OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2019 99rainforest.” By 2009, there was a huge amount of money invested
in gold mining, and the government began cracking down, sinking
barges and chasing out miners. “It was a war zone,” Holle said.
Through it all, Rainforest Expeditions’ lodges have acted
as a local “antibody,” keeping mining and logging out of the
government-protected Tambopata area by offering viable jobs
to nearby residents. “With so many areas protected, we need
to figure out how to help people make a life,” said Holle, who
recently became the director of WWF Peru. “Cutting trees, mak-
ing farms, mining gold,” he said. “Most people here are just
honestly trying to make a living.”
HOLLE WAS BORN IN LIMA and studied forestry in college
before Amazon conservation and ecotourism captured his
attention. One trick he had to figure out was how to make the
rich Amazon ecosystem accessible to travelers. “In Africa you
get in a truck, drive around, and see elephants, giraffes, hip-
pos,” Holle said. “We can’t compete with those kinds of wildlife
sightings. We have to get people interested in insects and birds.”
To make that easier—and to contribute to the never ending
work of learning about the world’s largest rainforest—Holle and
his team established the Tambopata Research Center, several
hours upriver by boat from Puerto Maldonado. The center boasts
the kind of high-end accommodations you would expect on
a luxury safari in Africa, but also includes a laboratory for a
dozen scientists who perform frontline research while assisting
expeditions to see animal and plant life up close.
Outings start early—4:30 in the morning, just as the howler
monkeys are starting their racket, like a chorus of blowtorches
from on high. Parrots and macaws flash green, red, blue, and
yellow at the world’s largest clay lick, a short trip from the lodge.
There are jaguars too, but they are difficult to see.In this panorama stitched together from several images, a visitor crosses
a bridge leading to one of the 11 tree houses at Treehouse Lodge, along
the Yarapa River. In the center stands the lodge’s observation tower.