All You Need To Know About Travel To Tambopata

This place harbors some of the wildest, least impacted habitats in the Amazon and the world. It is on the shortlist of “must-see” nature destinations in Peru and South America. Because of that we highly recommend you to travel to Tambopata

Planning travel to Tambopata however, can be confusing. There is a lot of information on the internet about the destination, the lodges, and the tour operators. There are also many synonyms. Tambopata is a river, a province, and a national reserve. It is reached through the gateway city of Puerto Maldonado and is directly adjacent to another great nature destination: the Bahuaja Sonene National Park, and Tambopata shares visits with two other good destinations of the Peruvian Amazon: Manu and Iquitos.

We will help you to understand all of it on this one page.

What is Tambopata?

Most people know Tambopata because of the Tambopata River and the huge Tambopata National Reserve that protects it. Tambopata is also one of the provinces of the Amazonian state of Madre de Dios (or “Mother of God”). We will, however, refer to the Tambopata National Reserve when we say “Tambopata” in this article.

Tambopata harbors some of the most biodiverse rainforest in the country (and possibly the entire Amazon basin), huge protected areas, and is home to several thousand people. Remote, wild, but still easily accessible, this contrasting combination has helped it to become one of the global hotspots for ecotourism.

Tambopata’s biggest city is Puerto Maldonado, and that’s where most travelers fly to begin their jungle trip. Best of all, Tambopata is right next to several other rainforest reserves, including Bahuaja Sonene National Park.

You get a hint of why Tambopata is such a wild area just before you land at the Puerto Maldonado airport. At the end of a quick flight to Tambopata from Lima or Cuzco, a sprawling carpet of jade green comes into view and stretches to the horizon. There are a few farms, a couple of roads, and the city of Puerto Maldonado is visible but these are still dwarfed by the sea of Amazon rainforest that marches into the distance. Meandering, coffee-colored rivers weave their way through the green. Massive, old-growth Ceibas and other rainforest giants emerge from a 90-foot-high canopy. Hidden beneath the trees are troops of monkeys, toucans, brilliantly colored macaws, and even jaguars. You never know what you are going to encounter in the rainforests of Tambopata but that view from the plane promises adventure and a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

A Brief History of Tambopata

“Tambopata” is derived from two Quechua words that mean “inn” or “place of accommodation” (tambo) and “high point” (pata). The reason why the rather flat, lowland rainforests of Tambopata received this name is not forthcoming but may reflect Andean foothill areas of Tambopata that were visited by Incan peoples. Despite its Quechua name, the region wasn’t really used by the Incans for much of their history. Tambopata was first settled thousands of years ago by indigenous, Amazonian ethnies such as the Ese’Eja. Living in small villages, they cultivated yuca and hunted in the surrounding forests. The plants of the rainforests also provided them with building materials and a wide variety of medicine.

During the Spanish colonial period, access to the Tambopata region was so difficult that it was largely ignored and left to its own devices. This changed at the beginning of the twentieth century during the Peruvian rubber boom. As people from outside the region searched Tambopata and many other areas in southeastern Peru for rubber trees, they frequently came into conflict with indigenous groups. Many locals were enslaved and perished from diseases brought by the new colonists. Although the rubber boom didn’t last that long, it made a big impact on indigenous groups of the Tambopata region and their populations declined as a result.

What can I see in Tambopata?

When travelers come to Tambopata, they usually visit the Tambopata National Reserve and the areas around it. The reserve is enormous, protecting 274,690 hectares (1,061 square miles) of pristine wilderness. To give you a sense of just how big that is, it’s about the size of the iconic Yosemite National Park in the United States. It contains great habitat diversity, from old-growth Amazonian rainforest to bamboo groves, from floodplains and wetlands to oxbow lakes to palm swamps.

