Photo: Walter Wust.

Photo: Walter Wust.

Photo: Guillermo Tello.

Photo: Walter Wust.

Photo: Walter Wust.

Dawn in a tropical forest: a dense mist envelopes everything, accentuating the song of thousands of birds greeting the new day. The sun lazily creeps up between the treetops and its first rays turn the tiny dewdrops on the leaves into shining pearls. Soon, as if from nowhere, a slim canoe makes its way slowly through the quiet waters of a lagoon. Standing in it with perfect balance is a man watching the surface with great attention. He is carrying several arrows and a chonta bow, which he uses with great precision to push the boat between two semi-submerged tree trunks. He pauses to stare into the water. He tenses his muscles and gets ready to shoot.
He is doing what his ancestors did thousands of years ago in the very same place, perhaps also using chonta arrows and a similar type of canoe. And maybe they, too, heard the birds´ songs resonate throughout the forest of the Peruvian Amazon and were enveloped by the dawn´s mist in the morning.
With a buzzing sound, the fisherman releases his arrow and it pierces a small-mouth silverback fish weighing about two kilograms as it breaks the surface of the water. He loosens the fish with ease from the arrow, and places it in the canoe. His family will have breakfast this morning.

Extraordinary Riches
This is Manu, several days' canoe journey down river on the snaking rivers of the Madre de Dios department. Considered one of the best preserved parts of the world, it is a site of incredible natural wealth and serves as a home for native groups who live in harmony with their environment just as their ancestors did.
This vast and unaltered jungle is the most diverse spot on earth, and has been declared by UNESCO as a Natural Patrimony of Humanity. With an extension of almost two million hectares - half the area of Switzerland and double that of Puerto Rico - the Manu Reserve has areas subject to strict protection (the National Park) and others that are resource-managed. These include the reservation zone and the cultural zone.
The Manu Reserve was established in 1973, after British zoologist Ian Greenwood recommended its creation. The Peruvian government put him in charge of proposing an area of the forest that had both the beauty and natural resources necessary to merit preservation. Greenwood traveled through the entire eastern portion of the country without finding an area with these ideal characteristics. Disappointed, he returned to the government offices to present his findings. There, he met Polish naturalist Celestino Kalinowski, a wild plant collector and hardened traveler who had lived in the upper jungle outside of Cuzco.
Kalinowski had come to the capital in order to propose that the government create a reservation in a part of the Amazon known as Manu, a difficult zone to enter, but home to some of the greatest natural wealth imaginable. Within a few days, the two men traveled to the area and reached a definite conclusion: it was absolutely necessary that this corner of the world be protected.

The Thousand Faces of Manu
A number of attributes contribute to the natural exuberance of Manu. Chief among these is the surprising variety of ecosystems that comprise its interior. This is partly due to the fact that the park exists at a high altitude, and the resulting series of microclimates and environments combine to make it a complex and abrupt geographical zone.

Manu begins at 4000 meters above sea level. A steep mountain dominates the landscape, and a frigid wind sweeps unceasingly across the exposed ichu (a type of grass indigenous to the area). The majestic Andean condor watches over the land from unreachable heights. The people from this region are known as Apu Kanahuay, which means "He who is close to God." In the heights of Paucartambo, an Andean enclave east of Cuzco, nature created the greatest natural balcony on the planet. Known as "Three Crosses," or Aacjanaco, this place offers a spectacular view of breathtaking beauty. The clouds - literally at the viewer's feet - emerge from the jungle in their ascent to the mountains. A great profusion of light and an intensity of color accompany sunrise, which is why it is said that the most beautiful sunrise on earth takes place here.

Descending from these heights, the humidity becomes increasingly more intense. The ichu gives way to strange forests that appear to grasp craggy slopes. The trees are curiously shaped: small and twisted. These are the dwarf forests of the puna. They are filled with incredibly colored birds and a huge collection of rare creatures, most of which are still unknown to modern science. The tree trunks are warped from the harsh climate and persistent drizzle, and form an entanglement of lichen and minute flowers. It is a setting of blurred dimensions, where there are shiny beetles the size of sparrows and elusive deer known as Chilean mountain goats that are only 30 centimeters tall.

Father down, the incline becomes more pronounced. The mountains appear to be sliced vertically, and the earth disappears beneath a thick vegetation of palm and bamboo forests. The peaceful streams of the Andean plain begin to run faster here, falling into crystalline waterfalls and strong currents. There are forests of mist, orchids, ferns, bromeliacae, giant begonias, butterflies and hummingbirds in a world of moss that covers everything indiscriminately. It is the home of the tunqui bird, the ucuman (Andean bear), the quetzal and countless monkeys. It is a habitat of astonishing beauty, but also one of great fragility.

Leaving the cloudy heights, one enters a more agreeable climate. The receding mountains in the background now seem more like intensely green hills. It is a land of clear rivers and abundant fruit, a place where ancient Andeans discovered and cultivated coca - the sacred leaf of the kings, aji (a Peruvian variety of chile) and granadilla (passion fruit). Here, the sun warms the days, and the nights are fresh with the scents of flowers and mushrooms. In the distance, the tepid air of the lower jungle beckons invitingly.

Following a turbulent descent, the rivers slow down considerably. They wind slowly, like copper cobras, leaving behind soft beaches of fine sand carried down from the Andes. This is the Amazonian plain. Here trees stand 60 meters high and their trunks, branched by colossal limbs, are so big that it takes 20 men to move them by hand. Hanging from them are vines as wide as oxen, and their canopies are so huge that they can be spotted from jets flying overhead. This is a territory filled with beautiful animals of prey, like jaguars and caymans. There are also tapirs weighing more than 200 kilograms, rodents the size of German Shepherds, and creatures that have not changed at all since prehistoric times like anteaters, armadillos and sloths. The trees are inhabited by more than 600 varieties of birds, ranging from powerful monkey-eating eagles up to one meter tall to tiny hummingbirds barely larger than insects. One can also spot flocks of colorful macaws, toucans, herons, wild turkeys, partridges and much, much more.

Unique Equilibrium
For most visitors, the jungle looks exuberant, but impenetrable - as if it were asleep. Actually, it's just the opposite. In the midst of the forest's relative tranquillity is a fierce ongoing war of survival.
Each organism competes for food and vital space, and at the same time tries to avoid being prey to a cunning predator. Plants are perhaps the best example of this double personality. Although outwardly immobile, they battle for each centimeter of earth in search of soil and light.
They have developed powerful chemical defenses and effective armor to avoid being devoured, while their enemies have developed powerful antidotes and tools to combat them. Every inch of space is overflowing with life, and yet is directly related to the rest of the forest in a surprisingly complex ecosystem. This apparent chaos has been functioning perfectly for millions of years. The result is an unprecedented balance: each life form occupies a place on the food chain and is indispensable to the survival of the next species, like the bats that pollinate flowers, which in turn produce the fruit that feeds the monkeys and birds. Micro-organisms play a vital role in the life cycle of the forest. The jungle regenerates itself everyday.