Manu National Park

I visited the reserved zone of Manu for 2 days and the trip from Cusco included in total 7 days/ 6 nights. The programme of most tour operators is similar so there is no need to describe it in detail here. You can just check the websites. We drove by transporter from Cusco to Atalaya and then by boat up to Casa Matchiguenka which is one of few of the current lodging options in the real WHS part/ core zone. We booked with Bonanza tours and the tour was operated by Amazon Wildlife Experience which is run by the brother of the owner of Bonanza. So it was the same as with Bonanza only that they laid acquired customers together. We were 8 tourists, one guide, one cook and either a driver or a captain and his boat assistant. The real price was 1290 USD p.P. but as we went to the office in Calle Suecia in Cusco end of August and were flexible and negotiated we could book the same tour for the 14th of September for 750 USD p.P.. Some in our group booked only 6 days and there was not much difference. You don´t miss out on anything only that after a long day you drive all the way back to Cusco instead of staying another night close to Atalaya port and some more bird and monkey watching in the cloud forest. Also a good option to save money. 
 
Maybe good to mention that we almost …

Visit: June 2019. Manu NP can (only) be reached by joining a tour from Cusco. I went on a 5 days tour to the Cultural Zone and focus on the different tours.

Zona Cultural vs Zona Reservada

Manu NP is huge, but only a relatively small part can be accessed. If you want to spend your tour mostly in the core zone, you need to book a trip to the reserved zone. The shortest tour I found was 6 days. The 5 days reserved zone tour Els did is no longer offered, as it was not profitable. Tours to the reserved zone include on each way an 8 hours bus ride to Atalaya port (half of the road unpaved) followed by an 8 hours boat ride to Boca a Manu, the entry point to the reserved zone. The flights to Boca a Manu are no longer available since 2012, so no short cuts possible at the moment. This also means that out of 6 days you will be using 3 just to get there and back. From what I heard animal sightings in the reserved zone are far more common. There are lodges inside the reserved zone, so you don’t have to sleep in a tent.

The cultural zone can be done in 3, 4 or 5 days tours. Driving from Cusco to Atalaya you will actually cross the core zone several times at the south western tip of the park (from where my picture …

Only a 3 days trip organized from Cuzco through Manu Peru Amazon (November 2013). Not enough to see the real jungle but least enough to have impression how it is in Amazonia.

Road from Cuzco to Salvacion (via Paucartambo) crosses National Park borders at Acjanaco (there are signs of NP) and than continues to Pilcopata (and Salvacion) within so-called Cultural Zone of Manu (Zona de Amortiguamiento).

Even being aware of the lenghth of stay it is one of best jungle experience so far - variety (and diversity) of animals and plants to be observed there is enormous, I truelly recommend to go there for longer period (and probaly go further north to Manu River and so-called Zona Experimental).

I have been in the Manu National Park and must say is for sure one of the best places in the world to be visited. Due to the non easy access way, nature there remainded more untouched than in others Amazon reservations, that is mainly the reason why is easier to spot mammals and birds. Insekts species we saw there are unbeliveble, those that somebody could not imagine that exist.

Our guide was so knowledge and patience showing us useful plants, vines and teaching us how to live in the Amazon, we made fire and we bath us in beutiful rivers every day.

I stay volunteering on a campsite, helping to develope a project that protect the Cultural Zone of the Manu National Park, during this month I learnt a lot and I would never forget this experience.

For those interested you can visit the web page:

www.manuperuamazon.com

They offer affordable options to visit the Park

I am the first to write a review about this WHS - no wonder since it sees only ca. 2500 visitors a year. The Reserved Zone of Manu National Park can be reached from Cuzco with a couple of tour companies. I went there on a 5-day tour with the well-organized and recommended Pantiacolla Tours. It is possible to fly in and out (there´s a tiny grass airstrip at the Yuni Lodge), but I choose to drive down from Cuzco for 1.5 days through the cloud forest until the port of Atalaya at the Madre de Dios River. This way you´ll see the landscape change dramatically, and there are already plenty of birds to see along the road including the Andean cock-of-the-rock and the quetzal.

The tour company had put "binoculars" at the no. 1 spot of the packing list. And indeed they proved to be essential, as the wildlife here is not easy to see with the naked eye. The rainforest is very thick, and many of the species have disguising colours.

We navigated the Manu River for hours, always being the only ones on the river. Both white and black caiman are a common sight here, lying around at the river's characteristic beaches. We saw one black caiman about 4 meters long. Also, we happened upon two tapirs scrambling upon the river bank. Tapir is a rare sighting, even scarcer than the jaguar. Unfortunately, we missed out on the latter one during this trip.

On …