Topical Nature Lodges
A number of the Birthright Earth trips are run through our sister organization, Tropical Nature Travel. Tropical Nature Travel is the premier, South American eco-tourism company and has been in operation for over 15 years.
Tropical Nature Travel maintains ten eco-lodges spread throughout Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, and Ecuador. Each lodge has been strategically placed to allow for a rare view of South America’s flora and fauna and instant access to areas of severe deforestation. As a result of their engineering, the lodges leave almost no environmental footprint – they are built into the rain forest, not on top of it or in place of it.
Below are descriptions of each lodge, where you could be located during your Birthright Earth experience!
The Lodges
- Brazil
- Jaguar Research Center Lodge
The Jaguar Research Center is in the very heart of the Meeting of the Waters State Park. It is composed of five 12-by-14-foot, walk-in tents made of thick canvas. The roof of the tents reach more than 8 feet high, allowing even the tallest guests to walk around most of the tent. Each tent also features electric light, an electrical socket for charging cameras and other equipment (both 110 volt and 220 volts available), and a bathroom.
A small, well-equipped house boat is anchored in the Three Brothers River at the Jaguar Research Center and acts as kitchen, dining room, lounge, and electric generator to power the tents, which lie 100 yards away from the riverbank, in open forest on the edge of a large, African-like savannah. The boat has air conditioning in two private cabins, each with private bathrooms. The Jaguar Research Center is the only lodging in the core of this enormous jaguar preserve.
- Pantanal Research Center
The Pantanal Wildlife Center is an outstanding eco-lodge located 2.5 hours from the Cuiaba airport, on the banks of the wildlife rich Pixaim River. The Paxaim is the only navigable body of water on the Transpantaneria until its end at the Cuiaba River. The Pantanal Wildlife Center offers air conditioning rooms with private bathrooms. There is also wireless, high speed internet available at the lodge.
The Pantanal is a nature lover's delight as wildlife is seen in abundance. It is one of the largest wetlands in the world and contains wetlands, forest and savannahs. Large numbers of beautiful and rare birds, such as Hyacinth Macaws, are often viewed. Here one finds a succession of beautiful scenes: shallow lakes and bays dotted with birds such as jabirus and roseate spoonbills feeding peacefully on aquatic life. The wood ibis “tuiuiuis” are seen fishing along the riverbanks while big antlered deer and the world’s largest rodent, the capybara, wander through the marshes. There are also reptiles, fish and mammals, including Giant Otters. It is also one of the few locations in the world where you can see the shy 600-pound lowland Tapair, Latin America’s largest land animal.
- Pousadra Xaraes Lodge
In the heart of the Southern Pantanal, Pousada Xaraés shows off the spectacular wildlife of the world's largest freshwater wetland. The Lodge is part of a 10,400 acre cattle ranch and consists of 17 bedrooms, a dining room, sitting room with games area and bar, with a barbecue pit.
Travel professionals and researchers from the Tropical Nature system have spent a collective total of more than two years in the Pantanal, and we find June to be perhaps the most pleasant month in the Pantanal, while the shrinking ponds and rivers of the late dry season and early wet season (September through November) produce the worlds' most incredible concentrations of large water birds, caimans, and Capybaras as well as the best opportunities to spot all kinds of large mammals. Year round our trained bilingual naturalist guides lead daily wildlife viewing excursions.
- Jaguar Research Center Lodge
- Peru
- Manu Wildlife Center
The Manu Wildlife Center has developed a reputation as the lodge to visit in Peru to observe Amazonian wildlife. The lodge is located in the remote and biologically diverse Manu Wilderness. With the most photogenic macaw clay lick in Peru and the world's largest known tapir clay lick, it is not surprising that in its December 2002 review of the best lodges in the rainforest, Condé Nast Traveler calls the lodge "... hands down the most intense wildlife experience ... in Amazonia" with so much to see and do that "Manu Wildlife Center felt like a college seminar."
