Manu National Park Tour 4 Days

Day 01: Cusco – Manu Cloud Forest – Atalaya – Manu Avatar Lodge

We pick you up from your hotel in Cusco at 6:00 a.m. in a private minivan. Our first stop is the pre-Inca burial towers of Ninamarca, followed by a short break in Paucartambo, a traditional Andean town known for its folk festivals. We then reach the entrance of Manu National Park, the highest point of the trip at about 3,400 m (11,150 ft).

From there the road drops into the cloud forest. We stop for short walks to look for birds and mammals among orchids, heliconias and tree ferns. After lunch we look for Peru’s national bird, the Andean cock-of-the-rock, along with quetzals, trogons, the Amazonian umbrellabird, woolly monkeys (the largest monkey in Peru), brown capuchins and, with luck, a spectacled bear, South America’s only bear.

In the afternoon we continue toward the river port of Atalaya (about 350 m / 1,150 ft). On the way we stop at a hummingbird garden, where tanagers, oropendolas, toucans and king vultures are also seen, and pass coca fields with views over the lowland rainforest. From Atalaya we travel by boat on the Alto Madre de Dios River to Manu Avatar Lodge, arriving at around 3:50 p.m. Night walk in the evening.

Day 02: Primary Forest Hike – Machuhuasi Oxbow Lake

If the weather is good, this is your first chance to visit the parrot clay lick. If not, after breakfast we hike for more than two hours in the primary forest looking for monkeys, toucans, sloths, snakes and caimans, and with luck capybaras on the riverbank. We return to the lodge for lunch and some free time. Keep your camera ready: hummingbirds, toucans and monkeys often come close to the lodge.

In the afternoon we walk to the Machuhuasi oxbow lake and paddle a balsa raft to look for the prehistoric-looking hoatzin and for capybaras, the largest rodent in the world. We spend the rest of the afternoon around the lake watching caimans, herons, oropendolas, toucans and monkeys until sunset. After dinner there is a night walk of about 40 minutes or more, depending on the weather, to look for frogs, snakes, spiders and tarantulas, owls and insects, and with luck an ocelot or a tapir.

Day 03: Parrot Clay Lick – Primary Forest – Boat Trip

We leave early by boat, about 30 minutes along the river, watching for capybaras and, with luck, a South American tapir. Then we visit the parrot clay lick, where hundreds of parakeets and small macaws come to eat mineral-rich clay.

After breakfast we spend about three hours on a different trail through the primary forest, past giant trees such as the ceiba, known as the mother of the forest. We often see emerald and rainbow boas on these trails. Every group sees something different, but there is a good chance of tamarins, deer, squirrel monkeys, spider monkeys, peccaries, sloths, snakes, toucans, guans and macaws, and occasionally a jaguar resting on a log.

After lunch we take the boat downstream to look for more wildlife and photograph the landscape. You can also try the clay therapy and swim in the river, practice shooting a bow and arrow the way local people do, or go fishing. Optional night walk.

Day 04: Manu Avatar Lodge – Atalaya – Cusco

After an early breakfast we pack and take the boat back to Atalaya, then continue by private van to Cusco, watching for macaws and monkeys along the way. We drop you off at your hotel at around 5:00 p.m.