Simply put, the Manu Road is one of the world’s great butterflying areas. Crossing habitats from high Andean puna grassland to lowland Amazonian rainforest, traveling its length gives you a theoretical chance of seeing over 2,000 species of butterflies, along with thousands of moths, hundreds of beautiful bird species, several monkeys, and a huge variety of other wildlife. The recent paving of the road has been a mixed blessing – some traditional butterflying sites have been heavily altered, but travel on the road is much more comfortable, and it’s now easier to visit various excellent spots up and down the road.

On this tour, we’ll spend most of our time based at two famous lodges – Cock-of-the-Rock Lodge and Villa Carmen. The former is at mid-elevation and allows us to explore a variety of sites at different elevations in cloud-forest habitats; Villa Carmen is in the foothills and home to a seemingly endless diversity of lowland butterflies. Our last two nights will be spent at Wayqecha Biological Station near the treeline – a fascinating habitat home to many rarely-observed species.

Tour Dates:

October 17-November 02, 2026

Tour Leaders:

David Geale

This evening we’ll meet in Lima, enjoy dinner together as a group ahead of tomorrow’s early morning flight. We will overnight at the Wyndham Costa del Sol Lima Airport

After an early morning one hour flight from Lima to Cusco, we’ll spend most of the day driving to Cock-of-the-Rock Lodge, stopping at a few sites along the way to break up the drive and get our list started; the high elevation firetip Mysoria cosinga is one of the day’s main targets. In the afternoon, we’ll arrive at Cock-of-the-Rock Lodge and settle in the for the next four nights.

We’ll have three full days to explore the middle section of the Manu Road, covering elevations roughly between 1000 and 2000 m. At the higher end, we’re likely to find several species of striking Catasticta dartwhite species and many unusual Andean satyrs. The area around the lodge itself is also productive, with lots of neat skippers visiting the garden flowers and the beautiful phantom-satyr Cithaerias pyropina possible on forest trails. Perhaps the best butterflying (in the world!?) is on the lower stretch of the road, where we’ll walk a trail down to a river beach; the trail is a great spot to find a variety of rare metalmarks, while the beach is likely to be littered with firetips, swallowtails, and many others.

Today will be moving day, as we head down into the lowlands – but it’s only about a one hour drive, so we’ll spend most of the day again on the lower part of the road, perhaps revisiting the river beach and hoping for some stunning hairstreak like Thestius meridionalis, Annamaria lathyi, and Porthecla gemma. In the afternoon we’ll finish the journey to Villa Carmen, and perhaps have a quick first look at their amazing butterfly garden.

We’ll be based at Villa Carmen for five full days; we’ll probably spend three of them on lodge trails and two of them driving to nearby sites. The lowland forest here is home to… well, too many butterflies to mention! Baited leaves are likely to attract several species of Anteros jewelmarks, colourful leafwings, morphos and owl-butterflies, and more. The lodge has recently planted a wonderful butterfly garden full of Heliotrope flowers which is always worth checking for a wonderfully confusing variety of clearwings and tigerwings. We will not make any long drives during these days, but within a half hour of Villa Carmen we can check some different habitats for diverse puddle parties, territorial Sarota species, and plenty of others.

We’ll have a final morning in the lowlands before reversing direction and heading back up into the Andes later in the day. Most likely we’ll spend our time on the wonderful trail system, perhaps tracking down a few more glittering blue-satyrs in bamboo patches. In the afternoon we’ll return to Cock-of-the-Rock Lodge for a second visit.

We’ll have two more days to visit sites up and down the Manu Road; focusing on whatever we missed on our previous visit – maybe pretty Dalla skipperlings or a variety of clearwing species visiting Eupatorieae flowers.

Today we’ll start our exploration of the higher parts of the road; there’s less diversity here, but a large portion of what we see will be endemic or rarely-seen species. In particular, we’ll hope for some unusual cloud forest hairstreaks if we can find the right roadside flowers, and puddle parties are always interesting for various species of whites and satyrs among others. In the afternoon, we’ll finish the short drive to Wayqecha Biological Station, where we’ll spend the next two nights.

At about 2900 m., Wayqecha is perfectly placed near the treeline with a beautiful view down the valley and some nice trails to walk through elfin forest mixed with grassland. This mosaic of microhabitats is home to enigmatic skipper species like Thespieus argentina and Tarmia monosticta, but the main focus here is high elevation satyrs, hopefully including the striking Druphila venerata. 

Today we’ll conclude the tour with a final morning around Wayqecha before driving back to Cusco to catch an afternoon flight to Lima; international connections can be made in the evening