Heath River Wildlife Center – Two Ecosystems: Rainforest and Savannah

DAY 1: Puerto Maldonado to Heath River Wildlife Center

Staff welcome you at Puerto Maldonado airport and we drive through this bustling Upper Amazon Basin city to the Tambopata River boat dock. Here we board a powerful motorized dugout canoe and set off to the nearby confluence of the mighty Madre de Dios River, where we head downstream for approximately three hours to the Peru-Bolivia border at the mouth of the remote Heath River.

Even beneath the vast sky of this major Amazon tributary we glimpse the diversity of the riverine environment, with its forest-capped red-earth cliffs, alternating with low banks thick with Cecropia trees and giant grasses. Now, after brief frontier-crossing formalities, you motor for about two more hours up narrower and wilder waters, suddenly enjoying the intimacy of mysterious forest looming close on either side.

Occasional views of native villages and children splashing by the banks, are interspersed with long, quiet stretches where we may spot herons, hawks, cormorants, Orinoco Geese, and perhaps a family of capybaras — the world’s largest rodent, weighing up to 55 kg./120 lb, and looking like an enormous Guinea Pig. We reach our simple, charming and comfortable quarters at the Heath River Wildlife Center in time for dinner.

* Please note: the lodge is located on the Bolivian shore of the Heath River, so passports are required to clear Bolivian passport control.

DAY 2: Heath River Wildlife Center

Today you make an early start to visit the lodge’s most spectacular feature: the Heath River parrot and macaw lick. Here these colorful birds gather to eat a type of clay from the cliff-like river banks that neutralizes certain toxins in their diet. They congregate early each morning, sometimes by the hundreds, jostling and squabbling over the best eating spots on the clay lick.

This noisy and unforgettable show can go on for two or three hours, and may begin with up to five species of parrot and two varieties of parakeet, followed by Chestnut-fronted macaws and their larger, more boisterous cousins, the Red-and-green macaws. This extraordinary wildlife display occurs at only a handful of sites in the Upper Amazon Basin, and nowhere else on the planet.

Our floating hide platform provides comfort and complete concealment, so that we can eat a full breakfast here during pauses in the bankside spectacle.

On the return you can land partway downriver and walk back along a section of the lodge’s extensive network of forest trails. You encounter numerous gigantic Brazil-nut, kapok and fig trees, along with the scary strangler fig, whose life strategy is as sinister as its name suggests.

Your guide will point out and explain the medicinal and commercial uses of dozens of plants and trees, while you keep your eyes and ears open for birds, or one of the eight species of monkeys found in this region. We might come upon a small herd of White-lipped or Collared peccary — two kinds of wild pig that are quite common in this area. For purposes of territorial marking they deploy a “stink gland” so potent that they are often smelled long before they are seen.

After lunch we typically hike along a major trail to a point where the forest abruptly gives way to the spacious plains of the Pampas del Heath, part of Bolivia’s Madidi National Park. This unique environment — the result of very poor soils, plus an extreme seasonal cycle of dryness and flooding — is the largest remaining undisturbed tropical savannah in the Amazon, and is home to rare endemic birds and mammals, such as the Swallow-tailed hummingbird and the highly endangered Maned wolf. Shortly beyond the edge of the forest you can climb a raised platform that allows you a grand view of this vast expanse of grassland and shrub, studded with palm trees.

You can continue another hour or so to a swampy area thick with Mauritia flexuosa palm trees, whose oil-rich palm nuts and hollowed-out dead palms provide vitally important food and shelter for nesting pairs of Red-bellied and increasingly rare Blue-and-yellow macaws. You will aim to arrive toward dusk, when the macaws are returning from their day’s foraging to congregate in this very special breeding site.

You return to the lodge by night, using our flashlights, and perhaps pausing here and there in total darkness, to listen to the ever-changing orchestra of animals, frogs and insects, and to experience the magic of the night-time rainforest. You may come upon such bizarre nocturnal creatures as camouflaged frogs disguised as dead leaves, toads the size of rabbits, hairy tarantulas peering out of their dirt holes, night monkeys lurking among the tree branches, and an unpredictable array of other nightlife.

After dinner some guests may choose to visit one of our mammal lick hides, in hopes of seeing a Lowland tapir, the rainforest’s largest mammal. Hardy adventurers can choose to camp here with their guide, in order to experience a full night in the heart of the rainforest and increase their chances of a major wildlife sighting.

