Alta Sanctuary

The guttural call of a howler monkey. The rhythmic clucking of a macaw. The throaty burps of a tree frog. It sounds like the residents of the Amazon are in your room—and in a way, they are. Or actually, it’s the other way around. You’re in theirs. The dense canopy is the rainforest’s downtown, where most of the species live, sleep, and play. You’ll be doing the same at Alta Sanctuary. The highest treehouse in the world’s largest rainforest, Alta soars 110 feet above the jungle floor, erected atop two trees that intertwine—an ancient white quinella and a massive strangler fig. The elegant treehouse lives up to its name: this is a sanctuary in the sky, with plush bedding, a well-appointed bathroom stocked with eco-friendly amenities, and glorious 360-degree views. A private on-site chef curates the dining to order, and staff tour guides lead low-impact excursions into the wild. The treehouse is the star of the show, but you can also stay in rustic cabins in the restored Las Piedras Biodiversity Station, as well as A-frame bungalows. Some parts of the Amazon are fairly well-trammeled by visitors, but this isn’t one of them. Here, you’re not just immersed in the remote, biodiverse area of Las Piedras River, you’re helping preserve it. Managed by Tamandua Expeditions, Alta Sanctuary was co-founded by conservationists Juan Julio Durand and Paul Rosolie of Junglekeepers, which patrols and protects more than 77,000 acres of land in the Las Piedras watershed, home to over 480 bird species, as well as threatened and endangered animals such as the giant otter and jaguar. The mission behind the treehouse is to leverage tourism as a conservation strategy. The Junglekeepers’ theory: if the secluded rainforest isn’t experienced, will the world realize it needs to be saved? Now it’s starting to.