from: Dilwyn Jenkins: The
rough guide to Peru; Rough Guides, New York, London,
Delhi; 6th edition September 2006; www.roughguides.com
Iquitos and arounds
Iquitos "island" city 104m
above sea level - cafés and clubs and beaches - shamans
with ayahuasca - water seasons
At the "island" city of
Iquitos,
by far the largest and most exciting of Peru's jungle towns,
there are few sights as magnificent as the
Río Amazonas. Its
tributaries start well up in the Andes, and when they join
together several hours upstream from the town, the river is
already several kilometers wide, though a mere 116m above
sea level. The town's location, only 104m above sea level
yet thousands of miles from the ocean and surrounded in all
directions by brilliant green forest and hemmed in by the
maze of rivers, streams, and lagoons, makes for a stunning
entry to the northern jungle.
Most people visit Iquitos briefly, moving on into the
rainforest but wisely,
few travelers actually avoid the place entirely. It's a
buzzing, cosmopolitan tourist town, connected to the rest of
the world by river and air only. Iquitos is the kind of
place that lives up to all your expectations of a jungle
town, from its elegant reminders of the rubber-boom years to
the atmospheric shanty town suburb of
Puerto Belén, one of
Werner Herzog's main locations for his film
Fitzcarraldo, where you
can buy almost anything, from fuel to
ayahuasca.
Tourist facilities here have developed gradually over the
last thirty years - the town has a friendly
café- and club-scene,
interesting
museums
and beautiful turn-of-the-century buildings, and the
surrounding region has some great (p.509)
island and lagoon
beaches,
a range of easy excursions into the rainforest, and the
possibility of continuing down the Amazon into Columbia or
Brazil. The area has also become something of a
spiritual focus,
particularly for gringos [white men] seeking a visionary
experience with one of the many local shamans who utilize
the sacred and powerful hallucinogenic ayahuasca vine in
their religious psycho-healing sessions.
Seasons of high and low
water
Unlike most of the Peruvian selva, the
climate here is little
affected by the Andean topography, so there is no rainy
season as such; instead, the year is divided into "high
water" (Dec-May) and "low water" (June-Nov) seasons. The
upshot is that the weather is always hot and humid, with
temperatures averaging 23-30°C (74-86°F) and with an annual
rainfall of about 2600mm. Most visitors come between May and
August, but the high-water months are perhaps the best time
for seeing
wildlife,
because the animals are crowded into smaller areas of dry
land.
Some history of Iquitos
Iquitos: The natives are
driven away: Iquito, Yaguar, Bora and Witito
Self-confident and likable, IQUITOS is for the most part, a
modern city, built on a wide, flat river plain. Only the
heart around the main plaza contains any older,
architecturally interesting buildings, but the river port
and market area of
Belén
boasts rustic wooden huts on stilts - a classic image of
Iquitos. If it weren't for the abundant stalls and shops
selling jungle Indian craft goods it would be hard to know
that this place was once dominated by hunter-gather
tribes like the Iquito,
Yaguar, Bora and Witito who initially defended their
territory against the early Spanish missionaries and
explorers. The townsfolk (p.510)
today, however, are warm and welcoming, wear as little
clothing as possible and are out in numbers during the
relative cool of the evening.
Foundation - rubber - oil -
natural products - receding riverfront and questions of
the reason
Though founded in 1757 under the name of San Pablo de los
Napeanos, the present center of Iquitos was established in
1864. By the end of the nineteenth century Iquitos was,
along with Manaus in Brazil, one of
the great rubber towns
[for the destructive western "civilization"]. From that ear
of grandeur a number of structures survive, but during the
last century the town vacillated between prosperity (as far
back as 1938 when the area was explored for oil) and the
depths of economic depression. However its strategic
position on the Amazon, which makes it accessible to large
ocean-going ships from the distant Atlantic, has ensured its
importance. At present still buoyed by the export of timber,
petroleum, tobacco and Brazil nuts, and dabbling heavily in
the trade of wild animals, tropical fish and birds, as well
as an insecticide called
barbasco,
long used by natives as a fish poison, Iquitos is in a
period of quite wealthy expansion.
