I booked this in Cusco through a travel agent. I was quoted $430us and agreed to that and went to the bank to get the money. By the time I came back the price was $460, single supplement, so I agreed to that. A few days before I left I was told to confirm my flight. I did this at LAN office and was told to be at the airport 2 hours early. I was at the ariport at 6.30am and the boarding loung was packed. First flight to Quito went. Then another flight. at 8.00 I was the only person left sitting there. We were supposed to board at 8.30 and there were only 14 people there. Then I looked up and all the people for my flight were just arriving, so much for 2 hours ahead. The flight was less than 1/2 full so I got a window seat and for the first half of the flight could dee the amazing Andes and snow capped volcanoes. The second half was just clouds. The airport at Puerto Maldonado is dinky as. Like Penang in the early 70s for those who remember. It meant for a quick exit and my guide was there to pick me up. We headed straight for the office and the second RIP. At the office I was told I had to pay park entry fee of 30s. The lodge is in the reserve so everyone has to pay so why not included in the quoted price? Then we cruised around town for a while then Daniel told me we were waiting for another group cos I would be travelling to the lodge with them. After about an hour we met the other group at the office where they were paying there park entrance fee. When this was all fixed up we headed for the wharf and the trip up river to the lodge. The trip up river was OK but not a lot to see. A few monkeys and macaws, in pairs cos they mate for life (idiots). We were mostly through degraded forest and farmland. We had one stop on the way to sign in at the park office and the guides showed all the park passes. The whole trip took 4 hours in the boat so the chance to stretch your legs was welcome. When we arrived at Libertador Tambopata we were ushered up the stairs to the bar for a welcome drink. The bar and restaurant area are what you would expect for a jungle lodge, kinda rustic and all screens to keep out the nasties. We were also given a short induction on what is here and where everything is, and room allocation etc. The rooms are opulent. Two rooms to a bungalow, with private bath and seperate toilet and common sitting area out the front. The rooms have no windows and are fully screened, so you cant close out the noise, and have no ceiling so what ever the neighbours do you can hear it. They are quite spectacular. At 6.30 we had a slide show about the area and 7 was a night walk to see the bugs and insects around the place. There was a Tarantula is the roof of one of the bungalows, we saw Peru´s most deadly spider and the worlds biggest ant. After the walk we had dinner....anticucho!! During dinner daniel told me about the program for the next couple of days and no mention of macaws. When I asked he said I was on the wrong tour and would not be going to see them. I´m ****** off!!!! DAY 2 I slept on it and the answer was easy I just change to the other programe and if it costs a few bucks more I will pay the balance. I asked Daniel ´how much to see the macaws´ He went and asked the manager and came back ´$300us¨ WHAT THE F*&K. I have already paid $460us and they want $300 more that is extortion. That would be well over $1100 aus for 4 DAYS. It was ******* rain and we were supposed to be going for a walk to some lake but it was put off til 9 hopeing the rain would ease. This gave me a little more time to sort out my options. I needed a boat, but I am stuck here. I started asking the other staff where I could get a boat but all of a sudden no one spoke english. Daniel gave me two options, Pay the $300us or go to Puerto Maldonado and fight it out with the general manager, which would be a 7 hr round trip so a waste of another day. Then he was in my face saying we are going on a walk what do you want to do? I am stuck so todays excitement is a 7 mile walk through the jungle in wellies. The rain has made it muddy so we have to wear long pants, wellie boots and I have to carry a backpack with my lunch, I cant have it when I get back? I dont know why??? We went down river for abou 1/2 hr to a set of steps up the bank. Two guides in front carried machete´s and were slashing at the jungle for effect. After a while the slashing got a little less. Even the guide at the back had a slah every now and then to add to the effect. The path was very muddy and in places it was like a stream. The walk was more like a sprint!! there was no time to look at anything, we seemed to be on a tight schedule for some reason. Maybe the boys wanted to be back for Home and Away. About an hour in (cue dramatic music) Oh no the bridge is down. There was a rickety little bridge and one half was partly down, like most bridges you see in these places. We all negotiated it Ok and moved on. (cue dramatic music again) A short while later the water was too deep so we will have to find a way round it. Get out the machete´s again and start slashing. 