Muyuna office — Hotel in Iquitos

We just finished a really wonderful 3-night stay. Especially because Muyuna’s website isn’t very friendly, I’d like to leave a fairly comprehensive review.

In summary, the 3rd-party reviews available online paint a pretty accurate picture of the place. It is a good compromise for people who don’t want a luxury trip that completely insulates you from the jungle you’ve come to visit, but also don’t want a shared-bath youth hostel experience. It finds an excellent middle ground.

Scheduling: They run a round-trip boat from Iquitos to their lodge each day. It leaves Iquitos at 9 or 10 AM and takes a bit under 3 hours to get to the lodge. It leaves the lodge at 1 PM, and gets into Iquitos before 4 PM. We took an early morning flight from Lima to Iquitos, but spent the night in Iquitos after returning from Muyuna. Your mileage may vary.

The days run with the rhythm of the sun, which works pretty well. Breakfast at 6:30. A morning activity from 7:15 to 11:00. Lunch at 12:30, as part of a mid-day siesta. An afternoon activity from 3:00 to about 5:30. Dinner at 6:30. A night activity at 7:15, lasting less than an hour. Don’t be intimidated by the early-bird schedule. It seems quite natural, since the activities mostly require daylight and the sun tends to awaken you anyhow.

Activities: When you arrive, you’ll be assigned a nature guide. He’ll stay with you for the duration of your visit, and people will arrive and depart from the group. Your total group will be 6 people or fewer, in my observation. The activities that seemed to be occurring while we were there included: —Powerboat expeditions on various rivers to spot wildlife —Canoeing through swampland —Hiking in jungle —Dolphin spotting and swimming in Amazon —Fishing for piranha —Camping (takes 24h) —Spotting/catching a caiman (night) —Stargazing (night) —Hiking in jungle (night) You’ll do a morning activity on the day you depart, plus afternoon and evening activities on the day you arrive. So you will have as many full days of activities as nights stayed.

Facilities: The whole camp is built on stilts on the banks of the river. In the wet season the camp is over water. In the dry season it’s over land. Individual cabins have private baths with sinks, flush toilets, and showers. They have half-height walls with screens above, and a screen ceiling with a thatched roof atop. (Our screened ceiling featured a resident tarantula… on the OTHER side of the screen.). There are curtains for privacy. Each cabin has a balcony with hammocks. There is 12-volt LED lighting at night, but this is pretty dim by the usual standards. There is daily housekeeping and linen changing (if desired). The main lodge has A/C power for charging phones and cameras. To be clear: there is no air conditioning anywhere in the camp. Days get hot but nights were fine for us. You can swim or kayak from the lodge’s dock.

Meals are buffet-style, feature some jungle ingredients, and are meat/starch-heavy as is typical in this country. Coffee, fresh water, and tropical fruits are always available. All food is included in the price. They have wine, cold beer, and cold soda available for purchase. (Believe me, the cold beer is crucial!). Other than these drinks, there are no extra costs associated with the visit.

Timing: We went at the beginning of the dry season (late May). We didn’t have a choice on our timing, but this worked out really well: we didn’t have nonstop rain, but the water was still high enough that our excursions were mostly in boats. I’m told that in July/August most of the activities are hiking-based, and the weather is somewhat hotter.

Summary: We had an excellent time, and we feel that Muyuna delivered everything it promised. We recommend it highly. 3 nights seemed like the right amount of...

If you're looking for Amazonas guided tours, stop here and just book it. We have researched a lot, a lot of them were shady, weird, this one really put the bar high, they have been very well organized, very professional, we felt safe the entire time. Yes, it's super expensive but you get what you pay for.|The 3 meals a day have been top quality, with flexibility in case of dietary restrictions or preferences. The rooms were spacious, the bed very comfortable, the private bathroom always with enough hot water. Of course don't forget you're in the middle of the Amazonas, so set your expectations according to that. We wore contact lens, it caused no problems to handle them, they provided filtered water in a jug for that.|There's a reasonably fast wifi during a few hours each day if you really need it, although try to disconnect a bit and just enjoy the nature.|We were a bit disappointed by the transfer from their downtown Iquitos office because it was mostly a van drive and just a very short boat trip at the end, we would have preferred more boat time on the Amazonas. It's for less contamination and better sustainability. Regardless, it was all convenient and comfortable.|The programs were easy enough but busy, we enjoyed everything we saw and everything as it was promised. I want to highlight our guide, Alberto, he is an older gentleman from the local town next door, living there all his life, so he has been extremely knowledgeable about his environment, we learnt a lot from him. He did his work always with full of energy, lot of passion and meanwhile being very easy going and respectful. We wish him a long and healthy life and hope to see him again for another guided tour at Muyuna in the future, maybe in the rainy season next time.|Other than his contribution, I'd like to highlight Luis Pedro from the restaurant staff, he's been very attentive and nice, always making sure the guests are first. We wish him the best of luck with his university studies, hope his dreams will come true. And of course all the rest of the staff, all the guides, helpers, everyone has been very kind, we hope they will be able to get even better working conditions, more paid time off and social security, they really deserve it and I'm sure the owners will have more than enough profit...

Our stay at the Muyuna lodge was absolutely wonderful. First off, their communication while making reservations was fantastic. They were ready for and even anticipated most of my questions and always responded very quickly over Whatsapp. They followed up with me if I wasn't responding very quickly to make sure that I had received their emails.

The stay itself was wonderful. The lodge is what you would expect for a remote Jungle location, it is kept very clean with daily housekeeping services and shampoo, soap and conditioner provided. The food is great and plentiful and I particularly enjoyed the coffee available at all times. Our kids enjoyed the games and fussball table that were available for guests. Percy, in charge of the food and dining, was wonderful and took extra care for our family of 6 always making sure we had what we needed.

Edgar our guide was fantastic, he made every day and excursion wonderful! He was incredibly patient with our kids and their endless questions and was so very knowledgeable it is very clear that the guides have a lot of training regarding the flora and fauna and the area. Edgar tailored our experience to work around our family to assure that we had the best experience possible.

If you want a true authentic Amazon experience, this is it! And yes, bring...