The river has receded significantly from the main
riverfront, which has
necessitated moving the town's downriver port away from its
center. Some locals blame downstream canalization for this
shift, others point to a drop in rainfall along the Amazon's
headwaters in other parts; or it may be that increasing
deforestation of the ceja de selva higher up means that,
during the rainy season, rainwater simply runs off the
surface, leaving none to gradually filter down during the
dry season. Whatever the reason, the riverfront now
stretches all the way from the old port and market of Belén,
which the Amazon waters hardly reach any more, to the newer
floating port of Puerto Masusa, 3km downriver (p.511).
Arrival, information and city transports in
Iquitos
Arrival by boat, by
airplane - and the sellers
If you've come by boat from Yurimaguas (5 days), Pucallpa
(6-7 days), Leticia or Tabatinga (both 3 days), you'll
arrive at
Puerto Masusa,
some eleven blocks northeast of the Plaza de Armas.
Flights land at Iquitos
airport,
Aeropuerto Internacional de Francisco Secada Vignetta
[Francisco Secada International Airport] (T. 065-260147),
6km southwest of town and connected by taxis ($3-4) and
cheaper
motokars
($2). Once you're off the plane, you're likely to be
surrounded by a horde of desperate
touts [sellers], all
trying to persuade you to take their jungle tours or stay in
their lodges; at this stage, the best thing to do is to
avoid conversation with any of them, apart perhaps from
saying you'll meet them in a couple of hours - which will
give you time to get settled in and think about where you
want to go and how (p.511)
much you are prepared to pay.
Buses pull in on the Plaza de Armas and on
calles Huallaga [Huallaga street] and La Condamine [La
Condamine street].
The first things you'll notice when getting to central
Iquitos are the vast quantities of
mototaxis and
motorbikes; the next thing is probably the scores of
street kids.
Tourist offices in Iquitos
The local
consejo
[town council] run a helpful
tourist information kiosk at the airport
(daily 8am-9pm, T. 065-236144, e-mail
iperuiquitos@promperu.gob.pe, www.regionloreto.gob.pe and
www.amazonriveriquitosperu.com, which also sells CDs of the
region's music and videos of local attractions. They have
brochures and maps, can advise on hotels, keep a list of
registered tour operators and guides, and can help book
accommodation. For more in -depth inquiries, the Dirección
Regional de Turismo [Local Tourist Management], can be
found at Avenida Ricardo Palma 113, 5th floor.
The
Iquitos Review
newspaper ($1.50),
circulated in the Iquitos area, through hotels, tour offices
and some shops, as well as being loaded with fascinating
jungle tales, is also a good source of information.
City tours - change -
street kids
City tours of Iquitos itself are offered by many of
the tour companies and some hotels (try the
Hostal La Pascana for
tickets); they take about three hours, usually leave daily
at 9am and again at 2pm, costing around $10. For
getting around Iquitos
you'll probably want to make use of the rattling
motokars; alternatively,
motorbikes can be
rented - try the shop near the Ferretería Union (block 2 of
Raymondi), or the one at Yavari 702. Expect to pay around $2
an hour or $10 for twelve hours (you'll need to show your
passport and license), and remember to check the brakes
before leaving. For getting around town by
car, try the office at
[Jirón] Tute Pinglo 431 (T. 065-235857). If you want to get
onto the river itself,
canoes
can be rented very cheaply from the port at Bellavista.
For
money exchange
it's best not to do it on the street with the
cambistas [money
changer] who have a bit of a reputation (particularly at the
corner of [Jirón] Prospero with [Jirón] Morona) for ripping
tourists off, especially after around 8pm. Use one of the
casas de cambio [money change houses] on [Jirón] Sargento
Lores or the banks. The street kids, too, have a growing
reputation for picking pockets, but they're certainly not
all bad, and a Transit House has been built for them in
Iquitos, so things may improve (p.513).
