An exciting tour to Peru for a bonanza of brilliant butterflies to gaze at & photograph!

Due to the tremendous success of our last Peru trip in November 2024, we are delighted to offer an extra tour in May 2025!

All of the sites on this itinerary have been visited on several occasions by both our Greenwings guide and our local guide, both of who have decades of experience of neotropical butterflies. All the locations are tried and tested, and will produce a great variety of species, although the intention as always is to provide maximum time for relaxed observation and photography, rather than to rush around building the biggest possible list. You’ll have several hours per day in the best butterfly habitats, to wander freely enjoying the butterflies.

You can expect to see many large and colourful Adelpha, Doxocopa, Perisama, Callicore, Heliconius, Marpesia, Caligo, Hamadryas and Morpho species, along with many stunning and varied metalmarks (Riodinidae); and of course plenty of swallowtails, cattlehearts, pierids and skippers galore.

As well as the hordes of stunning butterflies, we’ll see a great variety of colourful and fascinating shield bugs, damselflies, grasshoppers, beetles and more.

Our tour begins and ends at Mazamari airport in the eastern Andes. Full details of which flights to book will be provided well in advance of departure. All flights to Mazamari are via the Peruvian capital Lima.

Our first base is a small but very comfortable hotel in Satipo, which is about a half hour drive from Mazamari airport. We’ll be based there for 4 nights, and will travel by road to visit various locations, all within about a one hour drive of the town. Mostly we’ll be on good tarmac roads, but we’ll also need to travel on dirt tracks to reach the forest habitats, so sometimes we may use an open sided vehicle with a roof and side curtains to keep us dry if it rains.

The sites we visit will typically be where small streams cross forest dirt roads, and here we’ll find a huge variety of species mud-puddling, or feeding at liquid bait that we’ll apply to foliage. We are not naming exact sites here because we have to protect our itineraries from unscrupulous competitors. The order and choice of local sites will be based on local weather conditions, although at this time of year we would normally expect lots of sunshine and only the occasional brief shower.

On day 5 we travel to Oxapampa, about 5 hours direct drive from Satipo, but the journey will take all day, as we’ll be making 2 or 3 stops along the way to observe and photograph butterflies.

The next day we continue to Pozuzo, with more butterfly stops along the way, and spend 4 nights at a nice hotel on the edge of town. A short drive from town takes us to Yanachaga Chemellin national park, a site renowned for the diversity of its butterfly fauna. There will be some overlap between the species seen at Satipo and those seen at Pozuzo, but we expect to see at least 350 species in total. A privately organised trip run by our tour leader in 2023 amassed a total of over 450 species.

On day 10 we return to Satipo by road, via Bosque Shollet forest, where we’ll have a couple of hours searching for new butterflies to see and photograph.

On day 11 we depart in the morning to Mazamari airport for our return flights.

Notes:

It is advisable to wear rubber boots as there will be spots where it is muddy or where you may want to walk across shallow and narrow forest streams to reach butterflies on the other side. Rubber boots can be bought easily at Satipo.

Important – Flights:

The tour cost does NOT include international or domestic flights. There are only 2 flights per week to Mazamari (via Lima), and it is possible that the schedule might change, which could affect start and finish dates by up to 4 days either side of the dates below. Therefore please do NOT book any flights until we give you the go ahead.

Tour style:

Please note that we don’t shepherd you around in a group pointing out and identifying butterflies on the spot. Instead, we encourage you to explore the habitats at your own pace and take time enjoying your photography. In the evenings Adrian will assist with identifications from your cameras and laptops, and we will provide links to pdf files that illustrate a high percentage of the butterflies we are likely to see.

Tour leaders:

Your Greenwings tour leader is Adrian Hoskins, author of “Butterflies of the World”, “1000 Butterflies” and several scientific papers. Adrian has vast experience of neotropical butterflies in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Panama, Trinidad and Venezuela, as well as over a dozen previous tours of Peru. We’ll also have a very helpful local English-speaking butterfly guide who will put liquid baits along the trails and foliage to attract butterflies.

Identification Guide

Here is a fantastic and free resource to help guests to prepare for the tour and to help with identifications during or after it.

Butteflies of The Neotropics