5 minutes of this and they declared it was not looking promising. We took a vote to go on or return. The Poms I was with are doing the Inca trail next week so they didnt want to keep going and possibly injure feet so we turned back. I dont blame them either I would have done the same and in the ******* rain there would probably be nothing out at the lake anyway. The difference between a good tour company and a poor company is the contingencies. No one can do anything about the rain but a good tour company is prepared for anything and would have an alternative. We were told ´have lunch get dry and this afternoon we will walk around the lodge´. They had nothing. The lodge is set in degraded forest, if it was good forest they would not be allowed here. This afternoon I showed up for the walk and Daniel said the general manager was here. I said lets go I want to see him. Lets just say we had a free and frank exchange of ideas on extortion and I got to use my 2 best spanish words again. I told him there was no way I was going to let him extort $300us from me. I asked if he could contact the other lodges to see if they were going and maybe I could join them. He said he couldnt contact them. Let me hire a boat for 2 hours so I can go check myself. 2 hours means all day and that would be $100us. No one else would be going. Everything I came up with was NO! I told him I had spent $7000 and traveled half way round the world to see the macaws so I wasnt going to miss them. Eventually we negotiated the price to $179us, which I agreed to. Because it was late I would not be able to camp overnight as usual and would have to go at 3am tomorrow. I was not allowed to go to the biggest one but only the closest one at Chuncho cos that was 4 hours away and the biggest one was 7 hours. I spent the rest of the afternoon sitting around bored s***less. Had I known the true cost I would have gone to Manu. I dont know if it would have been better but that is what I would have done. Before I paid I asked if we could find out what the weather would be like. He said ´no one knows the weather only god.´ I said how about we try the weather service, they can have a good crack at it??? No again. So I paid. DAY 3 I couldnt sleep, I was so excited I kept nodding off and waking up thinking I would oversleep, so I got up at 12.30 and went to sit at the Bar area where they were to meet me in the morning. I had my drink bottle, camera and binoculares around my neck, I looked like a kid on xmas eve. At 3.30 Daniel and the boatman arrived but it was 4.10 when we left. It was pitch black, no moon, and we were flogging along the river in a wooden Peki peki with no lights to show where we were or to see where we were going. We made the trip in a world record 2 hours, (They wouldnt have said it was 4hr to jack up the price would they) and pulled in beside the other 2 boats. When I walked up onto the river bank there was 2 groups of .....no one. It must have been a last minute decision. We sat to watch and a few parrots were on the lick but the macaws were coming and going. The macaws fly in pairs cos they mate for life (idiots) so they are easy to spot and you can hear them from miles away. At one point we had about 40 macaws it the trees on the otherside of the river. They were not doing what they were supposed to do and the other groups got frustrated and left. At one point Daniel asked what I wanted to do and I said I want to hang out for longer. I paid a lot of money so he had to stay. At about I saw the macaws further down the river and they looked like they were going to start getting on the clay. There was close to 100 of them and this was what I had come to see. Not necesserily on the lick but lots fo macaws in the same place. It was the best thing I have seen since I have been here. This was number 1 on my to see list. I got photos and a video (if it loads up) but you have to remember they were all taken at maximum zoom. I was between 200 and 300 mtr from them and some were taken through my binoculars, some zoom and some through a telescope. I havnt seen any of my photos from here, only the thumnails on the computers as I send them. On the way back I had to sign out of the park, I had previously signed into the reserve. Because I had not signed into the park Daniel, my guide, got a writen warning from the ranger. We arrived back at the lodge at about 1pm and I spent the rest of the day bored s***less again. DAY 4 Breakfast at 8am then on the boat and back to town. To break it down Day 1 was spent getting there Day 2 was walk in the jungle, abandoned due to weather, ´conference´with the general manager Day 3 the macaw clay lick...amazing Day 4 come back to town The total cost was $639us or about $1000aus. Good value? No way. Had I known the real cost I would have gone to Manu but as I said I spent a lot of money and came half way round the world to see macaws so I wasnt going to miss them since I was soo close. At the end of the day it was unfortunate I was on the wrong tour but it could have been easliy fixed without the extortion and blaming the travel agent. It was **** poor how Tambopata handled it.