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| Other sites of interest |
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 Lake Sandoval
About half an hour’s sail from Puerto Maldonado, visitors disembark to take a half hour walk, stopping to admire the ancient vessel used by the explorer Fitzcarraldo. Then the deep blue waters of the lake will appear between the trees, inviting visitors to take a refreshing swim followed by a canoe ride to admire the lovely landscape and a large number of birds along the shores.
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The Manu National Park, covering 1 532 806 hectares, is the largest protected natural area of its kind in Peru. Together with the Preserve Area and the Cultural Zone, it comprises the so-called Manu Biosphere Sanctuary, which was recognized by UNESCO in 1977. It straddles the Departments of Cusco and Madre de Dios and covers the entire basin of the Manu River.
The Tambopata-Candamo Preserve Area, also located in Madre de Dios, offers visitors a wide variety of plant and animal life.
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The National Park itself is not open to visitors, but the adjacent Preserve and Cultural Zone contain the same attractions and have several tourist lodges. Manu can be reached from the city of Cusco by two routes: by road to Atalaya or Shintuya (approximately 12 hours) and then by navigating along the Upper Madre de Dios and Manu Rivers (about 6 hours); the other is by 30 minute flight to Boca Manu and then along the Manu River (approximately 4 hours). The Tambopata-Candamo Preserve is a 3 hour motor canoe sail along the Tambopata, Malinowski, La Torre, Tavara and Candamo rivers.
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Tourist attractions |
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 Manu
The park shelters an unsurpassable biodiversity in its almost one and a half million hectares and its territory stretches from the high Andean plateaus to the tropical rain forest and the Amazon plain. In navigating the Upper Madre de Dios River, visitors pass a point known as Salvación and later descend to the lower park area, filled with beautiful beaches and abundant vegetation. Further along visitors leave the crystalline waters of the Upper Madre de Dios for the reddish waters of the Manu, proceeding to the Manu Biosphere Sanctuary and from there to the Boca Manu-Pakitza segment where a variety of animals can be seen.
Each of the lodges in the Tambopata zone has an organized program of walks and hikes, bird and animal watching and acquaintance with the varied plant life. During the walks through the thick forests filled with gigantic trees, guides point out the biodiversity of the zone and visitors can frequently spy mammals like the anteater, ocelot and sachavaca, among others. The most exciting adventure is watching the alligators at night from small canoes.
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 Tambopata
Each one of the lodges in the Tambopata zone has organized a series of programs that include walks and bird and animal watching, as well as explanations of the varied plant life. During the walks among the lush forests filled with enormous trees, experts point out the wealth of the area. It is open possible to glimpse mammals, such as sloths, wildcats and sachavacas, among others. The most exciting adventure is to watch the alligators at night from small canoes in the river.
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 Colpa de Guacamayos
This is the most popular tour. The famous colpa is located in the Tambopata-Candamo area on the west bank of the Tambopata River, 70 km from Puerto Maldonado and about 8 hours by motorboat. It is known for the wide variety of guacamayos (macaws) that live there and for being the largest colpa in the Peruvian Amazon region, the meeting place of numerous macaws, parrots and parakeets. Every morning at 6:00 a.m. these birds perform their fluttering ceremony before nibbling at the clay in the river gully and after about 25 to 30 minutes fly away in groups, to return the next morning.
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