Puerto Maldonado

A remote settlement even for Peru, PUERTO MALDONADO is a frontier colonist town with strong links to the Cusco region with an economy based on unsustainable lumber and gold extraction and highly sustainable brazil-nut gathering from the rivers and forests of Madre de Dios, Puerto Maldonado has grown enormously over the last twenty years from a small, laidback outpost of civilization to a busy market town. Today, swollen by the arrival of business expecting a boom now that the road to Brazil is open, it’s the thriving, safe capital of a region. Where, only thirty years ago, there were hardly any four-wheeled vehicles and the town´s only TV was set up outside the municipal building for the locals to watch football, these days enormous Brazilian trucks thunder past and satellite TV dishes have sprouted all over town.

History

While gold mining and logging keep Puerto Maldonado buzzing today, it was rubber that established the town at the beginning of the twentieth century. During the 1920s, game hunters dominated the economy of the region. In the 1960s, the exploiters of mahogany and cedar trees arrived - leading to the construction of Boca Manu airstrip, just before the oil companies moved in during the 1970s. Most of the townspeople, riding coolly around on Honda motorbikes, are second-generation colonos, but there´s a constant stream of new and hopeful arrivals, both rich and poor, from all parts of South America. The lure, inevitably, is gold.

Geography

The Amazon rainforest drapes a green blanket over a significant part of South America. It covers the entire eastern part of Peru and extends into parts of Brazil, Ecuador, Bolivia, Colombia, and Venezuela.

Southern Amazon in Peru

In southern Peru is the department of Madre de Dios, the capital, Puerto Maldonado is the most popular city in the region and a hot spot for adventure seeking travelers that wish to explore this part of the amazon.
The flourishing ecosystem in the southern part of the Peruvian jungle is all fed by the Madre de Dios River and its streams. The Tambotapa is one of the most vital streams, starting in the town of Puerto Maldonado around 55km from the Peru-Bolivia border. The stream also flows through the Tambopata National Reserve and the Bahuaja-Sonene National Park. The protected areas of the jungle hold large habitats where flora and fauna flourishes, with ancient trees that spread for miles and riverbeds layered with bamboo groves.

With an altitude of 180m (600f) above sea level, Puerto Maldonado dominates the southern part of the Peruvian Amazon.

Seasonal Info

With tropical climate, the Amazon will have warm days with high humidity.

Dry season

The driest months in the amazon are from May to October. Cold spells that occur from June to September, temperatures can drop to around 10*C (50*f) for a few days at a time. These are a result of cold fronts that emerge from Patagonia and from the Andes, blow down to the southern jungle.

• Pros: Ideal trail conditions, clay licks will be filled with macaws, parrots and other birds.
• Cons: the hot temperatures can cause less bird and amphibian activity.

Wet season

You can expect rain throughout the whole year due to the fact that the amazon is rainforest, but during “wet season”, rainfall will be more consistent. The rainy season starts in November and will continue on until April. During November and December is when most rainfall is expected.

• Pros: the constant rainfall can form temporary wetlands and with cooler temperatures it can be easier to see amphibians or reptiles.
• Cons: these rainy conditions can interfere with flights, less birds at the clay licks and muddy trails.

Attractions

Around Puerto Maldonado

Madre de Dios boasts spectacular Virgin lowland rainforest and exceptional wildlife. Brazil-nut tree trails, a range of lodges, some excellent local guides and ecologists, plus indigenous and colonist cultures are all within a few hours of Puerto Maldonado.

Lago Sandoval

A short way downriver from Puerto Maldonado is Lago Sandoval, a large lake where the Ministry of Agriculture have introduced the large paiche fish. On arrival at the lake, boatmen and canoes can usually be obtained by your guide for a couple of hours, as can food and drink. The lake offers decent opportunities for spotting wildlife, in particular birds similar to those at Lago Valencia, such as hoatzins and the occasional toucan. You may even spot a giant otter. Incidentally, if you're travelling to the lake by river, most guides will show you the mined hulk of an old boat lying close to the riverbank.