Thanks to this variety of well-preserved habitats, Tambopata is one of the most biodiverse areas in the world. There are more than 1,000 species of butterflies, 100 species of mammals, 600 species of birds, and hundreds of species of trees and plants! During your visit, you’re likely to see Monkeys, Parrots and Macaws, Caiman, Toucans, and much more.

chuncho clay lick by paul bertner

Macaw clay lick in the Tambopata National Reserve by Paul Bertner

Who lives in Tambopata?

Tambopata is the home of the Ese Eja People, an indigenous nation that has lived in the rainforest region for many years. “Ese Eja” literally means people. There are three Ese Eja native communities around the Tambopata National Reserve: Infierno (about 200 families), Palma Real (about 50 families), and Sonene (about 20 families). Rainforest Expeditions has collaborated with the Ese Eja community in Infierno for over two decades, working on nature and heritage preservation projects together, and jointly running the Posada Amazonas lodge.

Traditionally, the Ese Eja are hunters, fishermen, and farmers, although many families now have commercial or tourism connections as well. Today, tourism and Brazil nut gathering (a sustainable type of food production) are the two principal economic activities within the Tambopata National Reserve. In the areas around the reserve, farming tropical foods like papaya, pineapple, and cacao is more common. While tourism has grown in Tambopata in recent years, the region and reserve are so large that it’s never crowded, providing an intimate, still deeply wild experience.

Tambopata is now one of the principal tourist destinations in Peru but because of its huge size, it is not crowded. If you like or love nature then Tambopata is for you.

More on the Tambopata National Reserve and Puerto Maldonado– including a map.

How to Get to Tambopata

To get to the Tambopata National Reserve you first need to go to Puerto Maldonado. Puerto Maldonado is the gateway city to the reserve and the capital of Madre de Dios. There are daily incoming flights to Puerto Maldonado. These flights arrive from Lima or Cuzco, at least three times a day.

The flights from Lima depart from Jorge Chavez Airport’s domestic flight terminal. Direct flights take about 1 hour and 40 minutes. There are flights from Cusco departing from the domestic terminal of the Velasco Astete airport. The trip might take from 3.5 hrs to 4.5 hrs as they stop over Lima.

*From June 1st, 2022, LATAM has 3 frequencies a week (Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday) from Cuzco to Puerto Maldonado with a duration of 45 minutes. Take note that this varies according to the airline.*

**We do not recommend arriving or departing to/from Puerto Maldonado by bus, as the highway is unsafe**

In Puerto Maldonado, Rainforest Expeditions and most lodge and tour operator companies will be waiting for you at the airport arrivals terminal. From there, you hop on a bus for a quick stop at headquarters before continuing to the river ports. Once at the port, you will board boats to continue to the lodges. Lodges are 1 to 4 hours away by boat from the port. Keep in mind: the longer you go, the better the wildlife.

Boat schedules are designed to meet incoming and departing flights but you should not arrive after 1500 because then you may have to travel by boat in the dark, before getting to your lodge. Boat rides are great. You will probably see Capybara and caiman on the Tambopata River and with lots of luck a jaguar!

More on Getting to Tambopata, including a list of lodges, distances, and travel times to each one.

When to travel to Tambopata?

Tambopata is slightly seasonal – although nothing like the temperate zone. Although it can rain at any time of the year, Tambopata is drier from April to November, when the rains stop and start, respectively. The rainiest months are January and February, but even then you are rarely rained out.

The pros of visiting in the dry season are that there is very little chance your activities will be affected by rain.

The pros of visiting in the rainy season are that macaws are more active on the clay licks and they are nesting. If you are into macaws, come between December and February when nesting season is in full fledge.

What to do in Tambopata?

This is a key question- no one goes to the Amazon to stay inside the lodge. The vast majority of lodge and tour operators include activities in their per-night fees. In Tambopata, you don´t wake up and choose a path to take (that is for Paris!). Nor do you sit back and do nothing (that is for Cancun!). Nor do you have a single trail you follow to reach a destination (that is for the Inka Trail!). Every day, in Tambopata, your operator offers a variety of curated activities you can choose from, and most of them should be included in your fee.

