PERU

Peru is one of South America's top countries for tourism, pulling in around a million visitors per year. However, not many of these—perhaps a tenth—visit the Peruvian Amazon. Yet much of the Peruvian Amazon remains pristine. The Pacaya-Samiria reserve is the Amazon's largest protected area and in the country's southwest, Manu National Park is a World Biosphere Reserve, internationally recognized for the biological importance of its flora and fauna. Most visitors to the Peruvian Amazon use Iquitos as a base. Peru itself is marvelously diverse in habitats, with the tropical rainforest east of the Andes, dry desert along the coast and alpine above 10,000 feet in the mountains. The population is around 24 million people, a third of whom live in the capital, Lima. Most people who visit Peru come through Lima, although it was possible up until 1998 to fly directly into Iquitos, the country's biggest Amazon city.