Arrive Lima 4:35 AM
Fly to Puerto Maldonado and on to Tambopata Research Center for 5 days
Fly to Cusco, Sacred Valley, Machu Picchu, and back - 3 days
Free day in Cusco
Fly back to Lima for a city tour
Flight home that same day at 10:40 PM
Everything sounds fine...until...my sister says she will go with my daughter and I. This is good news except she has one deal breaker when it comes to travel. Hot water!
Manu Wildlife Center has hot water but due to the days they take people out, I can't get it worked in to our plans and it would cost much more.

So the questions are:
How much does it really matter for hot water? I couldn't care less. I will wear a ball cap and not wash my hair. I can use cold to wash my face and important parts.
Has anyone out there stepped out of their comfort level and went with no hot water? How was it? I would like to be able to tell her either it will be fine, or we should do Manu for her comfort. do they use the plastic bladders which are heated by the sun or nothing at all?

It is far too hot and humid to want hot water. Best to just take your shower after you have come back from an outing, the cool (not cold) water feels good!

We were at Explorama lodge on the Amazon last May and they were very excited to point out they had just added hot water. I don't think I even turned it on, as even the cold was warm enough.

It is so hot and humid in the jungle the cold water is hot so relax no worries. In the mountains now they turn the heaters off it takes several hours to warm it up except for bigger hotels. So might check on that. For me a hot shower after trekking in the cold/rain cannot be beat. rumipunku.com was great for this and apulodge.com for me personally when there last.

Thanks for the input. That is what I thought. Just so that I can tell my sister, would you describe it more like room temp water vs. what would come out of our cold water tap? I think she is thinking it would be that cold. I would think more like pouring a water bottle over your head that had been sitting out.

Depends on your room temperature! It would be like a cool swimming pool, not like it had been in the refrigerator.

Refreshing, not cold.

Bring a bathing suit, I believe Tambopata has a swimming stream?