Peru Tours Packages
Refugio Amazonas Package
Rainforest Expeditions
Refugio Amazonas is a 32-bedroom lodge four hours from the Puerto Maldonado airport. It is ideal for soft adventurers and families, and has a rainforest trail designed especially for children, the only one in the Peruvian Amazon.
Because it takes a half-day to travel from Puerto Maldonado to Refugio Amazonas, we recommend visitors spend three nights to make their trip worthwhile. Travelers to the Tambopata Research Center also stop off at the Refugio on the way to and from the TRC.
Refugio Amazonas is located in a 200-hectare private reserve within the buffer zone of the Tambopata National Reserve. Rainforest Expeditions is partnering with local families, who sustainably harvest Brazil nuts from the surrounding rainforest, to ensure that they share in the benefits of ecotourism.
Refugio Amazonas is ideal for three night outings, travel to Tambopata Research Center, or families because:
It takes over three hours to get there from Puerto Maldonado and most of your first afternoon is spent on the river. Therefore, you should spend at least three nights at Refugio Amazonas to have time to fully explore the surrounding primary forest.
The extra two hours of travel time are well paid in increased possibilities to encounter wildlife (the further from Puerto Maldonado, the less people there are, the less pressure on wildlife there is).
Refugio Amazonas offers all of Posada Amazonas’ activities with one great addition: an authentic Brazil nut trail and camp.
For those traveling to Tambopata Research Center, it brings you two hours nearer to your final destination (see Tambopata Research Center programs).
For those traveling with children it offers the only attraction especially made for children, by children, in the Peruvian Amazon – The Children’s Rainforest Trail.
First Day: PUERTO MALDONADO - REFUGIO AMAZONAS
Arrival and Reception . Upon arrival from Lima or Cusco, we will welcome you at the airport and drive you ten minutes to Lodge's Puerto Maldonado headquarters. While enjoying your first taste of the forest in the gardens we will ask you to pack only the necessary gear for your next few days, and leave the rest at offices safe deposit. This helps us keep the boats and cargo light.Puerto Maldonado to Tambopata River Port . Skirting Puerto Maldonado, we drive 20 kilometers to the Tambopata River Port, entering the Native Community of Infierno. The port is a communal business.Tambopata River Port to Refugio Amazonas . The two and a half hour boat ride from the Tambopata Port to Refugio Amazonas will take us past the Community of Infierno and the Tambopata National Reserve´s checkpoint and into the buffer zone of this 1.3 million hectare conservation unit.Boxed Lunch. Orientation . Upon arrival, the lodge manager will welcome you and brief you with important navigation and security tips.Dinner. Caiman searches . We will be out at the river’s edge at night, scanning the shores with headlamps and flashlights to catch the red gleams of reflection from caiman eyes.
Second Day: REFUGIO AMAZONAS
Breakfast. Oxbow Lake Visit : We will paddle around the lake on a canoe or a catamaran, looking for lakeside wildlife such as caiman, hoatzin and horned screamers, hoping to see the otters which are infrequently seen here. You will also be rewarded with overhead sightings of macaws.Lunch. Farm Visit : Five minutes downriver from the lodge lies a farm owned and managed by charismatic Don Manuel from the neighbouring community of Condenado. He grows a variety of popular and unknown Amazon crops - just about every plant and tree you see serves a purpose.
Ethnobotanical Tour : Along this trail we will find a variety of plants and trees that are used by the local population with at least the same variety of purposes. We will learn about the medicinal (and other) uses of Ajo-Sacha, Yuca de Venado, Uña de Gato, Charcot-Sacha, Para-Para, among several others.Dinner.
Tambopata National Reserve Lecture. Nightly lectures prepared by the staff of Refugio Amazonas cover conservation threats, opportunities and projects in the Tambopata National Reserve.
Third Day: REFUGIO AMAZONAS
Fourth Day: REFUGIO AMAZONAS - PUERTO MALDONADO
Breakfast Return to Puerto Maldonado and Departure. We retrace our river and road journey back to Puerto Maldonado, Rainforest Expeditions' office and the airport. Depending on airline schedules, this may require dawn departures.
Guides at Refugio Amazonas. Refugio Amazonas guides are biologists, tourism professionals, or community members. Unless noted otherwise, guides speak English. Refugio Amazonas assigns guides at 10:1 ratio. This means groups smaller than 10 people will be merged with other groups under one guide. If you would like a private guide or a guide in a language other than English please let us know.Boat Transportation.
The program includes:
Does not include:
International or domestic airfares; airport departure taxes or visa fees; excess baggage charges; additional nights during the trip due to flight cancellations; alcoholic beverages; personal expenses; t ips; personal insurance of any kind; laundry; phone calls or messages; reconfirmation of international flights and items of personal nature; others not mentioned.
PRICE PER PERSON Refugio Amazonas 4 days / 3 nights Program
Single Room
USD 680.00
Double Room
USD 520 .00
Triple Room
USD 520 .00
Family Rate with children up to 17
USD 440 .00
Family Rate: applies only for families with children aged 17 or younger on a basis of Triple Room.
NOTE: Add USD 13.00 per person for Park Entrance Fee subject to changes according to SERNANP regulations.
Refugio Amazonas - Infrastructure and Services
Refugio Amazonas is built using a combination of traditional native materials (wood, palm fronds, wild cane and clay) and architecture and modern day eco-lodge technology. The lodge consists of four wings of 8 rooms connected by raised boardwalks to a central, two story, 20 foot tall common area. This area has distinct ambiences serving as lobby, dining room, bar, shop and lounge. This structure is the heart of Refugio’s atmosphere: it provides great canopy views of the surrounding forest – from a hammock … and a whistle away from a drink!
The entire roof of the lodge is constructed using high quality crisneja palm fronds, whereas the floors are of tropical mahogany. The rooms complex is built of three 32 meter long structures with eight rooms per facility, for a total of 32 double bedrooms.
The rooms are 7 x 4 meters so they can comfortably hold three beds, although most are set up for two. The walls dividing each room are built using cane, and extend from the floor to about 2.5 meters height making each room private. The side that looks out to the forest does not have a wall or screening of any kind, acting as a large window facing the forest. The reason they have been able to incorporate this "luxurious" design into lodge is because mosquitoes are not really a problem around the lodge clearing and the open section allows for an intimate contact with the rain forest. A second small window on the opposite side, set up very high, keeps the rooms well ventilated. Doors are replaced with drapes. Rooms are not soundproof.
Each room has a private bathroom with cold water only. Rooms and bathrooms are separated by drapes. Each room has beds, mosquito nets, bedside tables and hammocks or lounge chairs.
Meals: Refugio Amazonas provides self-serve three course meals. They consist of soup or appetizers, salad, main course, and desserts combining Peruvian and international cuisine. All fresh fruits and salads are thoroughly disinfected before serving. They also provide at all times unlimited amounts of boiled, filtered, cooled drinking water, coffee or tea and provide fruit juices during the meals. If any visitor has special dietary requirements, they are happy to make individual arrangements, but please notify us.
Communications: Refugio Amazonas is in daily HF radio contact with its offices in Puerto Maldonado and Lima from where they are able to communicate by email, fax or phone with the rest of the world.
Lighting and electricity: Refugio Amazonas has no electricity. Light is provided by numerous kerosene lamps and candles. A generator is turned on once a day to recharge batteries for guests or lodge facilities. At night it is very dark, so we recommend good flashlights.
