Madre de Dios

The department of Madre de Dios is one of the tropical areas in Peru. It is located east of Cuzco and borders on Bolivia. The most important river is the Madre de Dios river. The main city is Puerto Maldonado.

Cities

• 1 Puerto Maldonado — the starting point for jungle trips

Other destinations

• 1 Manú National Park — one of the most diverse areas in Peru and South America and a UNESCO World Heritage site, offering landscape from the Andes to the Amazon
• 2 Tambopata National Reserve — a unique opportunity to explore Amazonian biodiversity in the southeastern part of the Cuzco department, it protects a vast expanse of rainforest and is home to an incredible variety of flora and fauna, including monkeys, parrots, jaguars and alligators

Understand

Climate

The climate is warm and damp. The rainy season is from December to March, when torrential rainfall causes rivers to swell and often overflow their banks.

Read

This area was the setting of Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo (1982), based on the exploits of Carlos Fermín Fitzcarrald (1862–1897), a rubber baron from Iquitos. The region is the subject of a memoir by conservationist and explorer Paul Rosolie, Mother of God: An Extraordinary Journey into the Uncharted Tributaries of the Western Amazon (2014).

Get in

You can go by road from Cusco, Lima, Puno and Brazil. LAN Airlines has daily flights from Lima or Cusco to Puerto Maldonado (PEM ^IATA).

See

The region is the location of many ancient Inca ruins.

Do

Ecotourism is a major emerging industry in Madre de Dios. A number of lodges in Manu and Tambopata are becoming part of what is described as the Vilcabamba-Amboró Corridor. Some of these eco-lodges offer adventure activities as well.