Take the time to fully experience the rainforest
11 June 2022 (484 visits)In the company of our expert naturalist guides, it can take more than an hour to walk less than a mile on one of our forest trails. But that is not because the trail is difficult. It is because there is so much to appreciate along the way!
During their fully-escorted rainforest trail walks in the company of our guides, Tambopata Ecolodge guests are be invited to take all the time they need to fully experience the surrounding flora and fauna.
Guests are introduced to the giant kapok trees that dominate the forest, soaring beyond the enveloping canopy, and sacred to indigenous peoples throughout the Americas, from Central America and the Caribbean, all the way down to our own forests, in southeastern Peru. In addition to using its seeds, leaves, bark and sap in natural medicine, these peoples believe that its spirit contains all the wisdom of the forest.
Along the nature trails that we maintain in the forest, birds call and sing as they fly among trees hung with bromeliads and orchids, while the strange, grunting cries of howler monkeys can be heard from time to time in the distance.
Since we began our ecotourism-based conservation initiative, more than 30 years ago, from the very beginning our goal has been to protect these forests. We saw how rainforests throughout the Amazon were being devastated by illegal logging, agricultural conversion and small-scale gold mining, and our response was to build our eco-lodge and develop our own sustainable tourism strategy.
To this day, the forests beyond the land we have set aside for conservation, and beyond the borders of our neighbor, Tambopata National Reserve, continue to be decimated by multiple threats. But in our forests nature is able to thrive undisturbed, as we finance our ongoing efforts through our ecotourism activities, and remain constantly vigilant against any incursion into the forests that are our home.
In addition to the mighty kapok tree, several giant brazil nut trees are located along our trails. And in these forests were frequently seen fauna includes capuchin monkeys, agoutis, blue-morpho butterflies, trogons, toucans and many other bird species, other tree species include the extraordinary strangler fig.
This fiercely competitive tree begins its life high in the canopy, rather than in the ground. Dispersed by birds, its seeds become lodged in the cracks of a host tree, and feeding on nutrients from the air, water and surrounding organic debris, the strangler fig grows incredibly quickly, enveloping and eventually overwhelming its giant host tree.
At Tambopata Ecolodge, we live in one of the most biodiverse places on the planet, and when they visit us, we encourage our guests to trust in our naturalist guides as they immerse themselves, and learn more about, the countless expressions of teeming life that together form the Amazon basin, the world’s largest expanse of pristine tropical lowland forest.
