Starting from Iquitos, the Tahuayo Lodge in northern Peru is the only tourist lodge in the biologically rich Tamshiyacu Tahuayo Reserve. The Tahuayo Lodge provides a comfortable place to stay in the Amazon Rainforest. The lodge is owned by a local family who founded a charity named Angels of the Amazon to improve the quality of life for indigenous people.
Located near the lodge is an Amazon research center known as the ARC, where scientists conduct research on the Tahuayo Reserve’s diverse assemblage of primates.
There is a grid behind the ARC accessible to tourists visiting the Tahuayo Lodge where you can observe many species of monkey in their natural habitat. Because the primates are familiar with people, catching a glimpse of these animals is a lot easier than in other parts of Amazonia.
If you venture down the Amazon River to visit the small and charming Leticia in the Colombian Amazon Rainforest, a recommended place to stay is the affordable and rustic Alto del Águila in Puerto Narino, accessed by a short boat ride from Leticia. You can read a little more about the Alto del Águila in our article on Amazon Rainforest Attractions.
Manaus in Brazil is the largest city in the Amazon Rainforest. A recommended place to stay in Manaus for Amazon river cruises is the Hotel Tropical. From the Hotel Tropical you can embark on an 8 day Tucano Amazon Cruise or a 5 day Tucano Jungle Cruise. Both cruises take you to areas of the Amazon Rainforest out of reach by most other tour operators.
The largest and reportedly most pristine reserve in the Peruvian Amazon Rainforest is Manu National Park located near Cusco, Peru. This large area of protected land includes Andean cloud forest that you can visit as part of a Cock of the Rock tour. The cloud forest is worth seeing, as the animals and plants are very different to those in lowland rainforest.
While in Manu, you can also visit lowland tropical rainforest as part of the Manu Wildlife Center experience. A unique attraction of the Manu Wildlife Center is the tapir lick, where tapir come to eat nutrient rich clay. This creates fantastic photo opportunities of the largest Amazonian land mammal.
Further south, a six hour boat ride from Puerto Maldonado will take you to the Tambopata reserve where you can stay at the Heath River Wildlife Center. From here you can embark on guided tours into the surrounding Tambopata Reserve, home to one of the world’s largest macaw clay licks. The animals of the reserve include jaguars, black caiman, giant river otters, anaconda, and the harpy eagle.
The reserve also includes Lake Sandoval where you can see giant river otters as part of a stay at the Sandoval Lake Lodge.
These options give some ideas of where to stay in the Amazon Rainforest, but for some other fantastic wildlife sighting opportunities in South America, including the best place to see wild jaguar and anaconda, you can consider the Pantanal wetlands in Brazil.
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