Iquitos, Peru

After a couple days relaxing in Leticia, Colombia I decided to head into Peru via a long 12 hour boat ride up the Amazon River to Iquitos. Most maps say that the Amazon River starts someplace in Peru east of Iquitos where the Marañón River and the Ucayali River meet. Water from several rivers in Ecuador and further into Peru (as far as Cuzco) eventually dump their water into the Atlantic so who can really say where the Amazon River starts. Anyways, before my boat ride I had the pleasure of visiting 3 countries in less than 15 minutes. I woke up in Leticia, Colombia, took a taxi to Tabatinga, Brazil and then took a boat across the Amazon to Santa Rosa, Peru. Fun fun.


Anyways, Iquitos is a very interesting city. It is the largest city in the world that is not accessible by road, you can only get there by boat or by air. It grew to become so large due to a rubber boom in the late 1800's. In fact, on the Plaza de Armas in Iquitos there is a building (pictured above) that was built by Eiffel (the same guy who built the Eiffel Tower) in France. It was deconstructed in France and brought piece by piece to Iquitos where it was rebuilt. Why not?

Shortly after people discovered that they could make money off the rubber trees near Iquitos they also realized that they could make even more money if they just planted the rubber trees closer to the coast in Brazil so that they didn't have the transportation cost of getting the product from Iquitos to the Atlantic. Iquitos never quite recovered the prosperity that it saw back then, but it has become one of the main hubs for jungle exploration in Peru. Everyone you meet on the street wants to be your best friend and take you on a jungle trip.

I was unsure as to whether I would actually take a jungle trip or not. I really wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to go deep into the jungle, but I also didn't want to get ripped off and I didn't want to go with a shady tour guide. Luckily I met a guy from Duluth, Minnesota who had just returned from a jungle trip and he filled me in on his experience. In the end I decided to go with the same guide he used, however I will write a separate post on my trip into the jungle.


One of my only touristy activities in Iquitos was a visit to the Pilpintuwasi Butterfly Farm. Although it was very interesting to see the Butterfly Farm (and animal orphanage) I actually enjoyed the walk through the village leading up to the farm much more. It was a very laid back relaxing village called Padre Cocha where when people passed you they actually smiled and said "Buenos Dias" and most importantly didn't try to sell me anything. At the Butterfly Farm itself I was taken on a tour of the enclosure which had several different species of butterflies flying around. We were then taken a separate enclosure where they had eggs, pupae, larvae and caterpillars. I forget all the stages of the life of a butterfly and what order they are in, but it was still interesting to see. Lastly we were taken to see the various animals that they have at the farm. These included a tapir, a jaguar and an anteater. They also claim to have a cayman and a manatee however neither were visible. There were also several monkeys that were running around and jumping on us throughout the tour. They seemed friendly enough until one of them started to take stuff out of the pockets of a Spanish woman. Luckily I wasn't robbed by the monkeys. All in all it was a good visit, however for those of you from Michigan, the annual butterfly exhibit the Meijer Gardens in Grand Rapids is much more impressive. I guess the butterflies I saw here were actually in their natural habitat though.

On the walk back to the boat through the village I stopped and played soccer with some little kids. They were so much better than me and spent a fair amount of time laughing about my lack of soccer skills, however it was still a blast. It was nice to associate with some kids who weren't trying to sell me gum or convince me to buy them a hamburger.


On the boat ride back to Iquitos we found ourselves in a downpour. During the rainstorm the boat driver (I won't refer to him as a captain) kept running into objects in the river, culminating with hitting the only other boat within 100 yards of us. At this point everyone on board put on a life jacket (they kindly didn't leave one for me or the 80 year old sitting next to me though) however we eventually made it safely to Iquitos.



More photos from Iquitos in the Peru album at: http://picasaweb.google.com/jmellgren