THE ISOLATED TOWN OF IQUITOS

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We had finally arrived in Iquitos, the world's largest city that can't be reached by road. My first impressions of the city was that it stank, not of anything in particular and not all the time, but as we drove into the city in our moto taxi we got quite a few whiffs of off fruit, bad sewage, muddy water and god knows what else. Along with the smells my first impression was that this place was absolutely mad and not what I had expected it to be. For some reason I had expected a chilled jungle town with lots of lovely green trees and plants and chilled people to go along with it. What we found was hundreds of moto taxis zooming around making stupid amounts of noise along with tooting their horns consistantly. I think the fact that we had also just spent the last few days relaxing on a boat might have had something to do with our suprise when arriving here.......I thought it was definately going to take a while to adjust. On first glimpse it seemed that there was a lot more poverty in this area than we had seen for a while. Lots of very basic housing and as always rubbish everywhere. The rains had started as well and that didn't help with making the place look appealing to the eye. Once we made it into the centre there was quite a few colonial style buildings surrounding the area and there was a certain appeal to the town. Many of the buildings were quite grand in their design and many of them were finished of with tiles that had very intricate details. We found ourselves a hostel that was full of all sorts of animal trophies from anaconda skins, bear skins, spiders amongst other quaint items to make us feel like we had hit the jungle. Other than our pokey stuffy room, the flea ridden cat that hung around and a wanker owner the hostel was not so bad. There was no reason to be sitting in the room though, so we decided to have a wander around town and see what we might find. The main plaza was surrounded by beautiful big white buildings with a large war memorial in the middle where many people would gather at night time. The town looked great at night and was a hub of activity once the temperature had dropped slightly. Lots of people miming as well as people selling all sorts of jewellery, kids ballons and all sorts of food treats. Along with all the activity we frequently had to bear listening to absolutely terrible music, Peruvian style, and let me tell you it has to be up there to take the title of the worst music in the world. Also around the middle of the town we came across a gathering of people dressed in purple who had come from the church. Not exactly sure why there were dressed in purple and what was going on but we also saw what seemed to be an altar set up on the side of a building and as we passed I saw people coming up to offer blessings at the altar as they passed. Another thing that made me smile here, and you see it a bit, is people set up on the footpath with an old fashioned type writter on a small table. People come and ask for certain things to be typed up and that is how they make their money.....guess it´s a cheap option as there is no rent for any premises and no power is needed. We also noticed in town what we thought might be rent boys, male prostitutes, and along with that a lot of seedy looking gringo men. There was definately more of a gay culture here than I had seen in most other parts of South America. As with the boats there was a lot of she-boys/men around as well. The town is set on the banks of a couple of rivers with one side of town facing out over the river giving great views. Again currently the river is quite low and therefore far out from the town, but walking along what you could call the esplanade was great especially at night when it was a hub of activity. We also ventured down to see the market area, we went after there was a down pour, so the market at this stage was pretty damned foul under foot. Stupidly we wore only our thongs and consequently ended up with god knows what all over our feet.......I tried not to think about it too much. The market was full of different sights and smells, both good and bad, and it was extremely interesting to wander around. Lots of fruit and vegetables, fish, lots of meat in all shapes, sizes and parts still containing hair...YUK, spices, a witches market with all their herbs etc, cheese, clothes and household goods. A walk around there for an hour or so was enough for us before it all got too much and we headed back out of that madness to find more in the surrounding streets.....it basically was never ending in Iquitos.

