Vacation Iquitos Part III

Dancing with the Boras
eating a grub from a nut.....not really...pyche

a local home on our gas pit stop.

visiting the Boras Tribe


Off on our adventure...our first water taxi into the jungle.

Iquitos is the largest city in the world that cannot be reached by road. The only way to get there is by plane or boat via the river system. It is the entry point to the Amazon Rainforest.

Iquitos is the largest city in the Peruvian rainforest, with a population of 370,962. Located on the Amazon River, it is a mere 106 m (348 ft) above sea level even though it is more than 3,000 km (1,864 mi) from the mouth of the Amazon at Belem in Brazil, on the Atlantic Ocean.

The city can be reached only by airplane or boat, with the exception of a road to Nauta, a small town roughly 100 km (62 mi) south. Most travel within the city itself is via bus, motorcycle, or auto rickshaw (mototaxi, motocarro or motokar). There are 25,000 mototaxis in the area. It's crazy! Transportation to nearby towns often requires a river trip via llevo-llevo, a small public motorised boat.

The climate is hot and humid, with an average relative humidity of 85%. The wet season lasts from around November to May. The river is at its lowest in October, when we were there, but you wouldn't know it. Peru is where the Amazon river system begins as it winds it's way to Brazil.

Iquitos was established as a Jesuit mission in the 1750s. Iquitos was known for its rubber industry through the rubber boom of the first decade of the 20th century, and there are still great mansions from the 1800s, including the Iron House (Spanish: Casa de Fierro), designed by Gustave Eiffel. The boom came to an end when rubber seeds were smuggled out of the country and planted elsewhere. The 1982 movie Fitzcarraldo, about the life of rubber baron Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald, was filmed near Iquitos.

Because of it is a high tourist area, the prices are high as well, but I was able to find a fairly inexpensive option for lodging. It was actually a large apartment for $30 a night. So we got acquainted with the town and tried the local food, which includes Caiman meat. The mototaxis however were not that fun as I always felt my life was in danger, but it seems to work for them.

Our first day we took a tour to the closest indigenous community to Iquitos, the Boras. The goverment does not support them in any way and so to survive and educate their kids they have also found a way to tap into tourism. They warmly greeted us as we arrived, introduced us to their dances and asked us to join in. It was a great experience, but it was a shock that the women didn't wear any clothing on top. However, we quickly got over it and enjoyed the experience. We bought some lovely handmade jewlery and a blowdart gun souvenir.

Because we weren't planning on coming here originally we didn't have anything planned. It is really the launching point for the trecks into the jungle, most people don't spend much time there. So we tried to find a good tour company, but in the end we didn't get that great of a deal. I don't want to rehash the entire thing because we are glad we were able to experience it, but it was way out of our budget. We took a 2 day 1 night tour into the wild.

It would have been a better experience if I had thought to bring the REI bug spray I had in Ilo with us because the stuff we bought in Peru......yea.. the mosquitos aren't too afraid of it. They had no problem biting us. However, it was part of the adventure. I just hope I didn't contract any disease. I'm not too excited about malaria.

We did have a great guide, just for the 2 of us, who had lots of knowledge about the flora and fauna and how to survive in the wild should we need it. He was full of information and had a ton of energy. He didn't mind the humidity or the bugs and he was over 60. He took us on treks into the jungle with just his machete; no trail. He made it up. He was also our cook and did a nice job of that too!

We took a pass on a night exporation into the jungle so he brought the wild to us by catching a baby caiman. He wanted to show us the tarantula he found before but something had killed it that day so it was just the legs, but I really wasn't too upset about it. I didn't mind the real but not creepy version.

The next morning we woke at 6 am and headed out on another trek. The day before was 2.5 hours and I was exhausted. I was hoping that this one wouldn't be as strenuous or long....he took us through a swamp and was trying to find a way to show us a lake. We were able to swing on tarzan vines and learn all sorts of great things. I was getting worn out and he turned to me and said, to make a loop it's another 4 hours....is that okay. We'll I couldn't keep my cool and my ego could care less about being tough. I said, "no way!" he was really surprised and said, okay let's go back for breakfast. I am sure if I had tried to make that trip they'd have left me in some lagoon never to be heard from again. Everytime we stopped for longer than 30 seconds the mosquitos would be all over us and I was hungry!

So we made it back to eat and we went off with a couple from Poland to monkey island on our little wooden canoe/boat. It was a longer trip than I expected sitting on a hard wooden bench, but we made it and saw lovely scenery along the way with a stop along the way to buy more fuel. A bit critical in the whole operation...fuel for the boat. We came back for lunch, took a short nap and then packed up to get back to Iquitos or so we thought. We made it back to the port at the arranged time, but the transportation to drive us back to Iquitos....not there. So here we are on a Sunday night with no way to get back. Our guide did what he could to find something, but it is an hour trip and the mototaxis can't really do the job. So we ended up taking a bus that took 2. 5 hours and included a man with a live rooster and a car battery as his luggage. We saw all sorts of people and packages on that trip! At one point we even had to turn around and drive back a couple of miles because we left the guy taking the fares at a stop and no one knew it!

Anyway, we had a great time and we're glad we went, but I don't know that we will be in a rush to get back again too soon. But we brought back some great jewlery and art.