Independent Travel to The Amazon

A short guide about Scenic travel to The Amazon

Over half of the Amazon Jungle is located mainly in Brazil, skirting the borders of Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador, while stretching more so into Peru, than Bolivia. An immense quantity of material flows down from the Andes Mountains and is drained by the Amazon River, forming strips of alluvial soils and terraces that are used for farming. The Amazon Jungle has the largest rain forest in the world and for centuries this dense tropical forest has protected the area and the animals residing in it. The average temperature is 25°C and rainfall is distributed evenly throughout the year, with December through to February being the drier months.

The Amazonas ecosystem is one of the richest and most complex communities of plant and animal life in the world. The region is characterized by huge and diverse amounts of flora and fauna with extraordinary variations in their habitats and micro habitats. In the jungles of the Upper Amazon 100 species of trees per acre have been recorded and the Amazon's rivers, lakes, streams and marshlands support over 600 species of fish and more than 250 species of amphibians and reptiles. The lagoons of the Napo and Aguarico River basins are home to colonies of two species of Caimans, the largest predator in South America which can grow between 13 to 20 feet in length.

Visiting the Amazon Jungle is a once in a life time adventure, and Tourabout’s travel packages offer you a thoroughly enjoyable steamy jungle trek. Most start with a flight to Puerto Maldonado, where your luggage is put into safe storage, as you only need a small pack of necessary items in the jungle. A motorised canoe takes you up the river to the jungle lodge and lunch is usually had on board the canoe. Most lodges are eco-friendly and combine low-impact architecture with traditional native style. They provide simple, but comfortable rooms with flush toilets and showers (no hot water), mosquito nets and kerosene lamps. As your guides are local and multilingual they provide a magnificent jungle encounter as they describe fauna and flora in their natural habitat and explain the medicinal properties and practical uses of the plants. After exploring the wilds to your heart's content, and spotting everything from macaws to monkeys, peccary, jabirus, otters and thousands of butterflies, it’s time to jump back in the canoe and return to civilisation.