Situated on the east bank of the Madre de Dios River, Manu Wildlife Center's complex includes 22 bungalows, a dining room, and bar and lounge. The lodge is staffed principally by members of local communities, and also frequently hosts outside researchers and scientists who are always happy to discuss their findings with guests. The Center also supports the preservation of a 50-square-mile private, pristine rainforest reserve.
- Sandoval Lake Lodge
The Sandoval Lake Lodge is the only full-service lodge located in the wildlife-rich Tambopata National Reserve in Peru. With the variety of lake and forest fauna, it is easy to see how Sandoval Lake lodge was named by Condé Nast Traveler as one of the eight best lodges in the Amazon Basin with "... a reputation for its great food ... its setting ... and for its wildlife" (December 2002).
Situated on a bluff overlooking Sandoval Lake, this 25-room lodge is a partnership between Tropical Nature and five Brazil nut-gathering families. It was built to protect the Giant Otters and other endangered wildlife that inhabit the lake and surrounding forest.
In addition to the thrilling biodiversity on Sandoval Lake, no visit to the Lodge is complete without a guided hike on the 15 miles of rainforest trails. Expert naturalist guides bring the rainforest to life with vivid explanations of the ecology and natural history of the area as the trails are explored in search of the six species of monkeys and hundreds of species of birds that fill the forest.
Two wings stretch from a large central hall, one with ten double rooms and the other with 15 double rooms. These 25 rooms include private baths with hot water showers and flush toilets, screened windows and mosquito nets, electric lights, fan, and 200V outlet.
- Cock-of-the-Rock Lodge
The Cock-of-the-Rock Lodge is located in the pristine Manu cloud forest on the verdant eastern slopes of the Andes. Opened in 1997, it is named after the Andean Cock-of-the-Rock, Peru's large, bright-red national bird that puts on a colorful, noisy mating display adjacent to the lodge every morning. Spectacled Bears, Woolly Monkeys, Brown Capuchin Monkeys, quetzals and a host of other colorful birds inhabit the surrounding forest, and a bubbling mountain stream tumbles past the lodge.
Situated at an elevation of 5000 feet (1600 meters) in the cool, mosquito-free Kosñipata Valley close to the wild Cusco-Shintuya road, the lodge protects and supports a 12,500-acre private cloud forest reserve. It consists of 10 double-occupancy bungalows with private bath facilities, and a separate complex with a large dining room. A local highland family staffs the lodge, and they also work as rangers, patrolling the private reserve.
- Manu Wildlife Center
- Bolivia
- Heath River Wildlife Center
The Heath River Wildlife Center presents a unique opportunity for travelers to see a spectacular clay lick visited by vibrant macaws and parrots just a short boat ride from the lodge–and from civilization. No other clay lick in Peru offers such up-close viewing. Opened in 2004, the lodge is a partnership between Tropical Nature and a Bolivian conservation organization.
The Center's 10 private bungalows are located on the Bolivian bank of the secluded Heath River, which forms a border between Peru and Bolivia. Peru’s Bahuaje-Sonene National Park lies to the east, and to the south is Bolivia’s Madidi National Park. Trips to the Heath River Wildlife Center are normally combined with a stay at Sandoval Lake Lodge for some of the best value in wildlife viewing and an authentic rainforest adventure.
The private bungalows include spacious, well-appointed rooms, private bathrooms with hot water showers and flush toilets, screened windows, and mosquito nets.
- Heath River Wildlife Center
- Ecuador
- Yachana Lodge
In 1995, the Yachana Foundation constructed Yachana Lodge on the banks of the Napo River deep in the rain forest of the Ecuadorian Amazon. At Yachana Lodge all the income has been reinvested in the region during its 12 years of operation in the Foundation’s efforts in education, conservation, poverty reduction, healthcare, and other community development projects in the Amazon.
With a focus on the human impact and relationship with the Amazon, the Yachana Lodge allows guests to spend time with indigenous families and engage in a meaningful cultural exchange or take an early morning canoe ride to pick up local school children. Also, local indigenous guides lead all excursions and adeptly manage interactions between tourists and the local population.
- Yachana Lodge
