4 beautiful national parks in Peru

Important points

• There are 12 national parks in Peru, including 4 that are detailed in this article.
  • Cerros de Amotape National Park
  • Yanachaga-Chemillén National Park
• A variety of activities are available in the parks, including hiking, mountaineering, camping, canoeing, rock climbing, observing nature, exploring archaeological sites, and learning about or participating in ongoing scientific research.
• The parks are home to many endangered animals such as jaguars, spectacled bears, American crocodiles and South American tapirs.

Before your next adventure in South America, there are a few places you should visit. Peru has numerous national parks that are incredibly stunning. If you want to experience new outdoor excursions, diverse wildlife and gorgeous scenery, these Peruvian national parks should be at the top of your to-do list. This article introduces 4 beautiful national parks in Peru, what activities to do there and what animals to look out for.

history and geography

Peru lies just south of the equator, partly in the Amazon Basin, and its western border is on the Pacific coast of South America. It is dense with terrestrial, aquatic and bird life and supports this biodiversity in many different types of habitats. Peru has the second largest bird community in the world after Colombia. It is also considered one of the 17 most biodiverse countries in the world. In fact, the Peruvian Amazon is considered one of the most pristine and unspoilt environments on earth. To preserve this incredible nature, Peru has many protected natural areas including 12 national parks. The first national park, Cutervo, was established in 1961 and the most recently declared national park was Yaguas in 2018.

Conservation efforts throughout Peru’s history are not limited to protecting national parks. Other types of areas that receive different levels of protection are national reserves, national sanctuaries, nature reserves, landscape reserves, community reserves, protected forests, closed hunting zones, and reserved zones. In total, Peru has 75 protected areas. These classifications all include rules of varying rigidity on how the land and resources can be used. For example, community reserves allow local people to extract resources from the protected areas for traditional purposes.

#1 Manú National Park and Biosphere Reserve

Manú National Park is located in the Madre de Dios and Cusco regions of Peru. It was declared a national park in 1973 and later declared a Biosphere Reserve and World Heritage Site by UNESCO. The park covers an area of ​​17,163 km²² with mountainous terrain, lowland rainforests, cloud forests and part of the Amazon Basin plains. When you visit, there are five areas that are open to tourists. There you can enjoy the great flora and fauna on paths and along rivers. There are also lookouts, campgrounds, lodges, and a Canopy Walkway.

Over 160 species of mammals have been reported in the park including jaguars, giant armadillos, giant anteaters, various marmosets and tamarins, capuchin monkeys, spider monkeys, South American tapirs and spectacled bears to name a few. The park is home to more than 1000 species of birds such as Amazon pygmy owls, Andean condors, giant hummingbirds, blue and yellow macaws, scarlet macaws, harpy eagles and king vultures. There are also 132 species of reptiles, such as spectacled caimans, black caimans, boas and green anacondas. Park residents also include 155 species of amphibians, including many different frogs, toads, and caecilians. There is scientific research within the park, with a focus on ecology, biology, and conservation, as well as research centers in the area.

#2 Huascaran National Park

Huascarán National Park is 3,400 km away² Territory home to the highest tropical mountain range in the world, the Cordillera Blanca. The highest peak of the Cordillera Blanca is Mount Huascarán, from which the park owes its name. The varied landscapes also feature tropical glaciers, glacial lakes, gorges, high Andean forests and mountain meadows. This topography makes Huascarán National Park an adventurer’s paradise. There are many opportunities for mountaineering, rock climbing, hiking, backpacking, mountain biking and skiing. You can also enjoy cultural tourism and visit one of the 33 archaeological sites in the park. These sites have cave paintings, ancient settlements, tombs and other prehistoric structures.

As you wander through the park, you are sure to see incredible plant and animal life. One of the most important plants in the country from a cultural and conservational point of view is the Queen of the Andes. This plant is the largest of the bromeliads — the family that includes pineapples — and grows up to 50 feet tall. The park is also home to more than 10 species of mammals, including the colocolo or pampas cat, the Andean mountain cat, the cougar, and the spectacled bear. In addition, more than 120 species of birds live side by side in the park.

#3 Cerros de Amotape National Park

Cerros de Amotape National Park is a vast nature reserve covering 1,516 km² is located in the regions of Piura and Tumbes in Peru. It received its national park status in 1975. Within the park, the varied terrain includes the Cordillera de los Amotapes mountain range, the Tumbes River, part of the Tumbes-Piura Dry Forests ecoregion, and part of the Pacific Tropical Forest. Visitors have much to explore and enjoy in the park, such as hiking, nature viewing and canoeing in the Tumbes River. There are overnight accommodations at the park’s checkpoints and the park’s research facilities also welcome visitors.

Many animals call the Cerros de Amotape National Park their home. The Guayaquil squirrel is a large species of squirrel endemic to Peru and Ecuador. That means it only exists in those two places. Other mammals found in the park include red skewers, white-tailed deer, mantled howler monkeys, bald capuchins, ocelots, and jaguars. There are 111 species of birds in the park, including the Grey-backed Buzzard, the Grey-cheeked Parakeet and the Slate Beard. The endangered American crocodile also lives in the Cerros de Amotape National Park.

#4 Yanachaga-Chemillén National Park

The beautiful Yanachaga-Chemillén National Park includes rainforest and cloud forests in central Peru’s Pasco region. This park covers an area of ​​1,220 km² and is mainly carpeted in woods. It is an extremely biodiverse site on the eastern side of the Andes, extending to the Amazon Basin. The national park protects the Palcazu, Huancabamba and Pozuzo rivers, all of which are tributaries of the Amazon. If you want to visit the Yanachaga-Chemillén National Park, the easiest access point is from the city of Oxapampa. In the park, you can spot wildlife, interact with indigenous communities within the park, and visit archeological sites of the Inca and Yanesha cultures.

Yanachaga-Chemillén National Park is home to an abundance of birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians. Interestingly, this park is the only known area with populations of Ctenophryne barbatula, a frog endemic to Peru. Mammal species include the capybara, jaguar, puma, spectacled bear and jaguarundi, among others. Impressively, there are 550 species of birds in this park, the most notable of which are harpy eagles, Andean rooster of the rocks, blue-crowned motmots, quetzals, toucans, hoatzines, Amazonian umbrella birds and blue-grey tanagers.

Next