Amazon Tour – Expeditions 5days

Amazon Tour – Expeditions 5days .

Amazon Tour Day : 01 Cusco  Cloudforest to Pilcopata Lodge .

We leave Cusco early in the morning to start our adventurous trip! First, we are taken by private transport to the place called Ninamarca to observe pre-Incan “chullpas” (tombs) of the Lupaca’s culture. Then, we continue to Paucartambo, a colonial town with narrow streets and beautiful church, where people still keep their old customs. Later, we ascend to Acjanaco Pass (3,550 masl) considered as an entrance to the Manu National Park and then we get to the viewpoint Tres Cruces de Oro (3,700 masl) to watch one of the best sunrises of the world! From there, we start descending to the edge of the Manu jungle passing first an elfin forest and there a cloud forest where we can view a cock of the rock, hummingbirds, strikingly coloured quetzals, trogons, spotted flycatcher and woolly monkey. From flora, we can view a variety of orchids, mosses, ferns, etc. Finally, we get to Pilcopata (700 masl) where our first accommodation – Tikari Lodge is placed. We can refresh ourselves there having a shower and after that, we are served dinner, before we get to bed.

Amazon Tour  Day  02: Pilcopata  to Atalay Port  – Rainforest Lodge Manu Park  .

After breakfast, we continue our journey by private car (one and half an hour) towards the port at Atalaya (500 m.a.s.l). There, we board a motorized boat to continue for about half an hour navigating on the Alto Madre de Dios River. Along the rocky riversides, we have a great opportunity to observe the river wildlife like many birds, turtles or sunbathing lizards. In the afternoon, we reach our next lodge – Rainforest Lodge. Then we go to explore nearby paths where we can see a big diversity of species, for example, tarantulas, ants, butterflies, some monkey species, huge trees, erotic plants, palms, etc. After that, we return to our lodge to overnight.
Optional: A night walk in manu peruvian jungle.

Amazon Tour Day 03: Parrot Clay Lick  to Machuwasi Lake – Manu park .

Very early in the morning . we take the boat for aproximaly 30 minutes to the parrots lick . we can observe the small green parrots ,some birds and small animals a walk explore to the trails and lake we continue observe the flora as orchids, bromelias and ferns specially , and fauna as turtles, frogs, the brown capuchin monkey, besides the river we can observe to white caimans, capybaras(hidroacheris). Nigh in Lodge. Showers and Toilet shared .

Amazon Tour  Day 04 : Rainforest Lodge  to Hot spring  Manu Park . 

After the breakfast we take the boat to go along the river alto alto Madre de Dios , where will see many kind birds in the banks of the river ,we have to stop to visit Native Community Shintuya where we can walk around the community half hour then we will go by boat and arrive to Aguas Calientes hot spring (curative waters) .to take the shower for relaxs. In the afternoon we come back to Paititi Lodge. Night in lodge.

Amazon Tour  Day 05:  Rainforest Lodge to Atalaya Port – Cusco City .

After a delicious breakfast unfortunately we come back by boat until the port Atalaya to take the boat to back to Cusco . Transfer to the hotel.

Included in the Amazon Tour 5 days / 4 nights:

• A professional naturalist tour guide for the Peruvian Amazon;
• Motorboat transportation;
• Private vehicle land transportation for jungle trips;
• Entrance fee to the hot springs (Aguas Calientes in Manu National Park);
• A professional cook,
• Meals: 4 breakfasts, 5 lunches, 4 dinners. and drinking water (Please note: vegetarian option available upon request for no extra cost!);
• Accommodation: 4 nights in jungle lodges;
• First aid kit;
• Radio communications for jungle trips;
• Rubber boots.

Not included in the Amazon Tour 5 days:

• Flights and airport departure taxes;
• Travel insurance;
• Vaccinations for jungle trips;
• Breakfast on the first day and dinner on the last day;
• Drinks;
• Tips to local staff.

