Guided by the Ese Eja: Tracking Giant Otters and Embracing Citizen Science in Tambopata
-
Click here to listen to this article - Share via
- Deep in Peru’s Tambopata National Reserve, travelers trade typical jungle tours for citizen science, helping discover and even name new species alongside Indigenous Ese Eja guides.
- Guests set up camera traps, record monkey calls and scour night trails for moths, then watch pumas, jaguars and giant otters appear on screen or at remote oxbow lakes and clay licks.
- Far from roughing it, open-air lodges offer hot showers, Wi-Fi and lectures by resident researchers, reachable from LAX via connecting flights through Lima to Puerto Maldonado.
It’s well after sunset in the Peruvian jungle, along a muddy jungle trail near Posada Amazonas Lodge, the hum of cicadas all around and my camera ready for whatever I might come across in the dark.
Most people might assume that I’m hoping for a close encounter of the jaguar kind or a photo op with one of the other creatures that inhabit the Amazon night.
But I’m actually searching for moths. Those tiny, winged things that buzz around our patio lights and occasionally smack us in the face. There are literally tens of thousands of moth species in the Amazon, and they’re discovering new ones all the time.
Which is why I’m out here searching in the dark. If I can capture a brand new moth species, I have naming rights. In the same vein as those who discover a new star, I can call it just about anything I want (and science can’t object).
It’s all part of the citizen science program at the three Rainforest Expeditions lodges inside Tambopata National Reserve in southeast Peru.
Since the new species program kicked off in 2016, citizen scientists have discovered 14 new species of tiger moths, as well as previously unknown leafhoppers, wasp scorpions and spiders. Most of the time they name the newly found creature after themselves or their family. Although at least one was christened Mnioes attenboroughi Alvarado after the famed British naturalist, David Attenborough.
Moving on to another Rainforest Expeditions lodge even deeper in the rainforest, I joined two other citizen science experiences.
The “8 Primates” project entailed walking slowly through the jungle with headphones and a handheld parabolic dish to record noises made by the eight monkey and tamarin species that inhabit the reserve. And I helped place a critter cam along a jungle path near the lodge. Reviewing the footage, it was incredible to see what walked down the trail that night, animals you never see in the daytime including a puma, ocelot spotted cat, jaguarundi and red brocket deer.
Not Exactly “Roughing It” in the Rainforest
Founded in the 1990s, Rainforest Expeditions was a pioneer of ecotourism and indigenous cultural preservation in a pristine portion of the Peruvian Amazon near the border with Bolivia.
Their three lodges are strung along the Río Tambopata, a distant tributary of the Amazon River that starts its journey in the Andes highlands near Lake Titicaca. A fourth lodge is currently under construction and due to open next year. I spent two nights at Posada Amazonas Lodge and another two at Tambopata Research Center (TRC) Lodge.
Getting to the national reserve entails a 90-minute flight from Lima over the crest of the Andes to Puerto Maldonado, followed by a one-hour bus ride to a riverside landing, and then an upriver boat journey that takes anywhere from two to four hours depending on which of the three lodges you’re staying at.
In other words, a very long day. Without knowing what’s at the other end.
On previous trips to the Amazon, I’d slept in a small camping tent, a hammock strung beneath a thatched roof and a rustic lodge with bunk beds and a cold-water shower. All of those were incredible experiences. But Posada Amazonas Lodge was a total shock. In a good way, because it delivers an Amazon experience that I hadn’t imagined was possible.
It started with the guest rooms. They’re open-air on one side so you can hear the exotic sounds of the jungle outside. Each of the queen-sized beds comes with its own mosquito net, which is standard in just about every Amazon lodge no matter how many stars it might boast. But inside my net-covered sleeping area were three incredible amenities: a reading light, a personal fan and an outlet to recharge smartphones or other electronic devices.