Reserva Nacional Tambopata

Containing some of the world’s finest and most biodiverse rainforest, the RESERVA NACIONAL TAMBOPATA, is one of the most easily accessible parts of relatively pristine Amazon rainforest. Transformed into a reserved zone mainly due to the scientific work of the adjacent Explorers Inn lodge, the area covers around 250,000 hectares, and is next to the Parque Nacional Batiuaja-Sonene, itself more than 1.5 million hectares. The expansion of the National Park is a major success for conservation in Peru, but despite this there are fears that the government has plans to open up the park in future to gas and oil exploitation. It´s only possible to visit the National Park on a tour with a licensed operator. Tours organized from Cusco or Puerto Maldonado can enter one of the major macaw salt licks (colpas) in the region. The licks are the best places to see wildlife in the jungle, since their sails, minerals and clay are highly nutritious, attracting large numbers of wild birds and animals.

Cultural norms

Jungle communities & Puerto Maldonado

Over 60 percent of Peru is covered by the Amazonian jungle, but only 5 percent of Peru’s total population can call the jungle home. There are several indigenous communities in the Amazon, but each community has very different lifestyles. The people that live closer to bigger cities like Puerto Maldonado, will most likely have electricity and running water, but there are also tribes that live deeper inside the jungle and can only be accessed by boat. Environments and habitats have been polluted, because of constant mining and logging.

Language

Over the years, tourism has boomed in Puerto Maldonado, and as result the community has become multilingual. The guides, hotel staff and drivers will of course speak Spanish, and most will also know English. Some may even speak French, Portuguese, etc. to experience native languages a visit to an indigenous community is necessary.

Activities

Land Treks

During the low water season, your Amazon tour might include a land trek through the jungle. This is a great opportunity to see hundreds of the species of plants, insects and reptiles that make their home in the vegetation of the jungle floor, under the protection of the thick vegetation above. During the high-water season, land treks are uncommon as most areas are inaccessible due to the flooding of the rivers from the heavy rains.

Boat Tours

Navigating the rivers of the Amazon by boat is one of the best ways to get a front row seat to the jungle’s wildlife scene. The flowing water of the rivers is the life-sustaining resource of the Amazon Rainforest. This means that a wide variety of animals come to the banks of the rivers to drink, eat, bathe and lounge. It is common to see birds and monkeys perched in the trees, capybaras and otters playing in the shallow water near the shores and possibly even a jaguar taking an afternoon nap in the thicket. Boat tours are available all year round in most parts of the Amazon.

Indigenous communities

The Peruvian jungle is home to some of the 64 registered aboriginal communities in the country. Despite a long history of interaction with Catholic missionaries and other outsiders, many of these native tribes have kept key elements of their culture intact, including language, dance traditions and artistic expression.

Canopy Walks

The Peruvian Amazon rainforest is home to some startling diversity of plant and animal life. This diversity varies, not only by geographic location, but also by distance from the rainforest floor. In a competition for sunlight, tall trees mingle their leafy branches with those of their neighbors, creating a green roof known as the canopy. Below, within and above the canopy, life takes different forms. Walks above the canopy on platforms or bridges are included in many jungle lodge programs.

Travel tips

Getting to the Rainforest

Puerto Maldonado, a small city nestled in the country’s southeastern region, is one of the principal gateways to the Peruvian Amazon. It is connected to the outside world by air, river and road. If you, like most travelers to Peru, have limited vacation time and you’re looking for the most efficient way to get to your destination, air travel is definitely the fastest way to get to Puerto Maldonado. Flights depart daily from Lima and Cusco. Most of the jungle lodges are located down the river and away from the city, requiring a second leg of travel by boat. If you’ve made advance arrangement for an Amazon tour, lodge staff will meet you at the Puerto Maldonado’s airport and escort your group to your final destination. Motorized canoes carry passengers along the river and make for a unique jungle experience! Travel time usually takes between one and six hours, depending on the location of the lodge.

Getting there and away

By Air: Many airlines offer services to Puerto Maldonado. A direct flight from Cusco takes 55min and a nonstop service from Lima takes about 1h 40min.