PUERTO MALDONADO AND TAMBOPATA CANDAMO RESERVE

Puerto Maldonado is a city in Southeastern Peru, capital of the Madre de Dios Region, founded originally by Carlos Leon-Velarde Valcarcel for the collection of wild rubber. It is in the Amazon forest, 55 km west of the Bolivian border, on the confluence of the Tambopata and Madre de Dios River, a tributary of the Amazon River. The main part of the town is located on a slightly elevated area that does not normally flood in the wet season. The climate is tropical.
The chief industries in Puerto Maldonado are logging, gold dredging, Brazil nut collecting, boat building and eco-tourism. A ferry crosses the river, linking the main road from Cusco to the towns of San Lorenzo, Iberia and Iñapari.

Nearby are the Manu and Tambopata-Candamo national parks and the Bahuaja-Sonene national reserved area. These are some of the most pristine primary rain forests in the world. There are several tourist eco-lodges around Puerto Maldonado and in the reserves. One of the main attractions are the hundreds of macaws which congregate at various "colpas", or "collpas", a Quechua word which means salted earth, (clay licks) daily to eat clay. Several oxbow lakes in the area provide homes to Giant Otters, including Lake Sandoval.

Tambopata-Candamo is a nature reserve in the Peruvian Amazon Basin south of the Madre de Dios River in Tambopata province's Inambari and Tambopata districts. It was created on January 26, 1990 to protect the forests adjacent to the rivers Heath and Tambopata that have two important ecosystems.