Puerto Maldonado (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈpweɾto maldoˈnaðo] ⓘ) is a city in southeastern Peru in the Amazon rainforest 55 kilometres (34 mi) west of the Bolivian border, located at the confluence of the Tambopata and Madre de Dios rivers.

Because it was less accessible by major rivers, the department of Madre de Dios was among the later ones to be explored during the late-19th-century rubber boom in the Amazonian Basin.

Rubber barons active in this business included Peruvian Carlos Fermín Fitzcarrald of Iquitos, as well as Brazilian and Bolivian interests.

Transporting rubber across it enabled the product to be transferred to ships that could go down the Madre de Dios, connect to the Madeira River, a tributary of the Amazon, and thereby reach Atlantic ports and export markets.

[4] Villata officially founded Puerto Maldonado on 10 July 1902, as a station at the confluence of the Tambopata and the Madre de Dios rivers.

He named the port after Faustino Maldonado, of Tarapoto, who had explored the Madre de Dios in 1861 and drowned in the rapids of the Mamoré River.

A common phenomenon, known locally as a surazo or friaje, occurs when polar winds blow in from the mountainous south.

The chief industries in Puerto Maldonado are logging, artisanal small-scale gold mining,[8] Brazil nut collecting, boat building, and eco-tourism.

A ferry used to cross the river, linking the main road from Cusco to the towns of San Lorenzo, Iberia and Iñapari.

Some groups, including the Peruvian NGO Asociación Civil Labour, are worried that the road may encourage illegal logging, hunting and settlement in areas that had not been easily reached before.