TO IQUITOS (PERU) - by boat - 20th August & day in Iquitos - 21st August.
20th August - We woke up most reluctantly at 3.00am, got dressed and waited for Jose to take us to the boat jetty in Tabatinga (Brazil). Jose had problems with his car so sent a friend to drive us to get our boat. Once at the jetty, our luggage got checked by torchlight by the Brazilian customs police at 4am and they were certainly not as courteous as the Colombians. 
From the floating jetty we got into a very small motor boat that to took a few of us to this Island on the Peruvian side of Amazon river, called Santa Rosa. It was eerie being in this small boat on the Amazon in the pitch dark, cold spray in our faces, going towards something we just could not see. In a matter of 15 minutes we had been from Colombia to Brazil to Peru.
In Santa Rosa we literally moved from our little speedboat boat to the bigger passenger speedboat that was to take us to Iquitos (Peru). There was some minor checking of bags. All passports & ID Cards disapeared with an officer and then turned up as soon as the boat was about to leave (some poor Peruvian Immigration officer had hand-filled in each persons immigration form at that time in the morning).
At 5.00am, in the dark we were on our way to our next jungle town - Iquitos in Peru. The boat seemed full and we must have been about 30 passengers, just one other "tourist" besides us. The boat was more like a water-bus, with passengers seated and not much room, apart from the aisle, to move about. Rossini had expected more open deck space on a small chugging river ferry. The trip was to take 10-12 hours and that now seemed like a long time. They was a river ferry that took 2-3 days to complete this same trip, with hammocks for beds.
Letay, who had not had much sleep, fell asleep at once and did not wake up till almost 9.00. On the trip we were given huge chicken sandwiches and tea for breakfast and then chicken and rice for lunch. Letay got her first taste of Inka Kola at lunch. The people who ran this boat service were very organised and took pride in their work and the boat. The skipper was absolutely brilliant with the boat - this especially showed in the shallow muddy parts where he easily manouvered to shores to pick people. He was an entertaining, loud and animated man - we thought he was an Italian from Napoli, with his sing-song spanish accent but later we found out he was a Peruvian from the jungle !! ..........we were told that he had a "jungle accent".
The Amazon river and the jungle seemed even more fascinating and awesome being on it for so many hours. The boat did not make many stops; there was one police check at Chimbote , and another two stops at Caballo-Cocha and Pevas, to drop and pick up passengers. We passed many boats and canoes, and small Villages. Saw a rather depressing sight of an awesome barge with huge felled logs on it. Our Skipper manouvered by it to drop off a letter.
At the Caballacocha stop, a passenger joined the boat and sat next to Rossini. He was, Miguel Zubiatee (and was to then be part of our lives until we left Lima five days later). Miguel is a young, enthusiatic fashion designer who works in Lima and had been down to this jungle town, where he grew up, to visit his mother. It is certainly not an easy task to travel to these towns; he first had to fly from Lima to Iquitos - that's as far as one can fly to in Peru in the jungle region. He then took a two night boat trip to the point where the boat drops you off and finally a muddy, wet motorcycle ride to where his mother lives - Caballo Cocha. There are huge communities of people who are living in jungle towns and life must be hard for many. Miguel did not get the previous days boat for many reasons and missed that days connecting flight from Iquitos. He was very keen on practicing his English (rather than hear Rossini's spanish, I suppose) and he and Rossini talked most of the way - they had their own personal jokes by the time we got to Iquitos.
We got to Iquitos at 4 O'clock in the afternoon and went about on a local motorbike taxis called "motokars" (much like the Indian Auto Rickshaw, except with a motorcycle front) looking for a hotel. With a little help from Miguel and his younger brother Jose (who lived in Iquitos ), we decided on an unknown hostel called " Hostal Colibri ". This new hostel in an old building was very clean, with friendly staff, very close to the river promanade and the main town plaza - Plaza de Armes..........and within our budget.
That evening we got familiar with the area - first the malecon, the promanade (where there were continual street shows) and then the plaza; the place was alive with people. It was a Sunday and it seemed a night for people to be out. There were many street performers, theatre, comedy shows, artists painting on the sidewalks and snake dancers.
