Sandoval Lodge

Itinerary

Day 1 Arrive Puerto Maldonado/Sandoval Lodge

Lodge staff pick you up at Puerto Maldonado airport, deep in the Peruvian Amazon. Getting to Sandoval Lodge is half the adventure! First, travel by boat 35 minutes along the Madre de Dios River to Sandoval Lodge’s pier. Climb the steps to a wide, well groomed, level trail two miles through the forest: about an hour walk (easy). At several points there are benches or palapas to rest at or get out of the sun or rain. Once at the end of the trail, small canoes take you 220 yards along a narrow canal to the Lake and a special native catamaran for the leisurely float across the lake to the lodge pier. Sounds like a lot but it is easy, interesting and "do-able." Located deep in Peru’s Tambopata National Reserve, Sandoval Lodge (SL) is perched above what many specialists feel is the most attractive lake in Peru: sparkling, palm-rimmed Sandoval Lake. This region of the Amazon, one of the most biologically diverse areas on the planet, is a haven for endangered species such as the jaguar and the black caiman, and affords visitors ample opportunity to view such diverse wildlife as giant otters, capybaras, macaws, parrots and six species of monkey. Activities at the lodge include hiking the lodge’s trails, canoe and catamaran trips on Sandoval Lake and night walks. Enjoy exclusive access to Sandoval Lake in the early morning and late afternoon, the best hours for wildlife viewing and photography. The lodge is constructed almost entirely of ecologically harvested "driftwood" mahogany trees collected from the floods that naturally carry logs downriver out of Manu National Park. The lodge is one extended structure consisting of a large screened main dining room and lounge area, one wing with 16 rooms with private bathrooms and another wing of 9 rooms with communal bathroom facilities. The rooms are screened; all showers have hot water. All rooms and communal areas have electricity, supplemented by kerosene lamps and candles. There are several strategically placed sitting areas overlooking the lake. Despite the fact that it is close to civilization, Lake Sandoval is in the protected Reserved Zone of Tambopata and the adjacent Bahuaje-Sonene National Park. While there are forest trails to explore, the lake is the centre of activities, with dawn and dusk catamaran glides to various parts of the lake for spectacular wildlife viewing.

Day 2 Sandoval Lodge

Choose from the many activities available in the surrounding jungle, including hikes, boat trips, night walks and wildlife viewing. Enjoy the hospitality of the lodge, including exclusive access to Sandoval Lake in the early morning and late afternoon, choice hours for wildlife viewing and photography. No other lodge in the region is on the banks of a protected oxbow lake.Rainforest Basics - Fascinating Facts The following is a selection of excerpts from an article "25 Fascinating Facts about the Amazon Every Visitor Should Know" written by Daniela Hart that appeared in the October 1998 issue of HEMISPHERES, the United Airlines In-flight magazine, -) The Amazon region is the world's largest continuous tropical rain forest, situated in the giant basin of the world's largest river, the mighty Amazon. The region covers an area of 5.1 million sq km, about half the size of Europe. The Amazon River, with 1100 tributaries, contains one-fifth of all the planet's fresh water. -) The Amazon spans nine South American countries: Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, French Guiana and Suriname. Sixty percent of the total lies in Brazil. -) The name Amazon comes from the Greek myth of the Amazonas, powerful women warriors whose valour and war cry had a "fearful effect" on their adversaries, according to Bulfinch's Myths of Greece and Rome. In the 16th Century, the Spanish explorer Francisco de Orellana reported encounters with wild women warriors on the banks of the river, which was named Amazon in their honour. Nobody has seen them since. -) Fortunes were made in the Amazon during the rubber boom (roughly 1870-1910). But in the late 1800's, an Englishman smuggled some Hevea rubber-tree seeds to Kew Gardens in London (legend has it they were hidden inside his walking stick). Later transplanted to plantations in Southeast Asia, these seeds were to spell the end of the Amazon's monopoly on rubber and its phase of riches and glory. -) The symbol of the Amazon is the giant, floating vitoria-regia (royal water lily), up to two metres in diameter. A local myth tells of a young girl who fell in love with the moon. She saw its reflection in the water one night, dived in to be with her beloved, and drowned. In sorrow, the moon transformed her into the star of the waters, the lovely vitoria-regia. -) The largest mammal in the region is the manatee, which looks a bit like a floating hippopotamus, weighing up to 500kg. Its tasty meat has long made it a favourite prey for hunters; it is now in danger of extinction. -) Until the 1960s, the Amazon forest was virtually untouched. But over the last 30 years, in Brazil alone an area of forest larger than France has been destroyed by logging, burning and mining. The rate of destruction slowed significantly in the 1990s but lately has been picking up again. -) The Amazon forest is full of world records. It has the largest beetle, the Titanus gigantus, 20cm long; the largest eagle, the Harpia amazonica, 97cm high; the largest moth, the emperor moth, 30cm wide; the largest freshwater fish, the pirarucu, up to 3m long; and the smallest monkey, the sagui, or pygmy marmoset, which reaches a length of only 15cm and weighs only about 100g. -) The Amazon boasts the world's largest variety of species of primates, birds, alligators, frogs, insects, rodents and lizards. There are an estimated 10 million to 15 million species of insects and 300 species of reptiles. But don't worry: You won't meet most of them. -) In the Amazon region live the largest number of species of freshwater fish in the world, between 2,000 and 3,000. The Negro River alone has more species than all the rivers of Europe combined. -) An exquisite, not-to-be-missed delicacy is fresh Amazon fish roasted on charcoal or cooked in banana leaves or coconut sauce. Favourites are tucunare (peacock bass), tambaqui, and pirarucu. For dessert, try some of the exotic forest fruit, fresh or made into delicious ice creams. -) New species of plants and animals are continually being found in the Amazon. Just since 1990, seven new species of monkeys were found and 12 species of fish. Of the estimated 5 million to 30 million species of plants in the forest, only 30,000 have been studied and identified. -) In some rivers of the Amazon region, the difference in water level between the dry and rainy seasons is equivalent to the height of an eight-story building. Many houses, shops, and even vegetable gardens are built on floating logs and tied to the shore. -) The Amazon is very sparsely populated, with only 19 million inhabitants in an area the size of the continental United States. You can travel for days without seeing any sign of human habitation, just forest and river and wildlife. -) According to the indigenous people who make their home in the jungle, a wise person walks the earth like a bird flying across the skies - leaving no marks. This is how they have lived for centuries in harmony with the forest.

Day 3 Depart Puerto Maldonado

Travel upriver to Puerto Maldonado and head to the airport for your flight out of the jungle to Cuzco or Lima.

Trip Details

Accommodation	Sandoval Lodge (2 nts).
Brochure Notes	Internal return flights between Cuzco or Lima and Puerto Maldonado are NOT included in the price and can be booked through G.A.P Adventures.
Departure	Daily
Group Size	No Minimum
Meals Included	All meals while at the lodges.
Recommendation	Also offered as 4 and 5 day packages. See trip codes TSPJ4H/TSPJ5H.
StartFinish	ex Puerto Maldonado
Transport	Boat, Canoes, Walking.

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