Puerto Maldonado, Peru

A remote settlement even for Peru, PUERTO MALDONADO is a frontier colonist town with strong links to the Cusco region and a great fervour for bubbly jungle chicha music. With an economy based on unsustainable lumber and gold extraction, and highly sustainable Brazil-nut gathering, it has grown enormously over the last twenty years from a small, laid-back outpost of civilization to a busy market town. Today it's the thriving, safe (and fairly expensive) capital of a region that seems on the threshold of major upheavals, with a rapidly developing tourist industry. However, the town has few specific attractions, and most visitors come here primarily to enter the forest and stay in a lodge.