The following day was a sunday and it also happened to be Sensus day in Peru which meant that everyone had to stay home until th Sensus people had visited them. As a consequence the town was unusually quiet and peaceful and we loved it. We wanted to head down and see the floating markets that are in a part of town called Belen. As we were wandering down to where we thought the markets might be we realised that possibly we were out of luck as it hadn´t really started to rain yet. This was confirmed by a young boy around the age of 15yo, who told us that currently all the markets were on the higher ground and would move down to the lower parts of Belen in the next month or so once the river rose. His name was Carlos and we just ended up going on a small tour around Belen with him. He was the son of one of the mayors in Belen and was full of great information about the area and how the people lived there......he should know as he did actually live there. The area of Belen is basically below the high water mark. It is a shanty town where thousands of people live in huts that rise and fall with the river. The houses are either made on stilts or are made to float when the water rises like houseboats. It is a very poor area that is very dirty and could be called the slums of Iquitos. This is where the floating markets are once the water has risen as people are much more resticted with movement and require canoes to move from their homes. So instead of taking their produce to market they bring the market to their homes. When we started to walk into Belen the smell of wet ground, puddles of stagnant water, rubbish, food and more than likely sewage was strong in places.......but I tried with all my might not to show disgust as it was people´s homes. Our guide Carlos showed us around to a few different areas and explained how the area operates once the water is high. Suprisingly the houses still have access to electricity during the wet season and the poles that the wires are connected to also work as anchors to tie their houses to. The houses on stilts are much better than the floating houses as the wood takes longer to deterioate, a floating house will need to be replaced every couple of years. Most of the houses seemed to be extremely basic with some of them just mearly a roof to cover the occupants. It was interesting to see that beside a few better built houses the best buildings in the area were the schools and the police station. From what Carlos told us and what we could see it seemed that these people had managed to make this environment work for themselves. All the people were extremely friendly and we got many waves and hellos and as usual lots of stares as we walked by. Lots of the children would pose for photos and people seemed genuinely interested in us and possibly wondered why the hell we would want to come into their community. We headed down to the river which was currently running very fast. Carlos told us that when the water is low it runs the fastest, so once it is at the highest level the locals don´t need to worry too much about strong currents around their houses. I am sure though that once the river starts to drain out that the water must move faster putting extra strain on the houses. All the toilets were small floating out houses on the river, not somewhere where I would want to have to go in the middle of the night when you are half asleep. Along with using the river for sewage we saw many ladies doing the washing and I am sure that many other things get put into the water. Carlos also showed us some fishing nets that are left in the water, just near many toilets, to catch Catfish. He pulled one out to show us, not a bad looking fish and a fare size which would give someone a decent meal. Due to being early on a sunday morning we did come across a number of drunk men, who were very friendly mind you, who seemed to have been up all night drinking. Along with them there was a number of dirty mangy stray dogs in the area, not uncommon in Sth America, but I did remember that these ones were particularly bad. We had walked to another part of the river so we could take a canoe to the other side and I was shocked to see that the hill that we had to walk down was basically all plastic. It literally was a mound of plastic that over time had been packed down to form a road, I was in disbelief. Here the river was running extremely fast and as we headed to the other side in the canoe our man had to paddle hard upriver first and then swing the canoe out into the middle and immediately we were carried over to the other side. Lets just say that this guy had obviously done this many times and was very skillful on maintaining control of the boat which looked like no mean feat. This part of Belen was the poorer part where the housing was mainly the floating houses rather than the houses on stilts. I was interested to see a sign that had an old water mark on it, which Carlos explained was the high water mark. That mark was at least 1m above my head and we were standing on top of a small slope we had walked up from the river.........I was having troubles just comprehending that much water! Carlos then took us down to a beautiful part of Belen where we found great big lily pads growing. A little bit of beauty in what had seemed to be pretty dirty and hard place to live. Another thing that astounded me was when we came across a couple of men using a massive winch. They had 2 men on each side of it and would then push it around in a circle to haul things up from the river. When we saw them they were hauling up big logs of wood, but we were told that they use this winch also to winch up boats when it was time for work to be done on them! There is no wonder that people are so strong and fit in these countries when they have to work like that, we are so lucky to have modern technology. That particular area of Belen was also used as a kind of working yard for boats, well the boats were just hauled up where ever and then worked on......no health and safety laws in this part of the world. I saw a great number of boats that looked completely unseaworthy and was shocked that people would even consider driving them down river. So we had been in Belen for around 90 minutes and Carlos had given us a great tour of his home and shared so much great information with us. He was a lovely kid and we appreciated the fact that he was taking the initiative to do something to make some money other then begging or stealing. To end his tour he led us out of Belen via what he called Belen Venice, a road that had deep gutters running down the side but were full of rotting food......again smells wafting. We got the feeling that we had seen a more realistic view of how many people live in this area.

