Puerto Maldonado

Visibly blossoming from its recent road connection to the outside world, Puerto Maldonado, capital of the southern jungle, has an increasingly smart sheen to the mayhem of its central streets, a-buzz with manically tooting mototaxis (three-wheeled motorcycle rickshaw taxis). The city’s money-spinning proximity to the most easily visited animal-rich jungle in the entire Amazon Basin is its blessing but also its curse: travelers arrive, yet all too quickly leave again en route to the lodges and wildlife on the nearby rivers. The city itself has been important over the years for rubber, logging, gold and oil prospecting, and its commercial role has assumed greater dimensions as a port of call on the Carretera Interocéanica. It’s of foremost importance to travelers, however, as the jumping-off point for a voyage on Ríos Tambopata and Madre de Dios, which converge here. These watery wonderlands offer the most accessible primary jungle locales in the country, yet are served by excellent accommodations for those craving luxury. Indisputably, Puerto Maldonado offers travelers more chance to see, feel and hear the Amazonian jungle than anywhere else in Peru.