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The Amazon
Rainforest represents more
than 60% of Peru's territory. It spreads east of the Andes,
from the uppermost corner of the country, just below the Equator,
to the borders with Brazil and Bolivia, in the south. Scarcely
populated, it's home to many different indigenous people groups,
as well as to an amazingly rich biodiversity. Indeed, many
naturalists think Peru's
Amazon rainforest sustains the largest plant
and animal diversity in the world.
This incomparable natural wealth has
triggered, specially in recent years, an important ecotourism
industry (which, if managed responsibly, could help protect
the rainforest and its incredible flora and fauna). Many tour
operators offer organized tours to different destinations
across the country, such as the Manu National Park, the Tambopata
National Reserve, and the Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve.
The Manú
National Park is probably the most popular natural reserve
in Peru. Few other parks in the world --if any at all-- can
compete as to the richness of animal species: more than 800
bird, 200 mammal, and 100 reptile species have been identified.
It shelters healthy populations of such animals as the black
caiman, the woolly monkey, the harpy eagle, the Andean cock-of-the-rock,
the giant otter, the jaguar, and the anteater.
The Manu
is located some 300km from the city of Cusco and covers the
entire watershed of the Manu River --almost 1.7 million hectares,
spread between the departments of Madre de Dios and Cusco.
It runs across an extraordinary range of altitudes, from 4,300
m.a.s.l. in the high Andean plain down to 200 meters in the
Amazon Basin. Although it's not allowed to enter to the actual
park zone, visitors can stay in authorized lodges in the adjacent
Reserved Area and Cultural Zone.
The Tambopata
National Reserve, also in Madre de Dios, is a more accessible
alternative to the Manú. It is located a merely 2-hour
by motorboat from Puerto Maldonado, the department's capital
city. It covers an area of 275,000 hectares and is home to
an incredible biodiversity, including 632 bird species, 169
mammal species, and 1200 butterfly species. Tambopata holds
the world record for the most species registered in any one
day in one specific area: more than 650!
The largest protected area in Peru –and
in the whole South America-- is the Pacaya-Samiria National
Reserve. Bordered by the Marañon and the Ucayali rivers,
it covers more than 2 million hectares, and is located some
180 km southwest of Iquitos, the largest city in the Peruvian
rainforest, on the banks of the mighty Amazon river. The reserve
shelters many animal and plant species, including pink dolphins,
manatees, charapa turtles, black spider monkeys, and paiches
(a 300kg freshwater fish).
Did you know?
Amazon Peru journeys. Shamanic and misterious, the tribes
living in the Amazon Rainforest --such as the Yagua, Shipibo
and Aguaruna-- developed elaborate shamanic systems of belief
prior to the European Conquest of the New World.
Visit ThePeruGuide.com for more Amazon
River Facts and Amazon
Rainforest Facts, as well as for an Amazon
Rainforest Map.
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