What to take with you on the Amazon Tour 5 days:

• Mosquito repellent (DEET 35 recommended as a MINIMUM!!),
• Original passport for jungle trips,
• Small backpack,
• Long sleeved cotton shirts (preferably green coloured),
• Long cotton trousers,
• Cotton long socks (to be put into your trousers),
• Comfortable walking shoes,
• Sandals or light shoes,
• Rain gear (e.g. rain poncho),
• Swimsuit;
• Binoculars (also available for rent),
• Camera and charger,
• Plastic bags to be used for clothes and camera,
• Hat as a protection against the sun and/or rain,
• Toiletries,
• Small towel,
• Toilet paper,
• Antibacterial gel,
• Sun cream,
• Sunglasses,
• Flashlight (with spare bulb and batteries),
• Water bottle (1 litre as a minimum),
• Pocket money (soles) to buy some beverages and souvenirs .

The eastern slopes of the Andes have one of the highest diversity of amphibians in the world (Duellman 1999, Stuart et al. 2004), as well as high diversity of reptiles (Duellman 2005, von May et al. 2009). Peru is a mega-diverse country hosting approximately 571 species of amphibians (Frost 2013) and 437 species of reptiles (Uetz & Hošek 2013). The most important biodiversity hotspot for amphibians, the Tropical Andes (Myers et al. 2000), runs from north to south along the western half of Peru’s territory. Several protected areas have been created in the Peruvian Andes over the past three decades (SERNANP 2010). However, our knowledge of the biodiversity within these areas is very fragmentary. For example in southeastern Peru, 10 nationally protected areas extend from the Amazon lowlands in the Department of Madre de Dios to the foothill of the Andes of Cusco and Puno , yet none of these areas has a comprehensive list of amphibian and reptiles species. One of such areas, Manu National Park (Manu NP), is unique in covering the entire watershed of the Manu river, a large tributary to the Alto Madre de Dios river (the upper Madre de Dios river, a tributary to the Madeira river). In the lowland Foodplain and terra FIrme forests along the Manu River, inside Manu NP, several publications reported preliminary lists of amphibians and reptiles known to occur at two sites, Cocha Cashu Biological Station (Rodríguez 1987, 1992, Rodríguez & Cadle 1990) and Pakitza (Morales & McDiarmid 1996). Recent studies have produced extensive lists for Los Amigos Conservation Concession (von May et al. 2006, 2009, 2010). Los Amigos lies outside of Manu NP, but its northern edge overlaps with the park’s buffer zone. Most of our knowledge about amphibian and reptilian diversity in the Andean foothills comes from studies conducted in the Kosñipata valley (Hurtado & Blanco 1994, Catenazzi & Rodriguez 2001, Catenazzi et al. 2009, 2011, 2012, Lehr & Catenazzi 2008, 2009a, b, unpublished FIeld data), including Villa Carmen and Wayqecha Biological Stations. The upper Kosñipata valley (above 2500-3000 m) is part of Manu NP, but the rest of the valley between Pillahuata (2500 m) and Pillcopata (600 m), along the Paucartambo–Shintuya road, is part of the park’s buffer zone.Despite these studies and preliminary inventories, Manu NP still lacks a comprehensive list of amphibian and reptile taxa. The lack of species lists hinders conservation and management efforts. The upper part of Manu NP is currently experiencing a collapse in amphibian species richness and abundance following the spread of the highly pathogenic fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Catenazzi et al. 2011). A better knowledge of amphibian diversity and distribution will assist monitoring and mitigation efforts. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to gather data from previous lists, species descriptions, museum records and our own eldwork in the region to compile a checklist of all amphibians and reptiles that have been found within Manu National Park and its adjacent buffer zone .