DAY 3: Heath River Wildlife Center

Your second full day at the lodge allows you to choose from a wide range of activities available in this exceptionally diverse tropical environment. Many people choose to make a second visit to the macaw clay lick. Later you can take a canoe tour around Cocha Moa, an oxbow lake that lies a short way downstream from the lodge.

The reeds, fallen trees and forested shoreline of this lake teem with birds and other wildlife. Red Howler monkeys may peer at us through the branches of the giant trees above us, while herons lie in wait among the fallen trees, cormorant-like Anhingas watch from the forest branches, and an Osprey may circle overhead. Flocks of brilliant Red-capped cardinals gather on dead branches, and a colorful, primitive bird, the Hoatzin, hops its ungainly way along the swampy water’s edge.

After dinner you can board the canoe once more, for an evening of spotting for caiman, the Amazonian cousin of the alligator. This region is home to the endangered black caiman, and you nearly always pick out a few with our powerful spotlight as we patrol the river.

DAY 4: Heath River Wildlife Center to Puerto Maldonado and Cusco or Lima

You leave at dawn for the return trip downstream. This is peak hour for wildlife so you keep a sharp eye on the riverbanks, often spotting families of capybara, and perhaps being rewarded with a rare jaguar sighting, or a tapir swimming across the current. You reach the Madre de Dios River, re-enter Peru, and set off upstream for Puerto Maldonado, where you are transferred to the airport for your flight to Cusco or Lima.

DAY 1: Puerto Maldonado to Heath River Wildlife Center

Our staff welcomes you at Puerto Maldonado airport and you drive through this bustling Upper Amazon Basin city to the Tambopata River boat dock. Here you board a powerful motorized dugout canoe and set off to the nearby confluence of the mighty Madre de Dios River, where you head downstream for approximately three hours to the Peru-Bolivia border at the mouth of the remote Heath River. Even beneath the vast sky of this major Amazon tributary we glimpse the diversity of the riverine environment, with its forest-capped red-earth cliffs, alternating with low banks thick with Cecropia trees and giant grasses.

Now, after brief frontier-crossing formalities, you motor for about two more hours up narrower and wilder waters, suddenly enjoying the intimacy of mysterious forest looming close on either side. Occasional views of native villages and children splashing by the banks, are interspersed with long, quiet stretches where you may spot herons, hawks, cormorants, Orinoco Geese, and perhaps a family of Capybaras — the world’s largest rodent, weighing up to 55kg./120lb, and looking like an enormous guinea pig.

We reach our simple, charming and comfortable quarters at the Heath River Wildlife Center in time for dinner.

* Please note: the lodge is located on the Bolivian shore of the Heath River, so passports are required to clear Bolivian passport control.

DAY 2: Heath River Wildlife Center

Today you make an early start to visit the lodge’s most spectacular feature: the Heath River parrot and macaw lick. Here these colorful birds gather to eat a type of clay from the cliff-like river banks that neutralizes certain toxins in their diet. They congregate early each morning, sometimes by the hundreds, jostling and squabbling over the best eating spots on the clay lick.

This noisy and unforgettable show can go on for two or three hours, and may begin with up to five species of parrot and two varieties of parakeet, followed by Chestnut-fronted macaws and their larger, more boisterous cousins, the Red-and-green macaws. This extraordinary wildlife display occurs at only a handful of sites in the Upper Amazon Basin, and nowhere else on the planet.

Our floating hide platform provides comfort and complete concealment, so that you can eat a full breakfast here during pauses in the bankside spectacle.

On our return you can land partway downriver and walk back along a section of the lodge’s extensive network of forest trails. You encounter numerous gigantic Brazil nut, kapok and fig trees, along with the scary strangler fig, whose life strategy is as sinister as its name suggests.

Your guide will point out and explain the medicinal and commercial uses of dozens of plants and trees, while you keep your eyes and ears open for birds, or one of the eight species of monkeys found in this region. You might come upon a small herd of White-lipped or Collared peccary — two kinds of wild pig that are quite common in this area. For purposes of territorial marking they deploy a “stink gland” so potent that they are often smelled long before they are seen.

