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).
