Amazon Rainforest Tours and Travel | Visiting the Manu Area of the Peru Amazon
The Manu ranks as one of the world's top places to view tropical wildlife. The habitat and wildlife of this Peru Amazon rainforest region are well-protected by the 4.5 million-acre Manu National Park. Designated an international Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO in 1977 and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987, the enormous park contains Andean grasslands and cloud forest in addition to its lowland tropical rainforest.
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The park is divided into three zones. The Amarakaeri (Cultural) Reserved Zone is home to the area's indigenous peoples and is where most of the rainforest eco-travel lodgings are located. The Manu Reserved Zone contains one lodge and requires a permit to visit. Over 1,000 bird species have been identified here. It is also home to jaguars, tapirs, giant river otters, various species of caiman, thirteen species of monkeys and 1,200 species of butterflies. It is one of the few places north of Chile and Argentina where the long-endangered southern river otter has been spotted. The remaining 80% of the park, much of it still unexplored, is open to researchers and indigenous populations only.
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Rivers within the rainforest Reserve include the Madre de Dios and its tributary, the Manu. The Madre de Dios is called the Beni River in the Bolivia Amazon and the Madeira in the Brazil Amazon. All are whiterivers.
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Because it is considered the most bio-diverse region in the world, the Manu is becoming an increasingly popular Amazon tours destination with its stellar wildlife viewing opportunities and the quality of its eco-travel accommodations. While most of Southern Explorations Peru tours to the Amazon are based in the Tambopata region, in 2007 we added a tour extension of four or five days to the Manu in the Madre de Dios area.
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The lodgings on our Manu Peru tours are at the Manu Wildlife Center, located in the Reserve's Cultural Zone. It is surrounded by thirty miles of trails and is close to clay licks that attract macaws and tapirs. The twenty-two comfortable thatched-roof bungalows all have hot showers. From the airstrip, the lodgings are reached in about ninety minutes by motorized canoe on the Madre de Dios River. There is plenty of wildlife-viewing along the way, making it an exciting way to begin and end the adventure.
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Adding a Manu visit to your Peru travel plans is simple. Travel from Cusco, Peru is about a forty-five minute flight. With excellent air connections from both Lima, Peru and Cusco, our five day Manu trip makes a perfect add-on to our many Machu Picchu Peru tours. If your Peru vacation fantasy includes getting to the Peru Amazon overland, Manu is definitely the best option. It is a bumpy but beautiful overland trip of extremes, beginning in the Andes, traveling through cloud forest to reach the Amazon, much as the river itself it does. Expect the drive to take a day or two. The rainy season here occurs between December and March.
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