Went into the Tourist Office on the sqaure. Peru with its years of tourism was certainly more equiped for international tourists, with brochures in every language, and their tourist offices open 24 hours, with personnel who could speak 2-3 languages. The pretty girl with very Peruvian Indian features working there was very helpful.
We met Miguel at 7.00 for. He introduced us to a local drink called Siete Raices (seven roots). It's actually made of seven different kinds of tree barks (Brazilwood, Clove-vine, breadfruit, huacapurana, chuchuhuasi, rosewood & ipururo) found in the Amazon Region and is typical of only this area of Peru. Very tasty and very potent !! Although we sat at a local restaurant on the square with an uncharming name "Ari's Burger", they certainly served much more than burgers. Had an absolutely brilliant fish (Paiche) dish using a local fruit Cocona and local chilli for sauce.
21st August - The next day we'd planned to visit the floating town and market of Belen in the southern part of Iquitos, early in the morning. We started our day by having b'fast off the street (for less than 30 cents) and then had probably the most expensive coffee, and awful coffee too, at a small place on the Plaza !! Iquitos had much better places for coffee that we missed. I had my sunglasses stolen by a street kid who just ran past and pulled it off my head. (Peter/Marie incase you read this - these were the ones I 'stole' off you Peter - I miss them). Went to the tourist office again for more information and met another super nice and very charming young Peruvian lady.
Iquitos had its beginnings in 1739 when jesuit Jose Bohamonde set up settlement here to begin the daunting task of converting the fierce Iquito Indians, renowned for their marksmanship with their long poison-dart blowpipes. Sadly there are only 1-2 families of the original tribe left. By the end of the 1800's Iquitos was (along with Manaus in Brazil) a great Rubber Town.
Signs of this glorious "rubber boom" past are obvious in the large late1800's buildings decorated with Portuguese blue tiles (azulejos) and the promenade. At one corner of the Plaza is a double storied "Iron House" designed and built by Eiffel for the 1889 Paris Exhibition for which he also built the Eiffel Tower. The entire house was bought and shipped to Iquitos by one of the rubber barrons. One well known rubber barron was Fitzcarraldo, the subject of a Herzog film by the same name and shot in part at the Belen area of Iquitos.
We got a motokar to Belen market - a very busy, bustling, interesting place. There was the old covered market with many stalls selling fresh meat, vegetables, flowers, clothes, shoes, jewellry and everything else under the sun.
There were also many crammed side streets and alleys and one called "Pasaje Paquito" that sold only jungle herbs and local medicines to cure everthing. . They even had bottles of Siete Raices. Even though we were warned and told to be careful we did not feel threatened at all by the people there. Most people smiled readily and did not object to us taking their photos
Letay wanted a photograph of the Caimen meat (Amazon Alligator) on sale in the fish market. It was certainly a fun place to be. We usually make it a point to visit the local markets in any town - it's where a town is most honest and least pretentious. It's the "Museum of Life" of a place.
Past the market was the town of Puerto Belen. It consists almost entirely of wooden huts raised on stilts and from a distance now looks like a slumtown with the Amazon levels low. It has not changed much since the 19th century, except perhaps the motorised canoes used when every year the Amazon floods and the place turns into a floating town. Herzog had to change nothing here for his film except get motor boats out of sight. On the way back we found a small restaurant in a side street and had the best Cerviche meal in town (in our opinion) for just $3.00 for us all.....even less than what we paid for 2 coffees at the Plaza.
Miguel met us at our hostel at 4 O'clock and we went to a place called Nanay, 20 minutes away, to a point where the river Nanay meets the Amazon. The river area was messy and the road leading to it had many stalls with tables laid out on the streets selling food. We noticed that turtle eggs was the favourite with people. Serving turtle meat or eggs are banned in many places in Peru but here it did not seem the case, as earlier in the day we had notice turtle meat being sold in the martket as well. We did not stay long in Nanay and headed back to the promanade to have more of the Siete Raices.
Miguel said bye to us early as he was going to the gym; We were going to be on the same early morning flight to Lima, the next day. He actually asked the airline people to book him on the same flight as "the Silveiras". We too did not stay out late as we had to wake up early to get our flight. Our first experience with Peru was certainly very warm and friendly - right from the hotel, the Peruvian Tourist office, the laundry shop, markets and police. People here were noticiably more reserved and didn't wish right away (as in Colombia) but were nevertheless always very helpful and friendly when approached. Look forward to seeing what Lima is like....apart from being Peru's capital and largest city.
