terrace, ceiling fan and hammock

Please note that although the rooms are private, they are not necessarily well sound-proofed, being separated only by simple bamboo walls.

The fact that the Suite and Deluxe rooms only have fans with no air conditioning means that they are liable to become uncomfortable in these high temperatures and humidities.

The fact that the Comfort Rooms and Superior Rooms do not have ceiling fans at all is a real concern.

Activities

Tambopata Research Center Lodge offers a relatively wide range of guided activities, including …

• Motorboat safari
• Canoe safari
• Night motorboat safari
• Clay licks for parrots and macaws
• Hides
• Forest walks
• Night walking safari
• Canopy walkways
• Farm walks

The Tambopata Amazon area is usually reached by air into Puerto Maldonaldo, usually preceded by Cusco and followed by Lima, meaning that it tends to fit into the tail end of an exploration of Peru.

The usual stay duration is 3-4 nights.

Seasonality

The best time to visit Tambopata is generally considered to be the Apr-Oct dry season.

Although this area is dominated by tropical rainforest (which is usually indicative of a pretty stable year round climate), Tambopata actually experiences quite a considerable seasonal range.

Temperatures are quite stable year round, with peak daytime temperatures typically rising to around 31C/88F (peaking around 37C/98F), with nighttime temperatures dropping to 17C/63F. Given the high year round humidities, these night conditions can be quite sticky and uncomfortable (yet airconditioning is notably by its absence). During the Nov-Mar rainy season those nighttime temperatures can be a few degrees higher, which doesn’t help.

If you don’t enjoy high temperatures, then Jun-Jul is the best bet, since southerly winds can bring in slightly cooler fronts.

But the biggest seasonal difference is rainfall. During the Nov-Mar rainy season the precipitation rises to around 300mm/6” per month, which is pretty high. Downpours can be torrential and enduring. Whilst there’s still a lot of sunny weather around, it is possible to have consecutive days of overcast weather.

During the converse Apr-Oct dry season rainfall drops to around 75mm/3” per month, which means there are still regular showers, but they tend to be light and intermittent, with sunny weather prevailing.

Getting there

The Tambopata area can be easily accessed by internal flights into Padre Jose Aldamiz Airport in Puerto Maldonado, notably with regular connections to Lima and Cusco.

The lodge can be accessed in two ways …

To connect between the airport at Puerto Maldonado and Tambopata Research Center it is necessary to undertake a transfer of 1hr by road, followed by 2.5hrs by motorboat.

If you combine with one of the sister properties closer to Puerto Maldonado (Posada Amazonas and Refugio Amazonas), then it is a much longer transfer of around 7 hrs by motorboat.

a very long motorboat trip to this remote location