“Most international tourists arriving in Madre de Dios head to one of the jungle lodges in the region… The tourism company Peruvian Safaris operates the Explorer’s Inn, located within the Tambopata Reserved Zone… It runs a Resident Naturalist program that offers young researchers extended stays in exchange for training services on local ecology and conservation… Explorer’s Inn has 30 rooms with 60 beds, distributed across seven buildings of typical regional construction…” These words, written in 1984, captured the dawn of an era—when the Amazon welcomed its first naturalists, researchers, and guides who would learn in the forest, from the forest.  Two decades later, that spirit lived on. 

José Antonio Padilla Reyes —Naturalist · Birding · Photography · Guide · South America — remembers his own beginning with vivid clarity: “At that address in the city center, I had my interview to go to the Lodge in the year 2000, with Max Gunther. It was the best!”

This meeting point between history and personal experience reveals something essential: jungle lodges were never just shelters. They shaped lives, forged vocations, and ignited a passion that still guides expeditions, lenses, and field notes today. Because the Amazon has that power:

it welcomes you as a visitor… and sends you back as a naturalist.