Iquitos and the Amazon River Basin

Gateway to the northern Amazon Jungle, Iquitos is the largest city in the Peruvian rainforest. It is surrounded by the Amazon, the Nanay, and the Itaya rivers, and constitutes the major port city on the Amazon river. It cannot be reached by road --the most populous city in the world that can't--, only by plane or by motorboat. A hot and humid city, isolated as it is from the rest of the country, Iquitos transmits a peculiar feeling to visitors --a sense of drowsiness and easiness, a bit like the port cities in South East Asia.

Established as a Jesuit mission in the 1750s, Iquitos enjoyed an economic bonanza at the end of the 19th century, thanks to the commercial trade of rubber --the so called Rubber Boom. The prosperity prompted the wealthy rubber tycoons to build luxurious mansions in the city. Most representative of this period are the glazed-tiled mansions along the Amazon riverfront, the art noveau Palace Hotel, and the Casa de Fierro (Iron House), designed by Gustave Eiffel and made, as the name suggests, from rectangular sheets of iron.

The Belén quarter, on the left bank of the Itaya River, is probably Iquitos' most unusual and picturesque attraction. Homes in the neighbourhood are built on top of wood rafts, and must be tied to large wooden poles to avoid them floating loosely on the waters during the flood season. There is a colourful open-air market in Belén, where you can appreciate the vast local food offer (amusing the paiche, a large fresh-water fish that can weight up to 300kg and is one of the main ingredients in local cuisine).

Though Iquitos is interesting in itself, most visitors spend here a couple of days before heading to one of the several jungle lodges erected in more or less deep rainforest. Of course, the farthest you are willing to go, travelling on boat through the complex web of rivers, the more virgin rainforest is, and the greatest chance to spot exotic wildlife.

The Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve, the largest protected area in Peru --and in the whole of South America--, shelters some of the Amazon's finest and most abundant wildlife: pink dolphins, common wooly monkeys, caimans, river otters, giant river turtles, and many bird species. It is located some 180 km southwest of Iquitos, on the confluence of the Marañon and the Ucayali rivers, and covers more than 2 million hectares. The shortest route is by road from Iquitos to the town of Nauta, and then by boat to the reserve. Several local tourist agencies organize tours and trips to Pacaya-Samiria. Permission from INRENA, the Peruvian parks authority, is needed to enter the reserve.

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