Five Reasons to take part in a Tambopata, Peru Homestay

1. Feel right at home as part of a Peruvian family.  A Tambopata homestay is a unique experience in which guests choose to live with a family native to the area.  Visitors eat the same food the family eats and participate in their daily routines, enabling them to truly experience the culture of this beautiful part of the world.  Friendly hosts take their guests in as one of their own making them feel a part of the family from the moment they arrive.  They are proud of their culture and enthusiastic about sharing it with travelers.

2. Take a break from the tourist circuit.  Most visitors to Puerto Maldonado arrive at the airport and travel directly to an ecolodge where they are surrounded by other travelers.  A Tambopata homestay gives participants a more intimate view of life in the jungle.  Upon arrival at the airport, a family member picks up their guest and personally brings them to their home.  They will be surrounded by people who have lived their entire lives in Madre de Dios.

3. Try local food.  Have you ever heard of Copuazu?  Some describe this fruit as sweet and banana-like at first but with a delightfully tart aftertaste.  What about Guanabana?  In addition to its unique flavor, the fruit is thought to have health benefits, including the ability to help with insomnia and control the growth of cancer cells.  Due to its rich soil and tropical climate, Tambopata is host to a variety of exotic produce which local families use daily in their food preparation.

The Durand family is comprised of 12 siblings who have lived in Madre de Dios their entire lives.  They are experts in agriculture and have a large farm on their property.  Travelers who stay at Saona with the Durands learn all about cultivation of local crops and are given the opportunity to try fruits that are in season.

4. Support the local community.  Many families in Tambopata are continuing to develop their properties to give visitors the best possible experience.  Armando Mishajas, a descendant of the Ese’eja tribe, is a guide for a local ecotourism company.  His family has been working for years to develop their property, Majosehue, to host international travelers.  Due to his experience guiding tourists at the ecolodge, he has an understanding of what is required to host people from other countries, however the family does not have the means to build an entire lodge.

Armando explains that rather than take out large bank loans, they build up their property gradually.  Each time they earn money, they use it to build something new, or improve on the facilities that they already have.  Guests who come to stay with the Mishajas, leave feeling fulfilled, knowing that their money helped to make a difference and will go back into the family’s efforts.

5. Learn about the Amazon from the people who know it best.  Oscar Mishajas has lived his entire life in the Peruvian Amazon, and he has spent the last 10 years working as a guide for Rainforest Expeditions, one of the most well-known ecotourism companies in the area. All of this contributes to making him the expert that he is in birding.  He can identify a species by hearing nothing more than a flap of a wing. 

Oscar is soft spoken but his deep understanding and respect for the wildlife and diversity of Tambopata shines through as one explores the forest with him.  He walks quietly with an strong awareness of his surroundings and upon the slightest movement of a leaf, he quickly points into the canopy and whispers “black spider monkeys.”  He watches them with admiration in his eyes and proceeds to tell his guests about Tambopata’s largest monkey, sharing Ese’eja myths and legends about these majestic primates.

Tambopata Ecotours - Kapievi Yoga

Kapievi is the vision of one Peruvian family who moved from the capital of Peru (Lima) to Puerto Maldonado, to make an important change of lifestyle in their community and dedicate themselves to investigate, shape and live a life based on harmony, ecology, health, personal wellness, and spiritual connection. In Kapievi Ecovillage we see life from the natural side sharing lots of experiences, living in community as a Universal family and cultivating at the same time our spiritual side, our inner light, our love and wealth. The people that come to Kapievi leave us a seed of light and we do the same in them. Integrated in the new era of change, our vision is the option of love towards the blossoming of our interior essence. We are an ecovillage of dreamers searching to harmonize with the land (Pachamama), nature, and the cosmos. We follow our dreams of growth and conservation for the good of our rainforest and our community.

5 Reasons To Visit The Jungle

Try to Name all the Colors: Enter the jungle and find yourself surrounded by countless shades of Green: dark green leaves on the banana trees, bright green parrots flying by and every possible hue in between. This is just the beginning. Whether your favorite color is red, blue, yellow of fuchsia, not only will you find it in the jungle, but you will see at least ten different shades. Brightly colored flowers and
berries explode from the flora. A scarlet macaw will dazzle you with its brilliant red, blue, yellow and green feathers. From the red huayruro seeds that bring good luck to the metallic blue wings of a blue morpho butterfly, there is a new color to be discovered wherever you look.

Watch Animals in their Natural Habitat.:
Have you ever seen a trail of leaf-cutter ants carrying leaves back to their den? Watch hundreds of these hard workers march along trails up to a half kilometer long hauling leaves ten times their size. They use the leaves to grow a fungus that feeds the entire ant colony.

Listen and watch the forest canopy and if you're lucky you could see a family of monkeys passing through in search of food. If you think you hear the sound of a water droplet trickling from the sky, it could be the call of the oropendola, also known as a weaver bird. If you're lucky, you may see it fly through the air with long pieces of palm fiber in its beak. This clever bird weaves its strong nest which hangs from tree branches in the shape of a pendulum.

