Itinerary

DAY 1

 

Arrival & Reception by Photography Guide
Because, photography in the rainforest requires a lot of patience and luck, our photography guides help with your equipment, provide subtle tips for improved use of blinds and maximize breaks with the weather and wildlife.

Transfer Airport to Puerto Maldonado Headquarters
Upon arrival from Lima or Cusco, we will welcome you at the airport and  drive you ten minutes to our Puerto Maldonado headquarters.  While enjoying your first taste of the forest in our gardens we will ask you to pack only the necessary gear for your next few days, and leave the rest at our safe deposit. This helps us keep the boats and cargo light.   

Transfer Pto Maldonado Headquarters 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.

Transfer Boat - Tambopata River Port to Posada Amazonas
The forty five minute boat ride from the Tambopata Port to Posada Amazonas will take us into the Community´s Primary Forest Private Reserve.

Boxed Lunch

Orientation
Upon arrival, the lodge manager will welcome you and brief you with important navigation and security tips.

Introduction to Photography Lecture
After lunch we will have a presentation about basic photography. Subjects such as aperture, ISO and shutter speed will be covered.  We will also learn about some specialized photographic techniques and see sample.

Dinner

Night Photography
Night walks are great for photographing insects and frogs. We may be able to find praying mantis, cicadas, leaf mimicking grasshoppers as well as huge toads, shiny green tree frogs and bizarre horned frogs.

Overnight at Posada Amazonas

 
DAY 2

 

Breakfast

Equipment Check Out
After breakfast we have quick briefing and receive our equipment.  We will be using Nikon 200-400mm f/4 zoom lenses.  These professional grade lenses are the some of the best extreme zoom lenses that exist on the market.  They allow a photographer to take amazingly detailed pictures wildlife even if it's a quarter mile away!  These lenses come equipped with second-generation image stabilization systems built in so taking photos in the shadows of the jungle has never been easier!

Photography at the PAL parrot clay lick
This clay lick is only a twenty minute walk from Posada Amazonas.  From a blind located about twenty meters away you will see dozens of parrots and parakeets descend on most clear mornings to ingest the clay on a river bank. Species such as Mealy and Yellow- headed Amazon, Blue-headed Parrot and Dusky headed Parakeet descend at this clay lick. The clay lick is most active at dawn and during the late morning and early afternoons. From the blind we have constructed next to this lick, even the amateur photographer can take good pictures of these wonderful birds.

Lunch

Photography from the Tower
A thirty minute walk takes us to this 30 meter tall scaffolding tower, which will add a whole new dimension to our Amazon birding experience: the forest canopy. We will wait for a canopy mixed flock to appear. The mixed flock is mostly all about tanagers: Paradise Tanager, Green-and-gold Tanager, Flame-crested Tanager, Turqoise Tanager, Opal- rumped Tanager and others. The tower also offers good opportunity for Cream- colored Woodpecker, Gilded Barbet, Plum-throated Cotinga and Striolated Puffbird. Macaws and toucans are seen flying against the horizon, including the Chestnut-eared, Lettered, Emerald, Curl-crested, and Brown-mandibled Aracaries. We will see lonely raptors riding the thermals. This is your best chance for hawk-eagles and even harpy!

Dinner

Photo Review Session
After dinner we have time to pick our best photos and load them into the computer for a slide show.  We will have time to analyze and talk about the day’s photography. Any questions about camera/lens usage, composition etc. can be addressed.

Overnight at Posada Amazonas

 
DAY 3

 

Breakfast

Equipment Check Out
Today we have another chance to use our Nikon 200-400mm zoom lenses and refine our photography technique.

Photography at Tres Chimbadas oxbow lake
Tres Chimbadas is thirty minutes by boat and forty five minutes hiking from Posada Amazonas. Once there you will  paddle around the lake in a catamaran, searching for the resident family of nine giant river otters (seen by 60% of our lake visitors) and other lakeside wildlife such as caiman, hoatzin and horned screamers. The lake provides wonderful opportunities to photograph majestic trees, water reflections and, if we are very fortunate, animal life. Although otters are frequently seen, the distances at which they are sighted usually do not make for good photography.

Transfer Boat - Posada Amazonas to Tambopata Research Center
Six and a half hours by boat from Posada Amazonas, in the pristine heart of the reserve, lies the Tambopata Research Center.  As we cross the confluence with the Malinowski River, we will leave the final traces of human habitation behind. Within the 700,000 hectare uninhabited nucleus of the reserve, sightings of capybara, caiman, geese, macaws and other large species will become more frequent.

Boxed Lunch

Orientation
Upon arrival, the lodge manager will welcome you and brief you with important navigation and security tips.

Photography from Overlooks
A three to five kilometer hike will lead us to overlooks commanding magnificent views of the Tambopata winding its way into the lowlands. The forest on this trail, regenerating on old bamboo forest, is good for Howler Monkey and Dusky Titi Monkey.  The overlooks provide excellent panoramic photo opportunities of the Tambopata winding its way down from the highlands. On a clear day, it will even be possible to view and photograph the snow capped Andean peaks in the distance.  At each overlook we will have good chances of encounters at eyelevel at 30-50 yards with large turkey-like birds called guans and chachalacas, or toucans, or macaws roosting on the trees.