There are many activities. But you should at least stay three nights so you can do:

Boat or canoe around oxbow lakes.
Canopy tower or walkway.
Clay licks.

For a complete list of all activities and the lodges that do them, click here.

Biodiversity of Tambopata

The lowland forests and tropical savannahs of Tambopata are some of the most biodiverse areas on the globe.

Birds: 670 bird species have been identified, including the Harpy Eagle, a large, rare raptor that preys on monkeys and sloths, the strange Hoatzin, and eight macaw species (six of which can be seen at the Tambopata Research Center clay lick).
Mammals: 200 species, including healthy populations of Jaguar, Giant Anteater, Amazonian Tapir, and, in the savannah habitats of the Rio Heath, the Maned Wolf.
Reptiles and Amphibians: 210 species, including several species of tree frogs, the colorful Tambopata Poison Frog, and the beautiful Rainbow Boa.
Insects and other arthropods: The number of species of insects and spiders that live in the rainforests of Tambopata number in the thousands. Many are expected to be species unknown to science.
Trees and plants: Over 10,000 species of plants have been identified in Tambopata, Peru, making it one of the highest areas for plant diversity on the planet. A few of the more noteworthy plants are the Brazil Nut Tree, the huge Ceiba, and quick-growing Balsa trees.

Wildlife Sighting when you travel to Tambopata

There are over 1000 possible species sightings of mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians in Tambopata.

Here we will briefly describe our guests’ favorite wildlife sightings.

Tambopata Lodges and Tours

In Tambopata, all lodges have a tour operator to go with it. That means lodges will have boats to take you to the lodges, they will have guides to escort your activities and they are responsible for everything from when they pick you up to the airport to getting you back there. However, there are some tour operators that don’t have lodges. We will not focus on tour operators here. We will only focus on lodges.

How do you know if your lodge is good? Is it clean? Is the food good? Are the trucks and boats on time? Is the staff friendly? Let visitors who have already been there help you out with their voices. For any questions focusing on the actual service, Trip Advisor is your best bet.

You probably already know this but Trip Advisor (www.tripadvisor.com) is the world´s largest travel review site. Find the destination you´re looking to go to and check out the best-ranked hotels. Before getting started, you should know a few things about Trip Advisor destinations and hotel ratings.

Destinations in Trip Advisor are defined by the users, not by an expert. So, one destination might have two different names for it. For example, lodges around the Tambopata National Reserve can be found in the Puerto Maldonado destination and the Tambopata section. Also, profiles are classified as:

(1) Hotels
(2) Bed and breakfasts and
(3) Specialty lodgings.

Again, profiles land in one of the three categories often because a user classified them as such. Tambopata lodges have been classified into all three categories. Trip Advisor ratings are straightforward, but rankings are not. What makes properties No 1, No 2, and No 3 in a destination is part of Trip Advisors’ secret sauce and is therefore unknown to everybody but it has to do with the number of stars on the rating. It probably also includes the number of ratings (100 ratings is more robust than 1 rating), and the timeliness of the ratings (3 bad ratings in the last month might trump 10 good ratings from last year). Who knows what else it includes? On the other hand, ratings are straightforward – people give a lodge operator one to five bubbles.

What to Pack on a Trip to Tambopata

Here are some suggestions:

Binoculars
Camera gear, bring your long lens!
Tight-weave, light-colored, long cotton pants
Long-sleeved, tight-weave, light-colored cotton shirts
Ankle-high hiking boots and sneakers
Flashlight (headlamp) with batteries
Sunblock lotion
Sunglasses
Broad-brimmed hat
Rain suit or poncho
Insect repellent
Small-denomination bills
Small daypack
Slippers or sandals for walking around the lodges.
Most lodges, including all Rainforest Expeditions lodges, loan rubber boots so that you don’t have to bring them.

Yup, there was a lot of information, but maybe for now you have all more clear and you’re ready to plan your next adventure to the Peruvian Amazon jungle. So let our Rainforest Specialist find the right one for you.