10-Day Manú National Park Tour from Cusco with Matsiguenka Visit

• Set out on a journey through remote highland scenery and isolated Quechua communities to the pass of Acjanaco, the entry point of Manu National Park.
• From here, begin your descent into the cloud forest, enjoying the marvellous scenery and exotic flora along the way. Look out for exotic birds, butterflies, and insects.
• In the afternoon, reach Atalaya, from where a motorized dugout canoe will take you across the river to the lodge.

• After an early breakfast, climb a trail leading into the montane forest to a watchtower, which affords splendid views over the river. If you are lucky, you may also spot interesting birds from here, such as squirrel cuckoos, cotingas, tityras, flower piercers, and more tanagers.
• In the afternoon, explore more of the lowland trails around the lodge, hoping to spot monkeys, toucans, guans, caracaras, tinamous, or perhaps agoutis and capybaras.
• At a small oxbow lake, watch the weird and wonderful hoatzin, as well as egrets, herons, kingfishers, and raptors. If lucky, you may even sight black caimans. Watch out for squirrel monkeys, Dusky Titi monkeys, and capuchins.
• After dark, go on a short night walk to spot amphibians, insects, or night monkeys.

• Travel down the Upper Madre de Dios River to its confluence with the Manu River. Briefly visit the settlement of Boca Manu.

• Begin your journey up the Manu River with the first light of day. This journey offers the maximum chance for sightings of rare animals, such as black and white caimans, side-neck turtles, different species of monkeys, capybaras, jabirus, wood storks, black skimmers, sand-coloured nighthawks, and many other animals.
• Arrive at the lodge, then pass by the Matsiguenka tribe in the afternoon.
• Hopefully, visit Lake Salvador, one of the oxbow lakes deep inside Manu Park. If lucky, you might be able to sight a family of giant otters, as well as black caimans, Neotropic cormorants, Muscovy ducks, green ibis, and many other animals.

• Wake up to the sound of red howler monkeys in the morning. Return to Lake Salvador, where you will use a catamaran to get a closer look at the wildlife there. Sometimes, you can spot giant otters fishing, eating, and playing from a short distance. You may also see horned screamers, hoatzins, limpkins, capped herons, wattled jacanas, purple gallinules, and the rare and shy Agami Herons.
• Later, walk the trails to look for spider monkeys, squirrel monkeys, or tamarins.

• Visit Lake Otorongo, another oxbow lake, where you will have another chance to watch giant otters from a watchtower. In this area, there are woolly monkeys as well. With a little luck, you might see several different species of monkey.
• Spend the rest of the day exploring different trails, looking out for wild animals and learning about the different uses of various plants.
• In the afternoon, participate in a shooting contest with the Matsiguenka. You will be shooting papayas with bows and arrows.

• Begin your return journey down the Manu River. Use this opportunity to look out once again for typical riverine animals such as caimans, capybaras, or roseate spoonbills. If extremely lucky, you may even spot a jaguar, an anteater, or a tapir!
• Spend the night at a lodge on the Upper Madre de Dios River. If time allows, you may explore the trails there and look out for more red howler monkeys and other animals.

Travel back to the cloud forest to spend another night and get another chance to sight animals endemic to this habitat, such as the quetzal, highland motmot, green jay, Andean cock-of-the-rock, cinnamon flycatcher, and many other species.

• Wake up before dawn and walk to a nearby lake to watch the noisy display of the male cock-of-the-rocks.
• After a hearty breakfast, explore the surroundings and watch out for woolly monkeys, torrent ducks, white-capped dippers, oropendolas, and colourful tanagers before starting the return journey to Cusco.

• Set out on your way back home.