Mike in the Wild

A visit to the Peruvian Amazon almost certainly involves navigating one of the massive river's tributaries.  On my recent trip to the area I explored a tiny section of the upper Madre de Dios river as part of Wild Watch Peru's three-day Manu Short Trip.  It's a savory taste of the rain forest on an easy two-night excursion from the bustling city of Cusco in the Andes.   Rivers drain tremendous volumes of water through the greater Amazon basin, as the relatively flat land welcomes moisture collected in the high Andes Mountains to the east .  The Madre de Dios carves a path through these jungle landscapes, all the while creating frequently changing channels that are bordered by rocky beaches or clay cliffs.  Frequently these channels loop and cross, often creating new waterways.  The old, untraveled course becomes either a swamp, like much of the terrain, or what's called an oxbow lake. One such lake I had the pleasure to visit in the area was Machuh...