Family Rainforest Expedition in Peru

Reviews of this experience

1. Getting to Refugio Amazonas from the airport at Puerto Maldonado involved a slow, bumpy hourlong bus ride to a sweltering jungle outpost aptly named Infierno, where we transferred into 55-foot-long motor boats that resembled hollowed-out bananas. The 2 1/2-hour ride upriver instantly oriented us to our new environment. Sixto pointed excitedly to a black caiman, an endangered reptile that resembles an alligator, sunning itself on the riverbank. We drew in for a closer look, which prompted the fierce reptile to eye us warily and slither into the water, its eyes still trained on us like periscopes. Moments later, we were distracted by the primordial shriek of a scarlet macaw. Perched on a clay outcropping were two of the storybook birds with their coats of crimson, gold, and green. Our normally skeptical teenager took in nature's technicolor with disbelief. "Can you believe where we are?" she said

   Our boat finally pulled ashore at a set of wooden steps that rose up from the river. We had been hiking for 10 minutes when the lush green forest suddenly parted to reveal what looked like an enormous ship's prow cutting through the vegetation. This was Refugio Amazonas, a giant open-sided structure with a thatched roof and spacious two-story common area that included a bar, dining room, and hammock lounge. Our rooms had three bamboo-lined walls and beds draped with gauzy mosquito nets. The fourth wall was open to the rain forest. The bathrooms had running water and cold showers. Candles and kerosene lanterns provided our only light (the dining room has several hours of electricity each night where you can recharge camera batteries). We fell asleep that night to a thrilling cacophony made by howler monkeys, macaws, parrots, and crickets.

   The next morning, while Jasper (7) was helping to save the forest, (along a special children's rain forest trail created with help from a Peruvian nonprofit organization, ANIA, which aims to teach children about natural and cultural resources of the rain forest) Ariel (15) was out with another group climbing a 75-foot tree with ropes and a harness. Another day featured kayaking and fishing on the Tambopata, hiking a remote clay lick to observe macaws and parrots, and following Sixto as he showed us how he used rain forest plants as medicines. "I don't go to a pharmacy," he said, motioning to the dense growth around us. "I have all the medicine I need right here." He won over Ariel by curing her nagging stomachache with a potent tea he brewed from a forest vine.

   On our last morning, we climbed an 80-foot canopy tower to bird-watch with Sixto and take in the sunrise. Jasper and Ariel were glued to their binoculars as they took in the bird's-eye vantage point. Mist rose over the green carpet beneath us, and we peered into the tops of giant kapok trees. We spotted more birds in an hour than I had ever seen, including a toucan, tanager, parrots, macaws, and parakeets, to name a few. A full-throated symphony of birdsong rang out around us.
   (David Goodman, writing for the Boston Globe, August 2007)

   Boston-Globe reviewing Family Rainforest Expedition in Peru