While you may be able to find some of these amazing creatures in a zoo, or learn about them on the nature channel, there is nothing like observing them in their natural habitat.

Listen to the Sounds: Did you know the red howler monkey is the world's loudest land animal? Its call can be heard from up to 3 miles away. Visitors to Tambopata often think it`s a plane flying overhead or a jaguar growling nearby. The howler monkey makes this sound to claim its territory so that other groups of howlers do not attempt to invade.

The 1200 different species of birds take turns throughout the day calling back and forth. Combined with the sound of a breeze rustling the leaves of the great kapok tree, the buzzing of the cicada and the chattering of the dusky titi monkeys, all seem to come together in perfect harmony. Come to the jungle for a front row seat to nature's orchestra.

Experience Nature's Balance: Watch a dew drop fall from the emergent layer of the canopy, roll off a leaf in the understory, bounce off a mushroom and be absorbed into the ground to nourish the tree from which it fell. Or observe the brown agouti, the best seed disperser for the emblematic Brazil Nut tree. This creature gathers Brazil nuts and buries the excess for later consumption. Unfortunately for him, but fortunately for the future of this important plant species, he sometimes forgets where he stored them, allowing new trees to sprout from the ground.

Albert Einstein once said "look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better." In the jungle you will find yourself surrounded by the complexities of different species of plants, mammals, birds and insects all living together in perfect
balance.

Breathe The Purest Air on Earth: Last year, a group of scientist were trying to discover the effects of the industrial revolution on our plant's air quality. In order to do this, they needed to find a place where the air was the least effected by human influence. Where did they go? The Amazon rainforest. They found that the Amazon is one of the last places in the world where the air has been almost unaffected by humans.Their revolutionary findings were published in Science Magazine. Come to the jungle and breathe the freshest air on earth.

5 REASONS TO VISIT TAMBOPATA

The Capital of Biodiversity: With 600 species of birds, 200 species of mammals,1200 species of butterflies, and more than 10,000 species of vascular plants Tambopata is considered one of the most bio diverse places on earth. What makes it so diverse?

• A variety of habitats: Tambopata has a wealth of different plant habitats which are created by different soils, hills, winds, river erosion, etc. With the various plant habitats come different animals that choose to live in the ones that suit them best.
  
• The Ice Age: During the ice age (about 13,000 to 23,000 years ago) many of the earth's forests dried up, becoming deserts and only forests with ideal conditions, such as those found in Tambopata, remained. The forests were separated with savannas in between them. During this time (also known as the Pleistocene period), species in each of these fragmented areas evolved and developed differently. When things started warming up again, forest grew back reconnecting the segmented forests. Tambopata was one of the fragmented "refugees" and has more biodiversity than most rainforests.

A Short Trip from Cusco: Puerto Maldonado is only 30 minutes from Cusco. Both StarPeru and LAN offer daily commercial flights. Make sure to get a window seat. In this short flight you can watch the terrain change from snow-capped peaks to dense green jungle with rivers winding through.

With the recent completion of the Interoceanic Highway connecting Brazil and Peru, Puerto Maldonado is also accessible from Cusco by bus. The scenic bus ride takes you from the central Andes in Cusco to the lush green jungle in about eight hours.

The Green Carpet: Tambopata is host to more than 10,000 species of vascular plants. In all of Peru, the Madre de Dios region has the lowest population with less than 100,000 people in an area 1.6 times the size of Costa Rica and the lowest population density with less than 2 people per square kilometer. Despite risk of deforestation and development that has faced the region in recent years, the forest has continued to thrive. This is due in part to the low population and also to over 60% of the area being designated protected areas.

The River: Locals say that once you have drunk the water of the Tambopata, you will always desire to come back. The Tambopata River flows 402 km from the eastern slope of the Andes in Puno north to Puerto Puerto Maldonado, where it connects with the Madre de Dios river, which continues into Bolivia and Brazil further downriver. The Tambopata National Reserve and the Bahuaja-Sonene National Park, accounting in total for more than 1.3 million hectares, were created to protect this important resource which is home to around 200 species of fish. Each year the river rises during the rainy season and falls during the dry season representing the rhythmic balance of nature.

The People: The people of Tambopata have a very special connection to the rainforest. For many of them, the jungle is their home and all they have ever known. Whether they are hunters, fishermen, timber extractors, miners, Brazil nut collectors, farmers, or work in the ecotourism industry, most make their livelihoods in some way or another from the land.

With the development of tourism to the area, locals have shown interest in hosting visitors in their homes. Some are just beginning to receive international guests. They are eager to share their traditions and way of life with others, as well as their knowledge on the forest. These families come from a diverse background with varying experiences and backgrounds to share. But they all have one thing in common which is their reliance on and understanding of the land in Tambopata.