From the floating jetty we got into a very small motor boat that to took a few of us to this Island on the Peruvian side of Amazon river, called Santa Rosa. It was eerie being in this small boat on the Amazon in the pitch dark, cold spray in our faces, going towards something we just could not see. In a matter of 15 minutes we had been from Colombia to Brazil to Peru.
In Santa Rosa we literally moved from our little speedboat boat to the bigger passenger speedboat that was to take us to Iquitos (Peru). There was some minor checking of bags. All passports & ID Cards disapeared with an officer and then turned up as soon as the boat was about to leave (some poor Peruvian Immigration officer had hand-filled in each persons immigration form at that time in the morning).
At 5.00am, in the dark we were on our way to our next jungle town - Iquitos in Peru. The boat seemed full and we must have been about 30 passengers, just one other "tourist" besides us. The boat was more like a water-bus, with passengers seated and not much room, apart from the aisle, to move about. Rossini had expected more open deck space on a small chugging river ferry. The trip was to take 10-12 hours and that now seemed like a long time. They was a river ferry that took 2-3 days to complete this same trip, with hammocks for beds.
Letay, who had not had much sleep, fell asleep at once and did not wake up till almost 9.00. On the trip we were given huge chicken sandwiches and tea for breakfast and then chicken and rice for lunch. Letay got her first taste of Inka Kola at lunch. The people who ran this boat service were very organised and took pride in their work and the boat. The skipper was absolutely brilliant with the boat - this especially showed in the shallow muddy parts where he easily manouvered to shores to pick people. He was an entertaining, loud and animated man - we thought he was an Italian from Napoli, with his sing-song spanish accent but later we found out he was a Peruvian from the jungle !! ..........we were told that he had a "jungle accent".
The Amazon river and the jungle seemed even more fascinating and awesome being on it for so many hours. The boat did not make many stops; there was one police check at Chimbote , and another two stops at Caballo-Cocha and Pevas, to drop and pick up passengers. We passed many boats and canoes, and small Villages. Saw a rather depressing sight of an awesome barge with huge felled logs on it. Our Skipper manouvered by it to drop off a letter. 
At the Caballacocha stop, a passenger joined the boat and sat next to Rossini. He was, Miguel Zubiatee (and was to then be part of our lives until we left Lima five days later). Miguel is a young, enthusiatic fashion designer who works in Lima and had been down to this jungle town, where he grew up, to visit his mother. It is certainly not an easy task to travel to these towns; he first had to fly from Lima to Iquitos - that's as far as one can fly to in Peru in the jungle region. He then took a two night boat trip to the point where the boat drops you off and finally a muddy, wet motorcycle ride to where his mother lives - Caballo Cocha. There are huge communities of people who are living in jungle towns and life must be hard for many. Miguel did not get the previous days boat for many reasons and missed that days connecting flight from Iquitos. He was very keen on practicing his English (rather than hear Rossini's spanish, I suppose) and he and Rossini talked most of the way - they had their own personal jokes by the time we got to Iquitos.We got to Iquitos at 4 O'clock in the afternoon and went about on a local motorbike taxis called "motokars" (much like the Indian Auto Rickshaw, except with a motorcycle front) looking for a hotel. With a little help from Miguel and his younger brother Jose (who lived in Iquitos ), we decided on an unknown hostel called " Hostal Colibri ". This new hostel in an old building was very clean, with friendly staff, very close to the river promanade and the main town plaza - Plaza de Armes..........and within our budget.
That evening we got familiar with the area - first the malecon, the promanade (where there were continual street shows) and then the plaza; the place was alive with people. It was a Sunday and it seemed a night for people to be out. There were many street performers, theatre, comedy shows, artists painting on the sidewalks and snake dancers. Went into the Tourist Office on the sqaure. Peru with its years of tourism was certainly more equiped for international tourists, with brochures in every language, and their tourist offices open 24 hours, with personnel who could speak 2-3 languages. The pretty girl with very Peruvian Indian features working there was very helpful.
