Amazon Basin

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Manu National Park, Peru - August 07, 2017: Manu National Park, Peru

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Overview

The best-protected tract of the world’s most biodiverse forest, the strange, sweltering, seductive country-within-a-country that is Peru’s Amazon Basin is changing. Its vastness and impenetrability have long protected its indigenous communities and diverse wildlife from external eyes. Tribes exist here that have never had contact with outside civilization, and more flora and fauna flourish in one rainforest hectare than in any European country.

Attractions

Must-see attractions

Belén Mercado

Iquitos

At the southeast end of town is the floating shantytown of Belén, consisting of scores of huts, built on rafts, which rise and fall with the river. During…

Historical Ships Museum

Iquitos

Moored below Plaza Castilla is the diverting Historical Ships Museum, on a 1906 Amazon riverboat, the gorgeously restored three-deck Ayapua. The…

Reserva Nacional Pacaya-Samiria

Amazon Basin

At 20,800 sq km, this is the most immense of Peru’s parks and reserves. Pacaya-Samiria provides local people with food and a home, and protects…

Parque Nacional Manu

Amazon Basin

This vast national park in the Amazon Basin covers almost 20,000 sq km and is one of the best places in South America to see a stunning variety of…

Tres Cruces

Amazon Basin

About two hours beyond Paucartambo is the extraordinary jungle view at Tres Cruces, a lookout off the Paucartambo–Shintuya road. The sight of the…

Pilpintuwasi Butterfly Farm

Amazon Basin

Ostensibly, the Pilpintuwasi Butterfly Farm is a conservation and breeding center for Amazonian butterflies. Butterflies aplenty there certainly are,…

Río Madre de Dios Ferry Dock

Puerto Maldonado

This dock close to the Plaza de Armas is a cheap way of seeing a little of the action on a major Peruvian jungle river (the Río Madre de Dios), which is…

Reserva Nacional Tambopata

Amazon Basin

The wildlife-rich Río Tambopata is a major tributary of the Río Madre de Dios, joining it at Puerto Maldonado. Boats go up the river, past several good…

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