Iquitos – The Peruvian Amazon

I am now in the largest city in the world that is accessible only by plane or by boat – Iquitos, Peru. Situated along the Amazon river, it’s the fourth largest city in Peru and just a short distance from both Brazil and Colombia.

After arriving in the city and enjoying an arrival dinner of alligator marinated in a curry sauce, and tasting of the local beer, I woke up early the next morning for the 80 kilometer boat ride to a small village of about 30 people who reside near the lodge I stayed in.

The first stop was to a village where we were treated to a welcome dance by the natives (who spoke only a local tribal language). The arrival lunch consisted of local fruits, rice, vegetables and a local deer (venison).

After lunch, a small group of us (me and two Russians who spoke neither English nor Spanish), ventured for a two-hour hike through the Amazon jungle, where we saw fire ants, two varieties of monkeys, a leaf frog, a small anaconda snake, as well as numerous birds I was not able to recognize.

Before dinner, the five local children who live in the village (and were there with their families who were selling souvenirs to those staying at the lodge) challenged me and a British girl to a game of soccer (futbol). We were also joined by a macaw who later stepped aside after getting clocked in the head with the ball.

I thought there was no way that five kids ranging in age from five to 13 could beat two adults, but just in case they lent us one of their younger ‘star’ players. After a full match (and having consumed 3 beers), I was dripping in sweat with a heart rate of probably 180 beats per minute. Needless to say, we lost.

That night, we took a boat out to the middle of the river, to observe the noises of the night. There weren’t caiman/alligators in this part of the Amazon, but we saw a lot of bats and heard quite a few birds and frogs.

This morning, we woke up at 5:30 for an early morning boat excursion to see the birds roosting. Later that morning, we stopped off at a local village which had received support from the US Rotary club to build a small bridge and visited another village, where two baby sloths were the resident pets.

This afternoon, we ventured out again by boat to observe beautiful pink dolphins in their natural habitat (too difficult to get photos, since they only surface for air very quickly) and later fished for piranha. I caught three (and the largest I might add) and one catfish. The guide even let me drive the boat for a while! We took the fish back to the lodge to cook up for lunch. I wasn’t overly impressed with the taste of the piranha but the catfish was quite tasty.

I’m now on another boat to the city of Iquitos where I will do a city tour and try some more of the local grub.

Click here to see the rest of the pictures from the trip!