Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
MADRE DE DIOS
Named after the broad river that flows
through the heart of the southern jungle,
the still relatively wild
departamento
of
MADRE DE DIOS
is changing rapidly,
with agribusinesses moving in to clear
mahogany trees and set up brazil nut
plantations, and prospectors panning for
gold dust along the riverbanks. Nearly
half of Madre de Dios
departamento
's
78,000 square kilometres are accounted
for by national parks and protected areas
such as
Manu Biosphere Reserve
,
Tambopata-Candamo Reserved Zone
and
Bahuaja-Sonene National Park
, between
them containing some of the richest flora
and fauna in the world.
Madre de Dios still feels very much like
a frontier zone, centred on the rapidly
growing river town of
Puerto Maldonado
,
near the Bolivian border, supposedly
founded by legendary explorer and
rubber baron Fitzcarraldo.
9
Puerto Maldonado
Despite its position firmly on the
Interoceanic Highway, connecting the
Peruvian and Brazilian coasts, the jungle
town of
PUERTO MALDONADO
still has a
raw, chaotic feel to it. Puerto's wide streets
often culminate in pitted dirt tracks, which
are barely passable in the rainy season and
where a multitude of beeping
mototaxis
raise clouds of dust at other times of year.
With an economy based on gold panning,
logging, cattle ranching and brazil-nut
gathering, it has grown enormously over
the last twenty years, becoming the thriving
capital of a region that feels very much on
the threshold of major upheavals, with a
rapidly developing ecotourism industry.
The traffic-choked
León de Velarde
is
the town's main artery, culminating in
the attractive
Plaza de Armas
, near one
of the town's bustling ports, and with an
attractive if bizarre Chinese pagoda-style
clock tower at its centre; every Sunday
Brasiléia
Cobija
Assis Brasil
MADRE DE DIOS
BRAZIL
Iñapari
N
BOLIVIA
Iberia
Machiguenga
Lodge
Cocha Salvador
Manu Lodge
Limonal Ranger Station
Cocha Otorongo
Boca Manu
Chivé
Lago
Valencia
Manu Wildlife Centre
Yine Lodge
MANU
BIOSPHERE
RESERVE
Diamante
Cocha Blonco
Puerto
Maldonado
Cocha Camungo
Lago
Sandoval
Puerto
Heath
M
Tambo
Blanquillo
Lodge
Itahuania
Boca
Colorado
Laberinto
Infierno
Shintuya
Posada Amazonas Lodge
Baltimore
Explorer's Inn
Cock of
the Rock
Lodge
Salvación
Malinowski
Ranger Station
Tambopata
Research
center
Refugio Amazonas
Trés Cruces
Atalaya
BAHUAJA-SONENE
NATIONAL PARK
Posada San Pedro
Manu Cloud
Forest Lodge
Loromayo
Pilcopata
Quince Mil
Paucartambo
Cusco
TAMBOPATA-CANDAMO
RESERVED ZONE
Oropesa
Ocongate
Urcos
0
50
kilometres
Puno, Lake T Titicaca & Arequipa
Juliaca & Puno
Search WWH ::
Custom Search