MethodsManu National Park (Manu NP) is located in southeastern Peru (Regions of Cusco and Madre de Dios) and covers 17163 km2 of Amazonian lowland, submontane, montane and high-elevation Andean habitats between 150 m and 4200 m elevation . The park protects the entire watershed of the Manu River in the upper Madre de Dios basin. Manu NP was established in 1973, recognized as a Reserve of Biosphere by the UNESCO in 1977, and pronounced a World Heritage Site in 1987; it is Peru’s second largest national park and it lies in one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots (Myers et al. 2000).Occurrence of taxa was determined on the basis of the original species descriptions, listings in species descriptions of similar or sympatric taxa, museum records and/or our own eldwork in the region (Catenazzi & Rodriguez 2001, Duellman & Lehr 2009, von May 2009, von May et al. 2009, 2010, von May & Donnelly 2009, Catenazzi et al. 2011). Some species have not been reported from Manu NP or its buffer zone, but occur both north and south of the area, such that their presence in Manu NP is very likely. These species are (in parenthesis references in support of the geographic distribution of each species): Rhinella leptoscelis (Padial et al. 2009), Hyalinobatrachium carlesvilai (Castroviejo-Fisher et al. 2009), Dendropsophus bokermanni and D. rossalleni (Duellman 2005), Apostolepis nigroterminata (Harvey 1999), Xenoxybelis boulengeri (Duellman 2005), Xenodon rabdocephalus (Duellman 2005), Micrurus narduccii (Campbell & Lamar 1989), Bothriopsis oligolepis and B. taeniata (Campbell & Lamar 1989), Bothrocophias microphthalmus (Gutberlet & Campbell 2001), Paleosuchus palpebrosus (Duellman 2005). We have also listed 8 frog and one squamate species which are still not described, but known to represent new species.General terrestrial habitat categories follow the references within the squared brackets. For the lowlands (300-500 m), we use forest types that are widely recognized by plant and animal ecologists working in wester n Amazonia (Pitman et al. 1999, Larsen et al. 2006, Griscom et al. 2007). One of these forest types, the Foodplain, can be classiFed in two general categories: mature Foodplain forest and early successional Foodplain forest. However, because species recorded in the early successional forest can also be found in the mature oodplain forest (von May et al. 2010), we simply refer to Foodplain forest as the major habitat category representing these two Foodplain forest types. If a species was primarily associated with a permanent aquatic habitat such as a lake or a river, we referred to that particular aquatic habitat. In contrast, if a species was temporarily associated with smaller aquatic habitats such as temporary ponds or creeks embedded in major terrestrial habitats, we referred to that terrestrial habitat. We did not differentiate between forest types in the Andean piedmont (500-1000 m), where we used the general category of sub-montane rainforest. For both the lowlands and the foothills of the Andes, we recognized Mauritia Fexuosa swamp and bamboo (Guadua spp.) forest as distinct habitats. The cloud forest category refers to all montane forests between 1000-3600 m; additional high-elevation habitat types were the high-Andean grasslands or puna, dominated by Stipa ichu, and the montane scrub, which represents  forests and xeric vegetation growing on exposed slopes or ridges.For taxonomy we followed Blackburn & Wake (2011) for amphibians, Castoe et al. (2004) for gymnophthalmid lizards, Le et al. (2006) for tortoises and McCord et al. (2001) for chelid turtles .

Results and DiscussionWe list 155 species of amphibians  and 132 species of reptiles  currently known to occur or suspected to occur within Manu NP. The cumulative number of species descriptions by year differs between amphibians and reptiles , because for reptiles the curve reached a number close to the asymptote in the decade of 1960-1970, whereas for amphibians this very same decade corresponded to a sharp increase in the number of new species described for Manu NP. The construction of the Paucartambo-Shintuya road in the late 60s greatly facilitated access to high-elevation and montane habitats. William E. Duellman and associates collected along this road from 1971-1975, and subsequently described several new anuran species from this region (Duellman 1976, 1978). Although the cumulative number of amphibians already exceeded the number of reptiles during the decade of 1990-2000, the pattern of accelerated discoveries of new and often endemic amphibian species is still holding up during the current decade (Catenazzi et al. 2012, Chaparro et al. 2007, De la Riva & Chaparro 2005, De la Riva et al. 2008, Duellman et al. 2011, Padial et al. 2007, Lehr & Catenazzi 2008, 2009a,b, Lehr & von May 2009, Padial et al. 2012), and we are confident that several more species will be added to this list over the next few years. We expect that the final number of amphibian species will be greater than the number of reptile species, because the diversity of squamates decreases with elevation at a much faster rate than the diversity of anurans (Navas 2003). Squamates and anurans constitute the bulk of respectively reptilian and amphibian diversity. Given the wide elevational gradient and large area of montane and high-elevation habitats protected by Manu NP, the greater relative richness of anurans vs. squamates is probably replicated across several watersheds (and not just the Kosñipata watershed), further contributing to the amphibian primacy in species richness.