MADRE DE DIOS TERRITORY OF PERU
On the way to Puerto Maldonado (capital of Madre de Dios)
The
department of Madre de Dios was established in 1912 and is located in Peru's
southeastern jungle. The area is a wide, 29,640-square-mile with a hott and
humid climate and a drenching rainy season. The department attracted oil
and gold prospectors in the past who in their own way faced the difficult
jungle conditions while searching for fortune and fame. 40,000 of the area's
inhabitants are farmers who grow cascarilla, castanas, Brazil nuts, vanilla,
cacao, coffee, cotton and sugarcane. In addition, Siringeros, the rubber farmers
of the Rio Tahuamanu can also be found near the town of Iberia on the
Bolivian border, who still tap and produce goma and organic rubber, using
old-fashioned methods. Oddly enough, many of these rubbers are Japanese,
descendants of the immigrants during the organic rubber boom of the 19th
century.
Merchant
boats do not usually pass this section of the Madre de Dios and consequently,
occasional isolated settlements of pure-blood, non-Spanish speaking Amerindians
have remained almost untouched in this part of the jungle.
PAUCARTAMBO
Paucartambo
is a smal village which lies on the eastern slopes of the Andes about 115 km
from Cuzco along a very narrow, through well-maintained dirt road. The colorful
celebration of the Fiesta de la Virgen del Carmen makes it famous and attracts
many people from other areas. This Fiesta is held on annually around July 16 and
includes processions and people dance in the streets while dressing in colorful
magnificent costumes.
TRES CRUCES
Tres
Cruces famous for its jungle view is located about 45 km beyond Paucartambo and
is 15 km off the Paucartambo-Shintuya road. The area is known for its exciting
by the sunrise phenomenon that occurs on June 21st around the time of the winter
solstice.
PILCOPATA
Pilcopata
is the biggest village along the road on the way to Shintuya.
ATALAYA
A
little further one can reach the
village of Atalaya which is located 40 km before Shintuya on the Rio Alto Madre
de Dios. About one kilometer away across the Alto madre de Dios River, is the
Amazonia Lodge where there are several trails into the nearby forest with
excellent birding.
SALVACION
The village of Salvacion is about
10 km closer to Shintuya and houses a Manu National Park office and a couple of
basic hotels. This is a very good area to find boats into the park and also you
can ask some guides or park personnel to give you details about trips planned
into the park around the time of your visit or in the near future.
SHINTUYA
Shintuya is the end of the road
and is also the closest village to the park. Nearby, the mission station with a
priest where it offers camping facilities. About
30 minutes down river from Shintuya is the Pantiacolla Lodge. From here one can
take a boat journey down the Rio Alto Madre de Dios to its junction with the Rio
Manu and it takes almost a day depending on the speed of your boat.
BOCA MANU
The Airstrip in Boca Manu.
Boca Manu is most of the times the
staring point for commercial trips into the park and the air strip at this river
junction no
matter if there is or there is not regular air service that exist, however,
light planes can be chartered from Cuzco as well as Puerto Maldonado.
BLANQUILLO ECOLOGICAL RESERVE
Southeast of Boca Manu on the Madre de Dios, about two hours away by boat, one could reach the Blanquillo Lodge, also known as Parrot Lodge which is a very good place for bird watching, since there is a salt lick nearby that attracts macaws and parrots. This area is within the private Blanquillo Ecological Reserve which covers almost 10,000 hectares. There are trails and blinds and the salt lick can be reached by the local guides. The virgin jungle of the park lies up the Rio Manu northwest of Boca Manu.
MANU WILDLIFE CENTER
The Manu
Wildlife Center is a 30 bed lodge located on the Madre de Dios river,
only 90 minutes by motorised dugout canoe from the Boca Manu airstrip at the
confluence of the Manu and Alto Madre de Dios rivers. It is owned by Manu
Expeditons, and the Selva Sur conservation group, a non-profit non-governmental
organisation involved in rainforest conservation projects.
Manu Wildlife Center is located
on a privately owned rainforest reserve that backs onto the Manu Biosphere
Reserve and is positioned between this and a large native community reserve set
aside for indiginous amazonian peoples. Manu Wildlife Center always has onsite
reserchers and scientists. These scientists are always happy to share their
knowledge and expertise with visiting guests.
