It’s winter, so what better trip can you go on when it’s cold at home than to a jungle? I’m thinking specifically of the Peruvian city of Puerto Maldonado and, especially, the Amazonian Rainforest it touches on.
Where & What
Puerto Maldonado is the gateway to the Peruvian Amazon. and is located at the edge of the Amazonian Rainforest, just 55 kilometers (34miles) from the border with Bolivia. This city of about 85,000 inhabitants is the best jumping-off point for a trip into the rainforest, being neither too expensive, too remote or too crowded with tourists. Because it does not see the number of tourists other Amazonian cities do, this section of the rainforest is the best preserved and least affected by outside forces.
First, a few facts. The Amazonian Rainforest covers most of the Amazon Basin and comprises some 6 million square kilometers (2.3 million square miles). It includes territory belonging to nine nations and some 3,000 indigenous territories. The Amazonian Rainforest is the most diverse region in the world, containing about 40,000 different plant species and approximately 2.5 million insect species. It produces 20% of the world’s oxygen and is home to 20% of the world’s river water.
About 60% of the jungle is in Brazil, 13% in Peru, 10% in Colombia, with smaller areas in Bolivia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Suriname, and Venezuela.
So one way to see Puerto Maldonado is as a platform for a serious jungle adventure. Another option is as a stage in a Peruvian adventure. Because Peru is astonishing, encompassing the snow-capped Andes, marvelous beaches, the amazing ruins at Machu Picchu and lots of jungle. The country’s road infrastructure has greatly improved in the past decade, so that you’ll be able to take a bus from just about anywhere to just about anywhere, even to the edge of the jungle. Or you can fly, budget allowing. Flights within the country are pretty cheap.
NB: It is NOT safe to drink tap water in Peru. So always drink boiled or bottled water and definitely bring along lots of Travelan or its equivalent just in case you slip up. Believe me, you don’t want to get what I had in Mexico just because I brushed my teeth(!) with tap water. Also inform yourself about required vaccinations, such as hepatitis A, B and C and chikungunya (that is not the name of a bird; it is a virus infection transmitted by mosquitoes). Prepare for a jungle adventure but stay safe!
How to Get There
For the jungle option: From Europe, you can fly to the capital Lima or to the city of Cusco, which is near Machu Picchu. Getting to Cusco from Europe involves two stops and at least 20 hours of travel time, with 2 stopovers. From there you can take a 9-hour bus ride or a 2-hour flight to Puerto Maldonado. Again, when it comes to travel, time is money and money is time. The flight from Cusco to Puerto Maldonado is cheap enough for you to eat the difference to the bus fare with a clean conscience.
On the other hand, flying to Lima involves only one stop, saves you at least four hours of flying time and is 25% cheaper. That’s a lot more money saved than you will spend on taking the 3-hour flight from Lima to Puerto Maldonado. And you’ll have the option of flying from Lima to Cusco and then, after you’ve seen Machu Picchu, fly on to Puerto Maldonado and the joys of the jungle.
Your flight decisions depend entirely on how much time you want to spend in the rainforest and what part of your trip it will be. You may think that 3 or 4 days are enough for the Puerto Maldonado and the rainforest, and then you get there and it hits you like it hits lots of people, with jaw-dropping awe, and you don’t ever want to leave.
And then there’s always the possibility, if you’re on a longer journey, of traveling from Puerto Maldonado to Ecuador. What I’m saying is, make plans but stay flexible.
When to Go There
Just as water drains out of a sink or bathtub in a different direction south of the Equator than it does here in the north, the seasons down there are also backwards. The best time to travel to the rainforest is during their winter, from May to October, when temperatures are temperate and, most important, it doesn’t rain much. If swimming in the Peruvian Pacific is on your bucket list, December to April is the best time because it will be hot and mostly dry.
But in the rainforest, you should expect some showers no matter when you visit. Hence the name. But the showers during the wet season – mid-October to mid-March, give or take a few weeks – are more frequent and more intense. It generally rains the most from November to March, which is also when it rains the most at Machu Picchu. You should really do some weather research before deciding what you want to do in Peru and when.
Puerto Maldonado
I will assume that this fascinating jungle city is the primary destination of your journey. Machu Picchu is remarkable but, the way I look at it, it’s a dead place, whereas the rainforest teems with life, more life than you probably have ever experienced.
What to Do There
Go into the jungle, that’s what. Fortunately, there’s a great variety of guided jungle tours available. They will all take you into the . . .
Tambopata National Reserve
The Tambopata National Reserve may well be the richest individual area in the world in terms of plant and animal life. It covers 274,690 hectares in the lowland rainforest and contains some 169 different species of mammals, 90 different frogs, 632 bird species and over 1,200 different butterflies.
The wildlife you can spot on tours from Puerto Maldonado is quite literally awesome. The Amazon Rainforest is the world’s largest wildlife habitat and the Tambopata is especially diverse because it has been the least affected by the outside world.
There are special places to have sure-fire wildlife sightings around Puerto Maldonado. These include the many clay licks and oxbow lakes in the jungle. The Puerto Maldonado rainforest contains the most clay licks in Amazonia. Clay licks are areas of exposed riverbank that are visited by different animals because the clay just happens to be good for them. For example, it contains salt, which is hard to find in the rainforest.
