We visited the Manu Wildlife Centre with InkaNatura in early October 2011 doing the 4 day 3 night adventure but unfortunately were very disappointed with the extensive travel that was required to get there and back. This really was in fact not 4 days and 3 nights but instead 2 full days of travel and only 2 days actually at the wildlife centre. It was not worth the money and travel time and I would not recommend this trip.
Our original travel plans, and what we signed up for, consisted of a 45 minute flight to Boca Manu followed by a 3 hour boat ride to the lodge. This was changed at the last minute due to “plane troubles” to a new itinerary being an hour flight to Puerto Maldonado, 2 1/2 hour minivan ride on good roads, a 15 minute river crossing, a 1 hour bone racking taxi ride on a terrible dirt road and then finally a 5 hour (yes 5) boat ride up river. All in all about 10 hours of travel to get to the resort (basically all day) and to boot we arrived in the pitch dark in the middle of an Amazon thunderstorm. We took it all in stride as an ‘adventure’ but it really was too much.
To add insult to injury we learned when we arrived to the lodge that the airport in Boca Manu had shut down in June and this was the permanent itinerary. We were not told by InkakNatura until right before our trip in August and of course only after final payment. The website was updated accordingly after our trip but of course the price was not adjusted down.
To be fair, the lodge itself was wonderful and the main building was gorgeous, huge and in fabulous shape. All beautiful wood, great furnishings and very cool especially at night with all the candles lit. The rooms/huts were also very quaint and clean with nice bug nets to keep the critters out. The accommodations as a whole were 5 star for the jungle! Very nice. The food too was quite good and especially considering again you are in the middle of nowhere. Again it was wonderful having dinner at night under candlelight.
The grounds themselves were great too with many extensive trails, interesting plants, lots of birds everywhere and fabulous jungle sounds filling the air. The tapir platform was neat although we saw nothing and ended up just sitting there in the dark sweating for hours. Also, the canopy platform was very cool to climb so high to get a birds view of the jungle. The lodge grounds were very meticulously kept, quiet and quaint.
The wildlife viewing was actually very good with us being lucky to see many macaws and parrots at the clay lick, monkeys (3 varieties) as well as tons of other birds. It is important to know that the Amazon is vast and viewing wildlife is hit and miss so be prepared that you may see a ton of stuff or nothing at all. It is not like Costa Rica where you are totally overwhelmed with nature everywhere.
Inkanatura as a company was terrific to deal with outside of the itinerary change. They were great with email and Skype, answered all our questions, made payment very easy and a representative came right to our hotel and answered all of our questions. The guide too was very good and knowledgeable.
It’s really too bad that the travel time is so crazy as the wildlife centre has so much potential but unfortunately, in our opinion, it is just not worth it for such as short stay with such extensive travel at the high price of ~$1,500pp.
I definitely would recommend the place if you were staying an extended period of time (at least 7 days) but for the trip we did I would absolutely say don’t do it. I would recommend going to a closer lodge near Puerto Maldonado where you will get the same experience for much less money and a ton less travel time. We had friends who went there and they saw as much if not more than we did.
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