My husband and I are planning a trip to Peru for early September (we are in our late 20s). We are looking to go to the Amazin Basin around Puerto maldonado for a few days. Can anyone recommend any of the lodges? I've looked at Explorer's Inn, Libertador Tambopata Lodge, and Posadas Amazonas. We would like to see the macaw clay-licks, but I am not into the whole camping thing. I think we will probably do 3 nights. Any suggestions? Thanks!

I stayed at Corto Maltes and very highly recommend it. You can walk to the Macaw clay licks from it. They also have excellent food.
If you stay there, request a riverfront hut. There are only three that are right on the river.

We're taking our kids in June to both MP and the Amazon area around Puerto Maldonado. We're doing the Amazon portion through IncaNatura. From what I can tell, they have fairly nice accomodations and very well planned outings, among them visits to clay licks.

One thing to double-check before you make arrangements for your accomodations is that some of the jungle lodges are basically one very lodge building with only room dividers (i.e. no ceilings in the rooms). Thus you can hear your neighbors VERY well.
Sandoval Lake Lodge is one that is like this, I believe Incanatura uses them.

Has anyone stayed at Posadas Amazonas? If so, how are the rooms? So far they seem to have the tour package we are looking for.

We stayed at Explorer's Inn in May 1997. Camping it is NOT! We were met at the entrance after the boat ride with drinks with little umbrellas in them and a lantern lit path. Our cabins were very cute with mosquito netting. There was a large building where we had meals and they also had outdoor chairs for relaxing during the day.

We went on a great rainforest hike with them, plus were able to hike the trails on our own. Totally fun, just not what we were expecting from a "jungle lodge". We also did a night boat ride that was really neat. Take a camera. I didn't and it still upsets me almost 10 years later.

I have tons of pictures. Of course this was pre-digital age but I can scan them if you'd like and put them on my website. Let me know and I will do it this weekend.

~gnr~

Did you get to go to the Clay-lick? Most of the places that go to the clay-lick do with a night of camping, which I'm not really into, plus it's more $. Posada Amazonas offers the clay-lick without camping. Explorer's inn seems to have nice rooms.

See:
http://www.cortomaltes-amazonia.com/us/sejour.shtml

There are two clay licks near Puerto Maldonado. One is on property owned by Corto Maltes. The other is the one that people hike and camp to.

Nope. No clay lick. I don't even recall reading about that when planning the trip.

The rooms if I recall were spartan, but "jungley". We had mosquito nets over the beds and large windows. I don't remember if they were connected to other rooms and my photo doesn't show. It's possible it was four rooms connected in a square with a wraparound porch. That's what the eating lodge looks like, though it's all one space on the interior.

~gnr~

We stayed at Tambopata Jungle Lodge, 2 hours by boat from Maldonado. The clay lick was the best thing we saw. In fact, it was almost the only thing we saw. The jungle is dense so we did not see any fauna except insects. It was very hot, humid, no air conditioning, in fact, no electricity. Interesting experience, but would not go again. Our boatman took pity on us and took us to a clay lick on the way back to Maldonado. I am into birdwatching so those few minutes made the trip for me. If I were to do it again, two nights with a full day to see "whatever" plus a good clay lick would be enough. If you could see "whatever" with the claylick with one night...much better.

We saw a lot of wildlife, monkeys, capybara, caiman, even a fer de lance.