The lodge is strategically
located in an area of forest that counts on the highest diversity of
micro-habitats in the Manu area. This means that there are more species of
animals, birds, reptiles and insects than elsewhere in Manu. Tierra-firme,
varzea and bamboo forest is found close to the lodge plus succesional willow and
cane stands on beaches and river islands, resulting in the highest bio-diversity
in Manu . An astounding 515+ species of birds have been recorded in one year
alone.
The floating platform used to view the Macaw Lick
The
Blanquillo Macaw and Parrot lick is only 15 minutes away by river. where up to
200 Macaws and many hundreds of their smaller relatives come to eat clay
essential to their digestion. There are 4 ox-bow lakes in the area and we have
floating platforms so that access to the lakes ensures that all lakeside fauna
can be readily observed. There are 3 families of the endangered Giant Otters on
these lakes and small streams. About an hours walk through the forest is a large
mammal lick where Tapirs, the largest South American land mammal, regularly come
for minerals.
TOWARDS PUERTO MALDONADO
Continuing
down the fairly busy Madre de Dios past gold panning areas to Puerto Maldonado,
the boating takes from 14 hours to two days, depending on the situation. Few
roads penetrate the rainforest of the Amazon Basin and, therefore, few towns of
any size have been built. Those that exist started as river ports and were
connected with towns further downstream, usually in Brazil or Bolivia.
Only a few decades ago, the
traveler from Peru’s major jungle port of Iquitos had to travel thousands of
kilometers down the Rio Amazonas to the Atlantic and then go either south around
Cape Horn or north through the Panama Canal to reach Lima - a journey taking
several months. With the advent of roads and airports, these jungle areas have
slowly become a more important part of Peru. Nevertheless, they still contain
about 5% of the nation’s population.
PUERTO MALDONADO
Capital of Madre de Dios
One
of the five main accessible jungle areas starting in the southeast near the
Bolivian border is Puerto Maldonado which lies at the junction of the Tambopata
and Madre de Dios rivers. Founded at the turn of the century, Puerto Maldonado
has been important as a rubber boom town, a logging center, and more recently as
a center for gold and oil prospectors. It is also important for jungle crops
such as Brazil nuts and coffee. Because of the logging industry, the jungle
around Puerto Maldonado has been almost totally cleared. There is also some
ranching.
The various
commercial enterprises centered on Puerto Maldonado have made it the most
important port and capital of Madre de Dios. It is an unlovely, fast-growing
town with a busy frontier feel and a population of about 17,000 people. A little
way from the town center (about 10 minutes' walk), is the pioneer cemetery which
is itself a tourist attraction. It is interesting to experience this boom-town
atmosphere anyway. It is worth to see a little of this major Peruvian jungle
river while crossing it by peki-pekis that leave from the dock several times an
hour. The Rio Madre de Dios is about 500 meters wide at this point and the
crossing takes about 5 minutes.
LABERINTO
The nearby
gold-rush town of Laberinto is just a shanty town but there are other various
nearby communities, some of which are involved in gold panning. The miners come
into Laberinto to sell their gold at the Banco de Minero and we can see buyers
blow torching the gold to melt and purify it. If the bank runs out of money, the
miners may barter their gold in exchange for gas, food and other supplies.
DOWN THE RIO
MADRE DE DIOS
1.
Lago
Sandoval, a
pleasant jungle lake, is about two hours away down the Madre de Dios. Half of the trip is done by boat and
the other half on foot, a 5
2.
Fonto
Concepcion is
a cacao plantation located about 20 minutes before Lago Sandoval. In the nearby
jungle there is an abandoned steamship which
3.
Lago
Valencia, is
located just off the Madre de Dios about 60 km away, near the
4.
The Santuario
Nacional Pampas del Heath,
locally know as 'Las Pampas' is
DOWN
THE RIO TAMBOPATA
Southwest of Las
Pampas is Reserva
Nacional Tambopata-Candama which was established in 1990. At almost
1.5 million hectares, this reserve is one of the largest protected areas in the
country with proposals to be upgraded to a National Park status. One of the
highlights of the reserve is the Colpa de
Guacamayos (macaw and parrot salt lick), one of the largest natural salt
licks in the country which attracts hundreds of birds and is a spectacular
sight.
TAMBOPATA RESEARCH CENTER
Close to the salt lick, just a few
hours further up the Rio Tambopata, is the Colpa Lodge which is also called
Tambopata Research Center which houses an on-going research program by a group
of Ornithologists.