[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDR6E9hCUjY&w=640&h=480]
Adventure Life travelers, Greg and Bridget Litten, share with us a bit of their Amazon adventures in Peru's Tambopata National Reserve.
The Tambopata National Reserve (TNR) is part of a 3.7 million acre reserve in southeastern Amazonian Peru. It protects the biological diversity of the entire watersheds of the Tavara and the Candamo Rivers and most of the watershed of the Tambopata River. The motivations and the design of the TNR includes a philosophy of sustainable development and conservation of forest resources. And as such, TNR supports environmentally friendly Amazon tours to help generate valuable profits for the reserve. It gives visitors the chance to become life-long advocates for Amazon conservation, by seeing, touching, smelling, tasting and learning for themselves why this delicate environment is so important to protect. A philosophy certainly after my own heart...
Scarlet Macaws at Tambopata
Over 1,300 bird species (including 32 parrot species - 10% of the world's total), 200 mammal species, 90 frog species, 1,200 butterfly species and 10,000 species of higher plants are protected within this reserve.The TNR protects habitats from the Andean highlands around the rivers' headwaters through some of the last remaining intact cloud forests to the lowland rainforests of the Amazon basin.
The trip was not only memorable for the amount of animals we saw but also for the people and accommodations at the two camps where we stayed. Our first guide, BK, was a wealth of information about the animals, landscape and down to the plants and what they were used for. Everyday out was a learning experience with him. All the people at the camps were gracious and the food was excellent.
Our second camp in the Okavanga was just as good as the first as far as the staff, accommodations, food and animals. After our experience at the first camp we amazed that the high quality remained the same. Our guide, G, made sure we were able to enjoy every experience including a rush through the bush to witness a cheetah and an ensuing hunt that he heard over his radio.
In both camps there were enough guides out that if they saw something the other guides were informed which helped in seeing as much as possible. It was also nice that the concessions were large enough that we did not have vehicles following each other throughout the day.
Normally there is always something in a trip of this length that we think could be improved upon but this is the rare case where we cannot think of anything. From the time we left the States to when we returned it was one of the most hassle free vacations we took.
Perhaps emphasizing the use of the laundry facilities at the camps would be useful because of the luggage restrictions would be the only thing I can think of as an improvement to future clients.
Kenneth Dropek
1 day ago
Mary was so pleasant and professional. She made sure all of our questions were answered.
