Iquitos

I went to Iquitos to build a church with Maranatha International. It’s supposedly the largest city in the world you cant get to by road. Only by air or water can you get here. It’s a wonderful city right in the middle of the rain forest. Not for the luxury traveler. This is a 3rd world country and Iquitos is chalk full of sickness, disease, and the poor and hungry. We set up a medical clinic in a section of town where some 99% of the population needed some form of medical attention. I witnessed everything from tooth aches, to scabies, to malaria. On a bright note is a really great experience to wake up in the morning on the Amazon, eat some plantains, and watch the monkeys and macaws play.

My uncle lives in Iquitos I been here two times and its incledible there is so much to see and do. The Amazon is just beautiful.

I went here on a volunteer trip and it was an amazing experience. The people are friendly and funny and you can’t beat the beauty of the jungle!!

Beware of long boat rides in small boats on the Amazon. Can be quite scary! We almost died on a boat ride (was supposed to be 2 hours, but took 4!) down the Amazon to a jungle camp during a crazy lightning storm!

...was four days ago.
I just spent more than two weeks on a research boat in the Peruvian Amazon, in Lago Preto, which is 5 days away on a boat from Iquitos.

Iquitos is a quirky city – smack dab in the Amazon rainforest. It’s the largest city that’s accessible only by boat or airplane but somehow is teeming with 500,000 inhabitants and a gazillion buzzing mototaxis that will ring your ears off at all hours of the day and night.

This was a rubber-boom town. IN the early 1900s, Europeans and South Americans came to seek (and find) fortune tapping the natural rubber trees in the forest and shipping balls of rubber off. Mansions, handmade ornate tiles and other architecture from the era survives, usually inhabited by the police or army at this point. Some ofthe old buildings are not well preserved, which is a shame for the future but makes them look great right now.

The promenade on the water is an amazing place. Every night, even weeknights, it seems everyone in the city came to socialize, watch performers, try their own hands at raising busking money and to people watch. Girls dancing with anacondas, fire dancers and a guy with fake breasts doing comedy were regulars during the days I was there.
There’s a neat sculpture that looks like a picture frame on the promenade and below it, a good artisan’s market without the street hassle and quality work. I picked up blow darts, a handmade necklace and mask.

Belen, sometimes called the Venice of Iquitos, is a slum, which is flooded in the rainy season. Some homes float year roudn, the others are raised on stilts. The water will recede in the summer and expose land. People are very poor here. It is in contrast to the city behind it, and the hectic, chaotic Belen market, where you can find anything from carved up caiman meat to guys hand rolling tobacco and whole dead pacas and traditional medicines.
Rent a dug-out canoe to paddle you around Belen for a half hour or so, definitely worth it. Sometimes its 2 soles (less than a dollar) or up to 10 ($3) depending on who you ask for the ride andif they are feeling like charging more or less, and if you accept.

Right outside Iquitos (a boat ride on a collective is about 2 soles, or a private charter is 10 soles or $3) Pulitapwasi (oh man I spelled that wrong) butterfly farm.
An Austrian woman and her Peruvian partner live here, 20 minutes up river. They run their own butterfly farm and also care for animals that have been abandoned or orphaned. They have a jaguar, tapir, anteater and several monkeys, including a cappuchin that was raised by street kids and who liked to ride on my head and eat a banana. He tried to get in my backpack and was a real highlight. They also have a red uakari monkey -rare.

Great ice cream place, labeled Helado, in the plaza, with varieties you’ll only get in the Amazon like aguaji, guanabana and more.

it’s great here and a good stepping point for the amazon.

Iquitos is wonderful. It’s alot smaller than it’s Brazilian counterpart Manaus, but not lacking at all in personality. People here seem happier than people in Lima the capital although they dont have the same financial wealth. There three wheeled motor taxi are fun to ride. Good cheap food, surprisingly good nightlife and an abundance of friendliness make Iquitos a true gem of Peru.