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Heath River Wildlife Center The best Combination in Tambopata, Peru

The wild Heath River marks the remote Amazon-region border between Peru and Bolivia. Bordering two radically different ecosystems of rainforest and lowland savannah, it runs through the heart of the Tambopata-Madidi reserve areas of Peru and Bolivia, a vast and largely inaccessible wilderness totalling more than 13,700 sq. km./5,290 sq. miles.

Little has changed on this river since the American doctor Edwin Heath first explored and named it in the 1880s, and the eccentric English explorer Colonel Fawcett formally surveyed the far-away frontier in 1910. Traveling there today is like going back to a time before cars and roads were invented.

Heath River Wildlife Center is the only eco-lodge on this river. And it offers the world's only large macaw clay lick reachable in half a day from a jetport with daily connections to the outside world.

Only ten minutes by boat from the lodge, a comfortable floating hide just 30m/100ft from the lick allows us to witness one of nature’s most spectacular displays – a tumultuous gathering of brightly-colored macaws and parrots. Visitors have seen up to 260 macaws there at one time, which makes it one of the top five of the world's 100 known licks.

The lodge also offers an array of options almost too numerous and varied to be taken in on one visit. We can walk or bicycle through the abrupt and astonishing transition between two radically different ecosystems, on the trail to open lowland savannah of the Pampas del Heath. Here the rainforest suddenly melts away, offering a startling, open vista reminiscent of East Africa -- an excursion that also takes in a rare nesting site frequented by hundreds of Red-bellied and increasingly endangered Blue-and-yellow Macaws.

On other outings we can spot wildlife and learn the ways of the forest,  along the lodge’s extensive and lightly-used trail network, and perhaps stake out a hide-platform on one of the lodge’s mammal clay licks, in search of an elusive Lowland Tapir, the Amazon’s largest mammal. We can visit the abundant birds and monkeys of Cocha Moa, as we paddle by canoe on this secluded oxbow lake.

By night we can spot caiman (a kind of Amazonian alligator), on the riverbanks. By day we can travel upriver to the limits of navigation, and float stealthily downstream with the engine off, spotting birds and monkeys, and hoping to score a stellar wildlife encounter with a Jaguar on the beach, or a Lowland Tapir swimming across the river. 

We may also pay a visit downriver to the village of Sonene, one of the surviving communities of the Ese’Eja indigenous people, where we can meet these descendants of nomadic forest tribes, buy their handcrafts, and catch a glimpse of those traditional lifeways that they manage to maintain in the modern world.

The lodge itself offers a small, comfortable and intimate environment, built of environmentally-sound local materials, such as “driftwood” mahogany, and palm-thatch, with just ten double (or triple) private bungalows, with private bathroom/toilets and hot showers, and a spacious, high-roofed dining, bar and lounge area.

Now you can chose two programs :

Two Ecosystems * Rainforest & Savannah
Includes Visits the Puerto Maldonados’ closest larga macaw clay lick (from a comfortable floating blind) at the Heath River Wildlife center (HRWC) – visit the extraordinary biodivese Pampas del Heath (Savannah). Accommodations, full board, excursions and visit to an Indian community.

Tambopata Tour options for 2010

Sandoval Lake Lodge and Macaw Clay lick
Combines a pleasant trip to Sandoval lake Lodge (SLL) plus a visit to Puerto Maldonados’ closest larga macaw clay lick (from a comfortable floating blind) at the Heath River Wildlife center (HRWC) – visit the extraordinary biodivese Pampas del Heath (Savannah). Accommodations, full board, excursions and visit to an Indian community and Tambopata National Reserve entrance fee

Tour options 2010

Prices per person in double accommodation with private bath. Based on a minimun of Two people traveling together.
Reduced rates available for bookings of 5 or more people.
Low season rates available from December through April/14

Trips depart daily. Rates include:

• Roundtrip transportation Puerto Maldonado to Heath River Wildlife Center
• Private bungalows with private bathrooms
• All meals and snacks
• Purified drinking water and juices
• Native and bilingual guide services
• Visits to macaw clay lick
• Lake and rainforest excursions
• All park entrance fees

Price does NOT include domestic flights within Peru or international flights.

Important note : please note that all macaw and parrot licks in southern Peru are less active in May, June and early July than in other months.

More information:

Heath River Bird List     Photo Gallery     Predeparture Information     Read More About Macaw Clay Licks