Leaving Cusco after breakfast around 7:00am we travel through traditional Quechua communities and through the spectacular eastern ranges of the Andes to the village of Paucartambo, passing snow-peaks and small Andean farmsteads. We will have time here to look around this picturesque village We then ascend to the last pass overlooking the Amazon Basin and begin the breath taking descent from 3500 meters to 1600 meters above sea-level to our comfortable lodge in the orchid laden Cloud Forest. This is a spectacular journey passing cascading waterfalls and multicolored birds along the way. In the late afternoon, we'll walk into the lodge to the sounds of Quetzals, Trogons and Gray-breasted Wood-Wrens. Night at Cock-of-the-Rock Lodge. L:D

Pre-breakfast walk to a nearby spot in the Cloud Forest where the strange and beautiful Cocks-of-the-Rock display at dawn. This is a wonderful sight, as up to 25 bright red-orange males dance and sing,attempting to attract the favors of the duller, burgundy colored females. After visiting this lek we return to the Lodge for a leisurely breakfast and continue in our all terrain bus to the Madre de Dios River and our motorized dugouts and we begin our journey down the river, past the last folds of the Andes down the Madre de Dios River to it's confluence with the Manu River. We’ll pass settlements and native communities during the trip. Just before we get to the village of Boca Manu we pass the native community of Diamante. Their culture is Piro and this is the largest settlement of Amerindians in the area. We turn up the Manu River leaving the relatively clean waters of the Madre de Dios behind; we enter the clay laden waters of the Manu River. We’ll at the park ranger station at Limonal to present our permits and visit an overgrown oxbow lake where many Parrots and Macaws come in to roost we travel another hour to our destination Manu Wildlife Centre Lodge. We should arrive in time for lunch and a shower (hot water) and get to meet whichever researchers are onsite. The afternoon is set aside to relax or, if you want, to explore a trail through the untouched forest to a lookout point on a cliff over the river to watch roosting flights of Parrots and Macaws as the sun sets. Manu Wildlife Center has a canopy platform and an observation tower B:L:D

Early start to-day for the Macaw Clay Lick. This is truly one of the world’s great wildlife spectacles as hundreds of Parrots and their larger relatives, the Macaws, congregate at this traditional locality to eat the mineral rich clay that is essential to their digestion. We'll use a comfortable blind (hide) to get close to the birds and breakfast will be served. The noise alone is incredible and the sight of these brightly colored birds at the lick is a sight not to be forgotten. As the lick slows down in midmorning we'll head back to the lodge for lunch and a siesta before an afternoon excursion for those who wish perhaps to the canopy tower or along quite rails looking for primates. Such as Emperor and Saddleback Tamarins, and we have seen the rare Goeldi's Monkey repeatedly in this area. Night at the Manu Wildlife Center B:L:D

A full day to explore the forest and trails around the lodge. We'll be on the lookout for Monk Saki - an uncommon and rarely seen monkey of the tierra firme forest that is occasionally seen here. We'll explore trails where groups of Manakins, perhaps the most enigmatic of neo-tropical birds, perform their strange mating dances and walk to one of our blinds at a large mammal lick where Guans and forest Parakeets and Parrotlets come for clay. Here too, groups of Black Spider Monkeys visit on occasions for clay to help their digestion. Those who wish will return with the guide to the lodge in the late afternoon however there is an opportunity to stay at the lick after dark to see what nocturnal creatures come to the lick. Tapirs, the largest South American land mammal are frequent visitors with up to 12 animals visiting in one night. We watch them from the comfort of mosquito nets and mattresses from our specially constructed blind. Other nocturnal creatures are always possible. At some porint we'll head for Cocha Blanco, an old ox-bow lake, in search of a family of Giant Otters that live there, and canoe around the lake on our floating platform looking for other wildlife, including the bizarre Hoatzin. After a leisurely lunch at the lodge we'll explore other trails and perhaps enjoy a last rainforest sunset. Night at the Manu Wildlife Center B:L:D

Early morning start as flocks of birds pass over the boat, and we may see a Capybara, the world’s largest rodent. Our destination Boca Colorado, a frontier gold rush town, where we’ll take local transport for an hour to the Inambari river and by paved road to Puerto Maldonado in order to catch the afternoon Airbus flight to Cusco. On arrival at around 3:00pm we’ll drop you at your hotel B:L