DAY 1: CUZCO / MANU BIOSPHERE RESERVE
Transfer to the airport. You are off on safari with a transfer to the airport for a 30 minute flight to Boca Manu. Here you board river transport into the Reserve, a 4.5 million acre span of virgin rain forest containing world record diversities of flora and fauna. Tourism is strictly limited in this habitat of some 13 species of monkeys and 1000 species of birds, including vast concentrations of scarlet macaws. Game-view all the way to your rustic lodge, along a mile long oxbow lake in the heart of the wilderness. MANU LODGE (L,D)

MANU BIOSPHERE RESERVE
Because it protects an entire virgin watershed from Andean grasslands to elfin forests, and cloud forests to high and low elevation rainforests, the Manu Biosphere Reserve is the most important rainforest park in the world. The Reserve, which is half the size of Switzerland and spans elevations from 1,000 ft. to 12,000 ft. above sea level, boasts world-record diversities of birds (more than 1,000 species) mammals, (more than 200 species), reptiles, amphibians, fresh-water fishes, insects and plants (over 15,000 species). No other park on earth can compare with Manu in terms of the sheer variety of life forms. A patch of lowland rainforest in Manu harbors 40% more species of birds than a comparable patch of forest in Central Amazonian Brazil. Furthermore, no other area in North or South America offers such superb viewing of rare or difficult to observe animals, such us two-meter long Giant Otters, numerous large and small species of monkeys (13 species), white and black caiman (crocodiles), seven species of macaw (the world's largest parrots), ten species of toucans, guans curassows, and trumpeters (all rare game birds), and the largest animal in Central and South America, the Tapir. Finally, the Manu offers the best chance on earth to see wild Jaguar, approximately one in ten tourist groups spots this beautiful cat. If you have only one opportunity to visit the jungles of the neo-tropics, and you want to see many large and small animals as well as a record-breaking variety of tropical plants, then Manu is your best choice.

DAY 2-3: MANU BIOSPHERE RESERVE
Your program for the next two days will depend on weather and wildlife conditions, but will be filled with spectacular contacts with nature from land, on serpentine rivers and lakes, and even from a climb up to the forest canopy if you wish. The lake alongside your lodge harbors intact communities of dramatic bird life, monkeys, caimans, and occasional families of playful otters. Troops of up to seventy monkeys frolic in nearby clearings, and can be viewed from the lodge's two story dining room or from the network of nearby trails. Boat tours offer close viewing of caimans and dramatic macaw and parrot nesting sites, while a tree platform offers grand panoramas. This area of the park also abounds with mammals such as the spectacled bear, tapirs, peccaries, and the elusive jaguar. MANU BIOSPHERE RESERVE (B,L,D)

DAY 4: MANU / CUZCO
After breakfast, cruise to Boca Manu and fly over the Andes to Cuzco. Transfer in on arrival to your hotel.  (B)

Departures:                Tuesdays