The entrance door to the "Ecological Paradise", the Garden of the Eden of Peru.

Location
South amazonian jungle, 610 feet (186 m) above sea level

Population
28,818 inhabitants 

Weather:
Tropical humid. Rainy season from November to March.

Puerto Maldonado is the capital of Madre de Dios department, located in the jungle region of the southeast of Peru.

It is located in the confluence of the rivers Tambopata and Madre de Dios; it is characterized by their notable delay in the economic development, due to the lack of appropriate communication roads. Its population, in its majority is conformed by native jungle tribes, dedicated to tasks of extraction of natural resources, wood, fruits, gold, etc., with limited production means.

However, the difficult conditions of life in the area have allowed them to be and conserve one of the virgin natural scenarios in the whole planet, having parks and natural reservations of amazon forests, of singular characteristics in the world.

It is the best destination for the lovers of the ecology, and also for those who look for adventure, in paradisiacal places, of exuberant vegetation, in which infinity of animal species inhabit, many of them, only exist in these forests.

Puerto Maldonado, in general, is only the transit point to begin the adventure by river, in the National Park of the Manu or the Reserved Area Tambopata Candamo.

The special characteristic of the jungle of Madre de Dios department is due to masses of cold air coming from the southern Atlantic, during the months of June, and they originate an abrupt descent of the temperature, reaching 5°C or less. This eventual meteorological phenomenon is denominated, in the area, as the "friaje".

This situation, in the evolutionary process during hundred-thousand years, originated the disappearance of many species of reptiles, because of being of cold blood, and when existing less predators, and the adaptation of others, it is already allowed the subsistence and evolution of species missing in other places of the earth, inclusive in the amazon area. Existence of animal species and unique vegetables in their gender.

These forests still have many places to discover and also many unknown species alive for the science.

Aborigines

In the virgin forests of Madre de Dios department, inhabit jungle tribes, as the Machiguengas, the Huarayos, the Mashcos, the Arasaris (practically exterminated), the Huachiparis, the Shirenis, the Iñaparis, the Amaricaris, almost all incorporated to the civilization by evangelical missionaries, but they conserve much of their ancestral customs.

This population has many myths and legends, some of them mystical; there is a great diffusion of the folkloric and quack medicine on the base of the great quantity of medicinal plants that exist.