Macaws love clay licks, and there are many types of these technicolor birds that visit these areas to, uh, lick clay. Other animals you can find at a clay lick include parrots, tapir, monkeys and capybara, the largest rodents on the planet.
Tour operators have built elaborate ecolodges near different clay licks to enable visitors to access them easily. And because different clay licks are visited by different animals, some lodges are better for seeing certain Amazonian animals than others. There are some wonderful ecolodges in the rainforest, but they are very, very expensive.
Other animals you can see at clay licks, if you’re lucky, are toucans, giant otters, capuchins, tamarins, marmosets, sakis, howler monkeys, spider monkeys and squirrel monkeys – to name just a few.
Oxbow Lakes
Oxbow lakes are remnants of one-time tributaries of the Amazon River, which left these arc-shaped lakes after they changed direction. Some of these lakes are refuges for endangered giant river otters. They are also home to hoatzins, which are astonishing birds that are born with both wings and claws and digest food by fermentation. And they usually hop from branch to branch rather than fly.
Other animals you can see at these lakes include caiman crocodiles, cormorants, a variety of herons and the imaginatively but accurately named horned screamers.
There are Tambopata tours of various lengths available. Choose the one that suits your budget and/or your dreams. The price should include accommodation and all meals. You may choose to stress your budget a little and take the four-day tour. It will be worth it. The Amazonian Rainforest is quite literally out of the world. Oh yes, don’t forget to bring binoculars!
I haven’t even mentioned the great variety of plant life you can see there. Well, don’t worry, I won’t.
What to Eat in Puerto Maldonado
The Puerto Maldonado Central Market (Mercado Modelo) is definitely worth a visit if you’re interested in local produce, such as Brazil nuts, tropical fruits, cocoa and other products produced by surrounding farms and communities. Check out the piranha on sale, especially the size and sharpness of their teeth. Then eat one at a local eatery.
Because the market is also the best place to eat if you’re on a budget. It has the city’s best range of food as well as many fresh produce stalls. There’s also a restaurant section that serves very affordable local dishes, such as fried river fish (e.g., piranha) with potato chips, cassava, plantain, tomato and lettuce and (why not?) a plate of beans. If you’re looking for a different dessert, try Brazil nut cheesecake.
A typical Peruvian dish is ceviche, which consists of fish or shellfish marinated in citrus, usually lemon or lime juice. It has been recognized by UNESCO as an expression of traditional Peruvian cuisine and an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity – so it’s against the law not to try it. Try it with a palm heart salad, for example.
A popular dish in the Peruvian Amazon is called juane. This is rice and chicken cooked with spices, notably turmeric (hence its yellow color), in a banana leaf. A favorite breakfast dish is called tacacho, which consists of mashed green plantains mixed with chicharrón, or fried pork. This dish is often shaped into balls or patties and is usually served with acompañado, a sauce made from tomatoes and onions.
To refresh your memories, plantains – of which you’ll eat a bunch there – look like overgrown bananas and so are called machos, for far-too-obvious reasons, in some countries. They are always cooked.
To get the full tachaco experience, have it with a local drink called chicha morada, which is prepared by boiling purple corn along with pineapple peels and pieces of quince, with cinnamon and a few cloves added to the mix. This mixture is strained and sweetened with sugar or sugarcane syrup. Definitely ask if the drink is homemade, because there are many industrial versions which are, frankly, meh.
Whenever I am somewhere where fresh fish are available for consumption, I bite. Due to overfishing, eating fresh fish in the West has become rather expensive. But not so in the Amazon, and the Madre de Dios River (yes, the Mother of God River, as Puerto Maldonado is in the Madre de Dios province) teems with piranha and sabalo, which is a catch-all name for a certain fish in Latin America but in Peru refers to a species of salmon. These fish are often grilled, fried or made into stews.
Pescado a la parrilla (which means fish a la grill) is marinated with local spices and grilled. Ask for sides of rice and plantains to get the full Amazonian flavor bomb. And as long as you’re eating them, you could look for a fishing tour of a few hours to learn the local fishing methods.
Also try inchicapi, which is chicken soup with peanuts, cilantro and yucca, and timbuche, fish soup with plantain and sacha cilantro (or faux coriander).
Street food
You won’t have to go out of your way in Puerto Maldonado to look for street food hawkers; they line the streets of the city and robustly ask for your business. Explore the streets near Plaza de Armas, which is the city’s main square (and also has its best restaurants) to find the most food carts, particularly at night. Ask the vendors what their specialty is. They won’t lie. Of course, you’ll need to speak a bit of Spanish. Here is a very brief list:
Anticuchos, skewers of marinated meat, often served with a spicy salsa.
Picarones are sweet potato doughnuts drizzled with honey syrup and are crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. Yummo!
Empanadas are filled with meats or cheese.
Last Words
I was going to include a few tips on Lima and Cusco, but screw it, there was just so much to say about this exciting and unique place that will surely be a travel experience you will never forget. (But take the necessary precautions – see above – or you’ll remember it for all the wrong reasons.) Whether you spend a day or a week in Puerto Maldonado, plan well and come prepared for a damp jungle.
Given the rate at which we are damaging the planet, who knows how much longer the Tambopata Reserve will remain the almost pristine rainforest it is today and how many endangered species will survive. This is a rare chance to witness first-hand the astonishing our planet’s astonishing wildlife diversity, of which we are, let’s not forget, a small part.