Peru - Lonely Planet Publications [404]
Return to beginning of chapter
CUZCO TO MANU
This spectacular journey provides opportunities for some excellent bird-watching at the lodges en route, as well as some of Peru’s most dramatic scenery changes. The route runs from bare Andean mountains into cloud forest before dropping into a steamy tangle of lowland jungle. You can get as far as Boca Manu, an hour before the entrance point for the zona reservada, independently. This is challenging but possible, although to either enter the zona reservada or maximize your chances of seeing wildlife, you will need a guide and therefore a tour. Most lodges en route will let you stay but giving them advance notice is advised.
If traveling overland, the first stage of the journey involves taking a bus or truck from Cuzco via Paucartambo (Click here) to Shintuya. Buses run by Gallito de las Rocas (Off Map; Av Diagonal Angamos 1952, Cuzco) leave at 6am, 10am and 1pm for Pilcopata (S20, 10 to12 hours in good weather) daily. Get a taxi to the departure point – it’s extremely difficult to find independently. Cheaper trucks also leave sporadically from the Coliseo Cerrado in Cuzco for Shintuya (about 24 hrs in dry season). Breakdowns, extreme overcrowding and delays are common, and during the rainy season (even during the dry) vehicles slide off the road. It’s safer, more comfortable and more reliable to take the costlier tourist buses (often heavy-duty trucks) offered by Cuzco tour operators. Many tour companies in Cuzco offer trips to Manu (Click here).
There are several lodges between Paucartambo and Pilcopata. Around six hours from Cuzco and overlooking the Kosñipata River valley, Manu Paradise Lodge (084-22-4156; www.manuparadiselodge.com; r per person incl meals US$70) Cuzco (Urb Magisterio 2da etapa) sleeps 16 people in spacious rooms with private hot-water bathrooms. It looks quite modern, unlike the more rustic lodges further into the park. Among its assets are an attractive dining room–bar with a fireplace and telescopes for wildlife viewing. Rafting and mountain-biking tours can be arranged, but the primary attraction is bird-watching.
Cock-of-the-Rock Lodge (s/d 3 days & 2 nights US$725/1150) is just a few minutes’ walk from a lek (mating ground) for cocks-of-the-rock (brightly colored rainforest birds that live on rock cliffs and outcrops), where they conduct elaborate communal mating ‘dances’. This lodge offers exceptional cloud-forest bird-watching at a pleasant 1600m elevation. The owners claim you can get photos of male cocks-of-the-rock displaying about 7m from your camera. The lodge has a restaurant and 12 rustic double cabins with private bathrooms and hot water. Normally, visitors overnight here en route to Manu, but the lodge can be used as a destination in itself for cloud-forest birding. Rates include meals and round-trip transportation from Cuzco, which takes on average eight hours. Discounts are available for longer stays and larger groups. Contact InkaNatura (www.inkanatura.com) Cuzco (Map; 084-25-5255; Ricardo Palma J1 Urb Santa Mónica & Plateros 361) Lima (Map; 01-440-2022; Manuel Bañón 461, San Isidro).
Nearby, Manu Cloud Forest Lodge (Map; 084-25-2721; www.manuperu.com; Pardo 1046, Cuzco; per person s/d 3 days/2 nights US$748/1046) is by the same stretch of road. The 16- to 20-bed lodge provides six rooms with hot showers, a restaurant and bird-watching opportunities in the high cloud forest. Transportation and use of the sauna cost extra.
The truck trip to these lodges is often broken at Pilcopata, which is the biggest village along the road. It’s currently the end of the public bus route and indeed contact with the outside world of all kinds: the last public phone before Manu is located here. There are a couple of basic hotels and a few stores in town. A bed costs about S15: floor or hammock space is less. Pickup trucks leave early every morning for Atalaya