Posada Amazonas, Peru

Posadas Amazonas is one of three jungle lodges set up by a Peruvian ecotourism company in collaboration with the indigenous Ese-Eja community of Infierno in the Tambopata National Reserve. The rooms are furnished with wood and cane, and there’s candle-lit dinner in a lofty, palm-thatched communal dining hall where one end opens out on to the jungle. Early morning climbs up a rainforest-canopy tower are led by an ex-hunter from the village who is now the lodge’s top birding guide, and there are night walks and botanical trips to Centro Ñape.

For Machu Picchu, travel by canoe from the lodge to a river port for the transfer to a 25-minute flight from Puerto Maldonado to Cusco.

Costs US$205 full board for 2 night (3 day) trip, all inclusive from Puerto Maldonado (food, transfers and excursions). www.perunature.com, +51 1 421 8347.

An edited version of this article, by Richard Hammond, was first published in the Guardian.