Later that day we decided that we should do something other that hang around town where nothing was happening due to the sensus. We headed down to one of the small ports where we were hoping to catch a boat upriver to one of the small villages. Once we arrived at the port we were instantly surrounded by guys trying to sell us tours around the area at extraordinary prices and well over the price we had been told. We had decided to not indulge them and just wander around this area. It proved to be interesting enough in itself.....more floating houses, lots of people swimming in the river and people washing their moto taxis by simple reversing it down the hill and into the river. As we wandered around we did manage to find the local boat heading to the town we wanted to go to and since the sun was now out we decided to go have a look. After a cruisy ride down the river in a large canoe powered by an outboard that resembles a whipper snipper we arrived at the small village of Padre Cocha. Once the sun comes out this area it is absolutely beautiful and you can see the green in the vegetation even more so. Our walk up to the village was glorious and once we arrived at the village we decided that we were so glad that we had made the effort to come out. It was sunday and because of that people were just relaxing and enjoying the lovely sunshine. There was a soccer game on so a lot of people were hanging out watching that. As we walked around we passed many volley ball games under way, some very serious ones as well. Again people were amazingly friendly and were very inquistive as I am sure that not many tourists just arrive in their village. We wandered through the main part of the village and continued on the path, as it was just so nice we just wanted to see where it went to, and ended up a small river, called Quebrada de Amor (Ravine of Love). We were greated by some of the loveliest people I have ever met and for this experience alone I am so glad that I came to this village. There was an elderly couple who seemed to live at this small river, we found out later that they just come here for the day and you can buy drinks etc from them. As we approached they both came out to say hello and seemed to be a little taken by us. The lady was standing next to me, she didn´t even come up to my arm pit, and was staring at me and smiling. Finally she started to stroke my arm and I thought she was just being friendly when I realised that she was fascinated with my huge amounts of freckles. After a little bit more talking about where we came from and the usual stuff we decided that we should leave as the day was getting late. At this the lady came up and gave me hug with out warning and buried herself into my side, after me she headed straight over to Sharyn and did the same. We didn´t really want to leave as they were such beautiful people and had spun us out with their friendliness, but we had no choice. As we headed back into the village we were disappointed that we had not found this place earlier and come out to stay the night. The town was so much more relaxed that Iquitos, it had no vehicles and more importantly no damned moto taxis, it was very clean, extremely beautiful and peaceful and the people were more than happy to see us. At least we had come to visit even though it had been a short stay but I think that I will remember this place for a very long time.

Back on the canoe and back to Iquitos for our last night before heading off again on another boat, this time heading further north down river on the Amazon to the town of Leticia in Colombia. Iquitos had been a good experience and I am so glad that we made the effort to come and see what this city has to offer. Very different to any other place that I have been to before and possibly there is no other place quite like it in the world.

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Photos

IQUITOS
A floating house down near the river waiting for the water to rise

IQUITOS
The witches market

IQUITOS
A man with his type writer on the footpath waiting for some business

IQUITOS
Some kind of religious gathering outside the church with a hell of a lot of people dressed in purple

IQUITOS
An altar set up on out the front of a building on the plaza for people to make offerings

IQUITOS
This building was built by Eiffel better known for his other famous building in Paris

IQUITOS
One of many grand buildings in Iquitos. They were lined with very detailed tiles

IQUITOS
The intricate tiles

IQUITOS
A little boy who has found a good place to have a snooze

IQUITOS
Riding in a moto taxi. This day was extremely quiet as it was the day of the sensus and also a sunday

BELEN, IQUITOS
Looking down on the suburg of Belen

BELEN, IQUITOS
Looking down on the suburg of Belen

BELEN, IQUITOS
Walking in the streets of Belen

BELEN, IQUITOS
Some of the houses on stilts

BELEN, IQUITOS
Kids hanging out playing

BELEN, IQUITOS
Massive lily pads in the river

BELEN, IQUITOS
The river that runs through the suburb and which was starting to rise while we were there

BELEN, IQUITOS
Houses lining the edge of the river where they have been sitting since the water dropped. Once the river rises they will be floating houses again

BELEN, IQUITOS
The toilet and a lady doing her washing

BELEN, IQUITOS
Our guide Carlos showing us one of the common fish found in the river, a catfish of some sort

BELEN, IQUITOS
A catfish

Comments

[Jim King]

Iquitos
You did a great job on this story about Iquitos. I have lived here many years and still enjoyed how you put it in writing. The only thing you missed was mingling with the Gringo comunity, that could be a novel in its self.

[Gigi Morelli]

GREAT IQUITOS
Iquitos is much beautiful. You only mentioned things that can be improved. But this city has is a paradise.