Manu begins at the heavens, namely an altitude of 4000 meters at the pinnacle of a steep mountain that dominates the austere landscape of the puna. Men from this region call it the Apu Kañahuay (Mount Kañahuay), which means “that which is close to god”.

The farther we get from the Andes, the greater becomes the percentage of humidity. The ichu (grass) and the gnarled trees of the queñual forests give way to even stranger forests that look as if they cling to the precipitous mountain sides. Their trees are curiously shaped, small, and twisted. We have entered the elfin forests, places where flocks of impossibly colored birds fly and a huge variety of strange creatures, mostly unknown to science, live. The tree trunks, twisted by the inclement weather and bathed in a constant mist, form a tangle of lichens and tiny flowers. This is the stage upon which the dimension of objects has become flip-flopped: shining beetles the size of sparrows and elusive deer - the northern pudu (sachacabra) - that stand just 30 centimeters in height.

Descending a little farther, the slope increases. The mountains turn into sheer cliffs and the earth finally disappears, covered by lush palm forests and stands of bamboo. The streams that coursed serenely through the Andean plain suddenly rush off towards the east and form mighty streams and cascades of crystalline water. We are now in the cloud forests, a paradise of orchids, tree ferns, huge bromeliads, giant begonias, butterflies, and hummingbirds. It is a world in which the moss indiscriminately covers everything and where Peru’s national bird - Andean cock of the rock (tunqui) - and the Andean bear (ucumari), quetzal, and wooly monkey live. A habitat of indescribable beauty but extreme fragility.

Finally, and after weeks of thundering down the mountainsides, the rivers get a break. They flow slowly, like dark red serpents, while the sediment they stripped from the Andes forms wide beaches of fine sand. We have stepped upon the Amazonian plain. Here, the trees tower seventy meters into the air and their trunks, gifted with immense buttressed roots, are so wide that it takes dozens of men holding hands to encircle them. Vines as wide as an ox and their huge, cup-shaped flowers hang from their branches and can even be seen from the windows of jets that fly past. This is the hunting grounds of beautiful and spectacular animals, of jaguars, enormous anacondas, tapirs that weigh 200 kg, rodents the size of German shepherds (roncoso), wild boars armed with long fangs (sajinos and huanganas), and creatures that have not changed one iota since the Pre-Historic era (armadillos, anteaters, and sloths). The trees are shared by an actual legion of birds, from powerful harpy eagles that can eat one meter tall monkeys to hummingbirds barely larger than an insect as well as colorful flocks of macaws, toucans, herons, turkeys, quails, and many, many others.

Macaws that eat clay, wild turkeys and tapirs that consume a good portion of dirt a day, and even indigenous groups that believe a mouthful of mud is an indispensible part of their daily diet… mineral salts are, no doubt, coveted treasures in the tropics. Throughout the Amazon, there are sites called collpas (Quechua for “salty land”) where great numbers of animals assemble on a daily basis and provide us a natural show without precedent on the planet. Manu has several spectacular examples of these. Early in the morning, thousands of parakeets and parrots (up to a dozen species) and hundreds of majestic macaws arrive, cackling and squawking, to feast upon the mud rich in salts and minerals that is found on the banks of certain rivers. A dietary supplement for the birds and a once-in-a-lifetime experience for visitors as they watch the display of color and movement.

Oxbows are some of the most extraordinary habitats in the Amazon, not only because they are scenically beautiful, but also because they possess much wildlife and thus afford great possibilities for seeing some of the area’s emblematic and endangered species, like giant river otters and black caimans, as well as hundreds of birds and reptiles. As you row softly across their mirror-like surfaces on canoes made by indigenous people, you will enjoy the thousands of sounds of the jungle. We guarantee you will never forget it.