We met Miguel at 7.00 for. He introduced us to a local drink called Siete Raices (seven roots). It's actually made of seven different kinds of tree barks (Brazilwood, Clove-vine, breadfruit, huacapurana, chuchuhuasi, rosewood & ipururo) found in the Amazon Region and is typical of only this area of Peru. Very tasty and very potent !! Although we sat at a local restaurant on the square with an uncharming name "Ari's Burger", they certainly served much more than burgers. Had an absolutely brilliant fish (Paiche) dish using a local fruit Cocona and local chilli for sauce. 21st August - The next day we'd planned to visit the floating town and market of Belen in the southern part of Iquitos, early in the morning. We started our day by having b'fast off the street (for less than 30 cents) and then had probably the most expensive coffee, and awful coffee too, at a small place on the Plaza !! Iquitos had much better places for coffee that we missed. I had my sunglasses stolen by a street kid who just ran past and pulled it off my head. (Peter/Marie incase you read this - these were the ones I 'stole' off you Peter - I miss them). Went to the tourist office again for more information and met another super nice and very charming young Peruvian lady.
Iquitos had its beginnings in 1739 when jesuit Jose Bohamonde set up settlement here to begin the daunting task of converting the fierce Iquito Indians, renowned for their marksmanship with their long poison-dart blowpipes. Sadly there are only 1-2 families of the original tribe left. By the end of the 1800's Iquitos was (along with Manaus in Brazil) a great Rubber Town.
Signs of this glorious "rubber boom" past are obvious in the large late1800's buildings decorated with Portuguese blue tiles (azulejos) and the promenade. At one corner of the Plaza is a double storied "Iron House" designed and built by Eiffel for the 1889 Paris Exhibition for which he also built the Eiffel Tower. The entire house was bought and shipped to Iquitos by one of the rubber barrons. One well known rubber barron was Fitzcarraldo, the subject of a Herzog film by the same name and shot in part at the Belen area of Iquitos.
We got a motokar to Belen market - a very busy, bustling, interesting place. There was the old covered market with many stalls selling fresh meat, vegetables, flowers, clothes, shoes, jewellry and everything else under the sun. 
There were also many crammed side streets and alleys and one called "Pasaje Paquito" that sold only jungle herbs and local medicines to cure everthing. . They even had bottles of Siete Raices. Even though we were warned and told to be careful we did not feel threatened at all by the people there. Most people smiled readily and did not object to us taking their photos
Letay wanted a photograph of the Caimen meat (Amazon Alligator) on sale in the fish market. It was certainly a fun place to be. We usually make it a point to visit the local markets in any town - it's where a town is most honest and least pretentious. It's the "Museum of Life" of a place.
Past the market was the town of Puerto Belen. It consists almost entirely of wooden huts raised on stilts and from a distance now looks like a slumtown with the Amazon levels low. It has not changed much since the 19th century, except perhaps the motorised canoes used when every year the Amazon floods and the place turns into a floating town. Herzog had to change nothing here for his film except get motor boats out of sight. On the way back we found a small restaurant in a side street and had the best Cerviche meal in town (in our opinion) for just $3.00 for us all.....even less than what we paid for 2 coffees at the Plaza. Miguel met us at our hostel at 4 O'clock and we went to a place called Nanay, 20 minutes away, to a point where the river Nanay meets the Amazon. The river area was messy and the road leading to it had many stalls with tables laid out on the streets selling food. We noticed that turtle eggs was the favourite with people. Serving turtle meat or eggs are banned in many places in Peru but here it did not seem the case, as earlier in the day we had notice turtle meat being sold in the martket as well. We did not stay long in Nanay and headed back to the promanade to have more of the Siete Raices.
Miguel said bye to us early as he was going to the gym; We were going to be on the same early morning flight to Lima, the next day. He actually asked the airline people to book him on the same flight as "the Silveiras". We too did not stay out late as we had to wake up early to get our flight. Our first experience with Peru was certainly very warm and friendly - right from the hotel, the Peruvian Tourist office, the laundry shop, markets and police. People here were noticiably more reserved and didn't wish right away (as in Colombia) but were nevertheless always very helpful and friendly when approached. Look forward to seeing what Lima is like....apart from being Peru's capital and largest city.
posted by Silveira Family of Three (+1) at 1:54 pm
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