a week in the peruvian jungle

a spider monkey perched in the tambopata jungle

One thing that we knew that we wanted to do in Peru is visit the jungle!  There are three main places where tourists go: Manu, Iquitos and Tambopata.  We decided on Tambopata and booked a six day, five night trip with Rainforest Expeditions.  It was absolutely incredible – and we’d recommend it to anyone.

We had Uriel as our trip leader, and although we might be biased, we think he is the best!  It was incredible to see how he could spot animals that were completely camouflaged and then someone describe to us how to see them.  We saw giant river otters, caimans, capybaras, a puma, seven species of monkeys, lots of species of birds, and all sorts of creepy-crawlers.  It was amazing!

First thing we saw when arriving in the jungle, were Spider Monkeys hanging out at the main office.  They’re so cute!!

Then, we got on the river and saw our first view of the capybara – the largest rodent in the world (I think):

We arrived to Posada Amazonas Lodge that evening and spent the night.  In the morning we woke up at 4:30am to head to a lake to seek out more wild life.  We saw lots of birds . . .


some bats . . .
beautiful butterflies . . .
giant river otters – eating fish – so cool!

We fished for piranas using cow meat…kind of crazy/scary, but pretty cool!

After the lake we got back on the boat for a 6 hour up-stream ride further into the heart of the jungle.  We eventually got to the TRC (Tambopata Research Center) where we would stay for three evenings.  On the way we saw . . .

(Notice the Caiman below the Vultures)

Okay, a really cool part – we saw some howler monkeys hanging out on the side of the river – they were kind of snacking on a clay lick.  But, when they saw our boat, they got scared so started climbing up the trees.  As they were climbing . . .

out jumped a puma that had been waiting for it’s attack.

We only saw it for a split second, but it was really cool – look at those claws!  Unfortunately or fortunately (depending on how you look at it), we did not get to see the puma catching the monkeys.

We arrived to TRC and a family of howler monkeys had decided to hang out near the lodge for the night.  They were really cute!


For the next two days, our schedule would mainly consist of walks into the jungle to see animals.  We saw a lot . . . little guys like this grasshopper . ..
medium sized guys like this Dusky Titi Monkey . . .

and this curious brown capuchin monkey

The second morning at the lodge we had some luck!  We headed out to the clay lick to watch the show of parrots and macaws coming to eat clay.  They say that the birds need to eat clay to balance the sodium in their diets as well as balance any harmful things they’ve eaten in the jungle.  But, it certainly is a performance.  They arrive and kind of wait for a leader to actually go down to the lick  . . .

Really cool.

Later on that day we went walking around on a near-by island and saw my favorite monkey – the Squirrel Monkey – SO CUTE!!

At night, Uriel took us on hikes to look for frogs and spiders.  It was great – but, I thought it was quite enough when at one point, we were almost knee deep in a pond and shining my headlamp over I saw the two red reflecting eyes of a caiman.  Kenzo said it was only a baby that was “more scared of us than we are of it” but still, come on.

Anyway, here are some of the night sightings we had:

a tarantula:

kenzo’s favorite – ants!

our last morning at TRC we saw this awesome moth just hanging out on a pair of someone’s boots.

We left TRC and headed to Refugio Amazonas Lodge for the last evening.  That night Uriel, Kenzo and I went out for another evening hike and caught site of the very elusive Night Monkey.  No photos to prove it because it was hard to get in focus.  But, it was great.

We LOVED our time in the jungle!  I will try to post a slideshow at some point but wanted to schedule this to go up while we’re on the Incan Trail!

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5 Responses to a week in the peruvian jungle

  1. Nadine says:

    Love your pictures and stories of your adventures. They are very intriguing! I think I’d be more scared of the spiders and creepy crawlers than the caiman! (-:

  2. jane m Whiteside says:

    Absolutely fascinating! So many darling monkeys and gorgeous
    birds and that moth! Wow, a puma too. Great job.

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  5. Rajesh Shetty says:

    awesome blog Janie!

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