Two worst things about the lodge:
1) The lodge has roosters roaming free on the territory (see pictures). I was woken up before 5am. And they did not stop yelling until 6am.
2) “Clean drinking water” had bugs in it (see pictures). I would not be surprised if they just pour tap water into the “clean drinking water” jugs
Two worst things about the tour:
1) The activities have huge breaks between them (1.5-2 hour long). So instead of watching the jungle, you aimlessly spend time at the lodge where there's not much to do.
2) I understand that with animal activities it is always a game of chance but here the guide didn’t even try to fix the situation, he just said “It's sad that we didn't see anything but we have to go back”. We went to the Monkey island and saw no monkeys. The guide said they are on the other side today, we said let’s walk. He said we HAVE to go back. Next activity was in 2 hours. If the whole group is fine with walking to the other side of the island and we have plenty of time before the next activity, why not do it? Same thing happened on the night activity where we went to see alligators. We saw 2 baby ones from very far way and left. The tour was 1 hour long.
First day we went for a short hike in jungle near the lodge. Be sure to have repellent, because there is a mega lot of mosquitoes. Later we went to monkey island, but couldn’t find any monkeys, they are used to humans as there was a rehabilitation project and after project they were transported to this island so they are not afraid, hypothesis is that they were already filled their bellies with food and weren’t interested in having more of it. So it was a little disappointment. So that why I am giving 4/5, everything is alright about agency, it just like weather, you can’t control it. And in rainy season there is more food so better chance to see monkey up to close, maybe even hold them in hands or something, is in dry season. In the evening when it got dark we went on a search of white caiman crocodiles, they become active at night. We found only one, but guide said that is quite hard to find them, so it is fine. But anyway, we saw only the head, because the river has more water in rainy season, in dry season you could see whole body. The second day early in the morning, at 5am we left for Sandoval Lake, Tampobata national reserve, so it was really great, we saw fire, brown and yellow capuccino monkeys, macaws, an animal similar to capybara, from the same family, it looks alike, but it’s just smaller, tarantulas, lizards, we saw caiman too and saw whole body, a lot of different species of birds, slots. And you get to paddle with kayak around the lake, having breakfast in other side of the lake, you come back to port and then to the lodge, lunch and after some free time, back to Puerto Maldonando. About food. It was really delicious, you get even a dessert. From my experience, I recommend doing short hike + monkey island + white caimans at night and Sandoval lake the second day on dry season and on rainy season I think it is better to do canopy bridges + Sandoval lake for 2 days. Or you could stay one more day to see a native family daily life. Guide was really good, told a lot about forest, animals and stuff, I even noticed that our guide told us more stuff than other guides of other agencies as I overheard them. I strongly recommend this experience, but came earlier to adapt to high temperature if you are going on rainy season. After I got back to Puerto Maldonado they let me drop my backpack at their office as I waited for the bus, had a meal and they took me for free to bus station
Absolutely amazing, I wish I booked longer. There’s no internet but you don’t need it, just enjoy the dairy that there is, the staff were amazing and accommodating. The tours were amazing! I loved that my guide also showed excitement when it came to what was offered. And the food is amazing, great portions amazing service all around. Definitely will be back