The Manu National Park, along with the Tambopata National Reserve, are Peru's most important ecological areas, located in the southeastern corner of Peru, limited with Brazil and Bolivia and is home to one of the world's highest biodiversity concentrations.

This ecologically rich region is home to hundreds of species of birds, insects, cats, monkeys, reptiles and fish, as well as thousands of plants and flowers. The Manu National Reserve has been made famous in films, documentaries, the National Geographic magazine, and the WWF. Recognized by UNESCO and the World Wildlife Fund as a "World Biosphere Reserve" and "World Natural Heritage Site".

While it is possible to visit to the Tambopata Reserve in two to five days, a minimum of four to five days are required to travel by motorboat and visit the areas of the Manu National Park.

The jump off point for excursions to Tambopata and Manu is Puerto Maldonado, a small jungle town with short flights from both Cusco and Lima. Recommended dates are from May through October.

Puerto Maldonado

It's the capital city and the starting point for the trips to Tambopata, Piedras and Madre de Dios rivers. There are daily flights from Lima or Cusco. For the most adventures, there is a road from Cusco that takes three days by truck, taking in account, all the delays and predictable inconvenience. 

Puerto Maldonado is the capital of the region, and the most important town of the southern jungle. It's located at 210 about the sea, in the confluence of the Madre de Dios and Tambopata river which connects it with Rivera Alto in Bolivia (a 5-hour trip to the border, by river) and with Assis, in Brazil (242 km/150 miles). Despite its commercial history, Puerto Maldonado has a slowly growth of population, but since 2000 it maintains the highest growth rate of the country.

The high season for tourism in Puerto Maldonado is from May to November, a lot of young people walk around the downtown, where you can find restaurants, pizza places, commercial centres even discos. All of these offer a great opportunity to have a pleasant stay, before and after to visit the depth jungle.

Native Communities

We can find here more than five language groups and over thirty racial types spread out throughout the entire province. Some of these groups live away from their original clans and have mixed with the outside population, but there are still large groups who live in their own reserves or communities.  There are also several groups with whom contact has not yet been made. These groups live in the north part of the province and do not wish to establish contact with the white man in fear of their weapons and illnesses.

These are nomad groups. Right now, efforts are being made by a special  movement so that this area can be officially declared as a Reserve in order to ensure the peaceful survival of these groups and avoid the extermination of their resources in the forest. This special movement is known as CAR, which stands for Regional environment commission of Madre de Dios. The ethnical group known as Harankbut was the last one to get integrated into the western world. This happened starting the year of 1954. The rubber industry could never beat them. Nowadays you can visit their territories as part of a one-day tour, which starts in Puerto Maldonado and takes you to the native community known as Amarakaeri.

Main attraction

Sandoval Lake	Valencia Lake	Heath Pampas
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