Madre de Dios is a province located in the southeast of Peru. The territory embraces high and low jungle zones with abundant virgin jungles, subjugating landscapes and countless micro-climates. It is possibly the least eroded and exploited area of the Peruvian Amazons.

Madre de Dios with wide, slow rivers and beautiful lagoons surrounded by the most exhuberant vegetation has the best soil of the Amazon jungles, being chestnut and rubber production its main income source. Also, this region shelters native tribes for whom the advance of civilization has not yet arrived. The main communities settled of the region are the Huarayos, Mashcos, Piros, Amahuacas, Yamanahuas, Amaracaes and Machiguengas.

The city of Puerto Maldonado, capital of Madre de Dios, was founded at the end of the 19th. century and just in this century has it started to be inhabited by Andean migrants from Cusco and Puno.

Puerto Maldonado is one of the most important cities of southeast jungle in Peru, located in the middle of Tambopata and Madre de Dios rivers. Puerto Maldonado is an extraordinary place, land with huge trees, plentiful rivers, landscapes full of natural life as great quantity of animals, insects making it similar to a paradise.

Puerto Maldonado is a centre of national and international interest by its ecological diversity.The climate is humid, tropical and the raining season is from November to March. The best way for arriving Puerto Maldonado is by plane from Cusco, in the city is easier to go deep jungle; people can contact a tourist guide who takes visitors to the most beautiful places and know natives.

Manu National Park is the greatest protected natural area in Perú with an extension of 1.532 hectares, Together with the Reserved Area and the Cultural Area they constitute the called Reservation of the Biosphere of Manu, located in the departments of Cuzco and Madre de Dios, embracs the totality of the Manu River's basin.

There are several routes to enter the Manu. We leave the city of Cuzco, on land untill the Atalaya or Shintuya (12 hours approx.), then on the river through the Alto Madre de Dios and Manu Rivers (16 hours approx.) or by airway until the locality of Boca Manu and, then on the Manu River (4 hours approx.)

Area or Surface: 85,183 km².

Main Resources: rice, yuca, coconut, rubber, wood, gold.

Population: 76,000 inhabitants. The capital is Puerto Maldonado and has 46,732 inhabitants.

Number of Provinces and Districts: 3 provinces and 10 districts.

Date of Department Foundation: December 26, 1912.

Ethnic Groups: machiguengas, mashcos, campas.

Typical foods: pataraschca, sopa de motelo, timbuche, masato, tacacho.

Fauna: reptiles (boa constrictor, shushupe, naka naka), lizards (white lizard and black lizard), birds (blue partridge, sharara, cushuri, herons, camungo, parrots, guacamayos), monkeys (frailecillo, pichicos), felines (jaguar, tigrillo, puma), and fish (zúngaro and paiche).

Flora: cedar and mahogany.