After lunch you typically hike along a major trail to a point where the forest abruptly gives way to the spacious plains of the Pampas del Heath, part of Bolivia’s Madidi National Park. This unique environment — the result of very poor soils, plus an extreme seasonal cycle of dryness and flooding — is the largest remaining undisturbed tropical savannah in the Amazon, and is home to rare endemic birds and mammals, such as the Swallow-tailed Hummingbird and the highly endangered Maned Wolf. Shortly beyond the edge of the forest you can climb a raised platform that allows you a grand view of this vast expanse of grassland and shrub, studded with palm trees.

You can continue another hour or so to a swampy area thick with Mauritia flexuosa palm trees, whose oil-rich palm nuts and hollowed-out dead palms provide vitally important food and shelter for nesting pairs of Red-bellied and increasingly rare Blue-and-yellow macaws. You aim to arrive toward dusk, when the macaws are returning from their day’s foraging to congregate in this very special breeding site.

You return to the lodge by night, using our flashlights, and perhaps pausing here and there in total darkness, to listen to the ever-changing orchestra of animals, frogs and insects, and to experience the magic of the night-time rainforest. You may come upon such bizarre nocturnal creatures as camouflaged frogs disguised as dead leaves, toads the size of rabbits, hairy tarantulas peering out of their dirt holes, night monkeys lurking among the tree branches, and an unpredictable array of other nightlife.

After dinner some guests may choose to visit one of our mammal lick hides, in hopes of seeing a Lowland tapir, the rainforest’s largest mammal. Hardy adventurers can choose to camp here with their guide, in order to experience a full night in the heart of the rainforest and increase their chances of a major wildlife sighting.

DAY 3: Heath River Wildlife Center

Your second full day at the lodge allows you to choose from a wide range of activities available in this exceptionally diverse tropical environment. Many people choose to make a second visit to the macaw clay lick. Later you can take a canoe tour around Cocha Moa, an oxbow lake that lies a short way downstream from the lodge.

The reeds, fallen trees and forested shoreline of this lake teem with birds and other wildlife. Red Howler monkeys may peer at you through the branches of the giant trees above us, while herons lie in wait among the fallen trees, cormorant-like Anhingas watch from the forest branches, and an osprey may circle overhead. Flocks of brilliant Red-capped cardinals gather on dead branches, and a colorful, primitive bird, the Hoatzin, hops its ungainly way along the swampy water’s edge.

After dinner you can board your canoe once more, for an evening of spotting for caiman, the Amazonian cousin of the alligator. This region is home to the endangered black caiman, and you nearly always pick out a few with our powerful spotlight as you patrol the river.

DAY 4: Heath River Wildlife Center

Today you follow pathways new to you, and explore fresh areas along the lodge’s extensive network of forest trails, deepening your acquaintance with the forest and its ways, and searching for birds, mammals, and other creatures you may not yet have seen. Perhaps you will run across peccary for the first time, or add two or three species to our monkey list.

Your guides will point out new species of trees and plants, explaining their medicinal, commercial or ritual uses. Toward the end of the walk you will visit one of the lodge’s several mammal clay licks, which may provide a surprise encounter with a tapir, or a Red Brocket deer.

After lunch you plunge deeper into the wilderness, boating up the Heath River into areas that are completely unpopulated, and seldom visited by anyone except an occasional park ranger, and the indigenous Ese’Eja river people. This journey is always an adventure — especially in the dry season months of June through October, when the crew may frequently have to push the canoe across sandbanks and gravel shallows.

Wildlife spotting from the canoe is comfortable, effortless and productive, as many birds and animals patrol the river banks, and not infrequently swim across the river. Along with countless bird species, you usually spot families of capybara, the giant three-toed relative of the guinea pig, which can weighs up to 55kg./120 lbs., and is the world’s largest rodent. You may be even more successful after you reach the upper limits of canoe navigation, when you can turn the engine off for long spells and float soundlessly downriver, catching the forest wildlife unawares.

You return to the lodge for some leisure time before dinner. Later you have the option of a night trail walk in search of the numerous creatures, including frogs, toads, owls, nighthawks, spiders and night monkeys, that make the forest such a busy and different place during the night.

DAY 5: Heath River Wildlife Center to Puerto Maldonado and Cusco or Lima.

You leave at dawn for the return trip downstream. This is peak hour for wildlife so you keep a sharp eye on the riverbanks, often spotting families of capybara, and perhaps being rewarded with a rare jaguar sighting, or a tapir swimming across the current. You reach the Madre de Dios River, re-enter Peru, and set off upstream for Puerto Maldonado, where you are transferred to the airport for your flight to Cusco or Lima.