In one corner was a mini fridge stocked with beer and soft drinks, plenty of filtered drinking water and lots of space to unpack and arrange my clothes. The bathroom boasted a hot-water shower which you might end up sharing with a (harmless) jungle critter, in my case a Goliath tree frog that liked to hang out around my towel rack.
)
Meals were served buffet-style, normally a combination of international favorites and traditional local dishes like lomo saltado beef, chicharrón pork, pollo a la criolla, Peruvian-style ceviche, potatoes and quinoa from the Andes, and loads of fresh tropical fruit.
Dinner was always followed by at least two activities: a lecture by one of the resident scientists or researchers and forays into the rainforest in search of moths and other night creatures — snakes, spiders, leaf-cutter ants, small nocturnal mammals. Or you could just hang in the bar and swap jungle stories with other guests, my chosen activity on several occasions.
The lodge Wi-Fi was the best I’ve ever had in a remote location, and it even extended to the river boats, each of them equipped with a Starlink dish. At one point, I was able to live stream a group of riverside capybaras to my family back home (my kids adore capybaras).
You didn’t have to venture far from the lodges for wildlife experiences. Cute little saddleback tamarins and Toppin’s titi monkeys were regular visitors to the trees outside the main entrance to Posada Amazonas. At TRC Lodge, there were parrot nests in some of the big trees outside as well as a cheeky scarlet macaw who liked to hang out on the bar during the middle of the day.
Welcome to the Jungle
The citizen science stuff was way cool. But the real adventure came during the daylight hours on either boat or foot trips away from the lodges. Both of my guides — Jaer and Juan Carlos — were members of the local Ese Eja Native Community of Infierno, as were many of the other lodge staff and national park rangers we met along the way. Their knowledge of the Tambopata rainforest and its wildlife seemed infinite.
Posada Amazonas Lodge lies near an oxbow lake that’s become a habitat for all sorts of creatures. Getting there required a short boat ride and half-hour jungle walk to a dock where we boarded a funky, open-topped watercraft propelled by an oar-like rudder that could have passed for a Huck Finn raft on the Mississippi.
There was lots of interesting birdlife, from capped herons hiding in the lakeshore reeds and oropendolas that weave basketlike nests in the tree branches, to prehistoric-looking hoatzins with blue faces and orange mohawks.
Eventually we spotted something approaching rapidly from the far end of the lake – a family of giant otters bobbing up and down in the water as they hunted piranhas. They came right up beside our raft, gave us a curious look and continued with breakfast.
In the late afternoon, we hiked a short trail to a steel observation tower that shoots through the rainforest canopy to a height of 120 feet — the tallest vantage point in Tambopata. Climbing to the top is a little gnarly, but the payoff is an unobstructed view across miles and miles of Amazon. Adept at spotting aerial life, the guides pointed to macaws, toucans and other feathered friends. Last but not least came a spectacular sunset over the Río Tambopata.
The big outing at Tambopata Research Center was an early morning boat ride to a clay lick where various bird species gather each day to feast on the salt and other minerals embedded in a riverside cliff. After al fresco breakfast on the beach, we settled into camp chairs a safe distance from the lick (so as not to dissuade or disturb the birds) and waited for the show to begin.
The first to arrive were swarms of blue-headed parrots. They were relaxed, happy to peck away at the lick, until the appearance of a few scarlet macaws who began to circle in a menacing manner. Deferring to the larger, more aggressive birds, the parrots cleared off and dozens of macaws began to arrive, always in male-female pairs. We watched through binoculars and spotting scopes until the midday heat was finally too much to bear.
Nuts & Bolts
Rainforest Expeditions offers all-inclusive packages that include all three or just one of their lodges in Tambopata National Reserve. The price includes accommodation, meals, guides and transportation to/from Puerto Maldonado airport.
COPA flies multiple times each week from LAX or San Diego to Lima, via the brand new airport in Panama City. From Lima, LATAM offers several daily services to Puerto Maldonado.