Dinner

Gigapixel Photography Workshop
After dinner we gather around for a talk about Gigapixel photography and learn about the robotic mounts that make this type of photography possible. Developed by a joint venture between Carnegie Mellon University, NASA and Google, these Robotic mounts will take hundreds, even thousands of detailed individual photos for one intricate gigapixel panorama photo. Using advanced software photos are efficiently combined into a seamless panorama and uploaded where you can view, share and explore.


Overnight at Tambopata Research Center

 
DAY 4

 

Equipment Check Out
Once we arrive to the clay lick we set up our Gigapan Robotic Camera mounts to take extreme high-resolution photographs of the macaws at the clay lick.  In addition to the robotic mounts we will be able to use our Nikon 200-400mm lenses.

Macaw Clay Lick Photography from the Beach
On most clear mornings of the year dozens of large macaws and hundreds of parrots congregate on this large river bank in a raucous and colorful spectacle which inspired a National Geographic cover story. Discretely located fifty meters from the cliff, we will observe Green-winged, Scarlet and Blue-and-gold Macaws and several species of smaller parrots descend to ingest clay. Outings are at dawn when the lick is most active. If the river is not swollen, thereby reducing the effective beach area, photographers should have plenty of opportunities to shoot the typical clay lick photographs from distances of 50-100 meters.

Breakfast

Photography in the floodplain forest
This five kilometer trail covers the prototypical rain forest with immense  trees criss-crossed by creeks and ponds. Amongst the figs, ceibas and shihuahuacos we will look for Squirrel, Brown Capuchin, and Spider Monkeys as well as peccaries. TRC is located within this habitat. Photo opportunities for all mammals and birds on this trail will be scant as visibility and lighting are poor and animals timid. Our principal focus will be general rain forest shots as well as portraits of the huge trees that are scattered throughout this forest.

Lunch

Macro Photography Workshop
Tonight we get to venture into the jungle for nighttime macro photography.  This lecture introduces us to macro photography and some of the specialized equipment that is used to take these photos.  In addition to the top of the line Nikon 105mm VR macro lenses we have access to the amazing Canon MP-E-65 lens. This rare extreme macro lens allows can zoom in so close that a 5mm subject will fill the entire frame!

Photography on the Pond Platform
Ten minutes upriver from the lodge is a tiny pond with a platform in the middle. It is a great place for the late afternoon where we whiddle away the remains of the day as we spot waterfowl such as Muscovy duck, sunbittern and hoatzin along with the woodpeckers, oropendolas, flycatchers and parakeets that call this pond their home. Opportunities to photograph these beautiful birds will abound, as the lighting and visibility of the pond is excellent and these birds´ habits are predictable over short periods of time.

Dinner

Overnight at Tambopata Research Center

 
DAY 5

 

Breakfast

Photography around the TRC clearing
We will photograph herps around the TRC clearing: frogs, snakes and lizards.  TRC specialists will have spent the past few days screening the vicinity for encounters with the most photogenic herp species and will have prepared appropriate scenarios. The chicos, our flock of semi-wild, hand reared macaws will provide additional photographic opportunities as they  fly about around the lodge.

Lunch

Photography from the palm swamp tower
Although macaws nest from October to April, there are different degrees of macaw activity at the swamp year round. From this vantage point we can photograph Blue and gold macaws landing and roosting on their nest holes in dead palms. The nests are all less than fifteen yards away, and only a yard or two above eye level. As the sun sets behind the birds´ golden chests we will have opportunities for close ups of superb quality.

Dinner

Night Photography
Night walks are great for photographing insects and frogs. We may be able to find praying mantis, cicadas, leaf mimicking grasshoppers as well huge toads, shiny green tree frogs and bizarre horned frogs.  Along the way your photography guide will show you how to use your camera and flash together to take amazing macro photos.

Overnight at Tambopata Research Center

 
DAY 6

 

Time - off
Time off to relax and enjoy the lodge surroundings, try out a new trail, or repeat your favorite activity.

Breakfast

Transfer Boat - TRC to Refugio Amazonas
A three and a half hour boat ride brings us to Refugio Amazonas.

Boxed Lunch

Brazil Nut Trail and Camp
A few minutes hike from the lodge is a beautiful old growth patch of Brazil Nut forest that has been harvested for decades (if not centuries) where the precarious remains of a camp used two months a year by Brazil Nut gatherers can still be experienced. We will be demonstrating the whole process of the rain forest's only sustainably harvested product from collection through transportation to drying.

Dinner

Photoshop and Bookmaking Workshop
We again review and upload our best photos for a photo review session and are introduced to book making software and Photoshop.

During the Photoshop part of the lecture we learn about levels, saturation, image sharpening, resizing, transforming and RAW processing.  We also get the chance to enhance some of our favorite images.

We are also introduced to bookmaking software comes with Loads of pre-designed and customizable layouts, a huge selection of fonts, and all the tools you need to make sophisticated bookstore quality photography books. The software is connected to a print on demand service allowing you to print your book when you are finished.

Overnight at Refugio Amazonas

 
DAY 7

 

Breakfast

Transfer Boat - Refugio Amazonas to Tambopata River Port

Transfer Tambopata River Port to Pto Maldonado Headquarters

Transfer Puerto Maldonado Headquarters to Airport
We retrace our river and road journey back to Puerto Maldonado, our office and the airport. Depending on airline schedules, this may require dawn departures.

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