Amazon Yarapa River Lodge

Moon Handbooks

One of the best new Amazon options is the Amazon Yarapa River Lodge (315/952-6771 or 800/771-3100), yarapariverlodge@hotmail.com, www.yarapariverlodge.com, 4 days / 3 nights: $600 / one or two). This lodge, around the corner from the Reserva Nacional Pacaya-Samiria on the pristine Rio Yarapa, is surrounded by world-class jungle and oxbow lakes teeming with exotic birds, pink dolphins, sloths, and a large variety of monkeys.

Along with Explorama, Amazon Yarapa River Lodge probably has the most experienced and eloquent guides in the Amazon, and they are absolutely relentless in their efforts to pinpoint as many species as possible. In a single morning we saw 30 bird species, including the rare Amazonian umbrella bird, which has a crest of black hair that earns it the nickname “the Elvis bird.”

The lodge itself is a magnificent structure with huge wooden rooms with private bathrooms and solar power for both electricity and hot showers (there are also less-expensive rooms with shared baths). The food is excellent, consisting of fresh fish and a large range of salads, and there are nice small details – like icy towels after each jungle outing. The lodge has a good relationship with villages in the vicinity and has a green system for everything from local building materials to flush compost toilets.

As a sign of its success, the lodge has partnered with Cornell University, which has built an adjacent research station for the professors and students who visit here each year, along with groups from The Nature Conservancy. The lodge is entirely surrounded by flooded rainforest, but guests who stay a few days often make trips to remote areas of terra firme upstream. The lodge organizes recommended tours into the nearby Reserva Nacional Pacaya-Samiria.

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**We are rated a “Must See” by Moon Handbooks – this is a title reserved for the best dining and lodging as determined by Moon Handbooks.**